Flight of Ichabod

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Today's reading, titled Flight of Ichabod, was written by Tim Gustafson. In the legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving tells of Ichabod Crane, a schoolteacher who seeks to marry a beautiful young woman named Katrina. Key to the story is a headless horseman who haunts the colonial countryside. One night, Ichabod encounters a ghostly apparition on horseback and flees the region in terror.

It's clear to the reader that this horseman is actually a rival suitor for Katrina, who then marries her. Ichabod is a name first seen in the Bible, and it too has a gloomy backstory. While at war with the Philistines, Israel carried the sacred Ark of the Covenant into battle.

Bad move. Israel's army was routed, and the Ark captured. Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of the high priest Eli, were killed.

Eli would die too. When the pregnant wife of Phinehas heard the news, she went into labor and gave birth, but was overcome by her labor pains. With her last words, she named her son Ichabod. Literally no glory. The glory has departed from Israel, she gasped. Thankfully, God was unfolding a much larger story. His glory would ultimately be revealed in Jesus, who said of his disciples in John chapter 17, I have given them the glory that you, the Father, gave me. No one knows where the Ark is today, but no matter, Ichabod has fled.

Through Jesus, God has given us his very glory. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from 1 Samuel chapter 4 verses 12 through 22. That same day, a Benjamite ran from the battle line and went to Shiloh with his clothes torn and dust on his head. When he arrived, there was Eli sitting on his chair by the side of the road, watching because his heart feared for the Ark of God. When the man entered the town and told what had happened, the whole town sent up a cry. Eli heard the outcry and asked, what is the meaning of this uproar? The man hurried over to Eli, who was 98 years old and whose eyes had failed so that he could not see. He told Eli, I have just come from the battle line.

I fled from it this very day. Eli asked, what happened, my son? The man who brought the news replied, Israel fled before the Philistines, and the army has suffered heavy losses. Also, your two sons, Hafni and Phineas, are dead, and the Ark of God has been captured. When he mentioned the Ark of God, Eli fell backward off his chair by the side of the gate. His neck was broken and he died, for he was an old man and he was heavy.

He had led Israel 40 years. His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phineas, was pregnant and near the time of delivery. When she heard the news that the Ark of God had been captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she went into labor and gave birth but was overcome by her labor pains. As she was dying, the woman attending her said, Don't despair, you have given birth to a son.

But she did not respond or pay any attention. She named the boy Ichabod, saying, The glory has departed from Israel, because of the capture of the Ark of God and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband. She said, The glory has departed from Israel, for the Ark of God has been captured. Let's Pray Dear God, Thank you for revealing your glory through Jesus and in Jesus. We pray that you would live through us and use us to make you known to the world. May others see you in us and realize they need you. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.