Icabod!

Then it happened, when he made mention of the ark of God, that Eli fell off the seat backward by the side of the gate; and his neck was broken and he died, for the man was old and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years. Now his daughter-in-law, Phinehas' wife, was with child, due to be delivered; and when she heard the news that the ark of God was captured, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and gave birth, for her labor pains came upon her. And about the time of her death the women who stood by her said to her, "Do not fear, for you have borne a son." But she did not answer, nor did she regard it. Then she named the child Ichabod, saying, "The glory has departed from Israel!" because the ark of God had been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband. And she said, "The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured." --- 1 Samuel 4:18-22

Tragedy had struck – the enemy had triumphed and the Ark of God in which the ancient Israelites had placed their confidence for victory had been taken away by that enemy!

To make matters worse, the two sons of Eli the priest had been killed and when their elderly obese father heard the news, he fell off his seat, broke his neck and died.

The wife of one of Eli’s sons died as she was giving birth to a son and the nurse named the boy Icabod. The name had deep significance – it meant that the glory of God had departed from Israel!

All the evidence in April 2009 clearly indicates that the name “Icabod” can be appropriately applied to the United States of America! Certainly this is not exaggerating one little bit.

Our political leadership has demonstrated in countless ways that it constantly gives Almighty God an obscene gesture with an attitude that speaks of dedicated defiance of all that is holy, just, and true! The political corruption runs rampant because there is no significant challenge from the church which is also corrupted due to the subtle and at times not so subtle infiltration of deceptive and deadly doctrines.

All this should not be surprising, however, because God explicitly revealed that there would be an onslaught of false teachers peddling their wares in the times preceding the personal return of Jesus Christ to this world.

Having had access to God’s full revelation from the beginning, and having been abundantly blessed by God over the decades since its beginning, the United States now is experiencing the identical ethical, moral, and spiritual deterioration as did the ancient Israelite kingdom of Judah in the 6th Century BC shortly before its collapse and destruction.

On one of the cable news networks there is an individual who is making much of our republic “repeating history” because of failure to learn from the lessons of history. Sadly he fails to see the primary reason for it – our prominent national mood and spirit are one of hard-hearted defiance against the God Who raised up and established this great republic!

Icabod! The glory of God has departed!

"And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, 'Why has the LORD pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?' then you shall say to them, 'Because your fathers have forsaken Me,' says the LORD; 'they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law. And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one walks according to the imagination of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me,’” --- Jeremiah 16:10-12