Now back in Ezekiel chapter 10, there's so much information and
detail in chapters of Scripture like this that I think it's good
for us to read it over and over again. And we'll always go back
and re-read it and pick up things that we may have missed before.
I do that too. I try to go through and study
and pray over these things, read commentaries from reputable gospel
commentators. I find as you read these recent
chapters that we've been studying that you can feel like you're
reading out of the book of Revelation because there's so much symbolism.
And like the book of Revelation, Even gospel commentators will
differ over the exact meaning of a particular symbol. And that's
okay as long as whatever you think it means doesn't deny the
main message. And certainly doesn't deny the
person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. A lot of the disagreement
has to do with translation. For example, you look at a symbol
like the barrel stone there of verse nine. Some say that shouldn't
even be translated that way. that's not the issue this and
I don't want you to get bogged down in the details and I don't
want you to miss the main message and this is what we need to agree
on I've entitled this message the greatest curse of all because
within this chapter that's what is stated and you can see it
in verse 18 look at verse 18 it says then the glory of the
Lord departed right there that's the greatest curse that God Almighty
can put upon a sinful people. The glory of the Lord departed. And by the same token, we can
see, hopefully, and rest and be comforted in knowing this,
that the greatest blessing of all is the presence of the glory
of God in our lives and in our hearts. And that glory of God,
as you know, is seen and manifested, magnified, revealed in the glorious
person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
the main message of this passage. Now, whatever interpretation
you may or may not put upon a particular symbol. So that's the message
either way. And I want us to look at this,
the glory of the Lord departing. Oh my soul, think about that.
Here's a vision. Very much like that in the first
chapter of Ezekiel. The first vision that the Lord
gave him when he was called to be a prophet. There's some differences
here. There's a different view. Same kind of vision from a different
perspective. And this represents the wrath
of God against Jerusalem. and the departing of the glory
of the Lord from the temple, the temple of Jerusalem, the
temple of Solomon. I've seen different drawings
and renditions of the temple of Solomon. I kind of think that
none of them really do it justice. Must have been really impressive.
You know that tabernacle in the wilderness, that wasn't too impressive.
You remember it was covered with badger skins and wasn't too impressive
as far as a beautiful building, but you know David wanted to
build the temple. God wouldn't allow him to do
it. I won't go into all the reasons, but he said, no I'm reserving
that for your son Solomon. And it must have been an impressive
building, but that tabernacle, which wasn't much to look at
on the outside, was just as glorious as that temple which was impressive
to look at on the outside, because the beauty of it was on the inside,
in the holiest of all, the holy of holies, where the presence
of God, the Shekinah glory of God resided. And here we see that glory departing,
departing. And I want to tell you something
now. It never returned ceremonially or physically to the temple. Not even to the temple they rebuilt
under Nehemiah. Didn't return. They didn't have
the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant. See,
it's still there now. Here's Ezekiel. He's preaching
to them by the river Kibar. That's what you mentioned several
times there. To this remnant, probably around
10,000 Jews with the elders. He's talking to the elders here,
the nobles, the leaders. And they're taken up to see this
vision, and there's the temple. It's still there, but this is
a preliminary. And it's a preliminary to disaster,
because it's on the brink of being destroyed, as we talked
about last time, the brink of destruction. Why? Because of
the sins of the people. So he starts off in this chapter
showing God's righteous, we'll put it this way, fires of judgment
scattered over Jerusalem. Look at verse one. Then I looked,
and behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the
cherubims, like a dome-like structure. I don't know exactly what this
is, but it indicates this, that whatever's coming is coming from
God. That's what it means. Whatever's
coming, how you see this firmament, whether it's a cloudy sky or
a dome or whatever, whatever's coming here is the judgment of
God. That's the issue. And he says,
above the head of the cherubims. Now these cherubims, the cherub,
the cherubims, they were angelic creatures and they are symbolic
of ministers or servants of the Lord, like the preachers of the
gospel going forth, stating out, preaching out the message. doing
the work of the Lord, all right? So understand that as we go through
this. They'll appear several times,
as you heard Terry read. And above the head of the cherubims,
there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone. Sapphire
is a very, very clear, transparent stone, as far as we know. And
like I said, now commentators will disagree on this, what that
really should be. It's very hard, very solid, very
durable, very precious. Very excellent. And the only
thing that I can see that it symbolizes or as far as a message
to me and to you is that it denotes the clear manifestation and revelation
of Christ as the judge of the world. In other words, this is
not going to be cloudy judgment. You know, in our courts, a lot
of times, they say, well, you can have reasonable doubt. And
if you've got reasonable doubt, you've got to acquit them. There's
no reasonable doubt here. This is clear, uncloudy judgment. And there's no doubt about this.
And this is Christ coming in his work as a judge in the ministration
of His kingly office, the duration of His government, the excellency
of it, the purity of it. Our God judges according to truth. And we need to always keep that
in mind. That's why we don't dare think about coming before
God without our Savior, without our Redeemer, without Christ.
Because the only way he can justify me a sinner and be truthful about
it is as I stand washed in the blood of Christ and clothed in
his righteousness. There's no other way. Listen,
that's not just one way that God could have done it and he
chose to do it. No, it's the only way. There's no other way
of redemption. No other way. And he says the
Sapphire stone as the appearance of the likeness of a throne,
a throne of judgment. And then he says in verse two,
and he spake to the man clothed with linen, that's Christ, the
King, that's the God-man. The man, now again, we see the
emphasis on his humanity because it is as God-man that Christ
redeemed his people from our sins. And it is as God-man that
Christ will judge the world. So, when He comes again, He'll
come as God-man. God in human flesh. And the first
time He came, He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself based on sin imputed to Him, charged to Him. The second
time He comes without sin to judge the world and to gather
His people unto Himself. He told the cherubim, he says,
go in between the wheels. Now you remember the wheels back
in chapter one, the wheels within the wheel. And they symbolize
the providence of God. And the emphasis here is that
all of the workings here of judgment against Jerusalem and Israel,
even the destruction of the temple is the work of God himself. This
is well within the providence of God. This is no afterthought.
This is no contingency plan. This is no all shucks, folks,
you just didn't get it right now, look what I gotta do. No,
this is the way it was from the beginning. This is God, Ephesians
1, 11, working all things after the counsel of his own will,
right here. And this is the way it is, God's
sovereign will and purpose. He said, go in between the wheels.
Work within the confines of God's providence, that's what that
means. And that's all we can do. Even if we don't submit to
that in our minds, that's what we're doing. You can't get away
from it. Nebuchadnezzar saw that, none
can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? And he
says, even under the cherubim, fill thine hands with coals of
fire, verse two now, coals of fire from between the cherubims.
Now, what is that? Well, that's the coals of fire
from the altar where the sacrifice is brought to the mercy seat. And these coals of fire represent
the redemptive work of Christ. Now, you remember when Isaiah
in chapter 6 was called to the ministry. And he was brought
to be reminded of his own conversion when he says, Woe unto me, for
I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell amidst a people of unclean
lips. And the cherubim there went and got coals of fire. Where
did he get them from? He gets them from the altar.
That's where they come from, see, in this symbolism. And he
touched his lips with it. That represents that he put in
the heart and the lips of his servant the gospel. The gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ. But now the coals
of fire that come from the altar here between the cherubims He
says, scatter them over the city and he went in my sight. Now
what's he talking about? Well, he's talking about the
judgment of the people because they stand in opposition to God's
way and God's glory in the salvation of sinners through Christ. The
chair of these symbols of God's servant, these messengers preaching
the gospel by which men will be judged. You remember Paul
wrote about that in Romans 2. Just look over there real quickly.
Romans chapter 2. When he's talking about judgment.
In verse 16 of Romans 2. He says, in the day when God
shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to
my gospel. Now that doesn't say that he's
going to judge the world by the gospel, because not everybody
in the world hears the gospel. What does it say? Now look what
it says. Read it again. In the day when God shall judge
the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. Men are
gonna be judged, men and women are gonna be judged as they compare
with Christ as he is revealed in the gospel. Now how is he
revealed in the gospel? As the Lord our righteousness.
Notice what that means is when you stand at judgment, the only
way you're going to pass the test is to be found in Him. To
be clothed. Do you have a righteousness that
equals the demands of God's law and justice? Well, how high a
righteousness is it? Well, look at Christ. Look at
the one who worked out right. The only one The only man, the
God-man who worked out a righteousness. He's the only one. And so He
does us no good. You see, religion that compares
men with men, women with women, is false religion. That will
do you no good at judgment. If your goal is to be like me,
then I can tell you right now, you're shooting way too low.
You understand what I'm saying? If my goal is to be, pick out
the best person you think you know. Say, well I just wish I
could be like him. You're shooting too low. You
see, that's why we need Christ. That's why He came and did His
great work. Alright? Now these coals are
scattered over the city. Look back at Ezekiel 10 verse
3. Now the cherubim, and here's what's going to happen now, beginning
here, is the glory of the Lord is going to fill the temple. And look what happens, he says,
now the cherubim stood on the right side of the house when
the man went in and the cloud filled the inner court. He had
the inner court and the outer court. We'll see the outer court
in just a moment here. That was the court of the Gentiles.
But anyway, the cloud filled the inner court and it says in
verse four, The glory, then the glory of the Lord went up from
the cherub and stood over the threshold of the house. That's
standing at the door. Why do you stand at the door?
You're either coming in or you're going out. You're getting ready
to go out or come in. Well, he was already in, so where's
he going? He's going out. And he says, the house was filled
with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of
the glory of God. The glory of God in the clouds
sometimes signifies the presence of God, but here it's the glory
of God concealed because the people just refuse to see it.
That's man by nature. Hid, hidden, hidden by that veil. We talked about the veil this
morning. It's over man's heart. The veil of ignorance, the veil
of darkness, the veil of self-righteousness, the veil of pride, the veil of
unbelief. That's what we are. And listen,
here's the thing about it. Here's what total depravity teaches
us. It teaches us that we're content to remain there. God
leave me alone. That's why we would be if God
left us to ourselves. And that's part of the tragedy
of the curse of the glory of the Lord departing. It's God
leaving men to themselves. And that's the way we want it
by nature now, isn't it? God, leave me alone. Leave me
to myself. So look what happens here. And so that glory, and
you know, it's interesting when I read this and think about the
glory of the Lord in a cloud. And the brightness of the Lord's
glory. I think about our Savior. I think
about Christ. Because He really did the same.
He was covered. His glory was covered in the
veil of His flesh. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. One old commentator said, his
splendor was concealed. And in his last week, he came
to the east gate. And remember, that's when he
cleansed the temple. And he went out the east gate, went out onto
the Mount of Olives, and he left from there. He left from there. The glory of the Lord departed.
And incidentally, I told you before, the glory of the Lord
never did come back here, but the glory of the Lord did come
back to Jerusalem. Now, how'd that happen? It's
when Christ came. Because he's the glory of the
Lord. He's the embodiment of the Lord's glory. But the thing
about it is, when Christ came, they didn't see his glory. John
said that in John 1, 14, when he talked about the word made
flesh. dwelt among us. And he said, we beheld his glory,
the glory of the only begotten of the Father. We beheld it.
Who beheld it? His disciples, the ones whom
God revealed himself to. So here's the glory of the Lord
about to leave. Look at verse five. He says, and the sound
of the cherubim's wings was heard even to the outer court. The
sound of their wings is the movement. They're leaving as the voice
of the almighty God. When he speaketh, this is the
word of God. And it came to pass that when he had commanded the
man clothed with linen, saying, take fire from between the wheels,
again, here's the judgment of God, well within his providence,
from between the cherubims, then he went in and stood between
the wheels. And it says, and one cherub stretched forth his
hand from between the cherubims unto the fire that was between
the cherubims and took thereof, put it into the hands of him
that was clothed with linen, who took it and went out. Again,
the judgment of God moving forward. No hindrance here. There's nothing
people can say. Every mouth may be stopped and
all the world guilty before him. When God judges, there's nothing
you can say. You can try to defend yourself,
but your mouth will be stopped. And look at verse 8. He says,
and there appeared in the cherubims the form of a man's hand under
their wings. I believe that's talking about
the hand, the man's hand signify, denotes action with knowledge.
It's what it denotes. Doing the work of ministry, but
it's under the wings, not so as to draw attention to ourselves,
but to point sinners to Christ. That's what it's all about. So
here it is now. And he says, verse nine, I look,
behold the four wheels by the cherubims, one wheel by one cherub
and another wheel by another cherub. The appearance of the
wheels was as the color of a barrel stone. Don't really know what
that symbolizes. Some say it's a multi-colored
stone. And that makes sense to me because
if you think about the providence of God, you think about something
that is multi-dimensional. I mean, you think about the providence
of God in this world. How things that just look so
impossible, so improbable to us, and God works it out, And
I always think, maybe I overuse this illustration, but I always
think about myself sitting in the back view or somewhere in
the back there just hating the gospel that I now stand up here
and preach to you every Sunday and Wednesday. That's the providence
of God. That's the glory of God, friend.
That's the power of God. That wasn't me. Because the only
thing I wanted to do was prove it wrong. Think about the man
on the road to Damascus on his way to arrest Christians who
in his heart of hearts wanted to wipe the name of Jesus of
Nazareth off the face of the earth. And then God took that
same man and used him to write over half of the New Testament.
And as the main apostle to the Gentiles. I mean, that's mind
boggling. Only God could work that way. And so that may be it. And here,
in this episode, we see the city of Jerusalem and the temple,
the place where God had resided for all those years. There was
another time that He departed and then He came back. I'll show
you that in just a moment. But now, they're about to be
destroyed and they are judged by God to be the worst sinners on all
the earth. Now if you were to think about
the worst sinners on all the earth today, who would you think
of? You'd probably have a lot of
different ones to think about, different countries, different
nations, different segments of society, immorality, perversion,
all of that. But here's a religious people.
And God, you remember, he told him in Ezekiel, told him in Jeremiah,
he says, you think you're better than the Egyptians. You think you're better than
the Babylonians. You're worse, he said. He's gonna
explain that even further later on in Ezekiel's prophecy. He
says, you've profaned my holy name among the heathen. You've
taken the things of God and turned them into self-righteous religious
Just dung. That's what they've done. So
that's what this is. In verse 10, he says, and as
for their appearances, they forehad one likeness, as if a wheel had
been in the midst of the wheel. And we talked about that back
in Ezekiel 1. This is not God working against himself. This
is God working north, south, east, west, all over the world
to accomplish his purpose. And it says in verse 11, when
they went, they went up on their four sides. They turned not as
they went, but to the place where the head looked, they followed
it. They turned not as they went. Their whole body, verse 12, and
their backs and their hands, their wings, the wheels were
full of eyes round about, even the wheels that they forehad. So in other words, it seems like
things are going in opposite directions, different directions,
but it's really all going in the same direction. Only God
can do that. See, well, what's the one direction? Well, the one direction is His
glory in Christ. That's what everything's working
for. Things that you couldn't even imagine that are happening
right now are ultimately gonna work for the glory of God and
the good of His people in Christ. And we can't figure that, listen,
we know we can't work it out because we don't have that kind
of power, but we can't even figure it out. Can we? I mean, I look
at this world and it just boggles my mind. And you too, if you're
honest. But there it is. But they go
straight on. And we'll see that that's emphasized at the end
of the chapter. They go straight on. They may turn this way, but
it's still straight on. They've got one goal, and that's
the glory of God in Christ. Preaching the gospel. I've often
said that in preaching we have basically four goals. To glorify
God, to exalt Christ, and these all go together now. You can't
separate them. to exalt Christ, the salvation of sinners, and
the edification of His people. And that's what this is all about.
They're going out through the world, not just in Jerusalem. The glory is departing from Jerusalem. And the sound of the gospel,
those flapping wings back there, joyful sound, the sound of love,
God's love in Christ. Oh, we preach God's love, don't
we? We don't just preach God's wrath, we preach His love, but
we preach His love in Christ. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us and gave His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. You can't preach God's love without
preaching that. His grace, His mercy, spiritual
life in Christ, eternal life, liberty, peace, pardon, righteousness,
salvation, that's what it is. And so all of this, and so as
the Father sends the Son into the world, and through His omniscience,
these eyes that are round about, that's the omniscience of God.
And it's also the revelation of God to His servants. It's
sort of like this. Can you see the glory of God
in all things? Everywhere you look. Now you
may not see it immediately, at first glance. At first glance
you may be like the children of Israel by the Red Sea. What in the world are you doing?
What is this all about? And you may not be able to figure
it out and logically relegate it in your mind, but you know
ultimately that in some way, that in some way is going to
honor our Lord. Now that's a comforting thought
to me. In some way it's going to do that. So look down here,
he says, In verse 13, he says, as for the wheels, it was cried
unto them in my hearing, O wheel. What are they saying? O wheel. That's a servant of God standing
in amazement at the providence of God. Looks like I've been
talking about it. It boggles our mind. It's amazing. We know
God's in control. O wheel. Can you figure that
wheel out? Verse 14. He says everyone had
four faces. Now, you remember back in chapter
one, it talked about the four faces of the servants, the living
creatures, and Revelation talks about it. Well, these are the
same, except there's one little difference. It says the first
face was the face of a cherub. And remember, the first face
in Ezekiel one and in Revelation was an ox, or which would be
a calf. And the ox is a symbol of servitude. That's what the ox is. You're
putting the yoke on the oxen. We're servants of Christ. My
yoke is easy. My burden is light. Well, that's
what the cherub is, a symbol of the servitude, a symbol of
service. So it's the same truth, just with a different symbol
because of what he's showing Ezekiel here in the cherubs.
But look at the next one. The second face was the face
of a man, all right? And the third was the face of
a lion, and the fourth was the face of an eagle. Now, ultimately,
what all this symbolizes is Christ himself, who the servants of
God preach. Christ is the servant of the
covenant, the servant of the Father, read Isaiah 53. What
did he come to do? He come to establish the only
righteousness whereby God could be just and justify the ungodly.
He told John the Baptist, suffer it to be so, for us to fulfill
all righteousness. He's the Lord our righteousness.
That's what He did. He put away our sins by the sacrifice
of Himself. That's why He was made of a woman.
That's why He was made under the law. He was a servant of
the law. Christ was. How do you know that? Because
He's the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. He
said, I didn't break the law. He said, I keep it every jot
and tittle. He was responsible to fulfill the law. All the conditions
of our salvation was placed squarely upon Him. The government was
upon His shoulder. He suffered. He bled. He died.
He was made sin. He was made a curse. All of that,
sin offering, sin bearer, the Lamb as a servant of the Father,
the servant of the covenant to do all that for His people. He
redeemed us from our sins. And in order to do that, he had
to become man. He had to be God-man. He had
to identify with us in our name and in our nature, yet without
sin. In order to do that, the Lord
determined he would be born of the tribe of Judah. He's called
the Lion of the tribe of Judah. That indicates his power, his
kingship. that he is lord of lords. Is
he able to do that? Is he able to put away my sins?
Is he able to work out righteousness for me? Is he able to give me
life? Is he able to keep me and to
bring me to glory? And the answer to all those questions
is a resounding why yes. You bet he is. Nobody else is. And then He had the face there
of an eagle, that's his deity. He had to be God in order to
save us from our sins. Man cannot create life, cannot
give life, only God can do that. The Lord gives, the Lord takes
away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. So there he is in all
of his glory. And so he says in verse 15, and
the cherubims were lifted up. This is the living creature that
I saw by the river of Kibar. In other words, they're not working
by their own power. Our sufficiency is of God. And
when the cherubims went, the wheels went by them, and when
the cherubims lifted up their wings to mount up from the air,
the same wheels also turned not from beside them. In other words,
wherever they went, however they went, it was all according to
the sovereign purpose and will of God. Not one move without
Him. And so when they stood, these
stood, and when they were lifted up, this verse 17, these lifted
up themselves also for the spirit of the living creatures was in
them. Spirit of God. Then verse 18, here's the greatest
curse of all. What is all this to do? You know,
you read all this, and you can see the working of God in the
salvation of His people. through the redeeming work of
Christ, through the regenerating work of the Spirit, through the
preserving work of Christ. But here is the saddest thing
of all, the greatest curse of all. All of this is going on
in this place at this time, right here in verse 18. Then the glory
of the Lord departed from off the threshold of the house and
stood over the cherubim. The glory of God departed. That's
another way, one commentator said, of describing hell. To be without God. Alienated
from God. Without Christ. What an awful,
awful, awful place to be in. I'd rather be sick physically
than to be a person of whom it would be said the glory of the
Lord has departed. And this is not talking about
a loss of salvation. This is talking about God stopping
His forbearance. Giving them up to a reprobate
mind. And it says there, now listen,
he says, the cherubims lifted up their wings, mounted up from
the earth in my sight. They went out. The wheels also
were beside them. Everyone stood at the door of
the east gate of the Lord's house. And the glory of God of Israel
was over them above. They went out. Some commentators
say that's indicative of the gospel leaving the Jews and going
out to the Gentiles. Well, certainly it can be related
to that. Verse 20, this is the living creature that I saw under
the God of Israel by the river Kibar, and I knew that they were
the cherubims. Everyone had four faces apiece,
everyone four wings, and the likeness of the hands of a man
was under their wings, doing the work of God, but not so as
to draw attention to themselves. And the likeness of their faces
were the same faces which I saw by the river Kibar, their appearance
and themselves, for they every one went straight forward." I
want to show you two verses and then I'm going to quit. I want
you to go to Exodus chapter 33. Exodus chapter 33. Here's Moses. Moses, the human deliverer of
the Hebrew children. out of Egypt. And he's praying to God. And this is right after the episode
with the golden calf, when God's judgment came down upon the people.
Look at verse 9 of Exodus 33, it says, It came to pass as Moses
entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended.
and stood at the door of the tabernacle and the Lord talked
with Moses. Isn't that something? Now this
is the glory of the Lord descending upon the tabernacle when it was
first made. Here's the presence of the glory
of the Lord. We just got through reading about the glory of the
Lord departing. He says in verse 10, all the people saw the cloudy
pillar, stood at, stand at the tabernacle door and all the people
rose up and worshiped every man in his tent door. And the Lord
spake unto Moses face to face. Now that's a pre-incarnate visitation
of Christ. Because you can't speak to God
face to face but through the mediator. Based on his blood
and righteousness, you see. And he said, as a man speaketh
unto his friend. Abraham was called the friend
of God. Well, Moses was too, right here. And everyone that
comes before God in Christ, God calls his friend. You're his
servant now. You're his subject. Don't get
me wrong. This is not to foster that familiarity,
that irreverent familiarity that people have today. But he says,
he turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son
of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. Moses
said unto the Lord, see thou sayest unto me, bring up this
people and thou hast not let me know whom thou will send with
me. Yet thou has said, I know thee
by name. And thou hast also found grace
in my sight. God told Moses, so you found
grace in my sight. And now, therefore, I pray thee,
if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way. That's
God's way. That's the way it is with the
servants of God, people of God. I want to know his way. His way
is the way of grace in Christ. That I may know thee, that I
may find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation
is thy people. And he said, My presence shall
go with thee, and I will give thee rest. In the presence of
the glory of God, there's rest. Christ is our rest, isn't he?
And he is the fullness of the glory. And he said unto him,
If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. Moses
recognized that the greatest curse of all was the lack of
God's presence. And so he says, for wherein shall
it be known here that I and the people have found grace in thy
sight? Is it not in that thou goest
with us? Christ's name is Emmanuel. It's
one of his names, isn't it? What does that mean? God with
us. If God is with you, you know
what? You found grace in His sight. And if you found grace
in His sight, you're righteous in His sight. And if you're righteous
in His sight, that means you're washed in the blood of Christ.
You stand before Him in Christ. That's the only way. And He says,
so shall we be separated, I and the people, from all the people
that are upon the face of the earth. It's the presence of God
that separates us from the world. Now one more scripture. Turn
over to 1 Samuel chapter four. You remember the priest Eli. Eli had two sons. Their names
were Hothni and Phinehas. They were wicked boys. They scorned
the things of God. They compromised the glory of
God. And here in this particular episode
of that era, where Samuel was the prophet, the word of Samuel
came, it says, they were battling with the Philistines. And the
Philistines were about to descend on the camp. And their purpose
was to kill people and to steal the Ark of the Covenant, which
at that time was in Shiloh. And they sent for, the Israelites
sent to bring the ark from Shiloh into their camp so that they
could defeat the Philistines with it. Now, what was going
on here is they had already, they had already shown their
unbelief and their scorn for the things of God. And they were
using that ark almost like people today would use a rabbit's foot.
Well, I better take my rabbit's foot, it'll bring me good luck.
They had no regard for the glory of God and the things of Christ
and the power of God. Well, what happened? You read
the whole chapter. I'm not going to read the whole chapter. I
just want you to start around verse 19. Look at verse 19. What
happened? Well, Phinehas and Hophni were
killed. And the ark was taken by the
Philistines and taken out of the camp and away, which means
the glory departed. And Eli in his grief, Eli was
a very heavy man and he fell backward and broke his neck.
And it says in verse 19, his daughter-in-law, Eli's daughter-in-law,
Phinehas's 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 woman that stood by her, said unto her, Fear not,
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. Now we know later on the ark
was returned. They went and got it, and it
was returned. But here, in our passage, it wasn't returned.
But there's what you have. The greatest blessing that God
can put upon any people is His glory in the face, in the person,
in the finished work of Christ. And whenever you have a church
service, a worship service, a church endeavor, and Christ is left
out, Let me tell you what's happened. The glory has departed. Whenever
you speak of things concerning a sinner's salvation, now listen
to me. Whenever you speak of things
concerning a sinner's salvation, or a sinner's acceptance before
God, and Christ is left out, the glory has departed. You understand
that? That's sad, isn't it? There's no greater curse upon
a people, but there's no greater blessing when Christ is their
foundation, and their heart, and their head. And everything
we see, think, say, and do is filtered through Him, whom to
know is life eternal. All right.