Eli was corrupt in many ways. He used his office as a Priest for personal gain, and he taught his sons to do so, too. Hophni and Phineas, Eli’s two wicked sons, tried to use the Ark of the Covenant as a lucky charm against their enemies. They marched it out to go to battle when the army went out to stand 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.
As is often the case of families, Phinehas’ wife was a more spiritual person than he was. She had more spiritual insight than her husband, her father-in-law, or her brother-in-law. The two men may have been priests, but they lacked true spiritual insight because of their abuse of their roles. Phinehas’ wife understood the significance of what had happened, and with her dying breath, she named her son “Ichabod.” The most famous Ichabod is the gangly schoolmaster Ichabod Crane in Washington Irving’s story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Irving probably picked the name because it sounded absurd and also because he knew the name’s Hebrew meaning, “no glory.” The Ichabod in the Bible was the grandson of the priest Eli. The Philistines had captured the ark of the covenant from Israel, and Eli was so appalled he literally fell over and died. 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.”
Commenting on this episode, the “Got Questions” website says, “One wonders how many churches today have lost the glory of the Lord, whether willingly or unknowingly. The same things that caused Ichabod in Israel—sin, disobedience, idolatry—are present in many of today’s churches. Christians must never take the glory of God in our midst for granted, lest we wake up one day and find that Ichabod has become a reality among us.”[1]
[1] Got Questions Ministries. 2002–2013. Got Questions? Bible Questions Answered. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.