Lesson 18 1 Sam 4-8 Samuel

Samuel Receives the Word The word of the Lord was rare when Samuel was a boy While Eli was lying down, God called Samuel Samuel thought it was Eli, so he ran to see him This happened three times After this, Eli knew it was God, and told Samuel what to do

Samuel Receives the Word When the Lord spoke this time, Samuel said, “Speak, Your servant hears.” The Lord told Samuel about the judgment of Eli’s house Samuel was afraid to tell Eli, but he did Samuel grew in the Lord and the Lord was with him All Israel recognized Samuel as a prophet

War With The Philistines Israel camps at Ebenezer The Philistines camp at Aphek Israel is defeated badly The Philistines kill 4000 men Israel asks, “Why has the LORD defeated us?” The decide to bring the ark to battle Hophni and Phinehas join the ark

Aphek

The Ark Is Captured When the ark arrived, Israel shouted so loudly that the earth shook The Philistines were afraid and said, “Woe is us!” Who can deliver us from these mighty gods? They recalled what happened to Egypt They encouraged one another to fight hard The defeated Israel, killing 30,000 and capturing the ark

Eli Dies A man from Benjamin escapes the battle and runs to report to the city of Shiloh He then tells Eli There was a great slaughter Hophni and Phinehas are dead The ark has been captured At the mention of the ark, Eli fell over and broke his neck

Ichabod Is Born Phinehas wife was pregnant When she heard the story of the battle, she went into labor A midwife told her, “Do not fear, you have borne a son,” but she did not pay attention She named him Ichabod, inglorious “The glory has departed from Israel” Perhaps Shiloh was destroyed at this time by the Philistines? See Jer. 7:12,14; 26:6,9

The Philistines With The Ark The Philistines took the Ark to Ashdod and placed it in the house of their god Dagon In the morning, Dagon was on his face before the ark The next morning the Dagon fell before the ark again, this time breaking his head and hands off on the threshold of the temple The Philistines now regarded the threshold as holy and wouldn’t step on it

The Philistines Move the Ark The Lord struck the people of Ashdod with Tumors They moved the ark because the Lord was harsh toward Dagon and them They moved the ark to Gath and the men of Gath were struck with tumors They moved the ark to Ekron, and the Ekronites did NOT want it! They were also struck with tumors

Ekron

The Philistines Return the Ark The Philistines call together their priests and diviners to find out what to do with the ark They decide to send the ark back to Israel They warn them not to send it back without a gift; they give 5 gold tumors and 5 gold rats Then, they devise an interesting plan to return the ark

The Ark Returns The ark returns to Beth Shemesh The men of Beth Shemesh offered the cows as burnt offerings to the Lord The men of Beth Shemesh looked into the ark and 50,000 were struck by the Lord The ark is then moved to Kiriath Jearim The ark remained in the house of Abinidab until the days of David

Israel Defeats the Philistines Samuel then told Israel that if they would put away their gods and turn to Jehovah, He would deliver them So Israel put away their gods and gathered at Mizpah Samuel was offering a sacrifice when the Philistines came upon them and attacked The Lord sent a thunderstorm and Israel defeated the Philistines that day Samuel took a stone and called the name of that place “Ebenezer” The Philistines were subdued and Samuel judged Israel

Give Us A King Samuel made his sons judges in Israel Samuel’s sons did not follow in Samuel’s ways The people say, “Give us a king like all the other nations” Samuel prays Samuel warns Israel about what the king would do They wanted a king anyway, and God tells Samuel to give them a king