Samuels

I was reminded the other day that I love 1st and 2nd Samuel and I haven't read them in a long while. So, I have started them again!

It all starts out with Samuel the prophet. His mum prayed for him, God gave her her wish, Samuel went to live in the temple to serve with Eli the priest, etc.

But during all this, Israel is at war with the Philistines. So the Israelites went out one day to fight the Philistines one day. They were expecting to win, but they were defeated and lost four thousand men to Philistine swords. So the elders of Israel (as in the wise, decision-making people) said to each other, "Why did the LORD bring defeat upon us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the LORD's covenant from Shiloh, so that it may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies."

So that IT may save us. IT. Not the LORD. They were treating the ark as like... "the Ring of Power" of something--some magic object that would save them. They didn't even take it as a SYMBOL of God's power and covenant. That wouldn't have been right either, but it makes more sense than "the Magic Ark". This sounds like the same thing using the LORD's name in vain to me.

Then what happened? It said the slaughter was great and the ark (that could not do a thing about it) was captured. 30,000 men died, and every other man fled to his tent.