Monday, April 22, 2013

Reflections on 1 Samuel 4


    1 Samuel 04 (Contemporary English Version)
  1. Then Samuel would speak to the whole nation of Israel. One day the Israelites went out to fight the Philistines. They set up camp near Ebenezer, and the Philistines camped at Aphek.
  2. The Philistines made a fierce attack. They defeated the Israelites and killed about four thousand of them.
  3. The Israelite army returned to their camp, and the leaders said, "Why did the LORD let us lose to the Philistines today? Let's get the sacred chest where the LORD's agreement with Israel is kept. Then the LORD will help us and rescue us from our enemies."
  4. The army sent some soldiers to bring back the sacred chest from Shiloh, because the LORD All-Powerful has his throne on the winged creatures on top of the chest. As Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas,
  5. brought the chest into camp, the army cheered so loudly that the ground shook.
  6. The Philistines heard the noise and said, "What are those Hebrews shouting about?" When the Philistines learned that the sacred chest had been brought into the camp,
  7. they were scared to death and said: The gods have come into their camp. Now we're in real trouble! Nothing like this has ever happened to us before.
  8. We're in big trouble! Who can save us from these powerful gods? They're the same gods who made all those horrible things happen to the Egyptians in the desert.
  9. Philistines, be brave and fight hard! If you don't, those Hebrews will rule us, just as we've been ruling them. Fight and don't be afraid.
  10. The Philistines did fight. They killed thirty thousand Israelite soldiers, and all the rest ran off to their homes.
  11. Hophni and Phinehas were killed, and the sacred chest was captured.
  12. That same day a soldier from the tribe of Benjamin ran from the battlefront to Shiloh. He had torn his clothes and put dirt on his head to show his sorrow.
  13. He went into town and told the news about the battle, and everyone started crying. Eli was afraid that something might happen to the sacred chest. So he was sitting on his chair beside the road, just waiting.
  14. He was ninety-eight years old and blind, but he could hear everyone crying, and he asked, "What's all that noise?" The soldier hurried over and told Eli,
  15. (SEE 4:14)
  16. "I escaped from the fighting today and ran here." "Young man, what happened?" Eli asked.
  17. "Israel ran away from the Philistines," the soldier answered. "Many of our people were killed, including your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. But worst of all, the sacred chest was captured."
  18. Eli was still sitting on a chair beside the wall of the town gate. And when the man said that the Philistines had taken the sacred chest, Eli fell backwards. He was a very heavy old man, and the fall broke his neck and killed him. He had been a leader of Israel for forty years.
  19. The wife of Phinehas was about to give birth. And soon after she heard that the sacred chest had been captured and that her husband and his father had died, her baby came. The birth was very hard,
  20. and she was dying. But the women taking care of her said, "Don't be afraid--it's a boy!" She didn't pay any attention to them.
  21. Instead she kept thinking about losing her husband and her father-in-law. So she said, "My son will be named Ichabod, because the glory of Israel left our country when the sacred chest was captured."
  22. (SEE 4:21)

    Accounts of this chapter depict Israel at her lowest spiritual point yet. The things of God were being treated as a heathen diety. Though Samuel was becoming a known figure in Israel, Eli and his sons were still in charge of the temple. During this time Israel found herself at war again with the Philistines. Israel's army went out to meet the Philistines and lost 4,000 men on the battlefield in the first day of battle. Demoralized, the elders of Israel asked why the Lord let them be defeated? But they didn't take this question to the Lord. Instead they came up with their own very bad solution. They decided to get the ark of the Lord from Shiloh and take it with them into battle.

    When the ark was brought into the Israelite camp, the Israelites let out a great shout, encouraged now that they could go back into battle and defeat the Philistines. When the Philistines heard of it they panicked, but their leaders encouraged them to be brave and to fight. Mustering their courage, the Philistines went back into battle with the Israelites and defeated them even more than before, killing 30,000 Israelite foot soldiers, capturing the ark of the Lord, and killing Eli's two sons. When word of these events was sent to Eli, he fell backward from his chair and broke his neck killing him.

    When Eli's pregnant daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, heard of the death of her husband, she went into labor and died in childbirth. Before she died she named the baby Ichabod, saying, "The glory has departed from Israel," she said, "because the ark of God has been captured."  (4:22) The Israelites had errored greatly. It would take the leadership of Samuel to bring them back to the Lord and resolve their delimma.

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