Goodby To Glory - Ichabod # 1

Goodbye To Glory - Ichabod # 1

"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 was brake, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years. 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. And she 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. And she said, The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken." (1 Samuel 4:18-22).

Here we see swaddling clothes for the baby - and a shroud for the mother. Here we see a baby's cradle connected tragically with a woman's coffin. Here we hear a birth cry and a death gurgle at one and the same time.

The dying mother's fast act was to name her child. "And she named the child Ichabod." And her last testimony was - as she thought upon the ark of God being taken by the Philistines - "The glory is departed from Israel!" It was goodbye to glory!"

Let us make some applications of that statement, even though we may appear as those who carve epitaphs on tombstones, or as those who write obituaries, or as those who wailingly and discordantly participate in funeral dirges. Though we may be asking you to look through old windows upon scenes which others have described, though we may travel some well-worn and familiar trails, though we may serve the same food in somewhat different platters, still we make bold to ask you to remember that "tis true."

A Nation May Lose It's Glory

The wife of Phinehas, passing through the swirling waters of the river of death, said: "The glory is departed from Israel. "Thoughtfully scanning the pages of history, rubbing the dust of centuries off the tombs of some nations that underwent the frightful processes of self-burial, we can give the same testimonies concerning other nations. For "tis true that, warmed by the sun which never loses its glory, a nation's sun may set in night. Under the stars "stars which never lose their splendor a nation's starry crown may lose its brightness, being displaced by a withered wreath of poison ivy or a circle of undesirable cactus, or by the brow becoming an eyeless, earless, tongueless, brainless skull.

Beneath the heavens which declare the glory of God, even as the firmament showeth His handiwork, a nation that circled the clouds as a strong-winged eagle, can flutter among the clouds as a broken-winged vulture or squawking parrot. Among the flowery continents of God a nation can become a place of foul odors that make the righteous stop their noses.

Ancient Babylon. Great was the glory of Babylon of old; but Babylon became a vermin-infested, animal-prowling jungle - Babylon, "the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency," became "as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah." Something of the tragic departure of its glory is told in these words:

"It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in form generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there, neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged." (Isaiah 13:20-22).

Ancient Carthage. Great was the glory of Carthage centuries ago. But her commanders became as impotent as skeletons of cattle scattered on desert sands. Her swift feet became as a cripple's walk - her clenched fist as the fumbling fingers of a paralytic.

Ancient Syria. Wondrous the glory of Syria at a time when Eleanor's troubadours at Antioch bewitched the Syrian air with ballads of the South - and lightened the horrors of the second crusade. But Syria's glory departed when the following was said. "But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; They are revolted and gone" (Jeremiah 5:23).

Ancient Greece. Great was the glory of ancient Greece - especially from 450 B.C. to 350 B.C. - under Pericles. But Greece became a molded crust in history's garbage heap. Greece had her Athens - civilization's queen. Plato was hers. Socrates was hers. A vast multitude of seers was hers. Phidias, raising beautiful children unto Athens from the sterile womb of stone, marbled many places with sculptured wonders. The Muses tented in her gates and plumed the arts with eagle's wings. At many shrines the human brain bowed in reverence. But with all these persons, with all these things of beauty, Greece became a molded crust in history's garbage can.

Ancient Rome. Great was the glory of the Rome of centuries far back and forever gone - especially from 50 B.C. to 60 A.D. - with her astute statesmen, with her close-meshed code of laws, with her sword-woven mantle, coin-embroidered, that fell on cities where merchants congregated and fattened on the spoils of trade, with her armies that feasted and fattened on blood.

Rome was mighty among the kingdoms - mighty wherever ships and swords and thrones and lust of gold and sovereignty, constituted the boasted heritage of the age. But Rome and her glory became as a mouth full of pyorrheic gums holding rotten teeth, all loose and foul.

Ancient Nineveh. Great the glory of the nation-like realm of Nineveh - with her winged lions symbolic of strength and speed. But Nineveh became as a vari-colored butterfly enmeshed and perishing in the net of a relentless spider.

Ancient Egypt. Great the glory of old ancient Egypt - the land of the Pharaohs - the land of wealth and wonders. But it became a shabby sexton of splendid tombs - her torch of far-reaching splendor became a pot of smoke without one spark of remaining radiance.

Ancient Span. Great was the glory of ancient Spain - back there in the glorious years beyond recall. Wide and strong was the sway of her scepter. Her piratical ships harassed all the seas and filled her coffers with gold. But this nation, with climate and conquests and catches of coin, with thrones and crowns and scepters, with laughter and love and lure, with men and money and might, with fervor and force and fruit, became as a drowsy and lousy and frowsy beggar watching a broken clock.

~Robert G. Lee~

(continued with # 2)