Ichabod

1 Samuel chapter 4 tonight, and I'd like to begin with verse 17 and read a couple of verses and fill in, just mention some of the things that took place there. As we come to a very sad period of history for Israel, the Ark of the Covenant has been taken. It tells us here, In verse 17, the reporter brought this report back, and he said, the messenger answered and said, Israel is fled from the Philistines.

There hath been also a great slaughter among the people. 30,000 footmen were slain. And thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God is taken. And verse 18, And it came to pass when he had made mention of the ark of God that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate and break his neck and he died.

This is Eli for he was an old man and heavy and had judged Israel 40 years. Now, if you'll back up with me to verse 13 for just a very short view, we find that After the Ark of the Covenant had been taken into battle by the army of Israel, it says, And when he came, lo, Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside watching, for his heart trembled for the Ark of God.

And when the man came into the city and told it, all the city cried out. So we have these four things that the reporter brought back, the report he was given. That Israel had fled from before the Philistines. 30,000 people had been slain. the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, had been slain and the Ark of God had been taken.

And then we notice that Eli dies as much as a result of that, his reaction to hearing the mention of the Ark of God taken. In verse 19 now for our study tonight, We continue on with some of the historical events that took place after this report was brought back.

We are shared here in this passage of scripture that Phineas had a wife, and his wife was great with child, and she's gonna be delivered of this child, and she's going to name this child, and we have this name in our American folklore. It's been brought in by one of our authors. The name is Ichabod. And his daughter-in-law, Phineas' wife, was with child, near to be delivered.

And when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was taken, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed, for her pains came upon her. And about the time of her death, the woman that stood by her said unto her, Fear not, for thou hast born a son. But she answered not, neither did she regard it. And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband. And she said, the glory is departed from Israel for the ark of God is taken.

And then we assume she passed away immediately. What a situation we have here. And we also, as we think about it, we find that this mother was probably more perceptive than almost anybody else in all of Israel that we have note of at this time. with the exception of Samuel. This mother was perspective, and she mentions the reason that she believes that Ichabod's name was significant, the glory had departed from Israel, and that was that the Ark of the Covenant had been taken. But I'm going to have to say that she was wrong in her estimation about why the glory of God had departed.

This was a symbol. This was a sign. There's no question about it. But it wasn't the reason. that the glory had departed from Israel. It has much greater standing. It goes back much further than just that. The very thought that they could take that Ark of the Covenant and use it for a shield in the battle, that's just a sign of a great problem. It's a sign of a great problem if we have the idea that we have something that could protect us and not depend on God to do it. So she had that to say. It was her perspective.

And the name of Ichabod sticks, and he's going to be carrying that name for a long time. I don't know if he ever learned to spell it. What the schools were like at that time. But every once in a while I hear of a name and I says, oh, what a torture the parents put on the child.

Well, if that be true here, that be true here. It wasn't the loss of the ark. It was the people's attitude towards God. And they trusted a gold covered piece of wood They trusted in the picture and not in the reality. Here we have the real problem. Now, probably all of us, I heard yesterday or read yesterday in a news broadcast that 90% of the people in the United States are going to have some sort of heart issue before they pass away. Well, a hundred of us, a hundred percent of us will have a heart issue. It's going to stop somewhere along the line. It's just going to stop. We're all going to have that issue.

I was thinking about not that long ago that I was feeling so poorly. and couldn't figure out what the problem was. And I didn't want to go to a doctor. I could get about two hours sleep a night. I was just worn out. I would walk just half a block and couldn't breathe.

And finally I went to the doctor and instantly the doctor said, you're in AFib. And that was the first time I really understood what the consequences of AFib is. And so they put me on some medication, stopped my heart, and I've been doing quite well since then. I had a condition.

I had a, the signs were clear, not knowing exactly what it was, but the signs were clear. I didn't like the way I felt and I did not like the way I couldn't do anything. And I didn't like only getting two hours sleep a night. I didn't care for that at all. Those were just signs. of the problem. The problem was my heart.

Well, as we look at Israel, we find out that the real problem is their heart. They have had this heart. And Jeremiah was so, so blessed by God to give us such a short and concise definition of the problem. He sums it up in one verse. The heart, Jeremiah chapter 17. The heart is deceitful above all things. Who can know it? The heart.

So the real issue with Israel here, the real issue with Ichabod's mom, with Ichabod's dad, all of the people there in Israel, The real issue has always been that it's been a heart condition. And God has mentioned this many times in the history of Israel, that it was their heart that was the problem. And I'm gonna jump ahead a little bit and say, the wonderful blessing of the everlasting covenant is God has promised a new heart to every one of his children. Every one that he died for on the cross, he has promised a new heart. And you know it isn't a real issue to us until we find out what an issue it is, that this issue has been throughout history.

The issue came about in the Garden of Eden there when Adam sinned against God. His heart died, spiritually died. His heart was deceitful above all things and desperately wicked instantaneously. And I liked what Mike mentioned one time, there isn't an Adam in the universe that was not affected by that transaction that Adam had in the Garden of Eden. We still can see it. It is ever abound around us. And we have that same issue, the deceitfulness of the heart.

Tonight in some time with some other people, the issue of the qualifications for a pastor and a deacon came up there in the book of First Timothy. And I remember being with a preacher one time and he said, Norm, how you doing with the qualifications for a pastor?

And I just said, I have not got one of them. I have a savior that does, but I don't have one of those completely. And I asked him, how many do you have? He says, oh, I've got them almost all. There's one or two that I'm working on. And I thought to myself, liar, liar, pants on fire. That's just a lie. We have a terrible condition. We're thankful for the salvation that God gave us in Christ Jesus and the promise of eternal life, but we're still gonna fight that condition all the rest of our life. It's gonna be with us.

All right, God's anger with Israel in the Old Testament primarily stemmed from their idolatry. And what did that mean? That meant they would rather have a stone god or a golden calf or something like that than the true and the living God. Is that abnormal? Absolutely not. That's not abnormal. We would think because they were Israel that would be abnormal.

But all Israel that we know of and read about there in the Old Testament, except for a very few, they were normal people and dead in trespasses and sin and their heart was deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And it was not an attraction. to love Christ. It was not an attraction to love the Messiah. It was not an attraction to love God. He was in their vocabulary, but their real love was for idols and they trusted them.

They broke the covenant that they agreed to keep at Sinai. This was another issue that God continuously brought up with them. Now, God did not expect them ever to do anything differently. But His holiness tells us that He's angry with them continuously over this issue of idolatry and of disobeying the covenant at Sinai, disobedience to commandments, and injustice in and among themselves. They were so contrary to what God said.

Turn with me, if you would, to the book of Judges, chapter 2. In Judges chapter two, we have the word of God brought up about this very subject. And we looked at this some time ago as we went through the book of the Judges. But remember with me as we look here again, in the book of Judges chapter two and verse 11, Judges chapter two and verse 11, and the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served Balaam. They did evil in the sight of the Lord and served Balaam and they forsook the Lord.

Was giving away the Ark of the Covenant the real issue? No, it's a sign of the issue. It's a telltale sign of a bad issue that they have. They're gonna trust a wooden box with some gold on it and three or four items inside of it to help them in a day of battle.

God just doesn't do that. They forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtaroth. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of the spoilers. that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn unto them, and they were greatly distressed.

Now, in the midst of all that, God is gracious. And it says, nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that had spoiled them. What a gracious act. Unworthy. They had no, there was nothing in them that should deserve any of this, that God would raise up judge and for a period of time would throw off the enemy that had came in, that they had submitted themselves to. They didn't throw away their gods, they didn't throw away their idols, they didn't put them aside. Oh, once in a while they'd tear down some groves and once in a while they'd have an idol torn up or smashed, but every opportunity they got, they're just like you and I by nature.

They picked up their idols again. We just renamed them. It's just religion that is brought up. Turn with me over, if you would, to the book of 2 Kings, 2 Kings chapter 17. We read in 2 Kings chapter 17, some more of this that God had to say about Israel.

It's amazing that God would be gracious to Jacob. But he was. You know what he says about Jacob? Jacob have I loved. It's amazing. That's amazing grace. And Jacob tells his brother in the 30, I think it's the 33rd chapter of Genesis, we're not gonna go over there, but he tells his brother, God has been so gracious to me. He recognized that. He was a scoundrel, but he recognized where grace come from.

All right, over here in the book of 2 Kings chapter 17, 2 Kings chapter 17, verse seven, And so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and had feared other gods. Now, when we were reading over in the book of Judges, that is about 300 years before this. And the same accusation is brought up, and the same historical events are brought up, and God continuously reminds them what He delivered them from down in Egypt.

It was a picture to most. To a few, it was reality. They had actually been delivered from their sins. He tells us about Joshua and Caleb, I put a different spirit in them. It wasn't that they were better, it was I put a better, a different spirit in them. And he's just telling us, I gave them the new birth and that's the only difference they had between the rest of you scoundrels.

Verse seven there, the children of Israel have sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt. Verse eight, and walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. And the children of Israel, did secretly those things which were not right against the Lord their God, and they built them high places secretly."

What a statement. Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God. What's that tell us about their heart? The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Now I can understand a little bit about what Ichabod's mother said, about what Phinehas's wife said, as she came to the end of her life and looked out and saw the terrible condition that Israel was in.

At that moment, there was 30,000 men had been slain in battle. At that moment, her husband and her brother-in-law had been slain in battle. At that moment, we're going to find out that the Ark of the Covenant had been taken. And at that moment, we find out, she finds out that her father-in-law has died. And I can't help but think that there was some relationship between them that was positive. Was she a believer? I don't know. But she had some perception about what was going on that most people didn't have any.

Well, anyway, the children of Israel did secretly, verse 10, and they set them up images and groves in every high hill under every green tree. You know what that means? On every street corner there was a house of some sort of religion. Every street corner. Secretly put there. But they went there and they went there many. went there. And there they burnt incense.

What was the real issue that took place in Israel when they went in and the elders of Israel said, take the Ark of the Covenant out of the tabernacle and take it with you and God will truly bless us. What was it that they had? What did they feel? What did they think when they came up with that solution? It is only Their heart was deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who could know it. There wasn't one word of God that had ever commanded them ever to do anything like that, and they went ahead and done it anyway. In verse 12, they served idols wherewith the Lord had said unto them, ye shall not do this thing.

Time and time again in the scriptures, turn with me if you would to the little book of Amos. In the little book of Amos, one of the prophets is called a minor prophet, only because it's short, not because it's not fat. A lot in it. Amos chapter five, Amos chapter five, verse 21. God said, I hate. Amos chapter five, verse 21.

I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them. Neither will I regard the peace offering of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs, for I will not hear the melody of thy vials.

But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch, and Cheom, your images, the star of your God, which he made to yourselves. Time and time again, we find in the scriptures that God's thought against Israel was so clear and so plain. The Lord Jesus dealt with the same issue in his day when he told a group of people, you honor me with your lips.

Now he's the only one that could tell about their heart. and no for a fact. Sometimes we think, boy, how could they? Oh, maybe they are. How could, maybe they are. God could look, Christ could look and say, they are not my sheep. You believe not because you're not my sheep. Well, anyway, they draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

That's the same issue that we find here in the book of 1 Samuel chapter four, as we close this out. As we find what happened, God turned them over to the Philistines. God allowed the Philistines to win. God was with the Philistines that day. and not with Israel. What a state this situation is in and what the world is in.

And what is often blamed for the problem? Loss of the ark. That's the blame. The real issue is the heart is deceitful above all things and who can know it? All of the actions that are against the law of God are actions that tell the real problem, the heart. We are so thankful that as we go through the scriptures that we find that God has taken care of the number one issue, and that is the heart.

The conduct of the Jews shows the desperate wickedness of human nature and corruption of the human nature, and many kinds of remedies have been made in the scriptures as well as in religion today to take care of this problem. There's all kinds of medications. Metaphorically speaking, there's all kinds of diets and surgeries and exercises and things that people are asked to do to take care of the problem so that they'll not have it in the end. In the end, the heart succumbs. and it stops beating and there is death.

When we look at from a spiritual standpoint, we find how true what Jeremiah had to say in Jeremiah chapter 17. And that is the real issue that's going on in the book of 1 Samuel, and particularly here in 1 Samuel chapter 4. We follow this out throughout the whole Bible, and we find this is the real issue. The fall is so serious, it destroyed the quality of the heart that could have had a capacity to love God.

We cannot love God in our natural state, but we will love God's. What is the solution? Well, I'd like to read two verses over in the book of Ezekiel. I've already given you the answer to this, and you know the answer, because we just go here so often. This is Old Testament. I just love it because it's Old Testament, because this is what has been preached throughout the ages. This is what the ages has brought.

And here in the book of Ezekiel chapter 11, Ezekiel chapter 11, And verse 19, Ezekiel chapter 11, verse 19. And I will give them one heart. And I will put a new spirit within you. And I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them a heart of flesh." Four times in that one verse, God shares with us what he will do. And thank God, he does not ask permission to do it. If he did, we'd vote against him. But since he doesn't, he can do it and we can love him.

And if you'll travel with me a few chapters more in the book of Ezekiel chapter 36, we read this. Ichabod, the glory of Israel has gone, could have been Adam's new name. The glory is gone. What I once had is gone. And it didn't take him very long when God came into his presence for him to admit it's gone. I hid myself from God.

Ezekiel chapter 36. Ezekiel 36, 26. We read this. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I'll give you and heart of flesh. This is in the New Testament era. We find that the Lord Jesus Christ tells Nicodemus these words in a little bit different language or words. He says, you must be born again. You must. You'll not see the kingdom. You cannot hear the kingdom. You cannot be in the kingdom of God without the new birth. And the same is true here.

I give you a new heart. I'll take your stony heart. and then give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. And ye shall keep my judgments and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers and ye shall be my people and I will be your God. What does that mean? You shall be at peace with God. You shall dwell. You be at peace with God. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

You know, the glory was departed from Israel, but the glory has never departed from God. I love what I read in the scriptures about the glory of God. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament show this handiwork. Now there's not enough there for someone to be saved, but it continuously shares with us the glory of God.

The person who lives in the darkest part of any downtown of Chicago or Philadelphia that never is given an opportunity to ever hear the gospel. will have that as a testimony against them in that day. They will be without excuse. The firmament, the glory of God is declared in the creation. And I don't have to become a scientific creationist to know that. That's what the Bible teaches. So here we have the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament show this handiwork. So God did not lose his glory.

Israel had lost it in Adam. Ichabod is in every generation. It's part of our family nature. It's our middle name. We gave up the glory of God in Adam. I've been told many times that the reason people go to hell is they reject Jesus. And I says, I did that in Adam. Just common outcome of the fall is rejecting God. Adam did it. We do it. Thank God that he comes and creates in us a new heart. I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. In the book of Isaiah chapter six, would you turn there with me? The book of Isaiah chapter six.

As we read here, the continuous ongoing blessings that God gives to Israel through Christ Jesus, the true Israel, not the Israel that is the national Israel, but the Israel that is of God, not all of Abraham's seed. are Abraham's seed. Not all Israel is Israel. Those who are born again, that's Israel. That's the church.

Here in the book of Isaiah chapter 6 and there in verse 3, we read these things about the glory of God. Ichabod, the glory is gone. It was gone from Israel. But it wasn't just gone from Israel because they took that ark and took it into battle and lost it. It was gone when they gave the ark over. It was gone all through that whole era. They had turned themselves over to idolatry, which is just normal.

And one cried. unto another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. My goodness, when he sends the gospel out and saves someone in a faraway country, his glory is in all the earth. When he has a church here, a there, somewhere that's declaring the truth of the gospel, his glory is in the church. The whole earth is full of his glory.

What a blessing it is that God would do that for a people. In John chapter one, turn with me to John chapter one. As we read through here, a few verses of scripture that share with us the greatness of God and his glory, which never has been lost. been lost in the hearts of people, but has never been lost by God. His glory continues. He is glorified. He was glorified and in His glory before He ever created anything.

So here in the book of 1 John 1, verse 14, we read this, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we know what that is, that's the incarnation, Christ come in the flesh, and we beheld His glory The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. When you see Christ, you see the glory of God.

It is not Ichabod. It's not taken away. It's there. It's real. And so the glory of God continues. The glory to national Israel, sad, it's gone. The glory that Adam had and Eve had in the garden before the fall is gone. It cannot be taken back. We cannot get to that position again on our own. We're just lost without it. We need someone to intervene, someone to intercept, and that's God's business.

In the book of 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter four, in the book of 2 Corinthians chapter four, we read these words about God's glory. His glory is not gone. His glory is in the person of Christ Jesus. His glory was mentioned there in the book of Isaiah. I, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up and His glory filled the temple. What a blessing.

Second Corinthians chapter four, there in verse six, it says, for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. Now in much the same way that we read in the book of Genesis about the creation, we find here that the apostle Paul was used as the spirit spoke to him and had him write down. He said, the God commanded the light to shine out of darkness. There it was a physical extent.

With his people, it's a spiritual extent. who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So God's glory has not dissipated. It continues on. It will be forever. It will never lose its glow. It will never lose its brightness. It will never lose.

But as Ichabod's mama said, the glory of Israel has departed. How that is so true as we look out on the world and where we were saved from. Never forget where you were saved from. That's where the glory had dissipated. It was no longer in use. It had fallen away because of the natural heart that we have when we're born into this world.

And so going back to that passage of scripture for just a moment, there in the book of second, excuse me, 1 Samuel chapter four, she said these words, Ichabod's mama, Eli's daughter-in-law, Phinehas' wife, made this comment. Daughter-in-law Phinehas' wife was with child, near to be delivered. And when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was taken, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed for her pains came upon her. Moments she'll be gone. and in moments she'll have brought a new child into this world. The name of that child is significant because it carries with it all the problems of natural man.

We have no glory in ourselves. We couldn't muster up one candle power. We couldn't muster up a micro-candle power of glory in ourselves, but we have the great God who's all glory, and he gives that glory to the church. Unto him be glory in the church. The great truth of the gospel as it's delivered.

And when she heard the tidings, verse 20, in about the time of her death, the woman that stood by her said unto her, fear not. with Alasbor's son, but she answered not, neither did she regard it. And she named the child Ichabod, saying, the glory is departed from Israel." At this moment, it is sure a sign of it, but it's just a problem that they've been having for centuries and centuries and centuries. that they had lost the glory in the fall and not one of them could ever obey God without him working in them and on them first.

So we thank God for his great salvation. And then it tells us in verse 22, and she said, the glory is departed from Israel for the ark of God is taken. Well, next time that we are here to speak, it will be in 1 Samuel chapter five. I would encourage you to read that chapter. The Philistines didn't have any fun with this Ark of the Covenant, and they're very quick to want to get it back. We'll stop there tonight.

Ichabod

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Ichabod

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