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Chapter 3: God Calls Samuel
1 Samuel 3:1-10 ~ Young Samuel hears the Voice of God
Question: That Eli is going blind is the sign that what prophecy is about to be fulfilled? See 1 Sam 2:33.
Answer: It is part of the prophecy that the unnamed prophet of God told Eli: I shall keep one of you at my altar for his eyes to go blind and his soul to wither, but the bulk of your family will die by the sword.
Eli had given Samuel the duty of watching over the golden Lampstand (Menorah) in the Sanctuary's Holy Place (Ex 37:17-24) to make certain that the seven oil lamps did not burn out. It was the duty of the priests to keep the lamps continuingly burning (Lev 24:2-4). Only the chief priests were permitted within the Holy Place of the Sanctuary.
That Samuel was allowed to perform this duty may show that he had been fully incorporated into Eli's family or it may be another indication that Eli was not being obedient to the Law concerning maintaining the Sanctuary.
The Tabernacle was composed of two rooms: The Holy Place that housed the golden lampstand, the golden table of the Bread of the Presence, and the golden Altar of Incense. The Holy of Holies was the sacred space beyond the Holy Place (to the west) that was entered only once a year on the Feast of Yom Kippur (Feast of Atonement) by the high priest. It was where the Ark of the Covenant rested, and it was where God dwelt in the midst of His people between the two golden cherubim of the Mercy-seat that was the lid of the Ark of the Covenant (Ex 25:21-22). The Ark of the Covenant was behind a curtain that separated the Holy Place where Samuel was keeping watch from the Holy of Holies. Yahweh was calling to Samuel from the Holy of Holies. See the plan of the Sanctuary and its Tabernacle.
Question: How many times did Yahweh call Samuel before he finally responded?
Answer: God called Samuel three times and he responded the fourth time he heard his name.
Notice that Eli instructs Samuel to answer God by using His Divine Name and that Samuel follows those instructions, speaking God's Divine Name and saying: "Speak Yahweh; for your servant is listening." The false piety that was introduced centuries later that forbade the speaking aloud of God's Divine Name outside the Temple liturgical services or writing God's Divine Name is not found in Sacred Scripture where the divine Name is regularly written and spoken aloud by people in the Biblical narrative.
Question: What was God's command concerning His Divine Name when He spoke it to Moses in Exodus 3:15, and who was the first person in the Old Testament to speak God's Divine Name in Genesis 4:1?
Answer: God told Moses that YHWH (Yahweh) was the name by which all generations should call upon Him: This is my name for all time, and thus I am to be invoked for all generations to come (Ex 3:15b NJB). The first person in the Bible to speak aloud God's Divine Name was Eve, the first woman.
Samuel Hears the Voice of God
1 Samuel 3:11-15a ~ God calls Young Samuel to be a Prophet
That night, Samuel began his mission as Yahweh's divine prophet. In the morning he gave the prophecy that he was commanded to deliver to Eli. The prophecy confirmed the previous prophecy Eli received from God's prophet in 2:27-36.
Question: Why do you think Samuel waited until morning instead of immediately going to Eli as he had the other three times?
Answer: What God told Samuel to do concerning Eli must have been very difficult for the boy. Eli was his adopted father and Samuel must have been fond of him. He must have suffered all that night until the morning knowing what he must do, but he put God's command above his personal feelings and he did fulfill his first mission.
1 Samuel 3:15b-4:1 ~ Samuel delivers His First Prophetic Message
Despite his many failures, in verse 18b Eli submitted himself to God's divine judgment.
Question: What could Eli have done that he didn't do concerning his sons?
Answer: For their abuses against Yahweh and the people, he should have brought them before a court of elders, and, as Israel's Judge and high priest, he should have prosecuted the case that should have resulted in their dismissal from priestly service, putting an end to the abuses.
Chapter 4: The Philistines Capture the Ark of the Covenant
The call of young Samuel by Yahweh in chapter 3 is the beginning of the transition in leadership from Eli to Samuel. Chapter three ends with a statement of Samuel's calling as God prophet being acknowledged by all the tribes of Israel: All Israel knew from Dan to Beersheba that Samuel was attested as a prophet of Yahweh. Yahweh continued to manifest himself at Shiloh, revealing himself to Samuel there (1 Sam 3:20-21).
Chapter 4 relates the capture of the Ark of the Covenant by the Philistines and the fulfillment of the prophecy in 1 Samuel 2:34. It is a fulfillment that occurred on the same day the Ark is taken. The story is told in two parts:
- The battles between Israel and the Philistines (4:1b-11).
- The first battle and Israel's defeat.
- The second battle and the capture of the Ark
- The events at the Sanctuary at Shiloh after the news of Israel's defeat (4:12-22).
- The death of Eli
- The death of Eli's daughter-in-law
1 Samuel 4:1b-11 ~ The Defeat of the Israelites and the Capture of the Ark of the Covenant
The Israelites for the most part had either driven out or made peace with the Canaanites who lived in the land they claimed as their divine inheritance. The one formidable enemy who remained was the Philistines.
The Philistines, from which the name "Palestine" was derived in the Hellenistic-Roman period in the 2nd century AD, were the descendants of the "Sea Peoples" who took part in a great migration out of the region of the Aegean Sea in the 12th century BC.
After being repulsed by the Egyptians, they had settled into five city-states: Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Gaza near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and Ekron and Gath several miles inland. The power of the Philistines had become a threat to the destiny Yahweh planned for Israel. They had chariots and their military skills were superior to the Israelites. God had "raised up" the judge Samson to hold back the Philistine advance (Judg 13-16), but after Samson's death there was no warrior judge to take up the fight against the Philistine enemy.
The Philistine army set up camp at Aphek, a city about ten miles east of the Mediterranean coast. It was among the list of cities captured by Joshua and the Israelites (Josh 12:18) that had been lost to the Philistines. It will be mentioned again as a Philistine camp in a campaign against King Saul and the army of Israel (1 Sam 29:1).(1) The site of the Israelite camp was near the town of Ebenezer (Hebrew = "stone of help"), like Aphek also in the hill country of Ephraim. The battle with the Philistines took place on the fields between the two camps.(2)
Question: When the Israelites were defeated by the Philistines, what did the elders of Israel decide would help them win a second battle?
Answer: First, they blamed God for their defeat, then they decided to carry the Ark of the Covenant into battle with them.
Question: What is the problem with their decision to take the Ark out of the Holy of Holies and into the battlefield? See Num 27:21; Josh 7:2-13; Judg 1:1-2.
Answer: They had not consulted Yahweh through His priest/judge Eli by using the urim and thummin before going into battle in the first place, and now they formulated a plan to use the Ark without receiving God's permission. They were treating the Ark like a magic object rather than as the dwelling place of God among His people.
God cannot be bribed nor can He be manipulated to satisfy man's desires. The Israelites were trying to use the Ark as their own vehicle of power to be manipulated in achieving a military objective. Perhaps their failure to consult Yahweh through Eli shows their lack of confidence in Eli. We shall see in future events that the elders act in deciding crucial political matters when the leader of Israel, whether a judge or a king, does not prove himself to be an adequate leader.
Question: What is the first part of the prophecy given by the unnamed prophet God sent to Eli in 1 Samuel 2:27-36 that is fulfilled when the Ark is captured by the Philistines? See 2:34.
Answer: Eli's two priest sons are killed: What happened to your two sons Hophni and Phinehas will be a sign for you: on the same day both will die. It is the "sign" of what is to come for the family of Eli.
1 Samuel 4:12-18 ~ The Death of Eli
The battle took place in the hill country of Ephraim, but the Benjaminites, whose tribal lands are to the south of Ephraim, were among those tribes who rallied to the call to battle. That the man had torn clothes and dust on his head indicates that in his grief he had expressed those actions of mourning that were consistent with the customs of his people (see 2 Sam 1:2). Eli was waiting for news "trembling for the Ark of God." It is odd that he was not "trembling" for the safety of his sons. Did he lack confidence that his sons could protect the Ark but did not fear for their lives? He will, however, ask about his sons before he hears about the Ark when he is told that the battle is lost. Notice that the distressing news of the battle is given in increasing order from Eli's prospective:
- The battle was lost
- Eli's sons are dead
- The Ark is captured
Eli was so shocked by the news that he may have suffered a stroke. When he fell backwards his great weight caused him to break his neck and he died. He had been priest and judge of Israel for forty years. Only Othniel, Deborah and Gideon served as judges of Israel as long as Eli, but their leadership brought peace whereas Eli's leadership did not (Judg 3:11; 5:31; 8:28).
Question: What can we learn from Eli's fate?
Answer: God manifests His divine judgment upon all who transgress his statutes, even upon genuine servants who have lived righteously for many years. Just because one serves God it does not mean that person is exempt from fulfilling the moral laws that govern Christians and the Church. As a matter of fact, as Eli's fate shows, their judgment will be greater because they should know the truth of God's moral and spiritual commands and should be an example to it.
1 Samuel 4:19-22 ~ The Death of the Widow of Phinehas
The story of Eli's daughter-in-law adds to the family tragedy. The news of the disaster is again arranged in increasing order, but this time from her perspective:
- The Ark has been captured.
- Eli is dead.
- Her husband is dead.
The account records that she crouched down and gave birth; this was the customary position for giving birth in ancient times. The name she gave her baby in Hebrew is Ei-kabod (also spelled kavod), "where is the glory?" meaning the glory of Yahweh enthroned on the Ark. The Hebrew word kabod/kavod is elsewhere associated with God's divine presence and especially with the Ark of the Covenant (see Ex 24:16-17; Ps 24:7-10; 79:9). Notice that in the explanation of the child's name in verses 21-22 that it is the Ark that is emphasized. This was a day of national mourning for the nation of Israel.
Chapter 5: The Philistines and the Ark of Yahweh
1 Samuel 5:1-5 ~ The Philistines put the Ark in Dagon's Temple
The Philistines took the Ark to Ashdod, one of their five cities located near the Mediterranean coast. Dagon was the chief deity of the Philistine pantheon (see Judg 16:23; 1 Chr 10:10).For a victor to take the most precious relics of the people they conquered was a common practice in ancient times since it was understood that a people whose god was in enemy hands was completely conquered. When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD, they took all the sacred furniture they could find from the Temple and carried the artifacts off to Rome. The Temple furnishings they took are pictured on the Arch of Titus in Rome. Placing the Ark of Yahweh next to the statue of Dagon for the Philistines was symbolic of Israel's God now being under the power of Dagon just as the Israelites where now under Philistine power.
Question: Was it the physical presence of the gold covered box of the Ark or the tablets of the Ten Commandments it contained that made the Sanctuary of Yahweh holy? Did the presence of the Ark in the Philistine temple make it holy?
Answer: No. The presence of religious shrines like the Ark or the covenant documents of the Ten Commandments did not make God's Sanctuary holy. It is God's divine presence that makes places devoted to His worship holy.
The Ark was so far from making the pagan temple a holy place that its god was openly attacked.
Question: What was God's purpose in attacking the statue of the Philistine god?
Answer: God wanted to teach the Philistines that the defeat of the Israelites was not due to God's weakness but to the transgressions of those who worshiped him. God gave proof of His power by twice throwing the idol to the ground so that, in the second attack, the idol was broken into pieces.
It is significant that the statue's severed head and hands lay on the threshold of the temple. The threshold of a temple was considered to be especially holy because it was the separation between the sacred space and the profane common areas. Verse 5 makes the observation that the Philistines remembered this incident and still, at the time the book was written, bore witness to the humiliation of their god by not stepping on the threshold of his temples because parts of the god once laid on the temple's threshold. This custom is said to have continued "at least in Gaza into the 1st centuries AD" (Tsumura, page 206).
1 Samuel 5:6-12 ~ Yahweh punishes the Philistines
In spite of the Philistine victory over the Israelites, Yahweh continues to prove to the Philistines that they do not have power over Him. The term "hand" of Yahweh, referring to God's divine power, is repeated seven times in the next two chapters: four times in chapter 5 and three times in the chapter 6 in the Hebrew text (5:6, 7, 9, 11, 6:3, 5, 9).
Question: Why could the Ark of the Covenant pose a danger even for the common Israelite? See Num 4:19-20; 2 Sam 6:1-7.
Answer: God's holiness is awesome. Approaching the Ark without being consecrated to Yahweh's divine service as the chief priests were involved peril and even death.
The people of Ashdod become afflicted with tumors (opalim in Hebrew literally means "swellings") and blame their suffering on the presence of Yahweh's Ark. Their affliction is probably bubonic plague that is carried by rats; tumors is one of the visible symptoms (see 1 Sam 6:4-5). Unwilling to part with their trophy of victory, they decide to take the Ark to the Philistine city of Gath, which experiences the same symptoms as does the city of Ekron when the Ark is sent there (Ekron was about 22 miles west of Jerusalem). The decision is made to send the Ark away from Philistia.
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CHALLENGE: “The superiority of science to faith is shown by the fact that, in the last few centuries, most discoveries have been made by science, not faith.”
DEFENSE: It is a mistake to assume that a certain field is superior because it is currently experiencing a growth spurt.
Every field of study experiences more and less productive periods, but this does not show one field to be superior to another. To the extent that they reveal truth to us, they are all important, regardless of the rate of new discoveries being made in them.
Further, the fact that a field is presently experiencing growth does not mean this will continue indefinitely.
Physicist Lee Smolin argues in The Trouble with Physics that physics has been experiencing a dry period for decades, with few new, fundamental discoveries to match previous ones.
Similarly, in The End of Science, science writer John Horgan argues that science is approaching fundamental limits that will impede major new discoveries. We will have to wait to see whether these difficulties can be overcome, but they serve as warnings that an indefinitely long, high rate of scientific discovery is not to be taken for granted.
Ultimately, it is a form of chronological snobbery to assume that a field is superior just because it is growing at the moment. What matters is whether it reveals truth to us, not its growth rate.
This is particularly true with respect to religion. If the Christian claim is true, then we already have the basic data we need to work with.
The Faith has been “once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3), public revelation has ended, and the deposit of faith is closed (CCC 66). God may have chosen to give us this information before the rise of science because, unlike science, it concerns our eternal destiny and is therefore more essential for us to have.
However that may be, the Christian claim implies that we should not expect radical new discoveries regarding the Faith, but a gradual refinement of points as we better appreciate the data God has given us. The present state of affairs is thus consistent with the Christian claim, and, regardless of their respective rates of growth, both science and faith make important contributions to humanity.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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