Theology in Unusual Terms
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
Last week, we explored theological truths that may be gleaned from the rather unusual term Ebenezer. This week we turn to another rather strange term from which to seek divine truth, the name Ichabod. The daughter-in-law of Eli the priest gave her newborn son this name. With the baby’s birth imminent, national and personal tragedy struck. Her husband Phinehas was slain as the Philistines defeated Israel and took away the Ark of the Covenant. Subsequently, the news caused her aged father-in-law Eli to collapse in death.
Symbol of God’s presence
With that sacred chest being the visual focal point of God’s presence with His covenant people, its absence meant the absence of God’s presence, thus the meaning of that name given in 1 Sam. 4:21: “the glory has departed.”
Through the personal name of the son of the widowed mother, the name was a statement about the nation Israel. God’s glory had departed His chosen people.
What abiding truth might we take away from that ancient event? For one thing, it takes us back to the Garden of Eden when sin entered God’s earthly paradise and the human pair who occupied that perfect place experienced departed glory. That occasion was the forerunner of what became the common experience of all humanity, as Rom. 3:23 puts it: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Thus, Ichabod could be written over the whole story of human existence until God performs His restorative work of redemption. It could be the nickname by which all of us are known apart from redemption. Until then we are all God’s “Ichabods” — belonging to Him as His creations but not as vessels in whom His glory dwells.
Redemption possible
The departed glory is the loss of God’s express pleasure and indwelling presence, as well as the loss of the enjoyment and blessedness of fellowship with God who designed and made us. This departure also means the loss of His creative purpose of having people who reflect the glory of His likeness, as well as the loss of the future eternal enjoyment of unbroken fellowship with Him and His redeemed family.
God’s redemptive mission through Christ is to restore His glory to repentant and forgiven believers in Jesus. He does this one person at a time. Only as we invite Christ into our hearts does the meaning of Ichabod lose its significance for us. In Christ, the glory returns.
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