I Samuel 4 – 8

I Samuel 4 – 8

These five chapters were jam-packed full of action and whoever wrote Raiders of the Lost Ark certainly was familiar with this passage. God’s words to Eli came to pass probably more quickly than he hoped or thought: his sons were both killed and, when he heard the news, he fell over, broke his neck and died. Throughout the early part of Israel’s history, they contended with the Philistines. In this case, the Israelites were defeated.

The elders treated the Ark of the Covenant like a good luck charm, taking it into battle thinking it would mean certain defeat of their enemy. Didn’t they get fooled? Of course, taking the Ark of the Covenant didn’t bring blessings to the Philistines. When they put the Ark in the temple of Dagon, the next morning they found the statue of Dagon on its face before the Ark. The day after that, the same thing happened, but this time, the arms and legs of Dagon were broken. On top of that, a plague of tumors broke out. After this, the Philistines move the Ark from Ashdod to Gath. The tumors followed so they moved it to Ekron, but, as you can imagine, the people of Ekron didn’t want it. After a lot of discussions, the Philistines decided to return the Ark to its own country together with a guilt offering of five gold tumors and five gold rats.

To make sure it’s because of the Ark that they are having all of this trouble, the Philistines hook the Ark to a cart behind two cows that have just calved and send it on. With no human intervention, the cows pull the Ark to Beth-Shemesh where the Israelites build an altar from the cart wood and sacrifice the two cows to the Lord. Seventy men from Beth-shemesh are killed because they looked into the Arl of the Lord. They send messengers to Kiriath-jearim to come and get the Ark where it will stay for twenty years. “During that time all Israel mourned because it seemed the Lord had abandoned them.”

How wonderful that Samuel was there to tell the people what to do if they were serious about wanting to return to the Lord:

• Get rid of your foreign gods and your images of Astoreth
• Determine to obey only the Lord

How wonderful our Lord is, ready to forgive and restore. So, all Israel gathers at Mizpah and pours water out before the Lord. They fast all day and confess that they sinned. It was here that Samuel became Israel’s judge.

As Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines arrived to attack Israel, but the Lord spoke in a mighty voice of thunder and the Philistines got so confused the Israelites defeated them. Here’s where that wonderful verse in Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing came from:

“Here, I raise mine Ebenezer.

Hither by Thy help I’ve come.

And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,

Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger

Wandering from the fold of God.

He, to rescue me from danger

Interposed His precious blood.”

Isn’t it just the essence of the gospel?

While Israel was generally at peace for most of the rest of Samuel’s life, he apparently was the same kind of father as Eli had been. His sons were “greedy for money, accepted bribes and perverted justice.”

Considering this, it is a small wonder that the elders of Israel demanded a king, even though Samuel warned them of the consequences.

Tomorrow, it’s I Samuel 9 – 12.

Until next time…