Ichabod is a famous name best known for the mythological scary story entitled, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
Sometimes, it is irritating (probably NOT a spiritual feeling, but I am being transparent) to know how much of our culture and history has been informed by and outlined by the scriptures. Why that frustrates me is because the loudest voices in secular America, and even in the progressive Church, rail on incessantly about the foolishness in people like me who have mountains of historicity establishing the truth that our nation’s foundations were overwhelmingly formed through a Biblical worldview deeply rooted in the whole American story. Our language, our government, our culture, our laws, and our society as a whole have all been impacted the most by Christian thought and philosophy. Now… having stated that clearly and unreservedly, I am also FULLY aware that many voices in our Christian present and heritage have spoken ignorantly, or even maliciously, about God and the balance (hermeneutics) of Holy Scripture. Nonetheless, the story of God as expounded by scripture has fully saturated our way of life, but because of modern agnostic pressure, those simple realities have been systemically removed or rewritten. Here are some examples:
“It is a David and Goliath story,” usually in a sporting context
“Turn the other cheek,” a phrase provoking someone just to let it go
“They are like a good Samaritan,” meaning they were generous and kind for no reason
“My kid is like a Prodigal son,” complaining they are off the rails of proper living
“Just follow the Golden Rule,” used to inspire making the right choices
“They had a road to Damascus experience,” saying that they had a life-changing event
“Oh ye of little faith,” used jokingly to mock another’s doubt
“I am at my wit’s end,” this phrase comes from Psalm 107, in which, “they reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit’s end”
“The blind leading the blind,” slandering the bad choices of another
“Can’t you see the writing on the wall,” pulling directly from Daniel prophetically rebuking the to-big-for-his-britches Belshazzar in Daniel chapter 5
I could go on for hours, but the term Ichabod was Biblically famous before the campfire horror story made it mythologically infamous.
1 Samuel 4:19-22 (parenthetical statements mine)
Now his (the prophet Eli’s) daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas (an evil and irreverent minister who was abusing God’s people and maligning the true worship of Yahweh), 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.
Israel was a nation birthed by the very hand and supernatural interaction of God in a desolate landscape of apostate humanity. Abraham and Sarah were given the supernatural ability to have Isaac, which began a redemptive pathway towards our salvation and Savior. In the beginning, Adam and Eve forsook the goodness and love of God for selfish ambition incentivized by the deceptive tactics of our adversary. Instead of righting the tilting ship of humanity, we were led into greater levels of destruction and corruption by that empowered adversary and his growing accomplices until the great sin of Genesis Six was perpetuated upon the ‘daughters of man’ by the elohim (spirit beings/angels) who took advantage of the spiritual degradation caused by the human masses rejecting and ignoring their Creator and His goodness (TOV) reaching out in longing pursuit for their hearts. This led to the horrid chapter in the history of mankind known as the flood where only eight souls were spared through the necessary judgment of God upon the irreparably corrupted nature of mankind and the corrupting forces of demonic entities known as Nephilim discipling people into depths of wickedness and sin unknown until that time.
But, we once again were given a bridge across the chasm of chaotic destruction by the Rainbow of God’s loving redemptive Hased (Hebrew word for covenant lovingkindness, tender mercy, and passionate goodness) of our original Heavenly Father. Shortly thereafter, the Rainbow of Hased was ‘redefined’ by helter-skelter humans hell-bent on doing life their prideful way and ravenous for control over the spirit and natural realms by constructing their own ‘Bridgeway’ (Towel of Babel) to Heaven in direct rebellion to the Rainbow bridge offered to them.
Does any of this sound familiar?
If we put Bible-colored glasses on, we will be able to filter nearly EVERY ridiculous headline and personal circumstance through the clearly outlined and repeated narrative of Scripture. But, alas, we just carry on as if there is no history until our teenage brain starts to receive data from the glowing screen of propaganda electrified by technicolor and entertainment.
If we follow the Scriptures, then we can see we are about due to have another birthing by the supernatural hand of our New-Life Creator, Jesus the King, as an expansion of His Kingdom overtakes the seeping of wickedness oozing from the adversary and his deep-state ilk.
Back up in our verses, the child was named Ichabod, “because the ark of God had been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband.” Ichabod is translated as ’the glory has departed.’ God’s presence, his physically manifested and tangible goodness, perceivably departed from the ‘chosen people, a holy nation’ because of these three things: the ark was captured, her father-in-law, and her husband. This was a trifecta of success from the adversary against the Old Testament church. It would behoove us to learn from their mistakes.
1 Corinthians 10:11-12
Now these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So the one who thinks he is standing firm should be careful not to fall.
Romans 15:4
For everything that was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.
I am about to clarify the three areas, but first I want to show that I am not the lone voice for this message. My worship leader, Pastor Ryan Smith, challenged our worship teams, and Rugged, to read a book by Jeremy Riddle called, The Reset. His mournful journey of personal repentance and expectation for a Christian return from exile in Babylonian tyranny and spiritual fakeness resounds deeply with my heart and message. Look at this:
But our enemy was patient. He was crafty. And at present, he is wildly succeeding in his mission to destroy the purity of worship. Worse, we are allowing him. At times even partnering with him. Every time we allow idolatry, humanism, pride, falseness, heresy, celebrity, self-indulgence, debauchery, sensuality, and so many other forms of worldliness and wickedness to parade around, uninhibited in our houses of worship, we partner with his destructive work. The worship movement may look better and sound better than it ever did in the past, but as a whole, it is but a shadow of its former purity, power, and anointing. The sound is huge. The personalities are large. The stages are bright. The crowds are enthused.
But so often, all I can hear is noise. All I can feel is grief.
Grief over my own unawareness.
Grief over all the times I contributed to the noise.
Grief over any part I ever played in bringing us to this point.
Grief over any time I kept my mouth shut in the name of keeping the peace.
Grief over every time I felt a check in my spirit but ignored it and just went along with the crowd.
In my grief, I find my heart crying out, "Oh where is the sound of purity in worship? Where is the sound of hearts free of self-indulgent agendas and utterly enraptured by Him? Where is that sweet, thick anointing? Oh where, oh where are You Holy Spirit and where is Your precious presence? Where has it gone? Where did we lose it? HOW did we get here?"
But most importantly I find myself asking...
"Can we get it back?"
Ichabod was born in Israel under the same conditions that Jeremy and I are lamenting. Christ was born under very similar circumstances as well. Tyrannical leaders killing the children trying to stop a move of God parallel to the satanic abortion agenda of infanticide. Rome oppressed the Jews into submission and dilution of faith reflective of national American anti-Christ movements. The four hundred years of scriptural silence from Malachi until John the Baptist is reminiscent of current scriptural illiteracy in America. The masses rejecting Jesus and His unpopular messaging is eerily similar to how the remnant preachers of today (including yours truly) are sidelined and marginalized while the masses flock to stadium-sized mega-churches led by flash and mostly fake ear-ticklers who have perfected the art of communication and lost the anointing of the Gospel. While the true disciples of Jesus in our world today are trying to just pay our bills, the government and the church-i-anity hierarchy are swimming in endless cash making them capable of projecting any message at any time.
But, the truth of Jesus and the power of His Kingdom slowly started to change everything, as He is today as well.
If we know what drove the glory from Israel, we can also postulate what is repelling the glory today. If we know what the problem is, we can solve it and regain a place of glorious emanation that belongs to the authentic Ekklesia.
Here are the three things again: the ark was captured, her father-in-law, and her husband.
The ark was captured.
It would be best if you went and familiarized yourself with the story (1 Samuel 3-4). But, generally, most believers know that the Ark of the Covenant was a super-big deal to the people of that day, and rightfully so. Without going all scripture geek on you, the Ark was basically representative of the personal presence of God. The people of God, the nation of God lost the personal, intimate presence of God. How prophetically similar to today’s bustling version of microwave spirituality where intimacy with God is forsaken for a little ‘scripture of the day’ text, a background YouTube preacher making noise while we focus on more important things like our secular job, or maybe the way committed church engagement has been ridiculed by the new movement of churchless people who project how much better off they are since they left those wretched hypocrites under the hypnotism of that terrible pastor. There are a buncha folks today that have a religious system of their own design, an ornate temple built to their personal specifications, and a whole group of pals that gather for their version of worship… but the Ark of the Covenant is nowhere to be found. It is all for show. The intimacy of covenant is gone, the presence of God associated with allegiant faith and loving loyalty has been stolen from them by a neighboring enemy.
Her father-in-law.
This is speaking about Eli who was the ONLY known prophet in the land at that time. He was a man who started out with a passion and life-long commitment to a Divine Destiny in ministry for the people of God. Then, slowly over time, as the pressures of life and ministry started to weigh on him, compromise started to seep into and dilute his resolve. He allowed his sons to become rebellious, irreverent, and evil… I say allowed because God specifically tried to get Eli to repent and course-correct, but his weakness in disciplining his children ended up costing them their lives. He also became obese. I know this is unpopular, but obesity is a fruit of a much more destructive root. When the scripture highlights a person for being obese and connects it with a soul issue, we should not ignore it just because it does not feel good to our modern mind. Eli was a man chosen by God for divine purposes and he lost his way through the pressures of life. She lost her hope, and Israel lost the glory because the leadership ordained by God lost their way.
Her husband.
She married a ‘man of God.’ He was the son of the great Prophet Eli. His spiritual heritage was off the charts. He was born to do great and mighty things for the Most High God. AND… he turned out to be a scoundrel loser. He became rebellious towards God and His form of worship. He turned into an adulterous womanizer defiling the covenant of marriage and the covenant of God. He openly was stealing from the people oppressively without retribution or remorse, and worse yet, he was stealing in the name of Yahweh. He was ordained to be a sacred preacher reflecting the Image of God, but instead chose to be a self-centered abuser who made decisions only for the potential of personal benefit. The representative of God, the man in the pulpit, did not honor and love his wife, his God, his dad, or the ministry he was graced with. Eventually, it cost him his life and the scriptures make it clear that God had no pleasure in this boy’s character. When a person cannot value their covenant of marriage, there are likely no other places in alignment with Godliness and holiness. Our covenants with others and our covenant with God are extremely important to Him, and when they are violated, the glory departs from those people. How much have we seen this play out this year with minister after minister being exposed because of their sexual failures and dishonoring of their ministerial callings?
But the glory returned… the Ark of the Covenant was rebuilt, but this time it was made of flesh. Ichabod eventually died and another name was chosen:
Isaiah 9:6-7
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders.
And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.
He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness
from that time and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.
John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The Glory has returned and HE is IN you and I. We are reclaiming our nation, we are recapturing the church, we are re-imaging our God, and we are rebuilding the moral pillars of humanity. Beloved, this is our time to shine forth the praises of our Good God.
I challenge you to reclaim His glorious name in all the areas of your life, which will restore the glory into all facets of your existence. Whatever your adversary has effectively stolen or diluted, you can reobtain through the person of Jesus our Lord. This world has ramped up its efforts even to the degree that open assassination is now in play. The enemy fears the glory of God returning to our nation, but we are not a people easily removed. We are the people hand-picked by the Lord of Hosts for such a time as this to light up the pathways of the Great Awakening… and God surely knows what He is doing!
I love you,
Steve
We are very humbled and honored by your words and your heart dear sister! Thank you and blessings to you!
Thank you, sis, that is humbling and kind