v1 So men came from Kiriath Jearim to fetch the ark of the Lord. They took it to the house that belonged to Abinadab. His house was on a hill. Eleazar was his son. They consecrated Eleazar so that he could guard the ark of the Lord.
Commentary
Kiriath Jearim was about 15 miles from Beth Shemesh. The men from Beth Shemesh were too afraid to take the ark there. Instead, they sent a message to the men from Kiriath Jearim. We do not know anything about Abinadab or Eleazar. We do not know why the ark went to their house. But they knew that they had to guard it in the proper way.
The Lord Saves the Israelites from the Philistines
v2 The ark stayed at Kiriath Jearim for a long time. For 20 years the Israelites were sad. They wanted to follow the Lord again. v3 Then Samuel said to all the Israelites, "If you follow the Lord, you must do it with all your spirit. You must remove all your foreign gods and idols of Ashtoreth. You must give your lives completely to the Lord. You must serve only him. Then he will save you from the Philistines." v4 So the Israelites removed all their idols of the gods Baal and Ashtoreth. They served only the Lord.
v5 Then Samuel said, "Meet together at the town of Mizpah. I will pray to the Lord for you." v6 So they all met at Mizpah. They got water from the ground and poured it out in front of the Lord. They did not eat that day. They prayed to the Lord and confessed, "We have sinned against the Lord." Samuel ruled the Israelites at Mizpah.
Commentary
The ark stayed at Abinadab’s house until king David took it to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6). The Israelites were sad because the Philistines had killed so many Israelites. God had also killed some Israelites (6:19). A long time ago, God helped them to win their battles. Verse 3 shows the reason why he did not help them now. The *Israelites did not obey the law. The law said that they must worship only the God of Israel (Exodus 20:3). Instead, they also worshipped foreign gods and idols. God blessed the Israelites when they obeyed him. He punished them when they did not obey him. Leviticus 26 explains this.
The Israelites worshipped the gods Baal and Ashtoreth. These were the 2 main gods in the country of Canaan. Canaan was the land that God had given to the Israelites (Genesis 17:8; Joshua 14:1). We now call this country Israel. But the Israelites had not defeated all the Canaanite people. This is what they believed about their gods. Baal was a male god. He was the son of the Philistine god Dagon. He was the god of thunder and rain. He made the ground able to produce plenty of food. Ashtoreth was the goddess (female god) of love and war and fertility. ‘Fertility’ means that people and animals have many babies. It also means that crops produce a big harvest. One way that people worshipped these gods was by wrong acts of sex. This was against the law of the Lord of Israel.
The Israelites wanted to follow the Lord again. Samuel told them to remove all their idols. They had to stop their wrong behavior. They must not follow other gods. Samuel said that they had to follow the Lord with all their spirit. The Israelites had to love and trust the Lord. They should not follow him just because they wanted success. They had to change their lives completely. So, they obeyed Samuel and changed their lives. They proved that they really wanted to follow the Lord. The word in the Bible for this change of spirit and of life is repentance.
They could not meet together at Shiloh because the Philistines had ruined the town. Mizpah is about 15 miles south of Shiloh. ‘They got water from the ground and poured it out in front of the Lord’ (verse 6). ‘In front of the Lord probably means in front of the altar where they gave sacrifices. This may be a picture way to show that God forgave them. We wash things clean with water. God ‘washed away’ their sins when they confessed them to him. They did not eat that day because they were very sad about their sin. Samuel was a priest because he came from the tribe of Levi. Samuel was also a prophet because God spoke to him (chapter 3; 4:1). This day he also became the leader of the Israelites. So, Samuel led the people as the judges did in the book of Judges. He was their last leader before God gave them a king.
Meeting at Mizpah
v7 The Philistines heard that the Israelites were meeting at Mizpah. So the Philistines rulers went there to attack them. When the Israelites heard about this, they were afraid of the Philistines. v8 The Israelites said to Samuel, ‘Pray to the Lord our God for us and do not stop. Ask him to save us from the Philistines’. v9 So Samuel gave a lamb (young sheep) as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. He prayed to the Lord. Samuel asked him to help the Israelites. The Lord answered his prayer.
v10 While Samuel gave the burnt offering to the Lord, the Philistines moved nearer. They were ready to attack Israel. But the Lord made loud thunder come from heaven against the Philistines. He confused and frightened them. They started to run away. v11 The Israelite men came out from Mizpah. They chased after the Philistines to a place below Beth Car. And they killed them along the way.
v12 After this Samuel took a stone and put it up between Mizpah and Shen. He called the stone Ebenezer. He said, ‘The Lord has helped us all this way’. v13 So the Israelites defeated the Philistines. The Philistines did not attack the land of Israel again. The Lord was against the Philistines all the time that Samuel was alive. v14 Earlier, the Philistines had seized towns from the Israelites. But the Israelites won them back. These towns were from Ekron to Gath. Also, there was peace between the Israelites and the Amorite people.
v15 Samuel continued to be the ruler of the Israelites all his life. v16 Every year he went to the towns of Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah. He ruled the people in those places. v17 But Samuel always went back to his home at Ramah. He ruled the Israelites. And he built an altar to the Lord at Ramah.
Commentary
The Philistines probably thought that the Israelites were planning to attack them. So the Philistines sent their army to Mizpah. The Israelites were afraid because the Philistines had beaten them in the past. Also, the Israelites had not trained their soldiers to fight like a proper army. But this time they trusted the Lord. They knew that only he could save them. The Lord answered Samuel’s prayer as he gave the burnt offering. In these times, people thought that their gods ruled the weather. But the Lord rules the weather. Thunder is the noise that comes with a storm and lightning. Dagon was the god of thunder. So the Philistines were very afraid when they heard the loud thunder. They were confused so they ran away. It was easy for the Israelite men to fight and kill the Philistines.
Ebenezer means ‘stone of help’ or ‘stone of the helper.’ Samuel put up this stone to honor the Lord. Now that the Israelites followed the Lord with all their spirit, they were successful in their battles. The Lord was against the Philistines. They had seized many towns in Israel. The Lord helped the Israelites to get them back. Verse 13 probably means that the Philistines did not attack Israel again for a long time. The Amorite people lived in Canaan. They lived in the hills on both sides of the river Jordan. Sometimes they joined the Philistines to fight with them. Now, the Israelites and Amorites probably made a peace contract.
Samuel ruled the Israelites from his home town of Ramah. But each year he went on a 50-mile journey to 3 other important towns. He helped as a judge in their legal arguments.
|
|
