1 Samuel Chapters 4,5,6,7 Commentary

First Samuel Chapters 4-7 Chapter 4 4:1 The statement, “Thus the word of Samuel came to all Israel”: really belongs with 3:19. In contrast to the rarity of revelation during the time of Eli (3:1), Samuel is now God’s spokesman. “No more is the prophet merely an occasional visitor (Judges 6:7-10; 1 Samuel 2:27), but an established presence. With Samuel there is, we might say, a prophet in residence.

Now Yahweh repeatedly appears and reveals Himself to Samuel ‘by the word of Yahweh’ (1 Samuel 3:21) and now that word will be coming to all Israel. That is both an immense privilege and a terrible responsibility, both a welcome benefit and a fearful liability. What if Israel refuses to hear (cf.

Deuteronomy 18:19)? Even worse, what if we refuse to hear God’s final word spoken through his Son (Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:1-4)?” (Dale Ralph Davis p.

48). “The Philistines, Israel’s principal enemy during the period of the last of the judges, were a non-Semitic people whose origins were most likely in Crete or in some other part of the Aegean Sea area (Genesis 10:14). They came to Canaan in two different migrations, one as early as Abraham’s time (2000 BC), and another about 1200 BC. They lived in five main towns on the southern Canaan coast—Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath, and Ashdod…The primary god of their pantheon was Dagon, a deity worshipped also in upper Mesopotamia as a grain god” (Bible Knowledge Comm. p. 436). “The Philistine army established a base camp along the banks of the Yarkon River at Aphek (A fek) (NT Antipatirs, modern Ras elAin/Tel Aphek), some twenty miles NE of Ekron; the Israelites encamped two miles to the east at Ebenezer (ebb un EE zur)” (Bergen p. 90).

Evidently this battle took place when Samuel was still a youth, because it wasn’t until twenty years later (1 Samuel 7:2), that Samuel will lead Israel in battle against the Philistines. 4:2 Israel was defeated and 4000 men died on the battle field.

Rabbit-Foot Theology 4:-3-5 Instead of looking for sin among themselves, they concluded that the failure was the absence of the of Ark of the Covenant in their midst.

“They had evidently assumed that the secret to the crossing of the Jordan (Joshua 3:11) and the victory at Jericho (Joshua 6:7,8,13) were due to the presence of the Ark” (Davis p. 37). Israel failed to distinguish between the Ark as the symbol of God’s presence, and the actual presence of God. Even the people of God can become just as superstitious as their unbelieving neighbors. It was the custom of ancient warriors to take their idols into battle so that their gods would deliver them. They failed to remember that God is Omnipresent and is not subject to the limitations of space and time (Psalm 139:7-10). Israel viewed the Ark as a good-luck charm and forgot that the real power was in God and not the Ark, and rather than placing their faith in the ark, they needed to place their faith in God. Israel was also seeking to force God’s hand or twist His arm.

“When we, whether Israelites or Christians, operate this way our concern is not to seek God but to control Him, not to submit to God but to use. So we prefer religious magic to spiritual holiness; we are interested in success, not repentance” (Dale Ralph Davis pp. 52-53). “There seemed no inclination to take the loss as a judgment sent from God…This story reminds us that the temptation to exploit the paraphernalia of worship is very old. No mistake is older and more attractive than the desire to control and manipulate God into doing our bidding” 1 4:4 Consider how God achieves His purposes in this chapter. God allows the ark to be brought and will allow it to be captured because He is always in control of any given situation. Bringing the ark to the field of battle also brings the two overconfident and evil sons of Eli Hophni and Phinehas. God is able to use the selfishness and foolishness of men to bring about their own downfall. 4:6-9 Even the Philistines (recent tourists) to the land of Canaan, had heard about the Exodus which had taken place almost 400 years in the past! They had muddled the details a bit (“gods”), but they were right about the basic story. ”Knowledge of these details, compounded by a fear of the consequences of losing to ‘the Hebrews’—a term used mainly by non-Israelites—energized the Philistines to battlefield bravery” (Bergen pp. 91-92).

4:10-11 This time the defeat was seven times worse than the initial defeat.

We should be impressed that much of the guilt for the death of 30,000 foot soldiers, can be laid at the feet of Hophni and Phinehas 1

Mastering The Old Testament, 1 and 2 Samuel, Kenneth Chafin, p. 53.

(Deuteronomy 28:15,25), yet, rumors about their immorality were circulating, and the Israelites did nothing about it. “The text forces two important implications upon us: Yahweh will suffer shame (unbelievers would get the idea that God couldn’t deliver Israel, that the gods of the Philistines were actually stronger than Yahweh), rather than allow one to carry on a false relationship with Him; and Yahweh will allow one to be disappointed with Him if it will awaken one to the sort of God He really is” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 53). In modern terms, God will allow Churches to dwindle down to almost nothing if that is what it takes to wake up a congregation.

4:12-18 No sooner was the second battle with the Philistines over, than the tragic news of Israel’s defeat reached Shiloh. Eli, a priest to the end, feared for the safety of the ark. Here we find him anxiously awaiting, old, obese, and totally blind. “The news that Hophni and Phinehas were dead did not seem to faze Eli, who may have already given them up as hopeless. But the shock of hearing that the ark had been captured was too much for him. The tragedy of Eli’s life thus matches that of Saul: sometimes serving God faithfully, at other times not measuring up to even the most moderate of standards” (Gaebelein p. 598). Thus we find the beginning of the prophecy which was a judgment upon the house of Eli (2:33-36). 4:19-22 The trauma of that day also hastened the labor of Phinehas’ wife. As she lay dying, she named her newborn child, “Ichabod”, which literally means, “glory has gone into captivity”.

“Probably she taught more theology in her death than Phinehas had done in his whole life” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 55). By the report of Eli’s death and the words of Phinehas’ wife the writer clearly shows that the real tragedy is the loss of the ark, not the deaths of Eli or of his sons. “Not until the glory departed from the temple in the days of Ezekiel would an event of similar magnitude occur again (Ezekiel 10:18)” (Bergen p. 94).

The good news is that while God might be despised among the Philistines (for a while), He will not be despised in Shiloh any longer! In the next chapter, the abomination of the Philistines will fall down before the Ark. But in this chapter, God first needed to remove an abomination among His own people, that is, Eli and his sons.

Chapter 5 “Arkeological Discoveries” “In this section the Lord continues His fearful judgments against both nonIsraelites and Israelites who display a lack of respect for Him (2:30). The Lord acts without regard to geographical boundaries, with equal

competence on foreign soil and in Israel’s heartland. His actions confirm the Torah’s teachings that He is indeed “the Judge of the whole earth” (Genesis 18:25; 1 Samuel 2:10)” (Bergen p. 95).

5:1-2 The Philistine city of Ashdod was located some 50 miles SW of Shiloh, and about 19 miles South of Ebenezer. “Though Dagon was a well-known Semitic deity worshipped for centuries throughout western Asia as a meteorological and military deity, the non-Semitic Philistines had incorporated this god into their pantheon as well, assigning it a central role in their cult” (Bergen p. 97). In Ugaritic literature, the Canannite Baal is sometimes referred to as the “son of Dagon”. “Placing the ark in their temple may have involved several motives. The ark was a trophy of war and could stand there as a reminder of the defeat of the Israelites. They may have thought that, by putting the ark in their temple, they could accumulate for themselves whatever power it might have” (Chafin p. 59).

5:3-5 If the ark seemed powerless to assist the Israelites on the battlefield, things were altogether different when it was left in the temple of Dagon.

Rather than joining their “god” in worship, they first simply set the idol upright again, but after seeing their god reduced to a mere stump, they completely abandoned the temple. It is interesting that the Philistines never considered worshipping the God of the Hebrews. “It doesn’t sound like a punchline. But imagine: a god---and they have to stand him back up! What kind of god is that? Next morning Dagon’s head and hands came off. A regular Humpty-Dumpty situation with no Elmer’s glue.

Dagon is simply getting the godness knocked out of him. Yahweh, however, intends for His people to think, not merely to laugh---to realize that, unlike a battered Dagon, Yahweh doesn’t have to have someone come and set Him up again. He can fight the Philistines by Himself. He doesn’t need His people to cheer Him on; He will bring back His ark all by Himself…The danger is that contemporary Christians may think that they are not dim-witted pagans and so, naturally, such matters of humorous and historical interest have nothing to do with them. But the church has its own paganizing mind. What are we to say of songs that croon, “Somehow, He needed me?” What about …God’s having ‘no hands but our hands’…to do His will? I know there’s an element of truth in such sentiments but it’s largely buried” (Dale Ralph Davis pp. 58-59).

5:5 “To this day”: Apparently, this temple was completely abandoned.

5:6-7 While the hands of Dagon were cut off—there was nothing wrong with the hand of God. “This was no tame God the Philistines had ‘conquered’…Since we hear of ‘rats that are ruining the land’ in 6:5, some scholars think the tumors may have been the swellings in the armpits, groin

and sides of the neck that are symptomatic of bubonic plague, of which rats are carriers” (Dale Ralph Davis pp. 59-60). 5:8 Hurriedly, the ark was shipped off to the city of Gath, which was about 12 miles SE of Ashdod.

Here is real neighbor-love! 5:9 The same curses hit the city of Gath. 5:10 “Gath sent the ark to Ekron but the Ekron Jaycees met the transport party at the city limits with their ‘Oh no, you don’t!’” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 60).

5:11-12 What had happened in Ashdod, happened everywhere the Ark was sent. It should have been clear to them that this was nothing but the hand of God striking the Philistines, and this hand was very, very heavy!

Yet, most of them still wondered if all of this was simply nothing more than bad luck (6:9).

Chapter 6 “How to Get Rid of an Ark”?

6:1-2 After seven months the Philistines had had enough! It is amazing to me how much suffering people are willing to endure so they can remain independent of the true God. The theologians among the Philistines are brought in to give advice concerning “how to get rid of this thing”. 6:3 Notice the word “if” (were there still people who wanted to keep the ark?) As confused as the men are in their theology, they did understand one thing: a guilt offering needed to accompany the Ark. 6:4-6 The Exodus experience had not been lost on the Philistines! They were not going to have their land, livestock, and firstborn destroyed, and they did not need 10 plagues to get the point. 6:7-12 A guilt offering of five golden tumors and five golden mice was prepared—one of each for the five Philistine cities. The cart was to be pulled by two “milch cows”—cows still nursing their young. “For nursing cows to leave their young and make a beeline for the Israelite city of Beth-shemesh would be quite unusual” (Laney p. 29). “In their view, they have provided the opportunity for Yahweh to write His signature across their circumstances. And they made it as difficult as possible for Him to do so! Even city boys know that any cows in their right maternal minds would naturally go back to their suckling calves that had been penned up at home. One certainly wouldn’t expect them, contrary to nature, to go walking off toward Israel as if in the grip of an invisible hand” (Dale Ralph Davis pp. 61-62).

6:12 God stooped down and showed them, in terms the Philistines could understand, that it had been He who had destroyed their god, their land and their bodies. “Now what will they do with that revelation? Should they not turn and at least begin to serve or fear this obviously real and living God? Or will they go back to Ashdod and take Dagon to the local

image shop for repairs?….Some of the elite may slap ‘Survivor of the Plague of 1070’ bumper stickers on their chariots…. Perhaps the majority simply sighed, ‘Glad that’s over!’ It is so easy for us sinners---Philistine or otherwise---to respond only to the pain and not to the truth of a situation.

Our immediate fears are alleviated but our heads are no wiser, our hearts no softer. Perhaps the Egyptians (6:6) have no corner on denseness” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 62).

Curiosity Killed the Cat 6:12 The city of Beth-shemesh (beth SHEH mesh), was located in the valley of Sorek, about 15 miles west of Jerusalem and nine miles E-SE of Ekron, just inside Israelite territory. 6:13 The ark arrived at Beth Shemesh in June, during the wheat harvest. 6:15 Beth Shemesh was one of the cities which belonged to the tribe of Levi, hence there were Levites present to carry and handle the ark. 6:18 The stone on which the ark was placed, was still standing when Samuel was written. 6:19 In their exuberance over the return of the ark, the men of this city made a serious mistake. They looked into the ark, which had been strictly forbidden in the law (Numbers 4:20).

“The number of people affected by the plague at Beth-Shemesh is in dispute. Actually the Hebrew text contains two numbers side by side, seventy and fifty thousand. NIV chooses the smaller figure, apparently regarding the fifty thousand as a gloss. NASB follows the Septuagint in combining these numbers into one figure, 50,070” (Smith p. 258).

While it seems unlikely to many that 50,000 people ever lived in ancient Beth Shemesh at one time. ”Accepting the larger number results in a theological truth consonant with the teachings of the book retained: Israel must respect the Lord more than the might of the Philistines.

Although the Philistines with their military prowess could kill thirty thousand Israelites (4:10), God in His holiness could kill more than fifty thousand” (Bergen p. 103). “God’s people today no longer have the ark of the covenant, but we can fall into the same Beth-Shemesh mode of thinking.

We can forget that Yahweh is holy….Our culture does not help us to smash our graven image of the casual God. Our culture proclaims that God must be the essence of tolerance; He is chummy rather than holy, the ‘man upstairs’ rather than my Father for Jesus’ sake. So long as our novelty license plates declare that ‘God is my co-pilot’ we can be sure that we have not yet seen the King, Yahweh of hosts….We must regard His presence as our supreme joy and our supreme peril. This does not mean we cannot be intimate with God; it means we cannot be familiar with Him. Intimacy is able to call Him ‘Father’ and tremble at the same time— and as it trembles know that it is loved!” (Dale Ralph Davis pp. 65-66).

6:20 Sadly, instead of repenting, the people of this city react just like the Philistines reacted. 6:21 The city of Kiriath-jearim (KIR jath JEE uh rim) was located about fifteen miles to east.

Chapter 7 7:1-2 I am amazed that the inhabitants of this city were willing to take the ark! Too many people, even some Christians, are like the men of Beth Shemesh. If they can’t have a casual and easy-going God, then they don’t want anything to do with Him. We must be like the people of Kiriath-jearim, we must be willing pursue a relationship with a holy God who must be treated with respect. The fact that the ark wasn’t returned to the city of Shiloh, suggests to some writers that Shiloh had been destroyed by the Philistines (compare with Psalm 78:60; Jeremiah 7:12,14; 26:6,9). No genealogical information regarding Abinadab or Eleazar his son is provided, however, the name Eleazar is a common priestly name.

“Since the ‘twenty years’ does not bring us to the time of David (when he moved the ark to Jerusalem, 2 Samuel 6:2-3), it must refer to the period until some important event—perhaps the repentance recorded in 7:3-4” (Laney p. 30). 7:3 After three Samuel-less chapters, Samuel reappears.

Time has passed and now Samuel is no longer a child. The inference seems to be that everything that had happened in chapter 6 did so when Samuel was young. There is probably a good number of years, maybe ten or so, between 7:2 and 7:3. The “Ashtoreth” or Astarte was the goddess of both love and war, as were here Babylonian and Greek counterparts Ishtar and Aphrodite respectively.

7:4 Repentance must be complete and total. All the false gods had to go. “True repentance will meet Yahweh’s demand for exclusive allegiance with whatever it takes to obey it” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 71).

Jesus demands the same allegiance from us (Matthew 10:37; Luke 14:26ff). It is so easy to pass over this section, without realizing how difficult such a change was for these people. Baal and Ashoreth were fertility gods, and fertility is very important to an agricultural people. In addition, the worship of these idols involved sexual rites. Many probably would find it very convenient to have the “church” and the “brothel” at the same location. 7:5-6 Some seven miles north of Jerusalem was located the city of Mizpah. Some suggest that the expression, “drawing water and pouring it out before the Lord”, refers to the practice of denying themselves liquids as a symbolic confession that the Lord’s favor was more important to them than life-sustaining water (see Jonah 3:7; 2 Samuel 23:16). 7:7-8 The lords of the Philistines regarded this show of national

unity in Israel as a threat. Yet, note the attitude of these Israelites. They were willing to fight, but they wanted Samuel to continually pray for them.

7:9-10 Samuel cries out to God. “And even Samuel is reduced to a cry of distress on their behalf. Desperation, however, is never in trouble when it rests on omnipotence” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 73).

“I think Israel’s plight more than touches that of the church….The church can often be blind to her true state. At least in the west the church is so used to developing new strategies, originating effective gimmicks, or promoting proven programs that she can dupe herself into thinking that she lives by her own evangelical cleverness….More and more God’s people must walk the way of desperation—prayer. Once we see this, we will no longer regard prayer as a pious cop-out but as our only rational activity” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 74).

7:11 Beth-car is a village of unknown location probably west of Mizpah.

7:12 Samuel sets up a memorial stone, probably at the place where the Philistines had been turned back. The name “Ebenezer”, means “stone of help”. “This third battle was really fought in the hearts of the people against the old enemy, Satan. Once Israel achieved victory over their spiritual adversary (7:3-6), the Lord was able to bless their efforts against the Philistines” (Laney p. 31). “ Even amid the desolations of Shiloh the Lord was helping them. He was helping them to know themselves, helping them to know their sins, and helping them to know the bitter fruit and woeful punishment of sin” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 75). And what about the expression, “Thus far the Lord has helped us”? We need to reflect upon the past and see where the Lord has helped us! In fact, have there not been many “Ebenezers” in our lives?

7:14 This verse informs us that the Amorites, who preferred to live in the hilly regions of the land, as compared to the Philistines who lived along the coast, were also relatively nonbelligerent during this period. 7:15-17 The fame of Samuel went throughout the entire land (3:20), yet Samuel judged or regularly visited and decided cases in cities which compromised an area of about 50 miles in circumference. ”Fresh commitment requires plodding instruction to sustain it. The circuit through Benjamin is never as glamorous as revival at Mizpah, but it is the road for many of us” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 78).