Again, the advantage of going through these Old Testament books at only one chapter per day is that I see stuff I’ve missed before. After the return of the Ark to Israel, there’s an important battle following a time of confession and repentance:

From the time that the Chest came to rest in Kiriath Jearim, a long time passed—twenty years it was—and throughout Israel there was a widespread, fearful movement toward GOD. Then Samuel addressed the house of Israel: “If you are truly serious about coming back to GOD, clean house. Get rid of the foreign gods and fertility goddesses, ground yourselves firmly in GOD, worship him and him alone, and he’ll save you from Philistine oppression.”

They did it. They got rid of the gods and goddesses, the images of Baal and Ashtoreth, and gave their exclusive attention and service to GOD.

Next Samuel said, “Get everybody together at Mizpah and I’ll pray for you.” So everyone assembled at Mizpah. They drew water from the wells and poured it out before GOD in a ritual of cleansing. They fasted all day and prayed, “We have sinned against GOD.” (1 Samuel 7.2 – 6, MSG)

And in the middle of the revival, the Philistines attacked:

When the Philistines heard that Israel was meeting at Mizpah, the Philistine leaders went on the offensive. Israel got the report and became frightened—Philistines on the move again! They pleaded with Samuel, “Pray with all your might! And don’t let up! Pray to GOD, our God, that he’ll save us from the boot of the Philistines.” (1 Samuel 7.7, 8, MSG)

And God did:

While Samuel was offering the sacrifice, the Philistines came within range to fight Israel. Just then GOD thundered, a huge thunderclap exploding among the Philistines. They panicked—mass confusion!—and ran helter-skelter from Israel. Israel poured out of Mizpah and gave chase, killing Philistines right and left, to a point just beyond Beth Car. (1 Samuel 7.10, 11, MSG)

That was some thunderclap! Worth a memorial:

Samuel took a single rock and set it upright between Mizpah and Shen. He named it “Ebenezer” (Rock of Help), saying, “This marks the place where GOD helped us.” (1 Samuel 7.12, MSG)

Growing up, I attended a church that sang “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” nearly every Sunday. I don’t know why. But the song has this stanza:

Here I raise my Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I’m 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.

The meaning of the Ebenezer is right in the text of the hymn and the scripture: “Hither by thy help I’m come.” “This marks the place where GOD helped us.”

The Philistines don’t go away forever – “David and Goliath” is coming up in a few weeks. Goliath was a Philistine. It goes on today. Have you heard of the Gaza Strip? You can even see on this current map the towns we just read about: Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beth Shemesh where the Ark was taken by the cows. It’s all there and the battle goes on.

But for now, in Samuel’s day…

So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel. And the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. The cities that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath, and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites. (1 Samuel 7.13, 14, ESV)

And fittingly, this description of God’s ultimate victory even includes the ark of the covenant and thunder!

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.

The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. (Revelation 11.15 – 19, ESV)

The Philistines, knowing that they cannot stand before the God of the Ark of the Covenant, devise a plan to send it back and do an experiment at the same time:

“So here’s what you do: Take a brand-new oxcart and two cows that have never been in harness. Hitch the cows to the oxcart and send their calves back to the barn. Put the Ark of GOD on the cart. Secure the gold replicas of the tumors and rats that you are offering as compensation in a sack and set them next to the Ark. Then send it off. But keep your eyes on it. If it heads straight back home to where it came from, toward Beth Shemesh, it is clear that this catastrophe is a divine judgment, but if not, we’ll know that God had nothing to do with it—it was just an accident.”

So that’s what they did: They hitched two cows to the cart, put their calves in the barn, and placed the Ark of GOD and the sack of gold rats and tumors on the cart. The cows headed straight for home, down the road to Beth Shemesh, straying neither right nor left, mooing all the way. The Philistine leaders followed them to the outskirts of Beth Shemesh. (1 Samuel 6.7 – 12, MSG)

I’d like to report that having seen this overwhelming evidence (a successful experiment!), the Philistines decided to worship and serve the true God. Nope. The Philistines have believed in God all along. Look at their response to the Ark coming to the battle in chapter 4:

We’re done for! Who can save us from the clutches of these supergods? These are the same gods who hit the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues out in the wilderness. (1 Samuel 4.8, MSG)

And after the Ark was in Philistia:

When the leaders of Ashdod saw what was going on, they decided, “The ark of the god of Israel has got to go. We can’t handle this, and neither can our god Dagon.” (1 Samuel 5.7, MSG)

“We can’t handle this, and neither can our god Dagon.”

But believing is not the same as following.

Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? (James 2.19, MSG)

We left the Ark of the Covenant in the hands of the Philistines. “It” didn’t save the Israelites in battle, but the God of the Ark is going to have some fun (and try to communicate to the Philistines that there is one true God). Round one:

Once the Philistines had seized the Ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod, brought it into the shrine of Dagon, and placed it alongside the idol of Dagon. Next morning when the citizens of Ashdod got up, they were shocked to find Dagon toppled from his place, flat on his face before the Ark of GOD. They picked him up and put him back where he belonged. (1 Samuel 5.1 – 3, MSG)

You’d think they would have said, “Wow. Dagon is worshiping the Ark. Maybe we have the wrong God.” Nope. “They picked him up and put him back.” Round two:

First thing the next morning they found him again, toppled and flat on his face before the Ark of GOD. Dagon’s head and arms were broken off, strewn across the entrance. Only his torso was in one piece. (That’s why even today, the priests of Dagon and visitors to the Dagon shrine in Ashdod avoid stepping on the threshold.) (1 Samuel 5.4 – 5, MSG)

“Today, the priests of Dagon…avoid stepping on the threshold.” A practice that was still ongoing until the time of Zephaniah:

On that day I will punish everyone who leaps over the threshold… (Zephaniah 1.9, ESV)

Round three:

GOD was hard on the citizens of Ashdod. He devastated them by hitting them with tumors. This happened in both the town and the surrounding neighborhoods. He let loose rats among them. Jumping from ships there, rats swarmed all over the city! And everyone was deathly afraid. (1 Samuel 5.6, MSG)

Tumors and rats. What to do?

When the leaders of Ashdod saw what was going on, they decided, “The ark of the god of Israel has got to go. We can’t handle this, and neither can our god Dagon.” They called together all the Philistine leaders and put it to them: “How can we get rid of the ark of the god of Israel?” The leaders agreed: “Move it to Gath.” So they moved the Ark of the God of Israel to Gath. (1 Samuel 5.7, 8, MSG)

Rinse and repeat. Tumors for the people of Gath…

So they sent the Ark of God on to Ekron, but as the Ark was being brought into town, the people shouted in protest, “You’ll kill us all by bringing in this Ark of the God of Israel!” They called the Philistine leaders together and demanded, “Get it out of here, this Ark of the God of Israel. Send it back where it came from. We’re threatened with mass death!” (1 Samuel 5.10 – 11, MSG)

Who can stand before this God? The Philistines figured it out: not us! “Get it out of here!” and they do. Stay tuned.

But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. (Malachi 3.2, ESV)

We continue with the story of Eli’s evil sons Hophni and Phinehas of whom it was decreed:

Hophni and Phinehas will both die on the same day. (1 Samuel 2.34, MSG)

For that to happen, the Israeli army made a really bad assumption. They were getting beaten by the Philistines in battle and someone had a great idea:

The Philistines drew up in line against Israel, and when the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the field of battle. And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD here from Shiloh, that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.” (1 Samuel 4.2, 3, ESV)

“It” will save us? The Ark of the Covenant? It’s not the Ark, it’s the God of the Ark. And rather than saving them, its presence motivated the Philistines:

So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts…And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. As soon as the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel gave a mighty shout, so that the earth resounded. And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, “What does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” And when they learned that the ark of the LORD had come to the camp, the Philistines were afraid, for they said, “A god has come into the camp.” And they said, “Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness. Take courage, and be men, O Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you; be men and fight.” (1 Samuel 4.4 – 9, ESV)

The Ark might have been there, but God wasn’t, or at least he chose not to intervene:

So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home. And there was a very great slaughter, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell. And the ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died. (1 Samuel 4.10, 11, ESV)

…as advertised. And the death of Eli’s sons, plus the capture of the Ark brought an end to Eli:

Now Eli was ninety-eight years old and his eyes were set so that he could not see. And the man said to Eli, “I am he who has come from the battle; I fled from the battle today.” And he said, “How did it go, my son?” He who brought the news answered and said, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has also been a great defeat among the people. Your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured.” As soon as he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for the man was old and heavy. (1 Samuel 4.15 – 18, ESV)

Fret not. Israel will get the Ark back, but not before the God of the Ark has a bit of fun. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, don’t make idols out of God-ordained symbols:

So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. (Numbers 21.9, ESV)

In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign…And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done… He broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan). (2 Kings 18.1 – 4, ESV)

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. (1 John 5.21, ESV)

We continue our Lenten meditations with stanzas 38 – 47 of George Herbert’s poem “The Sacrifice.” 

(The bullets allow me to single-space the lines.)

• Weep not, dear friends, since I for both have wept
• When all my tears were blood, the while you slept:
• Your tears for your own fortunes should be kept:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• The soldiers lead me to the common hall;
• There they deride me, they abuse me all:
• Yet for twelve heav’nly legions I could call:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Then with a scarlet robe they me array;
• Which shows my blood to be the only way
• And cordial left to repair man’s decay:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Then on my head a crown of thorns I wear:
• For these are all the grapes Zion doth bear,
• Though I my vine planted and watered there:
•                                                Was ever grief like mine?

• So sits the earth’s great curse in Adam’s fall
• Upon my head: so I remove it all
• From th’ earth unto my brows, and bear the thrall:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Then with the reed they gave to me before,
• They strike my head, the rock from thence all store
• Of heav’nly blessings issue evermore:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• They bow their knees to me, and  cry, Hail king:
• What ever scoffs & scornfulness can bring,
• I am the floor, the sink, where they it fling:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Yet since man’s scepters are as frail as reeds,
• And thorny all their crowns, bloody their weeds;
• I, who am Truth, turn into truth their deeds:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• The soldiers also spit upon that face,
• Which Angels did desire to have the grace,
• And Prophets, once to see, but found no place:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Thus trimmed, forth they bring me to the rout,
• Who Crucify him, cry with one strong shout.
• God holds his peace at man, and man cries out:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?  –“The Sacrifice” by George Herbert, stanzas 38 – 47.

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. (Matthew 27.27 – 30, ESV)

PS It’s also St Patrick’s Day. This post from 2022 describes his work as an innovative missionary.

We go right from Hannah’s joy to a serious problem with the priestly family of Eli the high priest and his two sons Hophni and Phinehas. The text is blunt:

Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the LORD. (1 Samuel 2.12, ESV)

Then it talks about how they took the sacrifice food for themselves. (1 Samuel 2.13 – 17) It doesn’t say Eli was bad, just that his sons were. Eli tried to rebuke them without success:

By this time Eli was very old. He kept getting reports on how his sons were ripping off the people and sleeping with the women who helped out at the sanctuary. Eli took them to task: “What’s going on here? Why are you doing these things? I hear story after story of your corrupt and evil carrying on. Oh, my sons, this is not right! These are terrible reports I’m getting, stories spreading right and left among GOD’s people! If you sin against another person, there’s help—God’s help. But if you sin against GOD, who is around to help?” But they were far gone in disobedience and refused to listen to a thing their father said. So GOD, who was fed up with them, decreed their death. (1 Samuel 2.22 – 25, MSG)

These were bad men! Meanwhile, we have this word about Samuel:

Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the LORD and also with man. (1 Samuel 2.26, ESV)

Very much like what Luke said about Jesus when he was 12:

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. (Luke 2.52, ESV)

And judgment on Eli and his sons is pronounced twice. Once by an anonymous holy man:

A holy man came to Eli and said: “This is GOD’s message…Be well warned: It won’t be long before I wipe out both your family and your future family…What happens to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will be the proof: Both will die the same day… (1 Samuel 2.27, 31, 34, MSG)

And once by Samuel after God makes contact with him for the first time (See 1 Samuel 3.1 – 10):

GOD said to Samuel, “Listen carefully. I’m getting ready to do something in Israel that is going to shake everyone up and get their attention. The time has come for me to bring down on Eli’s family everything I warned him of, every last word of it. I’m letting him know that the time’s up. I’m bringing judgment on his family for good. He knew what was going on, that his sons were desecrating God’s name and God’s place, and he did nothing to stop them. This is my sentence on the family of Eli: The evil of Eli’s family can never be wiped out by sacrifice or offering.” (1 Samuel 3.11 – 14, MSG)

“His sons were desecrating God’s name and God’s place, and he did nothing to stop them.” A serious offense. A Michigan mother was just found guilty of manslaughter for not preventing her son from killing four classmates.

Another lesson: sometimes when evil people are in charge, God is quietly preparing someone else to be in leadership. Someone outside the existing power structure. Samuel was of the tribe of Ephraim (1 Samuel 1.1 – 2), not the priestly tribe of Eli. And in this case, Eli and his family’s days are numbered. Stay tuned.

Wednesday, we saw Hannah, barren at first, then promised a son, and when the son was still just a promise, she cheered up:

Eli answered her, “Go in peace. And may the God of Israel give you what you have asked of him.” “Think well of me—and pray for me!” she said, and went her way. Then she ate heartily, her face radiant. 1 Samuel 1.17, 18, MSG)

As usual, something has to happen to make children:

Up before dawn, they worshiped GOD and returned home to Ramah. Elkanah slept with Hannah his wife, and GOD began making the necessary arrangements in response to what she had asked. Before the year was out, Hannah had conceived and given birth to a son. She named him Samuel, explaining, “I asked GOD for him.” (1 Samuel 1.19 – 20, MSG)

Then, as she promised, she took him to Shiloh:

She stayed home and nursed her son until she had weaned him. Then she took him up to Shiloh, bringing also the makings of a generous sacrificial meal—a prize bull, flour, and wine. The child was so young to be sent off! They first butchered the bull, then brought the child to Eli. Hannah said, “Excuse me, sir. Would you believe that I’m the very woman who was standing before you at this very spot, praying to GOD? I prayed for this child, and GOD gave me what I asked for. And now I have dedicated him to GOD. He’s dedicated to GOD for life.” (1 Samuel 1.23 – 28, MSG)

In that culture, “until she had weaned him” would mean that Samuel was at least 3 years old, possibly older. At which point Hannah burst into song:

Hannah prayed: I’m bursting with God-news! I’m walking on air. I’m laughing at my rivals. I’m dancing my salvation. (1 Samuel 2.1, MSG)

Her song talks about the great reversal. The song of one who was oppressed (see 1 Samuel 1.4 – 11) but is oppressed no longer:

The great reversal:

• The weapons of the strong are smashed to pieces, while the weak are infused with fresh strength.
• The well-fed are out begging in the streets for crusts, while the hungry are getting second helpings.
• The barren woman has a houseful of children, while the mother of many is bereft. (1 Samuel 2.4, 5, MSG, bulleted for clarity)

Reading through the lens of oppressed people reminds me of Jesus and the Disinherited, which we wrote about a few days ago. More importantly, Mary’s song in Luke 1 is remarkably like Hannah’s song and also contains a celebration of the great reversal:

And Mary said, I’m bursting with God-news; I’m dancing the song of my Savior God. (Luke 1.46, 47, MSG)

• He knocked tyrants off their high horses, pulled victims out of the mud.
• The starving poor sat down to a banquet; the callous rich were left out in the cold. (Luke 1.52, 53, MSG, bulleted for clarity)

God’s great Story is for the oppressed. Hannah’s story is one of many.

God’s Spirit is on me; he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, To set the burdened and battered free, to announce, “This is God’s year to act!” (Luke 4.18, 19, MSG)

PS If you’re wondering about the upcoming snowstorm I mentioned in yesterday’s pi-day blog, it came. For once the weather guessers underestimated. We had 18 inches of snow by 10a, Thursday morning.

It’s March 14, called Pi Day in honor of pi’s approximation: 3.14… Last year, Mark and I celebrated at the Pi Bar:

Bob and oldest son, Mark, at the Pi Bar, March 14, 2023

If you look closely, you can see Mark’s pi cuff link. We were going to repeat the tradition this year, but there’s a small oops. As I write this, just after lunch on Wednesday, snow is predicted:

They’ve scaled the prediction back a bit: yesterday I saw as high as 22 inches predicted on this Weather Channel app. Other models show up to three feet where I live. I’ll let you know.

In the meantime, stay warm and enjoy pi and some pie! Reminds me of the story of the old farmer who asked his son what he was learning in college. The boy thought for a minute and said, “Pi r-squared.” (The formula for the area of a circle with radius r.) The farmer replied, “Well ain’t that the stupidest thing! Pie are round. Cornbread are square.”

Have a good day!

This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118.24, ESV)

PS For once the weather guessers underestimated. We had 18 inches of snow by 10a, Thursday morning. It’s not expected to quit until Friday morning.

In our program of reading through the History section of the Old Testament, we’re entering 1 Samuel, which starts with the story of Hannah giving birth to Samuel, who will be a prominent character. It’s another story of a delayed pregnancy (compare Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Rachel, Samson’s mother, Zechariah and Elizabeth).

There once was a man who lived in Ramathaim. He was descended from the old Zuph family in the Ephraim hills. His name was Elkanah…He had two wives. The first was Hannah; the second was Peninnah. Peninnah had children; Hannah did not. (1 Samuel 1.1 – 2, MSG)

Every year, the family would go to Shiloh to worship, and Hannah’s “rival wife taunted her cruelly.” One year, Hannah gave herself to a specific prayer dedicating a future son to God:

Crushed in soul, Hannah prayed to GOD and cried and cried—inconsolably. Then she made a vow: Oh, GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies, If you’ll take a good, hard look at my pain, If you’ll quit neglecting me and go into action for me By giving me a son, I’ll give him completely, unreservedly to you. I’ll set him apart for a life of holy discipline. (1 Samuel 1.10 -11, MSG)

For some reason, Eli the high priest can’t tell a praying woman from a drunk woman.

He approached her and said, “You’re drunk! How long do you plan to keep this up? Sober up, woman!” Hannah said, “Oh no, sir—please! I’m a woman hard used. I haven’t been drinking. Not a drop of wine or beer. The only thing I’ve been pouring out is my heart, pouring it out to GOD…  (1 Samuel 1.14 – 16, MSG)

He recovers, and we have this important exchange.

Eli answered her, “Go in peace. And may the God of Israel give you what you have asked of him.” “Think well of me—and pray for me!” she said, and went her way. Then she ate heartily, her face radiant. (1 Samuel 1.17 – 18, MSG)

Two simple lessons:

• When you’re up against it, pray and pray harder!
• Hannah cheered up BEFORE she conceived Samuel! Her change of mood was an act of faith, a response to the promise.

Her joy continues into chapter two. Stay tuned.

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. (Philippians 4.6, 7, MSG)

We celebrated our oldest son Mark’s 51st birthday a couple of days ago, and I found the perfect card. It had me with the line on the outside about “pushing the limits.”

Not so long ago, you were a little boy pushing the limits…

Did he ever! But the card went on to say:

And today. Not much has changed. You’re still reaching, striving, giving it your all…

The birthday card we bought for Mark…Mark between buildings in Oklahoma City…Mark’s two gold medals, March 9, 2024.

It made me realize that “pushing the limits” can be good. The day before his birthday, he flew to Oklahoma City to participate in a stair race. This event was run in two different buildings, two different races. One for the fastest time up the two buildings (one 21-story, and the other 16-story). Mark won that with a time of 7:35, a course record, 15 seconds faster than the guy who finished second. He went on to win “Power Hour:” how many times can you go up both buildings in one hour? He’s the only competitor who did it six times!

Pushing the limits. Once he set an ambitious goal to sell a certain number of houses in a year. He met his goal by May of that year. Pushing the limits can be a good thing if you’re pushing in a good direction!

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3.13, 14, NIV)