The revelation that Samuel received from the Lord concerned the downfall of Eli’s family because of his sons’ disobedience, and Eli’s failure to deal with it. In chapter 4, the predicted calamity occurs and, perhaps because the sin of Hophni and Phineas was magnified due to their priestly status, the disaster did not only affect Eli and his sons, but the whole of Israel as the Ark of the Covenant was captured.

After their first defeat, losing 4000 fighting men, the Israelites ran to get the Ark, hoping that having this powerful symbol of the presence of God would make the difference. It did not. In the next battle, they lost 30,000 men. A devastating defeat. The Israelites were defeated because of sin among them, including Hophni and Phineas’s sin. They were not right with God, and bringing with them the symbols of their religion did them no good since, in their hearts, they were not following the commandments of their Lord.

It was not enough that they were Israelites. It was not enough that they had religious rituals and objects. It was not even enough that they called on God to go ahead of them and defeat their enemies. The very foundations of their relationship with God were lacking and because of this, they were defeated.

Our walk with the Lord is a daily journey. Just like the Israelites, we cannot expect to pay lip-service to God for the majority of the time, and then imagine that he will rush to our bidding when we have decided that we need him to do something for us. If we are close to God every day, we will easily find him close to us in our hour of need.

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NEWBOLD BAPTIST CHURCH