1 Samuel 4.
1891 294 If the affecting circumstances of the death of the wife of Phinehas lead to a deeper apprehension of the ways of God, and of His infinite grace in seeking to dwell with men, we shall find that they have not been recorded in vain. In the holy sensibilities of a regenerate heart, this pious woman must have known much of the comfort of His presence to have felt so keenly the loss to Israel when, after long forbearance, it was withdrawn. In that loss all their glory was gone (Ps. 68:59-64[?]), and her grief because of it became too great for her weakened frame to bear. At the time of her death, having brought forth a son, a joyless mother she named the child Ichabod (no glory), saying, "The glory is departed from Israel." And again she repeated, "The glory is departed from Israel." Ought we to refuse to consider the meaning of this, her dying testimony?
We need but a moderate acquaintance with the effects of sin to know that fallen man shuns the presence of God. This was seen at once in Eden; and in the case of Israel it had to be learned that, apart from the work of Christ, His presence must be judgment. When the Lord passed through Egypt, He smote the firstborn of all who had not fled for refuge under the sheltering blood of the Paschal lamb (Ex. 12). Then, those who were thus saved from judgment found His presence in grace indispensable (Ex. 13). Veiled in measure in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire to give light by night, it was nevertheless displayed at times in effulgent glory. There was thus a visible manifestation of his presence. The children of Israel saw it (Ex. 13). Assured from the commencement of their journey of divine guidance, they soon found they needed more. They had enemies with whom it was impossible for them to cope. The Lord therefore became their defence, I and at once "the glory" took up a position between them and their foes: to the one salvation, to the other destruction (Ex. 14). And this was not enough. Their poverty was as great as their ignorance and their weakness. All their supplies were a few cakes of unleavened dough, soon eaten. This also became the object of divine care. "Their bread shall be given them, and their water shall be sure." Here again "the glory" was seen (Ex. 16). Thus far the presence of the Lord was manifested to Israel in constant and unmingled grace. Nothing was required from them, neither sacrifice nor legal obedience. But at Sinai the question was raised, not of the sufficiency of God's grace, but of the ability of fallen man to keep the righteous judgments and statutes of God's law. The people, with unhumbled hearts, at once undertook to do this. It was indeed their duty, and, if fulfilled, would have produced great happiness among them. But God alone could be the Judge of their obedience as He was their Lawgiver, and His presence, therefore, at this turning-point of their history took a judicial form. The Lord descended upon the mount in fire (Ex. 19). The people heard His voice out of the fire: they were in terror that the great fire would consume them (Deut. 5), and all the time "the glory of the Lord" was on the mount, it was like devouring fire in their eyes (Ex. 24). How perfect must that obedience be that could bear the holy judgment of consuming fire! Blackness, darkness, and tempest, also accompanied the fire. Not one ray of joy or peace could break in on any soul that looked on "the glory of the Lord" on the mount of law. Did the dealings of God in unmingled grace humble their unregenerate hearts? No. Did the terrors of Sinai subdue them? So far from it, that, in the very presence of that mount, "they made a calf and worshipped the molten image, and changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eats grass." We are tracing, be it remembered, the path of "the glory of the Lord" from Egypt on to the time of its departure from Shiloh, so mourned by the wife of Phinehas. The application of this history to a heavenly people, so perfectly given in the Epistles of the N.T., is beyond our present scope.
In Israel we have a public demonstration, on a scale to arrest general attention, of the magnitude and extent of the ruin that sin has effected. We are to learn by all the past dealings of God with men what the flesh is, that is, what we are. With advantages so many, so great, so far beyond any other nation, and with the presence of the Lord as their distinctive glory, what has been the result? Have they been better than the heathen? Indeed, no. "The name of God is blasphemed among the heathen through them, as it is written" (Rom. 2:24). Are they a happy and a great nation now? No. They are scattered in all lands, without a king and without a sacrifice.
Grace, then, unmingled with requirement, and requirement unmingled with grace, have both been publicly tried in their case, and in vain; but the effect of the latter was hopeless ruin, save for the absolute sovereignty of God. This, at the intercession of Moses, became the ground of hope.*
[*See from Ex. 32:30 to Ex. 34, a portion of scripture that it is most important to be clear about, for some have deemed 34:6-7, to be equivalent to "the gospel of your salvation" in Eph. 1:13.]
The Lord proclaimed His name, and Moses besought Him to go in the midst of the people. His intercession was heard, and the people are commanded to make the tabernacle and its furniture according to the pattern showed to Moses in the mount. Henceforth grace and requirement were to be combined; the Lord would take cognisance of the sins and trespasses of His people; but whoever failed would find that the brazen altar at the door of the tabernacle was for his need and for his use. The priests found still more in the provision of the laver; while within, where it was their privilege to serve, all was purity, all perfect light, perfect order, and perfect sustainment. In the holiest of all, hidden by the veil, there was the ark and the mercy-seat, with the cherubim overshadowing it. There "the glory of the Lord," leaving the mount of law, could dwell; because all judicial questions, raised at Sinai, were typically met by the blood of atonement sprinkled on it and before it, and by the daily sacrifice. The rights of God were thus respected: it was His throne. The need of sinners was met: mercy was secured to them by atonement. Jehovah was their King to be obeyed: they were His people to render obedience. This was the relationship of Israel with God from the wilderness of Sinai. Has it continued? Let us see.
The consecration of Aaron and his sons in connection with the tabernacle, their vestments, their separate position, their sacred office and the provision made for them, show what an important place the priesthood had in entertaining this relationship. There were no consecrated priests when all was grace or when all was law. When these were mingled, the priesthood formed the link between "the glory of the Lord" within the sanctuary and the people without. No service to. God could be rendered, no spiritual need of men could be met, without them. This, we repeat, was the relationship of God with Israel.* The greatest honour was put upon the priests, but the gravest responsibility attached to their position. The Lord would be sanctified in them that came nigh to Him (Lev. 10). To trace the course of their failure would carry us far beyond our limits. Some things have been noticed in the papers on Hannah, but it was the lot of the wife of Phinehas to be a daily witness of the unrestrained wickedness of the house of Eli. The law was violated and the holy things profaned before the people, whose unregenerate hearts were not slow to follow such examples. Destitute of faith, they became bold in superstition, and put confidence in a symbol when they had none in the Lord. With hardened consciences and blinded minds they would intrude upon the ordering of the house of God, and dispose of the ark according to their will — "Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord unto us" — and they brought it into the camp with ringing shouts. Judgment then took its course. Stroke upon stroke fell. The people were given to the sword, the priests were slain, the ark was taken, and, at the news, Eli fell, and his neck brake and he died. 'These were the beginning of sorrows. The departure of "the glory of the Lord" made the void complete, a loss this godly woman did not survive. What was there left to her people? What were vestments and formularies, altars and sacrifices, lights and incense, when the presence and blessing of the Lord were gone, and the mercy seat was in the hands of the Philistines? Who was there to represent the people before God? What could be done on the day of atonement? Outwardly all was lost, but divine grace had wrought in Hannah before the blow fell. She, discerning by faith the impending judgment, fell back on the revelation made to Moses of the absolute sovereignty of God (the only hope for any of us). "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." She pleaded this, "O Lord of hosts, if Thou wilt look on the affliction," etc. On the ground of justice there was no hope, on that of sovereign mercy there was.
[*It is not so in Christianity. Peter addresses all Christians as priests (1 Peter 2:5, 9); John, also, all that Christ has washed from their sins in His blood (Rev. 1:6). And in the Hebrews all Christians are exhorted to exercise their priesthood, but at all times in dependence on their great high Priest (Hebrews 10:19-22; Hebrews 13:15).]
In the wife of Phinehas we have submission to the righteous judgment of God according to the proclamation of the name of the Lord to Moses. It is instructive to see how these simple but pious women understood the principles and the ways of God's dealings as revealed in the wilderness of Sinai. Hannah pleaded the former. The wife of Phinehas bowed to the latter. Ichabod (no glory) tells us how clearly that dying woman realised the stroke that had fallen on the priesthood and the nation, a loss that it took twenty years of discipline and Samuel's ministry to bring home, even in measure, to the people (chap. 7).
A few words more as to the future of Israel seem to be called for. Under the promised new covenant, the Lord will give to them a new heart, and a new spirit will He put within them: He will also forgive their iniquity and not remember their sin any more (Ezek. 36; Jer. 31). Then their long rejected Messiah will bring back "the glory" to that nation, and establish His throne in the earth in their midst, when all that offend and them that do iniquity shall be taken away in judgment. Then shall "the glory of the Lord be revealed and all flesh shall see it together"; yea, "the whole earth shall be filled with His glory. Amen and amen."
In the meantime, by the gospel, God is taking out of the world a heavenly people, who own the earth-rejected Jesus as Saviour and Lord. They, by faith looking up to Him in heaven, behold "the glory of the Lord," and His love constrains them no longer to live to themselves, but unto Him Who, for their sakes, died and rose again. This is the secret of true happiness in a world of sin until He come (2 Cor. 3-5.).