Bible 101 - I Samuel Chapters 5-9

Presented October 18, 2004 by Phyllis Gilbert

Review: Last week we met Samuel, a man of God, about whom it was said that "he grew in favor with God and man," just as it was said of Jesus 1100 years later. We also met Samuel's parents, read of his miraculous birth, and his mother's vow to give him to God for God's service all the days of his life. And she did. Samuel was God's man in God's place for God's time, as the evangelicals would say. But he rises to replace a high priest who is basically a good man, but whose sons, who conduct the daily sacrifices, are wicked. So God punishes the entire family: Hophni and Phineas, the two sons, are killed in a battle against the Philistines, and their father, when hearing the news, falls over and dies, too. God has a plan, and that plan is for Samuel to lead Israel primarily as a spiritual leader (and having seen the apostasy of the last chapters of Judges, filling this role was desperately needed). But Samuel is the last of the judges, too, which means that he had civil duties.

Last week, we left Israel defeated by the Philistines, and not only was the army depleted, but the Tabernacle, too, because the ark, taken into battle as a talisman, had been captured by the enemy. And as Phineas's wife said, as she died, "the glory [of God] has departed Israel." The ark, as you recall from Exodus and Leviticus, was the most sacred item in the Tabernacle. On its lid was the "mercy seat," and the crossed wings of the cherubim over it, were meant to symbolize God's glory. It was carried on poles - no man was to touch it. It could be carried only by the Kohathite clan of the Levites; it was not to be removed from its place inside the Holy of Holies unless Israel was on the move at God's direction. All this has been forgotten, and now the ark is gone.

I Samuel 5: If the Philistines thought possessing the ark would give them power and more control over Israel, they were wrong. God sent plagues on them. This chapter shows that no matter where the ark was moved - from Ashdod to Gath and then to Ekron, plague and destruction followed. One of the most comic of several scenes that make up this Philistine chapter, is at the beginning of ch. 5. The Philistines took the ark to the temple of their god Dagon, putting it down beside him. The next day, Dagon was on his face, on the ground, before the ark. They set him upright, but the next day, he was down again, and this time, his hands and head were broken off. Is this a god?! He has no power over the God of Israel, the God who created the world and all that is in it. The Philistines get it; so they moved it because "the hand of the Lord was heavy upon the people of Ashdod and its vicinity." So the leaders of this city decide to take the ark to Gath; in Gath the same tumors break out, and when it goes to Ekron, more of the same. Now they say "send the ark of God away; let it go back to its own place, or it will kill us and our people."

I Samuel 6: After seven months of death and devastation, the Philistines hit on a plan: they'll make a cart for the ark, and tie two cows cows that had just given birth to the cart and drive them away. Their hope is that since they start the cows close to Israel's border, they'll keep going until they're well into Israel and the ark is back home. But the Philistines, conscience-stricken by having taken the ark, also decide that a guilt offering should go back with it. So, adding more black humor to this scene, they make five gold rats and five tumors to place in a chest next to the ark on the cart. Incidentally, this is a clue that the plague came from rats. We know that the bubonic plague, or the Black death which devastated medieval Europe, was carried by fleas on rats. I wonder if this was the black death - or related to it; I wouldn't be surprised to discover it was. The number five (gold rats and gold tumors) represented the five rulers of the five Philistine cities.

I Samuel 6:12: Their plan works - and it works, of course, because it's God's plan. God was not pleased with the Israelites' decision to take the ark into battle; and his punishment of the Philistine captors was to motivate them to return the ark. The cows take the cart with the Ark as far as Beth Shemesh, an Israelite town in Judah, halfway between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean coast. It's less than 20 miles from Jerusalem. There harvesters recognize the ark on the cart and begin to rejoice. To celebrate, they chop up the wood of the cart, heap it up, put the slaughtered cows on top as a sacrifice and light the whole thing as a burnt offering to the Lord. If you recall, the burnt offering, in Lev. 1, is a symbol of dedication of one's whole self to God. This was truly a burnt offering of repentance and re-dedication of the Israelites. What they had done with the ark was a sin. Another sin committed on the day the Ark was returned is recorded in I Samuel 6:19. God had made strict rules about who could touch the ark and who could not, and unless one was a Kohathite Levite, or the high priest, the ark was off limits. However, 70 men of Beth Shemesh opened the ark to look inside, and God struck them dead. God is serious about his law, and in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and again in Joshua, we saw over and over that disobedience meant severe and swift punishment to the offender.

I Samuel 6:20: The people of Beth Shemesh mourned their fallen, and decided, as the Philistines had, that they could not house the Ark; it belonged in its rightful place, which at that time, was in Shiloh inside the Tabernacle. But they sent a message to Kiriath Jearim, north of them, to come and get the ark, and Kiriath Jearim's men did. It rested in the house of Abinidab with Eleazar his son as the priest to guard it. It stayed there for 20 years. There's some speculation that the Philistines had destroyed Shiloh, and that this is why the ark was not sent there. In fact, it never did return to Shiloh. David was king when he was finally took the ark from Abinidab's house to Jerusalem which had become the nation's capitol and spiritual center (II Sam. 6).

I Samuel 7:3: The people mourn their losses - the ark, those lost in battle - and Samuel sees an opportunity for revival. He tells them "get rid of your foreign gods and their altars, and commit yourself to God and God alone. Serve Him and Him alone." This had been Samuel's life from the start; he'd never worshiped or served anyone (or anything) but the Lord. He walked the talk. At a big assembly at Mizpah, a little north of Kiriath Jearim and south of Shiloh. This was a central location for all of Israel. The last time Israel assembled here it was in response to the Levite's having sent pieces of his concubine to each tribe as a call for action. They decided at Mizpah to punish the Benjamites in Gibeah for their sinful acts, and as you recall, this nearly destroys the tribe of Benjamin. Now they're back at Mizpah, this time contrite, repentant, and ready to follow Samuel's instructions. Curiously, they fast and pray, but they also pour out water before God. Remember all the times water symbolized their complaining in the desert? "We have no water to drink; did you bring us here to die?" they asked Moses over and over. And God had given Moses power to make bitter water sweet at Marrah, to bring water from the rock in two places. Each time, the miraculous springs of water saved Israel. Now perhaps their pouring of the water (and this is the only time in the OT that such a ritual is described) is a kind of gift to God for the gifts he'd given them. Water also speaks of cleansing - baptism is the obvious example - and so that is also involved.

I Samuel 7:7: Those wily Philistines, hearing that all Israel's leaders were in one place, decide to attack at Mizpah. The people say to Samuel "cry out to God" and God hears and answers their prayers for intervention. This time, he fights for them. Just like the days of Joshua, God uses a natural weapon, loud thunder, to jar the Philistines and throw them into a panic. They tried to flee and Israel pursues and many were killed.

I Samuel 7:12: Samuel commemorated the victory with a stone he called an "Ebenezer." We used to sing an old hymn, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing," a verse of which begins: "Here I'll raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy grace 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." Ebenezer means "God has helped us." Recall that Joshua used this term for an altar he set up with 12 stones, representing the 12 tribes, on the Canaan side of the Jordan, when God had provided a dry path for them to cross that flooding, raging river, to begin the conquest. The Philistines, on that day, were subdued, and did not invade Israel again. God fought for Israel many times against the Philistines (remember Samson?), and it's not until David finally defeats them that they are no longer an enemy or threat to Israel.

I Samuel 7:13-17: These verses summarize Samuel's leadership. We know from ch. 3 that God spoke to Samuel and he responded, and the people respected Samuel. He was an instrument of God: speaking for God to the people and speaking to God for them. He traveled a circuit of the sanctuary cities judging the people (settling disputes), but always went back to Ramah, his home. It's curious that Shiloh, where he spent most of his youth, is not mentioned here (perhaps because it had been destroyed).

I Samuel 8: This is a very significant chapter in Israel's development as a nation. First we read that Samuel is getting old and so he passes on his judgeship to his sons Joel and Abijah. But as Eli, Samuel was not a great father, and the elders came to Samuel to tell him they wouldn't accept his sons as judges because they were not godly. In a sense, Samuel's sons and daughters were all of Israel; he'd neglected his own family for the country's welfare. But this council of elders went further: not only do they not want Samuel's sons, they don't want judges; they want a king "such as all the other nations have." We need to backtrack here.

Exodus 19:6: Back when the people first arrived at Mt. Sinai, three months after leaving Egypt, God told Moses his plans for them: "If you obey me fully and keep my covenant, you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." Who was to be king? God. What was Israel to be? A kingdom of priests and a holy nation - emphatically NOT like all the other nations. They were to take the message of one God, a God of might and power, a God of laws and sacrifices and forgiveness to other nations. Their behavior, their abundant crops, their big families, their lack of disease, their general prosperity was to be a beacon of hope to other nations. Give up your manmade gods and worship the one true God. But Israel never fulfilled God's purpose for them, and now, they want a king.

I Samuel 8:6: Samuel, not from a selfish motive, but from a need to defend God's plan, tells the nation that a king is a bad idea. He prays, and God tells him "give the people what they want; they aren't rejecting you, they're rejecting me." A sad commentary, is it not?

I Samuel 8:10: God tells Samuel to warn the people that a king is no solution to their problems. If they'd looked around at other nations, they'd have known this. But they're convinced that a king will make them great in the eyes of the world, so they disregard Samuel's wise counsel. Here are the ways a king will change their lives, Samuel says:

I Samuel 8:19: The people refused to listen to Samuel. They shout him down "no, no, we want a king. We want to be like the other nations." God called them stubborn, stiff-necked people clear back in the wilderness years; things haven't improved. Their minds are made up, and even with the predictions which all come true, they are determined to have a king. And they do, to their ruination and regret.

I Samuel 9: Saul becomes Israel's first king. In appearance, he was a natural choice. He was tall, handsome, impressive, a "man without equal," we're told. He was a Benjamite (as was Saul who becomes Paul in the NT). But look at the incident that introduces Saul; it's comical on the surface, but later on, it's symbolic of Saul's personality and character. Remember that Saul looks good; as we as voters know, looks aren't everything. A nation needs intelligent leadership, wise leadership, spiritual leadership. We find none of this in Saul, but we do find good looks.

I Samuel 9:5: Saul is out searching for his father Kish's lost donkeys when we meet him. He's been described to us in the previous verses, but now we get a look at Saul in action. He takes servants and sets out. They travel all around the Benjamite territory, but have no luck finding the missing animals. In Zuph, Saul is ready to turn back, but his servant tells him there's a man of God in the town and suggests they consult him. And the two of them set out to find directions to Samuel's house. Meanwhile, God has told Samuel that a man from Benjamin will come to Samuel, and he is to be anointed king. Samuel is looking for him, and when he spots Saul, God says "he's the one." And so Samuel tells him God has plans for him, after telling Saul that the donkeys he's been seeking are back home.

I Samuel 9:20b: This verse is significant "to whom is all the desire of Israel tuned, if not to you?" In other words, Saul is the embodiment of what Israel seeks in a leader: a young, handsome, kingly looking man. Saul isn't so sure. He tries to talk Samuel out of it saying he's from the smallest tribe and his clan is the least among Benjamin. He's not saying this out of humility; he doesn't get it. First clue. They have a meal together, and Samuel patiently tells Saul what God has told him.

Next week: We'll see the anointing itself and Saul's response; then we'll be invited to the coronation. Events are moving swiftly toward making Israel "like all the other nations."

Homework for those who want to go deeper:

Let's close in prayer.