Put Things Right

At times in my life, I thought I was a very responsible mother, not knowing that the father’s responsibility was also mine when I needed to fill in the gaps to raise wholly balanced children. I say this because I spend more time with my children than their father can. The Bible story of Ichabod challenges me.

I realize that life is fragile and ought to be handled with prayer. The glory of God can depart if I am not careful in my parenting and other choices.

An unnamed pregnant woman in the Bible was married to Phinehas; he was a corrupt son of Eli, the priest in the tabernacle at Shiloh where the ark of the covenant was housed. Eli’s only reprimand to his evil sons seems to be a rather mild one (1 Samuel 2:22–25). Sadly, the sons neither heeded their father’s warning nor followed his counsel. When Israel was defeated by the Philistines in a battle, the elders of Israel asked that the ark be brought from the tabernacle to the army camp, hoping the ark’s presence would give them victory. The wife of Phinehas was aware when her husband and brother-in-law, Hophni, left with the ark. She appears to have known this was not in accordance with the way God had instructed His people to reverence His ark and especially His presence, for He dwelt “between the cherubim” on the ark (1 Samuel 4:4, NKJV).

Soon after, this woman learned Israel had been defeated by the enemy. Even worse, the ark of the covenant had been captured, and Phinehas, her husband, killed. Furthermore, when the aged Eli, waiting back in Shiloh, learned of his sons’ deaths and especially the capture of the ark of the Lord, he fell backward, broke his neck, and died as well. Hearing the news of these multiple losses, starting with the capture of the ark, Phinehas’s wife, “due to be delivered, … bowed herself and gave birth, for her labor pains came upon her” (verse 19, NKJV). She birthed a baby boy.

But she did not name him after his father. Instead, she named him Ichabod, saying, “The glory [the presence of God in Israel’s midst] has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured” (verse 22, NKJV).

May we, especially if parents, daily live our lives with the same reverence for God that the mother of Ichabod had and, by faith, ever live in the constant glory of His presence.

Pauline Gesare Okemwa