1 Samuel 4:22

The glory is departed. The word “Ichabod” comes from two Hebrew words, ’i kabod, meaning literally, “not glorious,” or “inglorious.” It was defined by the wife of Phinehas: “The glory is departed [literally, ’gone into exile’] from Israel.” The chapter closes with the description of a young woman who, though married to a wicked and selfish high priest, did not partake of his nature. Her concern for the death of her husband and her father-in-law was evidence of natural affection; but her much greater concern for the loss of the ark was an evidence of her pious devotion to God and sacred things. Even the deaths in the family did not give her the concern the loss of the ark did. Small comfort could she have of a child born in Israel, in Shiloh, when the ark was lost to the Philistines. Living in corrupt times, the wife of an ungodly man, yet truly devout — what greater courage could be known in days of national perplexity?

The presence of God should always be accounted the greatest blessing, and the loss of His presence and restraining power over evil should be dreaded as the direst calamity. The conditions of life are hopeless only when, like Judas, one deliberately refuses to be led by the Holy Spirit.