Has Left The Building

If I use the name Ichabod, what pops into your mind? Chances are it will be the gangly schoolmaster chased by the headless horseman in Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

However, the name is actuality Biblical in origin. It is the name of the grandson of the priest Eli. His name comes from the fact when his mother is giving birth to him she finds out about the death of her husband and the capture of the ark by the Philistines (1^st Samuel 4:19). The name means ‘The glory has departed from Israel’. The capture of the ark is devastating news. It kills Eli (vs. 18) and signals that the presence of God has gone away from Israel. Not until the time of David would the ark return to Jerusalem.

The ark was a symbol of God presence but that had not meant that God had been with them before Ichabod was born. The sins of the people had moved them away from God. In those days “And word from the LORD was rare in those days, visions were infrequent”(1^st Samuel 3:1). God was not talking to his people and they were not listing to him.

Isn’t it funny how we often times don’t realize how far we have moved from God till well after it has happened? It takes a jolt for us to grasp something is missing in our lives. We look up and are shocked to realize God has left our lives. As Marshal Keble put it; “Most people think falling away from the church is like a blowout, but in reality, it is like a leaky tire.”

Are we Ichabod? Has God left our lives without our notice? It isn’t as if God has moved, we have moved away from him! Are we talking to God? Are we listing to him?

Don’t wait till a tragedy makes you realize the absence of God in your life. Make sure you are still living in his glory.

so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.

1^st Thessalonians 2:12

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