When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backward off his chair by the side of the gate. His neck was broken and he died, for he was an old man, and he was heavy. He had led Israel forty years. – 1 Samuel 4:18

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 18, 2019): 1 Samuel 4

Our lives are built around a few precious elements. These are the important things in life, and without these things that we cannot live. One of the great problems with life is that we sometimes do not figure out what these things are until it is too late. The result is that we often give too much time to what is essentially unimportant. And, therefore, we do not give these essential items the attention that they deserve. Too often we are driven by the winds of necessity, and we ignore the things that should be the most precious to us.

Eli was a failure because he did not place a priority on the important. And as a result, he lost everything that was important to him. The NIV says that Eli led Israel for forty years. Other translations say that he judged Israel for forty years. Judged does make sense. The stories of Eli, and Samuel, pick up on the theme of the Judges that in those days Israel had no king and everyone did as they saw fit. The importance of that statement when considering Eli is that there was no one in a leadership position in Israel other than the Judges that God raised up. If Eli led Israel during this time, then he most likely would have been a Judge.

As a Judge, the nation of Israel was a priority that had been laid on him by God; it was one of the precious elements of Eli’s life. The Judges were raised up to confront a threat to the nation. In the stories that he have, most Judges were at least nominally successful. Other than Eli, the only other Judge that might be considered to be an almost complete failure was Samson, and even Samson, with his final act, redeemed himself.

As a father, Eli’s sons were another priority; one more of his precious elements in life. But Eli apparently spoiled his children, giving to them what they desired rather than disciplining them so that they would grow strong.

As the High Priest, the Tabernacle and all that was in it was another priority, but the most precious possession of the Tabernacle would have been the Ark of the Covenant. These were the essentials things that Eli was supposed to have dedicated his life to protect.

Eli was ninety-eight years old. He evidently had some health issues, and some of those issues were a result of age. But here, in one moment, Eli lost everything that was important to him. Some have argued that it was the loss of the Ark of God that Eli felt the deepest because it was at the mention of the Ark that he fell over and broke his neck and died, but the reality is more likely that the effect of the news was cumulative. The health and sovereignty of the nation, his sons, and the Ark were all precious to him. And losing all that was precious to him was simply too much for the High Priest to handle. And so Eli died, ending an era in the history of Israel.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 5