Hophni and Phineas, Eli’s two wicked sons, tried to use the Ark of the Covenant as a lucky charm against their enemies. The marched it out to go to battle when them against the Philistines. The Glory of Israel was used like a rabbit’s foot.
God’s presence in the Ark was a special indication of Israel’s role in God’s eternal plan. They “dissed” it! The Ark contained their entire heritage; the ten commandments, Aaron’s rod that budded, and a jar of the manna from heaven. It was their Glory. It was the evidence of God’s miraculous presence in their history and in their present lives. It was their Glory. It represented the God who saved them, talked to them, and fed them. It represented the God to whom they owed their allegiance. Rather than serving God, they used God to serve themselves. God would not permit it.
The wife of Phinehas, Eli’s wicked son, had more spiritual insight than her husband, her father in law or her brother in law. She understood the significance of what had happened and with her dying breath she named her son “Ichobod.” It means, “The Glory is Gone.” This event was so tragic that Asaph included it in one of his Psalms. In Psalm 78, He sang: He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among mankind, and delivered his power to captivity, his glory to the hand of the foe.
God will never allow us to put him in a box and use him for our own purposes. He eternally wants us to surrender ourselves to Him and let Him fulfill His purposes in our lives.