Beginning of the End - Ellen G. White

when the messenger added, "and the ark of God has been captured,"
a look of extreme anguish passed over his face. The thought that his
sin had dishonored God and caused Him to withdraw His presence
from Israel was more than he could bear. He fell, "and his neck was
broken, and he died."
The wife of Phinehas feared the Lord. The death of her fatherin-law
and her husband, and above all, the terrible news that the ark
of God was taken, caused her death. She felt that the last hope of
Israel was gone. She gave the name Ichabod, or "inglorious," to the
child born during this terrible time, with her dying breath
mournfully repeating the words, "The glory has departed from
Israel, for the ark of God has been captured."
But the Lord had not completely cast His people aside, and He
used the ark to punish the Philistines. The divine presence, invisible,
would still be with it to bring terror and destruction to those who
transgressed His holy law. The wicked may triumph for a time as
they see Israel being punished, but the time will come when they too
must receive the sentence of a holy, sin-hating God.
Heathen Gods Cannot Stand Before the Ark of God
In triumph the Philistines took the ark to Ashdod and placed it
in the house of their god Dagon. They imagined that the power that
had gone with the ark would be theirs, and that this, united with the
power of Dagon, would make them impossible to defeat.
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