“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” So Charles Dickens began his classic novel A Tale of Two Cities. Was he right? Sometimes the worst times in our world are also the best times.
While everyone continued to do what was right in their own eyes, the spiritual heritage of Israel slid into sin. The High Priest Eli could not control his sons. They lost the Ark of the Covenant in battle, and then they lost their own lives. When the elderly Eli heard the news about his sons, he too died. Simultaneously, his daughter in law went into labor, gave birth to her son, and named him Ichabod, meaning, “the glory has departed.”
As Israel reeled and devolved into spiritual chaos, God raised up a boy named Samuel to speak for him. Samuel heard God so clearly that his own words did not fall to the ground. All of Israel from north to south recognized Samuel as a prophet. The Lord continued to appear in the tabernacle, revealing himself to Samuel. And Samuel’s word came to all Israel. God did not leave himself without a witness for a new generation. Eli’s line died out, but God began a new work. Immanuel: God was with Samuel.
My seminary professor, Virtus Gideon said, “In every church, there is a person who stands in the council of the Lord.” We should knit our souls to that person. Samuel was that person in his day. Robert Shirley was the one who stood in God’s council in his day. In the countryside near Leicester, England, there stands an ancient church whose walls are inscribed with an eloquent memorial. The inscription recalls the life of a man who made the laying of that church's enduring stones possible long ago, and it reads as follows: “In the year 1653, when all things sacred were throughout ye nation either demolished or profaned, Sir Robert Shirley, Baronet, did found this church: Whose singular praise it is to have done the best of things in the worst of times, and hoped them in the most calamitous.”
How can we do the best things in the worst of times and hope them in the most calamitous? At the end of our lives, our stories will be captured in one of two words: Ichabod – the glory of the Lord has departed, or Immanuel, God is with us. Which word will tell your story? God is with us. He will not leave us. Let us not leave him.
