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Permalink Reply by Mary O on October 30, 2015 at 6:56am

1 Samuel 2:12-17 -- God's anger starts back a ways.

I can't cut and paste on this computer. In vs. 12 the sons of Eli are called sons of belial, very serious accusation and serious line to cross. The sons of belial are usually scoundrels, shifty characters, no scruples and bring false accusations. (bad to the bone) Plus they bring terrible harm to God's people which is hard to believe because they are Eli's sons. It's heartbreaking. They were fooling around with the offering of the LORD. Vs. 17 says that their sin was very great before the LORD for men abhorred (hated) the offering of the LORD.

There was a lot of drama in the house of the LORD. Eli, why aren't you correcting your sons? To have his sons' sin be so severe people hate the offering of the LORD. I can't imagine hating giving or tithing. Can you?

The ark eventually comes back to Israel. I love that the statue of dagon falls before the ark. The Philistines try to place the ark before the statue of dagon. It's a god that has something to do with a fish.

Love,

God

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Permalink Reply by Tammy on November 2, 2015 at 4:14pm

Vs 8-11 

Who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty Gods? The Philistines are the real believers in this situation; they know what God can do and tremble before Him. Nevertheless, the Philistines encourage themselves to hope against hope and fight valiantly to defeat Israel. Neither side is aware that God is working behind the scenes to accomplish His will. Thirty thousand. This number seems very large; but such large losses have been recorded by other historians, and it must be remembered that this was an international war as the instrument of God’s judgment upon Israel for idolatry and sin (see Ps 78:56–64). The ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain. This is the fulfillment of the two prophetic messages of the man of God in chapter 2, and of Samuel in chapter 3 and is the real reason for Israel’s defeat in the battle.

12–18. A man of Benjamin out of the army. His presence supports the idea of a very large army from the whole nation, rather than a small tribal force. Thus, the loss of thirty thousand is not incredible. With his clothes rent. The tearing of one’s clothes and throwing dirt upon one’s head were customary ways of showing sorrow and grief. This was a great national tragedy. Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside watching. The word order here follows the Hebrew literally (using the Qere for “beside”); the apparent difficulty of the man getting by Eli may be partially explained by the Septuagint reading, “Eli sat on his bench beside the gate watching the road.” Also, Eli was nearly blind and probably did not see the messenger pass. Eli surely would have expected bad news, and this was no doubt the reason for his position beside the gate. He now heard the moaning and called for an explanation, What meaneth the noise of this tumult? The man had to explain who he was and where he had just come from because Eli’s eyes were dim, that he could not see. It is interesting that it was at the mention of the ark of God that Eli collapsed and died. This was the key in God’s judgment against the nation; the ark symbolized God’s presence with His people. The writer stresses that not even the death of Eli’s sons was as great a disaster to him as the loss of the ark.

 Edward E. Hindson and Woodrow Michael Kroll, eds., KJV Bible Commentary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1994), 541.

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