Through the Bible – Day 94

_1-2Samuel served the LORD by helping Eli the priest, who was by that time almost blind. In those days, the LORD hardly ever spoke directly to people, and he did not appear to them in dreams very often. But one night, Eli was asleep in his room, ₃and Samuel was sleeping on a mat near the sacred chest in the LORD's house. They had not been asleep very long ₄when the LORD called out Samuel's name.

“Here I am!” Samuel answered. ₅Then he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am. What do you want?”

“I didn't call you,” Eli answered. “Go back to bed.”

Samuel went back.

₆Again the LORD called out Samuel's name. Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am,” he said. “What do you want?”

Eli told him, “Son, I didn't call you. Go back to sleep.”

₇The LORD had not spoken to Samuel before, and Samuel did not recognize the voice. ₈When the LORD called out his name for the third time, Samuel went to Eli again and said, “Here I am. What do you want?”

Eli finally realized that it was the LORD who was speaking to Samuel. ₉So he said, “Go back and lie down! If someone speaks to you again, answer, ‘I'm listening, LORD. What do you want me to do?’ ”

Once again Samuel went back and lay down.

₁₀The LORD then stood beside Samuel and called out as he had done before, “Samuel! Samuel!”

“I'm listening,” Samuel answered. “What do you want me to do?”

₁₁The LORD said:

₁₅The next morning, Samuel got up and opened the doors to the LORD's house. He was afraid to tell Eli what the LORD had said. ₁₆But Eli told him, “Samuel, my boy, come here!”

“Here I am,” Samuel answered.

₁₇Eli said, “What did God say to you? Tell me everything. I pray that God will punish you terribly if you don't tell me every word he said!”

₁₈Samuel told Eli everything. Then Eli said, “He is the LORD, and he will do what's right.”

₁₉As Samuel grew up, the LORD helped him and made everything Samuel said come true. ₂₀From the town of Dan in the north to the town of Beersheba in the south, everyone in the country knew that Samuel was truly the LORD's prophet. ₂₁The LORD often appeared to Samuel at Shiloh and told him what to say.

₁Then Samuel would speak to the whole nation of Israel.

One day the Israelites went out to fight the Philistines. They set up camp near Ebenezer, and the Philistines camped at Aphek. ₂The Philistines made a fierce attack. They defeated the Israelites and killed about four thousand of them.

₃The Israelite army returned to their camp, and the leaders said, “Why did the LORD let us lose to the Philistines today? Let's get the sacred chest where the LORD's agreement with Israel is kept. Then the LORD will help us and rescue us from our enemies.”

₄The army sent some soldiers to bring back the sacred chest from Shiloh, because the LORD All-Powerful has his throne on the winged creatures on top of the chest.

As Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, ₅brought the chest into camp, the army cheered so loudly that the ground shook. ₆The Philistines heard the noise and said, “What are those Hebrews shouting about?”

When the Philistines learnt that the sacred chest had been brought into the camp, ₇they were scared to death and said:

₁₀The Philistines did fight. They killed thirty thousand Israelite soldiers, and all the rest ran off to their homes. ₁₁Hophni and Phinehas were killed, and the sacred chest was captured.

₁₂That same day a soldier from the tribe of Benjamin ran from the battlefront to Shiloh. He had torn his clothes and put earth on his head to show his sorrow. ₁₃He went into town and told the news about the battle, and everyone started crying.

Eli was afraid that something might happen to the sacred chest. So he was sitting on his chair beside the road, just waiting. _14-15He was ninety-eight years old and blind, but he could hear everyone crying, and he asked, “What's all that noise?”

The soldier hurried over and told Eli, ₁₆“I escaped from the fighting today and ran here.”

“Young man, what happened?” Eli asked.

₁₇“Israel ran away from the Philistines,” the soldier answered. “Many of our people were killed, including your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. But worst of all, the sacred chest was captured.”

₁₈Eli was still sitting on a chair beside the wall of the town gate. And when the man said that the Philistines had taken the sacred chest, Eli fell backwards. He was a very heavy old man, and the fall broke his neck and killed him. He had been a leader of Israel for forty years.

₁₉The wife of Phinehas was about to give birth. And soon after she heard that the sacred chest had been captured and that her husband and his father had died, her baby came. The birth was very hard, ₂₀and she was dying. But the women taking care of her said, “Don't be afraid—it's a boy!”

She didn't pay any attention to them. _21-22Instead she kept thinking about losing her husband and her father-in-law. So she said, “My son will be named Ichabod, because the glory of Israel left our country when the sacred chest was captured.”

₁The Philistines took the sacred chest from near Ebenezer to the town of Ashdod. ₂They brought it into the temple of their god Dagon and put it next to the statue of Dagon, which they worshipped.

₃When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, they found the statue lying face down on the floor in front of the sacred chest. They put the statue back where it belonged. ₄But early the next morning, it had fallen over again and was lying face down on the floor in front of the chest. The body of the statue was still in one piece, but its head and both hands had broken off and were lying on the stone floor in the doorway. ₅This is the reason the priests and everyone else step over that part of the doorway when they enter the temple of Dagon in Ashdod.

₆The LORD caused a lot of trouble for the people of Ashdod and their neighbours. He made sores break out all over their bodies, and everyone was in a panic. ₇Finally, they said, “The God of Israel did this. He is the one who caused all this trouble for us and our god Dagon. We've got to get rid of this chest.”

₈The people of Ashdod called all the Philistine rulers to Ashdod, and they asked them, “What can we do with the sacred chest that belongs to the God of Israel?”

“Send it to Gath,” the rulers answered. But after they took it there, ₉the LORD made sores break out on everyone in town. The people of Gath were frightened, ₁₀so they sent the sacred chest to Ekron. But before they could take it through the town gates, the people of Ekron started screaming, “They've brought the sacred chest that belongs to the God of Israel! It will kill us and our families too!”

₁₁The people of Ekron called for another meeting of the Philistine rulers and told them, “Send this chest back where it belongs. Then it won't kill us.”

Everyone was in a panic, because God was causing a lot of people to die, ₁₂and those who had survived were suffering from the sores. They all cried to their gods for help.

₁After the sacred chest had been in Philistia for seven months, ₂the Philistines called in their priests and fortune-tellers, and asked, “What should we do with this sacred chest? Tell us how to send it back where it belongs!”

₃“Don't send it back without a gift,” the priests and fortune-tellers answered. “Send along something to Israel's God to make up for taking the chest in the first place. Then you will be healed, and you will find out why the LORD was causing you so much trouble.”

₄“What should we send?” the Philistines asked.

The priests and fortune-tellers answered:

₁₀The Philistines followed their advice. They hitched up the two cows to the cart, but they kept their calves in a barn. ₁₁Then they put the chest on the cart, along with the bag that had the gold rats and sores in it.

₁₂The cows went straight up the road towards Beth-Shemesh, mooing as they went. The Philistine rulers followed them until they got close to Beth-Shemesh.

₁₃The people of Beth-Shemesh were harvesting their wheat in the valley. When they looked up and saw the chest, they were so happy that they stopped working and started celebrating.

_14-15The cows left the road and pulled the cart into a field that belonged to Joshua from Beth-Shemesh, and they stopped beside a huge rock. Some men from the tribe of Levi were there. So they took the chest off the cart and placed it on the rock, and then they did the same thing with the bag of gold rats and sores. A few other people chopped up the cart and made a fire. They killed the cows and burnt them as sacrifices to the LORD. After that, they offered more sacrifices.

₁₆When the five rulers of the Philistines saw what had happened, they went back to Ekron that same day.

₁₇That is how the Philistines sent gifts to the LORD to make up for taking the sacred chest. They sent five gold sores, one each for their towns of Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. ₁₈They also sent one gold rat for each walled town and for every village that the five Philistine rulers controlled. The huge stone where the Levites set the chest is still there in Joshua's field as a reminder of what happened.

₁₉Some of the men of Beth-Shemesh looked inside the sacred chest, and the LORD God killed seventy of them. This made the people of Beth-Shemesh very sad, ₂₀and they started saying, “No other God is like the LORD! Who can go near him and still live? We'll have to send the chest away from here. But where can we send it?”

₂₁They sent messengers to tell the people of Kiriath-Jearim, “The Philistines have sent back the sacred chest. Why don't you take it and keep it there with you?”

₁The people of Kiriath-Jearim got the chest and took it to Abinadab's house, which was on a hill in their town. They chose his son Eleazar to take care of it, ₂and it stayed there for twenty years.

During this time everyone in Israel was very sad and begged the LORD for help.

_18-19John's followers told John everything that was being said about Jesus. So he sent two of them to ask the Lord, “Are you the one we should be looking for? Or must we wait for someone else?”

₂₀When these messengers came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to ask, ‘Are you the one we should be looking for? Or are we supposed to wait for someone else?’ ”

₂₁At that time Jesus was healing many people who were sick or in pain or were troubled by evil spirits, and he was giving sight to a lot of blind people. ₂₂Jesus said to the messengers sent by John, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard. Blind people are now able to see, and the lame can walk. People who have leprosy are being healed, and the deaf can now hear. The dead are raised to life, and the poor are hearing the good news. ₂₃God will bless everyone who doesn't reject me because of what I do.”

₂₄After John's messengers had gone, Jesus began speaking to the crowds about John:

₂₉Everyone had been listening to John. Even the tax collectors had obeyed God and had done what was right by letting John baptize them. ₃₀But the Pharisees and the experts in the Law of Moses refused to obey God and be baptized by John.

₃₁Jesus went on to say: