Chapter 1: The Day Israel Fell

Samuel was born from a vow. His mother Hannah, a barren woman, promised God that if He gave her a son, she would give him back. God answered, and when the boy was old enough, she brought him to the Tabernacle at Shiloh and left him in the care of Eli the priest. Samuel grew up surrounded by Eli's corrupt sons, Hophni and Phinehas. One night God called his name in the dark and gave him his first prophecy: judgment was coming on Eli's house, and both sons would die on the same day. From that day, all Israel knew Samuel was a prophet of the Lord.

Samuel's word spread through all Israel. But a prophet's voice could not stop what was coming from the west.

The Philistines had been pressing into Israelite territory for years. They held the coastal plain, they had iron weapons and chariots, and they controlled the trade routes. The Israelites outnumbered them, but numbers meant little when one side had iron swords and the other had farming tools. Israel had no central leader and no standing army. The priesthood at Shiloh was corrupt. Eli was old and blind, and his sons had turned the house of God into a place the people of Israel no longer wanted to visit. When the Philistines massed their forces at Aphek, Israel had no choice but to respond.

The army of Israel marched out and camped at Ebenezer, a few miles away. The two armies met on the open field, and Israel was defeated. About four thousand men fell on the battlefield that day. (1 Samuel 4:1-2)

The survivors returned to camp. The loss was devastating, but it was not the defeat itself that shook the elders. It was the question behind it. They had gone out to fight in the name of the Lord, and the Lord had not saved them.

THE ELDERS OF ISRAEL“Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from Shiloh to us, that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.”— 1 Samuel 4:3

They did not ask what they had done wrong. They did not seek the prophet. They treated the Ark of the Covenant, the golden chest that held the stone tablets of the law, the place where God's presence dwelled between the cherubim, as if it were a weapon they could aim at their enemies. They were wrong.