“The Bible’s Children: Ichabod”
I Samuel 4:21
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
As I sometimes like to do, let me start once again this morning with a quiz, (just to be sure you’re awake!). And the question is this--what do Eleanor Roosevelt, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Faith Hill all have in common?
The correct answer is…they were all orphans!
Let’s start with Eleanor Roosevelt. While we know her for being the longest running First Lady ever of the United States (since her husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, served four consecutive terms as president), what you probably don’t know is that she was an orphan.
After she was born in Manhattan in October of 1884, her mother died of diptheria when she was only six years old, soon followed by her father when she was eight years old. Thankfully, after being raised by a grandmother, she turned out pretty well, so well that President Truman would later call her “The First Lady of the World.”
Then there’s J.R.R. Tolkien. Born in South Africa in January of 1892, his mother, Mabel, decided to take him and his brother to England for an extended visit. But while they were away, his father, Arthur, died of rheumatic fever. Then a short time later, his mother died of diabetes when she was thirty-four, and he was only twelve years old. If you’ve ever read any of his books like The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, then you know that he turned out pretty well after all.
And one more--how about Faith Hill. Just a few days after she was born in September of 1967, her birth parents, (since they weren’t married), decided to give her up for adoption. And as all of you country music fans know, she turned out pretty well too.
Later she said, “I’m a gypsy at heart. I had a spirit that was completely outside what my (adoptive) family was. I didn’t know anyone I was related to, biologically, which gives you a sense of not knowing who you are.”
Being an orphan is one of the hardest things you could ever be. As one orphan wrote, to be an orphan is “painful, empty, meaningless, and frightening.” To put it another way, imagine having a phone, but not having anyone to call, or achieving something, but having no one to share your success, or failing, and there’s no one to give you their shoulder, or being hungry, and no one will feed you, or when you have dreams, but no one will give you confidence to achieve them.
Another wrote, “An orphan cannot sleep with his or her parents, cannot be kissed or hugged by his or her parents, be thrown into the air and caught by a father, or see the smile on the faces of your parents. The only thing orphans can do more than others is cry.”
If you think about it, there are quite a lot of stories about orphans. Charles Dickens wrote about a boy named Oliver Twist. A little girl named Heidi was sent to live with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps. Peter Pan was an orphan, and so was Rapunzel, Mowgli, Huck Finn, and Snow White.
And in the book of I Samuel, the Bible tells about another orphan whose name was Ichabod. I’ll read the words of I Samuel chapter 4, starting at verse 19: “Now his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant, about to give birth. 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 and gave birth, for her pains came upon her. And about the time of her death the women attending her said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, for you have borne a son.’ But she did not answer or pay attention. And 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’” (I Samuel 4:19-22).
Now to keep you from being completely confused, let’s step back for a moment to see what’s going on.
The book of I Samuel takes us to right about a thousand years before Christ. Before there were ever kings like Saul and David and Solomon, there were judges that ruled over the land--men like Othniel, Jephthah, and Samson, and even a woman named Deborah.
But things were not as they should be. In fact, the book of Judges goes so far as to say, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever he wanted” (Judges 21:25 HCSB).
And in the midst of all that mess, there was an old, tired, high priest named Eli and his two sons--Hophni and Phinehas. And without getting into all the details, (you can read about it yourself in I Samuel chapter 2), let me just say that those two boys were about as awful and corrupt as corrupt could be. As one commentator wrote, “They were behaving like rock stars and treating the women who came to the tabernacle like their groupies.” And he wrote, “Clearly they were not loyal husbands.”
And what did Eli do about it? Practically nothing! As the Bible says: “Now Eli was very old, and he kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who were serving at the entrance to the tent of meeting. And he said to them, ‘Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all these people’” (I Samuel 2:22-23).
And if all that wasn’t bad enough, the nation of Israel was at war, constant war, with one of their fiercest and most hated enemies--the Philistines. Remember David and Goliath? Those Philistines.
Which takes us to the words of I Samuel chapter 4.
Now as the chapter opens, the two nations are about to go into battle against each other. And as they fight, horror of horrors, the Philistines win, killing as many as four thousand men, which, if you don’t mind me saying, is a really, big problem!
As they said, “Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines?” (I Samuel 4:3). In other words, they said, “Now wait just one second here! We’re the good guys, God’s chosen people, His most treasured possession. And the Philistines--they’re the bad guys. So how could we possibly lose? Obviously, something is really wrong here!”
And that’s when, somewhere, somebody had an idea. Why not bring the ark of the covenant from its place in Shiloh all the way here to the battlefield? I mean, after all, it does represent God’s presence among us. It worked for Joshua at the battle of Jericho. What’ll you bet it’ll work here too!
So that’s exactly what they did. And sending a group of men a full twenty miles, uphill, mind you, they got the ark.
And just as soon as they brought it back into the camp, the Bible says, “All Israel gave a mighty shout, so that the earth resounded” (I Samuel 4:5). And when the Philistines heard all that noise and all that shouting, they were afraid, and said, “Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods?” (I Samuel 4:8).
And what happened next? Let me tell you, what happened next came to everyone’s, (the Philistines included!), as a complete surprise. You see, sure, Israel had the ark of the covenant, the symbol of God’s presence among them. But that’s all they had. And treating that beautiful golden box, that symbol of God’s presence, as nothing more than a good luck charm, (rather than really asking for God’s presence and blessing), they were routed. They were completely defeated!
As the Bible says, “Thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell” (I Samuel 4:10).
And if that wasn’t bad enough, (which it was!), the Philistines went on to not only capture the ark, they also killed the two sons of Eli--Hophni and Phinehas. And when Eli heard the news that the ark was captured and that his sons were dead, he fell backwards in his chair, broke his neck, and died.
Are you with me so far?
Now let’s look again at the text. Verse 19: “Now Eli’s daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant, about to give birth. 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 and gave birth, for her pains came upon her” (I Samuel 4:19).
Do you see what’s going on? In the very moment she was giving birth, knowing full well that her husband was dead, her father-in-law and brother-in-law were dead, that thirty-four thousand soldiers were dead, and that the ark was captured, she died too! And as she died, she gave her son his name. “Ichabod,” she called him. It’s a name that meant “The glory is gone.”
Let’s stop and take a breath for just a moment because, if you think about it, this is one of the saddest, gloomiest, and most heart-breaking stories in all of the Bible, with shame, defeat, and despair written on every single line. But we’re glad it’s here, for it’s a story that shows the danger to God’s people in that generation as well as every generation that’s ever been.
So what’s the danger? The danger is the sin of presumption, presuming, assuming that God will do whatever we want, whenever we want, however we want, and to whomever we want, no matter what. Much like a genie in the bottle, a “domesticated deity,” we rub the lamp, and summon Him to do our bidding. And instead of living as His servants, we make Him our servant. As one author put it, “While God once made us in His image, ever since then we’ve been making Him into ours.”
So how do you do that? It happens whenever you begin to think that no matter what you say or what you do, God will bless you just the same. I mean, you’re one of the good guys, right? And everyone else, they’re the bad guys. And becoming completely blind to sin and insulated from the consequences of sin, before we even know what happened, our name too becomes “Ichabod,” and the glory is gone.
And as much as I hate to say, it’s bad enough when it happens to us, but it’s far worse when it happens to a nation. To put it another way, worse than the economy failing, worse than an earthquake or a hurricane, worse than any catastrophe you could think of, if God’s glory is gone, then there’s really nothing left at all.
“Ichabod” is one of the saddest and most tragic names in all of the Bible.
It’s been said that if you were to ever visit Scotland, or anywhere there are a lot of sheep, sooner or later, you’ll see a most unusual sight. You’ll see a little lamb running around the field with what looks like an extra fleece tied around its back. You’ll even see that there are little holes in the fleece for its four legs and its head. And if you see a little lamb running around like that, it usually means that its mother has died.
You see, without the protection and nourishment of a mother, an orphaned lamb will die. And if you take that orphaned lamb and introduce it to another mother, the new mother won’t care for it, since it’s not one of her lambs. All she’ll do is simply butt it away.
But since most flocks are large enough, it’s likely that there’s also ewe who’s lost her lamb. So the shepherd will skin the dead lamb and make its fleece into a covering for the orphaned lamb. And when she sniffs the orphaned lamb, she’ll smell the fleece of her own lamb. Then instead of butting it away, she’ll accept it as her own.
And that’s exactly what God has done for us! He’s covered us, He’s clothed us, with Christ. That is, after all, what Paul once wrote to the Galatians: “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. And so there is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26-28).
So where’s the gospel in all of this? It’s found in that one word: “glory.”
You see, when the ark was captured, and Ichabod was born, the glory was gone.
But who’s the opposite of Ichabod? Jesus is!
Remember? At His birth, a multitude of the heavenly host praised God and said: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men” (Luke 2:14). And John wrote in his account of the gospel: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen His…” What? “His glory, glory as of the only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
In the words of a hymn: “Ichabod, son of Phinehas, born in days of strife, saw the glory of God depart, and the loss of precious life. He sang the songs of Zion, with tears upon his face, and prayed that God would lead them back to their holy dwelling place. So let us learn from Ichabod, to trust in God’s great might, and know that even in our darkest hour, He is our source of light.”
We ask You, dear Father, for Your power and presence to rest upon us and be among us. Give us the hope and strength we need to walk in Your steps and to faithfully follow You. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen