Israel’s first capital in the Promised Land was Shiloh. The tabernacle was located there for over three centuries. The Bible uses this great city for some astounding examples that we need to remember. These examples help us understand prophecies within the former prophets.
The Israelites were led to Shiloh by Joshua, a strong, courageous leader. During his lifetime, they were powerful in Shiloh; throughout the nation, there was stability and peace. But after Joshua died, everything began to unravel.
Another personality heavily featured in the history of Shiloh is Samuel. He grew up there and became a great prophet of God. He was the last judge of Israel. The period of the judges was a terrible time for Israel.
Shiloh was the center of everything—Israel’s politics and religion. 1 Samuel 1:3 describes Samuel’s parents journeying to Shiloh annually to worship and offer sacrifices. At that time, the priests in Shiloh were Eli, the high priest, and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who were corrupt. They stole food from the Israelites when they came to the capital and committed other heinous sins. That had to be corrected, and God raised up Samuel for that purpose.
There is one person in Shiloh’s history who teaches a crucial lesson and gives a tremendous warning for us today. His name is Ichabod.
Ichabod shows us something crucial about the problems this world is facing in this end time, just before Jesus Christ’s Second Coming! Ichabod gives us, in fact, our greatest warning for today. Terrible events are prophesied, and Shiloh is a type of what is coming in our day! But it is important to remember that at the end of all this, Jesus Christ will come to Earth and bring us peace, joy and happiness forever.
Greatest Warning
The battle of Ebenezer took place early in Samuel’s life. The Israelites took the ark of the covenant into battle with them, believing God would help them win the battle. But the ark was only a symbol of God. The Israelites had been sinning greatly, so they lacked God’s protection.
The results of this battle were disastrous. “And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain” (1 Samuel 4:10-11). When the high priest heard the news, he was so shocked he fell over and broke his neck (verses 15-18).
The Israelites thought they were secure because they had the ark and the tabernacle, and they were in Israel’s capital, the great city of Shiloh. But they didn’t have God! Because of their sins, God was no longer in their presence.
What good is a temple of God, or the Church of God, if you don’t have the presence of God? Are we to go out and fight a battle in the name of God if we’re not close to Him and obeying Him? If you do that, you will lose your battles!
Yet if you are with God, if you are in His presence, you will have many miracles in your life!
Phinehas’s wife was far along in her pregnancy. When she heard that the ark was taken and her husband and father-in-law were dead, she went into labor. She died while giving birth (verses 19-20).
“And she [the midwife] named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband” (verse 21). They had lost the glory of God! That is the worst thing that could happen.
What is Shiloh without God? The Israelites were fighting in the name of God, but God wasn’t with them because they weren’t with Him. If you are with God and God is with you, but then you lose that, then you have lost everything spiritually.
This history is for us in this end time to learn from. I think it is one of the most instructive examples in the Bible.
Lesson for Today
“When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel: So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men” (Psalm 78:59-60). God simply left the place where they worshiped. He is perfect in righteousness, and these people were turning from Him. They forsook Him, so He forsook them.
“And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy’s hand” (verse 61). That is what happened to Shiloh! Read verses 62-64: God allowed His people to be conquered; its young men were burned; its priests were killed. God was truly angered by their sin, and He punished them severely! He really wants us to learn a lesson from what happened at Shiloh.
After its destruction, Shiloh became a warning. Centuries later, God said through the Prophet Jeremiah: “[G]o ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel” (Jeremiah 7:12). Jeremiah was talking to Jerusalem and telling them, That history is actually prophecy for you!
“Then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth. … This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without an inhabitant …” (Jeremiah 26:6, 9). That prophecy was fulfilled: Jerusalem was wiped out, and God let it happen.
Jeremiah delivered this message to Judah—but he addressed his book to Israel even though Israel had already been taken captive over a hundred years before and he personally spoke only to Judah. So his book is for three nations of Israel in this end time. (This is explained in our free book The United States and Britain in Prophecy.)
Jeremiah went right to the people, who were going into their services at the temple, and told them about Shiloh! The destruction there was so extreme that Jeremiah was talking to the Jews about it 500 years later! He said the same fate would come to them if they didn’t repent. And how did the people respond? They wanted to kill him for telling them the truth!
This all foreshadows Israel in this end time. All these books are prophetic—not just Jeremiah but also the former prophets like Samuel. They are primarily for this end time!
Until Shiloh Come
The Bible has so much prophecy: One third of Scripture is prophecy! And fulfilled prophecy is the greatest proof of God.
Genesis 49 is also a prophecy for us today: “And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days” (verse 1). Here in the first book of the Bible is a message for the last days.
“The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be” (verse 10). This is an amazing verse: It is actually talking about the Messiah coming—and it uses the term Shiloh! The Great Tribulation that is coming on people if they don’t repent in this end time points directly to the return of Jesus Christ Himself. And God calls it Shiloh.
This is very important, and it is focused precisely on us today! We must understand this. The Messiah is coming immediately after this terrifying destruction. They are tied together. The Second Coming of Christ comes right on the heels of the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord.
Go unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel, God says.
Remember Ichabod: God’s own people lost the glory of God! This man illustrates that to us for all time! It is especially important in our day, when so many people will be killed if they do not heed God’s message. God warns us of this over and again.
Ichabod is our greatest warning today! It is the most magnificent single example of this that I see in the Bible. It stands out and will stick to your memory, and it can teach us a great lesson.
Jeremiah’s message for the Jews of his day foreshadowed the message going out from God’s Work today. “Then spake Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all the people, saying, The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that ye have heard” (Jeremiah 26:12). God sent him to deliver this message! He would have punished Jeremiah if he had not followed through. That message had to go out to Jerusalem at that time.
Today, that warning must go out to Israel, three nations in particular. We have a crucial job to do! And yet, 95 percent of God’s own people have turned away from Him. They are in the outer court, not the inner court where God dwells! (Revelation 11:1-2). They have turned away from God, and He is no longer in their presence! They have lost God! The same thing is happening to us today that happened to Shiloh all those years ago.
In Revelation 10:11, God tells the faithful remnant who are still doing His Work, You must go and prophesy again. That is our responsibility in this end time.
We must learn the lesson from Shiloh. We will never complete God’s Work—in fact, we will never have peace and security—until we learn what happened in Shiloh and what it teaches us. We must stay close to God and allow Him to remain in our presence always—so we can retain His protection, His mercy, joy, happiness and unity, and enjoy His blessings and miracles!