Immanuel or Ichabod
Please stand with me as we go over our current memory Scripture:
Psalm 1:1-2
“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His Law he meditates day and night.”
And our memory Scripture “refresher” verse is:
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
“May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The One who calls you is faithful and He will do it.”
Today we will once again be reading from John 1:1-14
Ichabod
Just the sound of that name is ominous.
The name is found in 1 Samuel 4. In this chapter Eli is 98 years old and his sons are now the priests at Shiloh where the Ark of the Covenant is kept in the Tent of Meeting.
Eli’s sons are wicked but the Lord is raising up Samuel as a priest, a judge and a prophet of the Lord Most High.
Israel is at war with the Philistines and in a battle the army of Israel is routed with 4,000 dead.
The men of Israel wonder why they were defeated and they get the bright idea of taking the Ark of the Covenant into battle with them, like it is some kind of good-luck charm.
Anyway, the Philistines are alarmed at this development but they pledge to fight vigorously anyway and they totally defeat the Israelites killing another 30,000.
This is not only a great loss of men but Eli’s sons are among the dead and the Ark of the Covenant is captured as well.
The news of the loss of the Ark of the Covenant ends up causing the prophet Eli to fall over backward and break his neck and die.
And the resulting stress causes one of Eli’s step-daughters to go into labor from which she also dies. But before she dies she names her son, Ichabod meaning the glory of Israel has departed.
However, the glory of Israel did not actually leave with the loss of the Ark of the Covenant but it happened whenever Israel would turn their back on the Maker of the Covenant, Yahweh, the Lord God of Israel.
There were many times of extreme spiritual darkness in Israel, many times of Ichabod when the glory of the Lord was departed from His chosen people.
In this message we will be referring to the “Ichabod condition” as those who do not know or have rejected the glory of God.
But, Isaiah’s prophecy in Isaiah 9:2 promised a time when:
“The people walking in darkness have seen a Great Light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a Light has dawned.”
Let’s take a look at John 1:1-14 and see what and Who this Light is.
(Prayer for help)
John 1:4-5, 7, 9
“In [Jesus, the Word] was life, and that life was the Light of all mankind. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
“[John] came as a witness to testify concerning that Light, so that through Him all might believe. [John] was not the Light; he came only as a witness to the Light.
“The true Light that gives [spiritual] light to everyone was coming into the world.”
This is the fulfillment of the prophecy found in Isaiah 9:2.
We live in a world of spiritual darkness and spiritual light.
Spiritual darkness is “Ichabod” where there is no glory of the Lord.
Spiritual light is salvation through faith in Jesus Christ which always seeks to honor and glorify the Lord.
These are polar opposites.
I am not saying that there was never any spiritual light before Jesus came into the world. There certainly was. Read the Old Testament.
There were times when the actual glory of Yahweh would be so intense over the Tabernacle or over the Temple that the priests could not enter to perform their duties.
There were times when the nation of Israel was faithful to Yahweh the God of Israel and the glory of the Lord was shown by His care for them through provision and protection.
These were times of spiritual light. These were times when the surrounding nations lived in fear of the God of Israel.
But, more often than not, the kings of Israel would live in disobedience to their God by serving other gods or by being filled with pride and arrogance, thinking they did not need the Lord.
And, in these times when the king was living in rebellion to the Lord many of the people of Israel would follow their lead.
Those were times of spiritual darkness, times of Ichabod. Those were times when the surrounding nations would mock and blaspheme the God of Israel.
Israel would be made subservient to the surrounding nations over and over and over. They would finally be slaughtered with the remaining people being exiled to places they never imagined they would live.
In those days Israel was to be the beacon of true spiritual light to the world and when they failed to do so there was complete spiritual darkness in the earth.
It reminds me of Genesis 1:2a where it says,
“Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the face of the deep …”
That was physical darkness in the beginning, total absolute physical darkness. What was that like?
Formless and void, a waste and emptiness, no sense of direction, no sense of purpose.
What would it have been like to live there?
Or, what would it be like to TRY to live there?
Hopelessness, lostness, nothingness, blindness, emptiness, a vacuum of purpose …
That was physical darkness. Those who live in spiritual darkness, those who live in the “Ichabod condition” will inevitably end up in the same situation; a life of spiritual void, a life of waste and emptiness, no sense of spiritual direction, no sense of spiritual purpose, hopelessness, lost in a vast wasteland of spiritual nothingness, spiritual blindness, no hope of eternal purpose …
Was it supposed to be like that? Did God just leave the world in a pit of spiritual despair with not hope at all? Of course not!
Israel was tasked with the duty of putting their glorious God on display! But, when Israel was in rebellion against the Lord, the earth WAS spiritually formless and empty and spiritual darkness covered everything. Why? Because Israel had put out their own spiritual light! They were of no spiritual benefit to the world.
Can you imagine the hopelessness, only Spiritual darkness?
This went on for centuries, millennia …
Let’s look at Genesis again …
Genesis 1:3-4
“And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.”
Once the Lord created physical light was there was hope for physical life. Light and life are inseparably intertwined.
The physical light brought with it the hope of physical life.
BUT … Yahweh, the Lord God of Israel had a plan to invade not only the physical darkness as He did in creation but He planned to invade the spiritual darkness as well. He did this with the Incarnation or the “Immanuel condition”.
In the beginning God said, “Let there be light” and there was physical light.
And, in spiritual realm God said, “Unto you a child is born, unto you a Son is given … and … the people walking in darkness have seen a Great Light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a Light has dawned.” Isaiah 9:6, 2
What is this Light? Who is this Light?
In John 8:12 Jesus, the Son who was given to us said,
“I Am the Light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
This is the incarnation, this is the Son of God becoming the God Man, Immanuel, God with us.
He is the only hope of this world!
Let me try to bring this thing to a close.
There are ONLY two spiritual conditions: Ichabod and Immanuel!
Either you are living in the Ichabod condition where there the spiritual glory of God is absent from your life or you are living in the Immanuel condition where Immanuel, God with us, is living in and through you.
The world is filled with those living in the Ichabod condition. They are in spiritual darkness. They may not know it. They may be blind to it but they are lost.
If we truly are living in the “Immanuel condition” where God-with-us is living in and through us, we MUST be displaying the glory of God to those who are living in the “Ichabod” condition.
That is NOT a suggestion. It is a command! We MUST obey the command if we are truly “Immanuel”, if God is truly with us! Why?
Ephesians 5:8
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.”
What is the reward for those who are living in “Immanuel condition”, if Immanuel is living in us?
In Revelation 21:22-23 where the Apostle John has a vision of heaven it says,
“I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb (that is, Jesus) are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.”
That is where we will reside for all of eternity!
But what about those who are living in the “Ichabod condition?”
In three of Jesus’ parables He describes the eternal condition of those who have not trusted in Jesus for salvation as a place of “…darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Matthew 8:12 Matthew 22:13 and Matthew 25:30
THAT is the difference between Ichabod and Immanuel!
There is a song called Go Light Your World and it goes like this …
There is a candle in ev’ry soul
Some brightly burning some dark and cold
There is a Spirit who brings a fire
Ignites a candle and makes His home
Frustrated brother see how he’s tried to
Light his own candle some other way
See now your sister she’s been robbed and lied to
Still holds a candle without a flame
So carry your candle run to the darkness
Seek out the lonely the tired and worn
Hold out your candle for all to see it
Take your candle and go light your world
Take your candle and go light your world
Taking Immanuel to those trapped Ichabod is not a comfortable thing. It may be out of your “comfort zone”.
That’s OK. God will go with you if you ask Him to.
We will either take Immanuel the glory of God with us, or, by our silence we will be saying that those in Ichabod can just stay there.
God help us.
Final thoughts
Closing prayer
