Please read 1 Samuel 2 – 4 for today’s reading…

“And there ran a man of Benjamin out of the army, and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head. And when he came, lo, Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside watching: for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city, and told it, all the city cried out.”  1 Samuel 4:12-13 (KJB)

The ark of God for the children of Israel was the presence of God in their midst. They had, sadly, gotten to the state of mind that it was more an object of superstition; a rabbit’s foot; than it was the presence of God.  Yet Eli’s heart trembled for the ark of God.  It had been carried onto a battlefield which was going to be lost to the Philistines, and…