Going through the motions

My daily readings bring me to an extremely sad story summed up by the word Ichabod a name meaning "The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.” 1 Sam 4 v 22

The truth is that God had departed the scene long before the symbol of his presence "The Ark" had been captured.

Leadership had lost its way. One of the first steps on this path was compromise and failure to deal with sin. Eli was a priest, there to represent his people before God & he was one of the last Judges of Israel, there to set an example and give wisdom to the nation in following God.

He was faced with a choice: God or his corrupt sons and he chose his sons. From then on he still had the titles but he didn't have the authority. He was going through the motions.

• He doesn't seem to say sorry for his sin.
• God starts to speak to his priest through a boy rather than direct.
• It almost looks like he left his two corrupt sons in charge of the ark.
• When his people were fighting he was nowhere to be seen.
• It would seem that he had just got lazy sitting around getting old and fat. (Not a very nice way for the Bible to remember you - Old, fat and falling out of your chair and breaking your neck)
  

Eli went through the motions for years and it ended up in disaster for his people in the time of crisis.

We need to deal with sin in our lives, listen to God and act on what he says.