by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
The ark of the covenant in Israel was symbolic. It represented the presence of the glory of God, was kept in the center of the Israelite camp, and symbolized the covenant of Jesus Christ. It was important to keep it protected from enemies. When the Philistines had captured the ark of the covenant, the glory had departed from Israel.<\/p>\n
In I Samuel 4, the story is told of the death of Eli, one of Eli’s sons (Phineas), and Phineas’ wife, about to die in childbirth. Of all the bad news, hearing that the ark of the covenant was taken away was so bad that just before she died, she named her boy “Ichabod,” which means “the glory has departed<\/em>.”<\/p>\n She could bear the death of her father-in-law, her husband, and herself, but the worst news was that the Philistines took the glory of God’s presence. We have the valuable treasure inside our hearts in the gospel of Christ. We have a better covenant with better blessings and promises. But has the world successfully captured our glory in Christ? Have we allowed the world to come in and rob our hearts? Has the glory and the treasures of the gospel now become so small and insignificant, fading away into the distance?<\/p>\n Will our children learn from us that “the glory has departed<\/em>?” Or, will we recapture the meaning of the cross and Jesus’ resurrection? Will we “carry about in the body<\/em>” (image of carrying about the ark of the covenant) the dying of the Lord Jesus, so that none of the bad things in life can even come close to touching our real treasure in the heart?<\/p>\n What are you carrying in your heart? Has the world taken the glory of Christ away from your heart? Has the glory departed? Would Christ label you “Ichabod?” Isn’t this the time for the church of Christ to shine because the glory is still exciting and illuminating our hearts? What is in your heart? If the glory of Christ is gone, we must recapture it. We will be gathering around the real glory, Jesus, this morning. Will you be there? Or are you another case of Ichabod?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton What’s in Your Heart? The ark of the covenant in Israel was symbolic. It represented the presence of the glory of God, was kept in the center of the Israelite camp, and symbolized the covenant of Jesus Christ. It was important to keep it protected from enemies. When the Philistines had…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[634,495],"class_list":["post-88646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-attitude","tag-heart"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":82435,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-the-ten-commandments-the-first-covenant\/","url_meta":{"origin":88646,"position":0},"title":"Are the Ten Commandments the first covenant?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 25, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The Bible directly states that the Ten Commandments are the first covenant. Do you disagree? Answer: If the Bible\u00a0directly\u00a0states that the Ten Commandments are the first covenant, you could cite where it is found, but you did not. You made an assertion without proof and challenged me to decide\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24442,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-ten-commandments-and-the-old-and-new-testaments-shall-stand-forever\/","url_meta":{"origin":88646,"position":1},"title":"The Ten Commandments and the Old and New Testaments shall stand forever!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do not mislead the people with your manipulation of the Word of God and your omissions\u00a0about the \"Ten Commandments.\" His Word and Commandments were, are and forever shall remain true! He alone is the Creator and the destroyer! No mortal with limited knowledge can change what He tells through\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7844,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-happened-to-the-ark-of-the-covenant\/","url_meta":{"origin":88646,"position":2},"title":"What happened to the Ark of the Covenant?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My question concerns the Ark of the Covenant. I once read and now finally have found a Bible chapter that says that the Ark of the Covenant was seen in the temple of God, in Heaven. This verse is Revelation 11:19. Many, many people are still searching for the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":74269,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-were-the-ten-commandments-placed-in-the-ark-but-the-law-was-placed-beside-the-ark\/","url_meta":{"origin":88646,"position":3},"title":"Why were the Ten Commandments placed in the Ark but the Law was placed beside the Ark?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 13, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi sir, I would like you to help me on this matter: Why were the Ten Commandments only placed in the Ark of the Covenant? Again, why was the Law in Deuteronomy 31:26 placed beside the ark of the covenant and not inside the ark of the covenant? I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13485,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-wrote-the-second-set-of-tablets\/","url_meta":{"origin":88646,"position":4},"title":"Who wrote the second set of tablets?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Context:\u00a0 Exodus 31:18 and 32:16 make it clear that God wrote the first set of tablets of the covenant.\u00a0 Moses broke those tablets (Exodus 32:19). Question: In Deuteronomy 10:1-5, Moses (talking about the second set of tablets of the covenant, not the first set that he broke) says God\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54459,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/gods-glory-has-departed\/","url_meta":{"origin":88646,"position":5},"title":"God’s Glory Has Departed","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Warfel","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}