I Samuel 4:19 Now his [Eli's] daughter-in-law, Phinehas’s wife, was with child, due to be delivered; and when she heard the news that the ark of God was captured, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and gave birth, for her labor pains came upon her. 20 And about the time of her death the women who stood by her said to her, “Do not fear, for you have borne a son.” But she did not answer, nor did she regard it. 21 Then she named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!” because the ark of God had been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband. 22 And she said, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.”
(Before moving on, a little note here regarding Phinehas's wife's words: "The glory has departed from Israel..." If we look at the behavior of the Israel and the leaders of Israel prior to the Philistines capturing the ark, we can't help but see that the glory of God had already begun to depart from Israel prior to that time (e.g. - Eli was the high priest and he had not restrained his sons, Hophni and Phinehas. We read In I Samuel 2:12 they were "corrupt" –– the literal rendering there is "sons of Belial." Both men burned with fleshly appetites for food, for power, and for sex ~ see I Samuel 2:12-17, 22-36; 3:11-17).)
Phinehas's wife grieved the loss of her husband and her father-in-law, and yet what loss did she most grieve?
“The glory has departed from Israel!”
We certainly would expect Phinehas's wife to find some degree of comfort in the gift of her newborn child, particularly since it was a son, and male children were prized highly in Jewish culture. If you've been privileged to give birth to a child, you know that it's almost imaginable that she gave no response whatsoever to the women who reported the birth. It's wasn't that she had no words to say at all at the time, mind you. But what words were on her lips that day? What burden was pressing so strongly on her heart that day that she took no consolation in the birth of her son?
“The glory has departed from Israel!”
In Luke 6, the Lord Jesus Christ reminds us:
43 “For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. 45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
"I-chabod!" - She opened her mouth with wisdom
Phinehas's wife's heart indeed overflowed with her burden for the glory of God to be made manifest once again in Israel. She cried out "Ichabod!" ~ literally meaning "no glory" or "inglorious." We lose something by not looking at the King James Version rendering of it: "I-chabod." Most of you are familiar with the Hebrew word for glory, "kabod," well, there we have it: the prefix iy ("not") and the root word kabowd ("glory"). These Biblical terms mean something. God forbid we traipse through the Word of God in a lazy and slipshod manner! Isaiah 66:2. John Piper reminds us, we need get gnawing and put our noses down into the Book and to linger, linger, linger there. How else will we be wise, complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work (II Tim. 3:15-17)?
Matthew Henry rightly expounds Phinehas's wife's cry of "I-chabod" as: "Where is the glory? Or, Alas for the glory! or, There is no glory." Christian, is this your heart's burden today? Have you looked around at the Church of God, or have you ever looked at your own life –– and seen that the glory of God has departed? Have you ever cried out: "Where is the glory?" Or, "Alas for the glory!" or, "There is no glory!" What regularly burdens you and fills up your heart? What sort of fruit is flowing out of the abundance of your heart in your conversation and in your prayers? When was the last time you wept over the current low state of the Church and your own pygmy state as you see the great lack in comparison with the saints in the book of Acts and the saints throughout Church history – and cried out with Oswald Chambers: "... if what I had was all the Christianity there was, the thing was a fraud," and then pleaded with importunity for the Church and for yourself... along with the Lord Jesus Christ who always lives to make intercession for the saints?
When we come around to Mother's Day, Proverbs 31 is often cited as presenting to us the image of the godly woman... I'd say that verse 26a describes Phinehas's wife:
She opens her mouth with wisdom...
Phinehas's wife had received wisdom and insight from above (flesh and blood had not revealed it to her...). Though the circumstances weren't identical, her response reminded me of the the Shulamite woman who had become lovesick at the prospect of the Beloved withdrawing Himself. Phinehas's wife grieved that the glory of the LORD had departed and that the LORD was no longer shining His face but rather was turning His back and hiding His face from Israel.
Song of Solomon 5
2 I sleep, but my heart is awake;
It is the voice of my beloved!
He knocks, saying,
“Open for me, my sister, my love,
My dove, my perfect one;
For my head is covered with dew,
My locks with the drops of the night.”
3 I have taken off my robe;
How can I put it on again?
I have washed my feet;
How can I defile them?
4 My beloved put his hand
By the latch of the door,
And my heart yearned for him.
5 I arose to open for my beloved,
And my hands dripped with myrrh,
My fingers with liquid myrrh,
On the handles of the lock.
6 I opened for my beloved,
But my beloved had turned away and was gone.
My heart leaped up when he spoke.
I sought him, but I could not find him;
I called him, but he gave me no answer.
7 The watchmen who went about the city found me.
They struck me, they wounded me;
The keepers of the walls
Took my veil away from me.
8 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
If you find my beloved,
That you tell him I am lovesick!
9 What is your beloved
More than another beloved,
O fairest among women?
What is your beloved
More than another beloved,
That you so charge us?
Phinehas's wife had begun to know and to treasure the Beloved more than any other beloved (including her own family members), so she mourned that the glory of the LORD had departed, and she sought the presence and the blessing of the Beloved above all things –– even above her own family –– above the loss of her father-in-law and husband, and above the gain of her dear newborn son! –– Hence we hear her repeated heart's cry as she neared death:
“The glory has departed from Israel!”
Since her soul's ultimate happiness was bundled up in the return of God's shining face upon Israel, because God's glory had departed from Israel, how could she do anything less than cry out that...
“The glory has departed from Israel!”
It's not clear who else was mourning along with Phinehas's wife during this time, but we don't see all the house of Israel lamenting after the LORD and repenting and returning to the LORD until over twenty years after this time (I Samuel 7:2).
How many of us Christian mothers have any such concern for the current state of the Christian Church as Phinehas's wife had? What burdens our hearts regularly?
As we examine the content of our prayers, do we find that we make prayer for Him continually? (Psalm 72) How often do we pray for the the Lord to rend the heavens and come down (Isaiah 64)? How often do we pray for the God of hosts to return and visit this vine and revive us so we will call upon His name? (Psalm 80) How often do we pray for the earth to be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea? (Habakkuk 2) Do we pray for God to be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us, that His way may be known on earth, and salvation among all nations, that all the peoples might praise Him, and the nations would be glad and sing for joy! (Psalm 67)?
Or, do we find our prayers are limited and narrow and for the most part insular because we ourselves are mostly insular –– primarily focused on our own needs and our own family's needs –– showing we have little to no real love and desire for Christ and His Church and the cause of Christ throughout the world?
As we look out at the state of the Church today, ought we not be lamenting after the LORD like Phinehas's wife? Ought we not be weeping like Jeremiah?
Jeremiah 8:21
For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt.
I am mourning;
Astonishment has taken hold of me.
If we are Christ's, we have been born again of the Spirit, and our citizenship is in heaven. We're to be renewed in our minds, and we're commanded to set our minds on things above. The content of our prayers shows if our profession of faith is a true profession.... he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth - John 3:31b. "He that is of the earth is of the earth; he that has his origin of the earth has his food out of the earth, has his converse with earthly things, and his concern is for them..." (Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on John 3).
Are we wise – or do we not know the difference between the shining and the hiding of His face?
Are we wise, or are we like the Laodicean church: do we not know that we have become lukewarm and complacent with our current state? Do we not know that God is hiding His face today? (More on this below.) Do we not know that as we have relied upon our own abilities and earthly means, we have grieved, quenched, and limited the Holy Spirit of God, so that the glory of God has all but departed from us here in these early days of the 21st century? Do we not know that we are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked? May we have ears to hear! May the Lord grant to us the wisdom, discernment and insight that He gave to Phinehas's wife!
Revelation 3:14 “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write,
‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: 15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. 21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
22 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
How dead wrong we can be about our true spiritual condition! We can go along day after day and not know! We can go along year after year and not know! And how easily can the Glory of the Lord and the Presence of God slip away without our knowing! That's a frightening thought, isn't it? But that very same thing happened to Samson...
Judges 16:19 Then she [Delilah] lulled him to sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him. 20 And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” So he awoke from his sleep, and said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!” But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.
The apostle Paul reminds us that these things are examples to us, written for our admonition; "therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" ... (see I Cor. 10:1-22) ...Let us who think we stand, take heed lest we fall!
Samson thought himself to be awake, did he not? During the time of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, Israel thought herself to be awake, did they not? And even in early days of the New Testament Church, the members of the Church of Laodicea thought themselves to be awake, did they not? How each one of us must always be on guard against such deadly, false presumption!
"If God go, the glory goes, and all good goes. Woe unto us if he depart!"
(Matthew Henry Complete Commentary on I Samuel 4)
In his commentary on Judges 16 (Delilah's Treachery & Samson Betrayed), Matthew Henry makes the application to us and gives us these solemn warnings (emphasis mine):
"See the fatal effects of false security. Satan ruins men by flattering them into a good opinion of their own safety, and so bringing them to mind nothing, and fear nothing; and then he robs them of their strength and honour, and leads them captive at his will. When we sleep our spiritual enemies do not." (Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary)
"Note, Many have lost the favourable presence of God and are not aware of it; they have provoked God to withdraw from them, but are not sensible of their loss, nor ever complain of it. Their souls languish and grow weak, their gifts wither, every thing goes cross with them; and yet they impute not this to the right cause: they are not aware that God has departed from them, nor are they in any care to reconcile themselves to him or to recover his favour." (Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary)
I'd like to leave you with a few excerpts from "John Elias: Life, Letters and Essays" by Edward Morgan (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1973, revised edition published in one volume, emphasis mine)...
First, here's John Elias (1774-1841) describing the I-chabod and sleeping state of the Church in the 19th century:
It is a dark night on the Church, the depth of winter, when she is sleepy and ready to die, and the Lord is hiding his face in the ordinances, and when only a few are crying out for his appearance, and those scarcely audible in their call! It is still more awful, if while they are asleep they should think themselves awake, and imagine that they see the sun at midnight. Yet such are the circumstances of the Church generally. Yea, the darkness of night I say, is upon her, and she is slumbering, having lost the presence of her Lord, and so unhappy as not to know the loss she has sustained! (241-242 - please see my post here)
When I talk with other Christians about God's withdrawals and His hiding His face, many are not at all familiar with that language, and they often look askance at me –– but it is Biblical language, and it is also the language of saints like Matthew Henry and John Elias who labored in prayer to seek the reviving breath of the Holy Spirit to breathe upon the bones that were very many and were very dry! Here's Elias again:
O brethren, be not easy without his presence! I believe that some of you know the difference between the shining of his countenance and every other thing. I often fear that many are now in the churches that know no difference between the hiding and the shining of his countenance. O be not satisfied with any thing instead of him - fluency, or any gift in prayer, or preaching! His countenance pre-eminently excels all things as to light, strength virtue, fruit and the consequences hereafter. It extracts the heart out of the creature, and draws the soul heavenward. It conveys the affections to the things where Christ sits, it causes the traffic of the soul to be in heaven, seeking a better country than any here below. They are made pilgrims here, their treasure and home being in the heavenly world. (271)
Like the Psalmists, may we press on and not be satisfied with any thing instead of Him... instead of the Glory!
Psalm 63
1 O God, You are my God;
Early will I seek You;
My soul thirsts for You;
My flesh longs for You
In a dry and thirsty land
Where there is no water.
2 So I have looked for You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.
Would we even think of praying for reformation and revival if we do not know the difference between the hiding and the shining of God's countenance? If we presume God's face is always shining, if we don't have eyes to see it truly is a dark night on the Church, would we ever cry out with Phinehas's wife: “The glory has departed from Israel!” –– and why would we bother to pray for God's face to shine again, if we think all is bright and God has not withdrawn and He is not hiding His countenance?
You may be wondering how specifically I might consider that the glory of the Lord has departed in this day and age... I've written previously about that, but I think John Elias describes our current state much better than I could –– even though Elias was born over 200 years ago! As you read this except, I think you'll have to agree that there is nothing new under the sun! Edward Morgan begins...
‘Ministers’, says Elias in another letter, ‘seem often satisfied with having freedom to speak, and seeing many hearing them with attention and delight; but alas, without experiencing the effects of the power promised to attend the ministry of the gospel, the power necessary to produce a saving change in the sinner! The people too are content with an eloquent discourse, sweet voice, and melodious accents, or the gifts of the preacher; without experiencing, or seeking to experience, greater things than such as are human through the ministry.’
It is thought that the influences of the Spirit are not so powerful, and that piety is not so deep in the church now as in former days, though its members are more numerous. It is feared that professors are more light and worldly. Elias, even in his last illness, when writing the outlines of his own life, espied in the [Welsh Calvinistic Methodist] Connexion he so much loved, some evils of this nature, and felt most anxious that they should be removed. Comparing the spiritual state of the Connexion at present, with what it was in former times, he thus expresses the sympathizing emotions of his mind:
The cause does not appear to be so flourishing as it used to be, in spiritual matters, which is the very life of religion. The light, power and authority formerly experienced under the ministry of the Word, are not known these days. The ministry neither alarms, terrifies, nor disturbs the thousands of ungodly persons who sit under it. A great many of those who attend the religious societies are personally unacquainted with their state before God; nor do the churches know what they are. And what is worse, they are willing to be without knowledge. It is difficult to judge by the fruits of hundreds of professors that they are godly! There are signs of worldly-mindedness in many of the aged. In others there is a lack of principle in doing righteousness. The young people conform to this world, following its ways and foolish fashions. Others delight in wrangling disputes, and foolish and unprofitable questions. Servant-men are high-minded and disobedient, with few ‘doing service as to the Lord’. There is a multitude of mixed people in the army, lusting after the things of Egypt - hankering after the expressions and the baser things of other denominations and religious parties. They delight in swimming in the stream of the spirit of the age in things political and religious. They are unlike our fathers of old. [Daniel] Rowland, [Howell] Harris, and other renowned fathers, and the late Rev T. Charles, would not know or acknowledge them as belonging to their family, nor to the congregations gathered by the Lord through their indefatigable labours in Wales, and in some of the towns in England. No experimental, thoughtful Christian can deny that God has withdrawn himself from us, as to the particular operations of his Spirit and the especial manifestation of his grace. Is not this a proof of it, that thousands of the ungodly hear the Word unconcerned and without trembling? Another proof is that so few that profess godliness have any assurance of hope, and have no experience of the joy of salvation. There is but little thirst for the gracious and powerful visitations of God; and also, the prayers for these blessings are weak and cold! There are many who, in their attitudes, cannot have communion with God whilst they continue in them. If people want God’s presence as the early fathers of the Connexion were blessed with it, let them take care that they be of the same principle, under the guidance of the same Spirit, and walking in the same pathways, ‘seeking not their own things, but the things of Jesus Christ’. Philippians 2.21. My day in this world is near ending; I am almost at my journey’s end. I have been for months confined to my room, under ‘light affliction’. (136-138)
As Elias's day in this world was near ending, he expressed the very same cry Phinehas's wife did as her day in this world was near ending:
“The glory has departed from Israel!”
As many of you know, I love reading Christian biography, and I'd have to say the Elias book is one of my favorites, for in it we find Elias's continued exhortations to the people of God to be seeking the Lord and praying for the Lord to shine His face upon His Church once again. I'd like to close with one of those exhortations:
Strive in particular, brethren, for much of the Lord’s countenance in the means and ordinances of grace, especially in the church. It is but a dark and dismal night everywhere that is destitute of the light of his countenance. His reconciled face in Christ is our delightful sun. So, when the children of this world are mad for earthly things, and cry out, ‘Who will shew us any good?’ but are disappointed everywhere, we shall be calm and call on the Lord most high in prayer often, saying, ‘Lord, lift up the light of thy countenance upon us, and we shall be whole.’ (270-271)
May we who are no longer children of this world open our mouths with wisdom, and call on the Lord most high in prayer often, saying, ‘Lord, lift up the light of thy countenance upon us, and we shall be whole.’ Psalm 80.
For the reviving of Christ's Church, for the joy of all nations, for sake of God's name,
Karen
Related posts...
on praying for revival:
on Mother's Day:
on family:
on John Elias:
Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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