Hey, this is Shelby and CJ.
We're in the book of first Samuel, four through six.
So yesterday we were talking about kind of some shifts that were taking place.
So Eli is the priest and his sons, you know, they've been judged.
But Samuel is here and we see that he's kind of been named as a as a prophet.
He seems to be kind of a central figure that the Lord is going to work through.
So kind of help us shape here what's happening in chapters four through six that builds
So here we see the Philistines are still around.
We kind of met them.
We've met them all over, but we saw them most recently in the book of Judges in Samson.
And the Philistines are still bothering the Israelites.
And instead of praying to God about their enemy, instead of supplicating to the Lord,
they bring out the ark into battle, thinking that as a consequence of them possessing
the ark, that somehow that will motivate or convince or entice God to fight on their
So they almost use it as like a talisman or like an idol.
But what happens is these are lights lose the battle and the ark gets stolen.
And then someone comes back to tell Eli that yeah, your sons have been judged.
They died in battle and then Eli falls backwards himself and dies.
What happens to the ark then at that point?
So then the Philistines take the ark.
They put the ark in their God's temple.
And each night or for a few nights, they recognize that somehow the statue of their God has been
messed with somehow.
And they recognize that it's because they have the ark.
So they try to move the ark around to a bunch of different places.
But these sores or boils or ulcers spread with the ark wherever it goes so that it ends
up infecting the whole, you know, the whole population of the Philistines.
And eventually they send some golden mice or some golden sores along with the ark back
And I think they're supposed to symbolize like, hey, God, you gave us sores.
So we're going to send you something in return, I can like a measure.
So hey, we're sorry about that.
Kind of like an atonement offering or something.
But regardless, they send the ark back to Israel.
So the ark goes back to Israel and then just continuing through these chapters.
So then the Israelites have this ark to deal with.
And it's not in the tabernacle.
So they have to, you know, handle it.
And some of the Israelites sort of just gaze into the ark and they treat it flippantly.
And people die because they misshandle God's ark.
And then they become so afraid of the ark that they leave it in this man's house until
David chapters later, which we'll get to eventually goes back and brings it back and puts
it in the tabernacle.
So it's actually in this location for a really long time in the book of Samuel.
And we've followed the creation of the ark like we've seen so many things happen.
So to see it just left in someone's house, you know, so many chapters back in the Pentateuch
when we're seeing it made and seeing God's presence fill the tabernacle like this makes
no sense to just leave it in someone's house.
But okay, what do we learn about God from these chapters?
Well, I think two things.
Number one, it seems like God won't be manipulated.
So they think that just as a consequence of their bringing their ark out into battle that
that secures victory when really it's, you know, faithful hearts and crying out to God
is what actually secures a victory.
So God won't be manipulated.
That's something for us to see here.
And then also God's presence is a blessing, but it also might be a curse.
We saw this in Leviticus already.
It's like God's presence is serious, it's serious business.
And luckily we have Christ now who's blood covers us so we can approach God's presence
And even though God is a force to be reckoned with so to speak, thankfully we have the
So now we can approach him.
So a lot going on in these chapters, we've been kind of focusing on the ark.
I think my takeaway from these chapters and always something that I found, I don't know,
surprising reading through is even though the Israelites were kind of treating the ark,
you know, flippantly or not with a lot of respect, God does want the ark and His presence
to be with His people.
And so again, we've seen this all throughout, but we see God's people.
Maybe not acting the way they should and we see God still orchestrating events so that
He can faithfully be with His people.
And we just see that yet again in this passage.
So all right, that wraps up for Samuel 4 through 6.
We're going to continue with more time.
