Back in March of this year, 2025, Dallas Mavericks fans went to bed on a Saturday night thinking their playoff hopes were pretty secure, and if not this year, then at least in the future, because they had a young superstar as their franchise player named Luka Dončić. “He will never leave us.” So they went to bed that Saturday night, woke up the next morning, and their superstar had been traded here to Los Angeles, to the Los Angeles Lakers. In return, Dallas got Anthony Davis. He is a good player, but at thirty-two years old, he is ancient in basketball years, and on top of that, in his very first game he got injured and had to be wheeled off in a wheelchair. So in Dallas it is like, “Man, Luka is gone, and Davis is gone. The glory is departed.” Still to this day Dallas is enraged. It has been months, and here we are in the middle of the NBA Finals, and Dallas fans are still raging at the owners: “Why did this happen?” They just cannot believe their franchise player is gone. All their hopes were on this young superstar, and now he is gone. “Oh man, the power is gone.” Hello, church. Pastor Ryan here. If you are new here, I am the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Temecula, California. We have been going through a series in 1 Samuel, and in the last video we made it to the middle of chapter 4 and saw how Israel had treated the ark of the covenant like a good-luck charm, bringing it into battle thinking it was going to be like a genie. I preached in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, last week from that same text. There are probably some things I would have changed about that video now, but hey, it is recorded. It is a wonderful text. Israel was thinking of the ark like a genie, but they lost the battle, and then they lost the ark of the covenant. Now they are crawling home after this defeat, feeling not only the loss of the battle but the loss of the power behind the battle. This is like a superhero with no powers. Man, the glory is departed.
When God Chastens
Before we really get into what that means, the glory of God and all that, let’s take a minute to step back and look at yourself. Put yourself in their shoes, or think back to a time when you were at a low point in your life. Maybe you hit rock bottom and felt like you were being chastened by God. That is what is happening here in Israel; they are being chastened. You might have felt like, “Man, everything is going wrong for me.” You might have hit some low point, or maybe right now you are right there, at some kind of low point with your health, or a low point in your career, or a low point in your family. Sometimes the low point comes wave after wave, and it is a low point for sensing the glory of God. So whether you are there right now or have been there in the past, what is your response to God? Because we have to know that God is not bringing these things into our lives for no reason. Maybe it is a wake-up call. “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” That is a wake-up call for you; that is what the Apostle Paul says. 1 Corinthians 15:34 says it like this: “Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.” Man, we have got to wake up. We know that, as a Christian, God will not allow you to continue straying from Him if you are His child. He is going to bring something into your life to shake you up and help you wake up. I do not know what that is. Man, I do not want to toy with that line. Wherever that line is, I do not want to mess with it. Now, you might say, “Oh, that is just a fear tactic, preacher. You are just trying to scare us.” Well, if it is true, it is not a fear tactic. Sometimes the fear of God is a good thing. When our church went to the Philippines, we went to this adventure park one day, and there was this big, tall, two-hundred-foot swing that Brother Paul signed up for. He does not like going up ladders, and he said that if he had known how tall that thing was, he would not have bought the ticket. We got down there, and it was this two-hundred-foot tower dropping people in this swing, and for him, two steps up a ladder is scary. But he says, “Look, the fear of heights has kept me safe so far. I stay far away from the edges of cliffs, so I have never fallen off a cliff yet.” Well, the fear of a cliff is good in that sense. In a similar way, the fear of God is a good fear, and it is not a scare tactic if it is real. Hebrews 12:5–8 says, “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.” So it is your very sonship: the chastening hand of God shows that we are the sons of God. If there is no chastening, it means you are not His child. So I am still just asking you, how do you respond when God brings something into your life that looks like chastening, that feels like chastening? Because this certainly is a chastening moment in Israel’s history. Remember, this period follows the era of the judges, the era when they were running away from God, so it was constantly a period of chastening. Often in the time of the judges, after the chastening, there was a national cry for deliverance, and then God would send a deliverer, what was called a judge, and the judge would help the people return to God and deliver them from the enemy, whatever it was. The people would return to God and live in peace for a while. That was the cycle of the book of Judges. After they returned to God, they would live in peace, but then reject God again and be placed under the judgment of God. It was this constant, ongoing cycle. So here in Samuel’s day we are under the judgment of God again, but we do not read of any repentance. There is no call for reform, no call for repentance, no call to God. There is just this shock: “Man, the ark is gone. We lost the battle, and the glory is gone.” For them it felt like God was gone.
The Aftermath of the Battle
In the last video we read of the battle, and now in our verses in 1 Samuel chapter 4 we are dealing with the aftermath. Here it is in verse 12: “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.” He has this dirt on his head; it is a sign of bad news for anybody who sees him running as a messenger. Eli eventually hears about it; you can read that in the passage for yourself. It says he is ninety-eight years old. He is physically blind, and that is probably a hint at his spiritual blindness. He was just spiritually dim. The messenger gives him these four pieces of bad news. Let me skip down to verse 17: “And the messenger answered and said, Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there hath been also a great slaughter among the people, and thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God is taken.” It is only this last piece that is highlighted in verse 18. The rest of the bad news is kind of glossed over, but verse 18 elaborates on the ark: “And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years.” It is almost as if he knew, “Man, my sons, well, they are a lost cause, but the ark of God is gone. Now that is bad.” And it says that at the mention of the ark, he falls over backward, breaks his neck, and dies. Man, this is a really sad end to a man who should have accomplished a whole lot more for God. But the story goes on in verses 19 and 20: “And his daughter in law, Phinehas’ wife, was with child, near to be delivered: and when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was taken, and that her father in law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed; for her pains came upon her. And about the time of her death the women that stood by her said unto her, Fear not; for thou hast born a son. But she answered not, neither did she regard it.” So she goes into early labor, early delivery, with the stress of the ark being gone, and her husband dying, and her brother-in-law dying, and her father-in-law dying. Everything is gone: her husband, her brother-in-law, her father-in-law. Everybody is gone, and she is in shock. She cannot even be comforted by the midwives. They are going, “Man, it is a boy,” but she does not even answer them. She could not even look at her own baby. Verse 21: “And she named the child I-chabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband.” In her despair, in this despairing moment, she names the child Ichabod. It just means “the glory is departed.” Verse 22 makes it explicit: “And she said, The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken.” That is so sad, that God’s very glory is gone. Is that not what she said?
What Was the Glory of God?
So, do you remember what the glory of God was? Exodus chapter 40 talks about the glory of God entering the tabernacle: “Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.” That is when they got the glory of God. The glory of God here is this Shekinah presence of God. He dwelt between the golden cherubims. The mercy seat, the top of the ark of God, was where the high priest took the blood once per year and sprinkled it. That blood was for the sins of the people, to roll the sins of the people over to the next year. Inside the ark of the covenant were the Ten Commandments, written with the finger of God. So the presence of God is there between the cherubims, looking down on the mercy seat and down into the ark of God, which holds His Ten Commandments. In all His holiness and radiance and perfection, it is as if He is looking down on the Ten Commandments that we have broken, and He judges us by those Ten Commandments, by the perfect law. But as He looks down from between those cherubims, instead of seeing the broken law, He sees it covered by the blood that is on the mercy seat every year. Instead of looking down on the law we have broken, God looks down and sees the blood of the lamb, and He forgave the sins of the people based on the sacrifice. The sins of the people were transferred to the lamb, and the lamb died so the people would not have to die. Hebrews tells us that the ark of the covenant was just a figure. It was just a sample, a small-scale model; we dealt with that in video number two of this series, a small-scale model of the real thing. The real thing is in the New Testament, which was ushered in by the death of the testator. This New Testament, this new covenant, came because of the blood of the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Jesus took His own blood and offered it on the real mercy seat, once for all. Hebrews chapter 9 talks about that: “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” So I am saying that now, through Jesus Christ, we are ushered into the very presence of the glory of God. They had the glory of God in the ark of the covenant, but it became obvious through the sins of the people that the glory was gone. So we have Ichabod: the glory is departed. That is the glory we are talking about in this story. One author said that Phinehas’s wife spoke more theology with her dying breath than her husband did in his whole life when she said, “The glory is departed.”
Remember Shiloh
When Israel lost the battle, and I am not going back to 1 Samuel chapter 4 just yet; we will get to Jeremiah 7 in a second, she said, “The glory is departed.” And in that whole situation, it seems Shiloh was also destroyed. If not in this battle, then at some point the place where the ark of the covenant was kept was destroyed. I found this absolutely fascinating in Jeremiah 7, verses 1 through 16, I think. “The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.” Here is the message from God to His people: “Look, you have got to shape up, and I will allow you to dwell in this place.” “Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these. For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.” They have a new temple by now, and they are saying, “Well, we have got the temple. We have got the temple.” “Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.” But look at verse 12: “But go 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.” He is referring back to this time in 1 Samuel when the house of God was in Shiloh, not in Jerusalem, and he says, “Remember Shiloh. Notice what I did to it.” “And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not; Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.” It was the result of their sin. Now, it is not just Jeremiah 7; Jeremiah 26 expresses the same condemnation. It is as if He is saying, “Look, you are trusting in Jerusalem. Well, go look at Shiloh.” Shiloh was the original Jerusalem. It was where the glory of God was; Shiloh was where God dwelt. So this prophet is telling a future generation, “Look, you think Jerusalem is indestructible just because David reigned here, just because Solomon was here? Well, no. The glory of God is here, but that does not mean you can do whatever you want.” Now, the glory of God did return, and we are thankful for that. They lost the glory of God, Ichabod, the glory has departed, but we know it came back when Solomon dedicated his temple. Solomon prayed, and the glory of God came to dwell between the cherubims again. But it is as if God is saying, “Hang on. You are being superstitious about the city of Jerusalem. I am more concerned about your heart. I am concerned about the way you are living. I am not asking about your birth; I am asking about your heart.” For Christians, we can take application from that. Many times people will say, “Well, yeah, I go to church. I am good.” Okay, that is great. But they were Jews, and that did not mean they were doing okay. The prophet still asked them, “Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not?” There are deeper issues than just the externals. In Jeremiah 26, God says, “Look, I sent My prophets. I gave you My Word. What about obeying it?” Too many times we try to justify ourselves: “Well, God, look at all the good things I am doing. What about all these good things?” And God is saying, “What about this sin in your life?” If you are ignoring the sin, you are ignoring God. “Well, God, look at all the good things I am doing.” And He is saying, “No, amend your ways, or you will become like Shiloh.”
Which Came First?
They lost their glory. Okay, so it is a little bit of the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg. Was it the loss of the ark of the covenant that caused the glory to leave, or was the glory already gone, so they lost the ark of the covenant? It seems here that it was the sin of the people that caused the glory to depart, and that happened a long time before the ark was captured. A man named H. L. Ellison said, “The glory of God had indeed departed, but not because the ark of God had been captured. The ark had been captured because the glory had already departed.” I would agree with that. It was the sin of the people that caused the glory of God to depart. And so I am asking us today: where is the glory of God today? I realize, theologically, that I am not talking about losing your salvation. We cannot lose our salvation. That is not what I am talking about here. But I am talking about quenching the Holy Spirit, and that happens because of our sin. We cannot lose the presence of God, but we can sure lose the power of God. So where is the glory of God in your life? Speaking to our church: where is the glory of God in our church? And when I ask about the glory of God in our church, I am not talking about someone else. The church is you, the individual people who make up the church. If you are in the church and you are in sin, then the church is in sin. If the glory is departed, it is going to be because there is sin in the ranks. There is sin in the camp. Is the glory of God just in a nice building? Well, no. We went to the Philippines, and there were not a bunch of nice buildings there, but there seemed to be people who shone with the glory of God. I am talking about a group of people who loved the Lord, who were singing His name, and who were shining the light of Jesus Christ in their communities. The glory of God was not in some nice building. The glory of God was not in some great amount of wealth, as in, we have to buy into this message of TBN that God prospers you and then everyone will see it and give God glory. No, no, no. We saw a lot of poor people in the Philippines who were giving glory to God with their lives. The glory of God is not in offerings. It is not in buildings. God wants your heart. God wants your life. God wants your actions. God wants your soul. He wants you to be obedient to Him. That is giving glory to God. So every time we go outside the boundaries He has set up, it is as if it could be written on your name tag, you know, those little name tags that say, “Hello, my name is…”: God is writing “Ichabod. The glory has departed.” Sometimes there is a sexual scandal that gets swept under the rug: “Oh, let’s just pass on this. Let’s not make it a big deal. We do not want to tarnish God’s name.” I am not talking about the Roman Catholics right now. They have their own issues; they are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to cover up sexual scandals all the time. That is not us, and I am not talking about them. I am talking about right here within our Baptist ranks. Sometimes there are those who want to hide sin and shift people around. Man, that is not a formula for the glory of God. That is a formula for Ichabod: the glory is departed.
Bring It to the Light
So what is the answer? “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.” John 3:19–21: “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” That is the answer for avoiding Ichabod. 1 John 1:7–9: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” That is how you avoid Ichabod. Proverbs 28:13: “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” “For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.” “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” So I said this was a time of Israel’s chastening, and here is this dying mom, and she knew it, and she said, “Ichabod: the glory is departed.” Man, that is such a depressing, sad, and simple sermon, but the truth is pretty simple: sin will bring Ichabod. If you want to stop seeing God glorified, just continue in whatever sin you like. No one is calling you out on it. It does not seem too bad, and it seems like you are getting away with it. Oh no, my friend. You have to know that one day all of that is going to come crashing down. It is going to become evident that God has been gone a long time, that the glory of God departed a long time ago. But man, through all of that, there is always this blessing of repentance available. You can turn to God and confess your sin. He stands ready to forgive if we will ask and turn to Him. Amend your ways. Return to Him. That is the message of the prophets, and that is still the message for us. Let’s avoid Ichabod, the glory departed. Let’s bring all of that to the light. God bless you, church, and we will see you in the next video.
