Departed glory

At the close of 1 Samuel 3, Eli demands to know from Samuel what God had said to him. Samuel told him exactly what God had said. It was a confirmation of the prophecy of the nameless man of God in chapter 2:27-36. God judged Eli because he had honoured his sons and tolerated their wickedness instead of honouring God, who had chosen him to be the High Priest. God had said, “Those who honour Me I will honour,” and given Eli the opportunity to repent, but he did not take it. And after he discovered what God said to Samuel, he replied, “It is the Lord. Let Him do what seems good to Him.” There was no remorse expressed or heartfelt confession of failure and action to honour God in the closing days of his life. Eli held the highest position before God and His people. He could have, before his life ended, taken steps to fall on the mercy of God and seek recovery.

In contrast, “Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him”. Samuel wisely measured his words, and none of them failed. He honoured God in his life, and everyone recognised he was “established as a prophet of the Lord”. He walked closely with the LORD and the LORD guided his path; “The LORD revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD”.

Chapter 4 records Israel's successive defeats at the hands of the Philistines. After the first defeat, they asked, “Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines?” (v.3). The answer lies in the moral character of a people who “did what was right in his own eyes” and a corrupt priesthood. Instead of looking within, they assumed God would make them victorious irrespective of their behaviour. The defeat was a call to repentance. Instead, they dared to bring the Ark of God into their camp, with catastrophic consequences that resulted in the complete defeat of the armies of Israel, the deaths of the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the subsequent death of Eli and the capture of the Ark of God. It was one of the darkest days in the history of Israel.

Such chapters in the Bible don’t simply and suddenly happen; they have a history of spiritual and moral decline leading to judgment that begins with failure at the highest level. God always warned His people as they turned their back on Him, and they were invariably slow to respond to His appeals. It was only when God directly intervened to raise saviours who would lead them back to God. These circumstances and saviours looked on to our deepest need of salvation and the only Saviour, Jesus.

We can leave our first love, to become self-willed, self-righteous, self-seeking, entangled with the cares of this world, to grow cold, lukewarm, and even fall into the gravest failures. Like Samuel, we need to live close to our Saviour God and, when danger comes, draw even closer to the Saviour who both saves and keeps.

“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To God our Saviour, Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty, Dominion and power, Both now and forever. Amen” (Jude 1:24-25).