Samuel Before Saul Part1
12 Judges in the book of Judges
In 1Samuel two more judges
13) Eli [1Sam 4:18] judged Israel for 40 yrs. Served as both high priest and judge.
14) [1Sam 7:15] Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.
**Samuel before Saul
Ch1 Samuel’s birth and his being dedicated to the service of the LORD before Eli, the priest, by his mother Hannah.
Ch2:1-10 Hannah’s prayer of worship
Ch2:11-34 The failure of the house of Eli, the arm of Aaron
· V12, 17 Eli’s were called sons of Belial who knew not the LORD. Eli failed to teach his sons to know the LORD
· Vs27-34 The high priesthood of Eli’s house would be brought to an end because of his wicked sons. [1King 2:27]
· Vs36-35 Prophesy of the faithful priest to come.
· The Duel Fulfillment
Ø The sons of Zadok: Eze 44:15-30
Ø The BRANCH: Zech 6:12-13
Ø The nation of Israel: Ex 19:6; Isa 61:6, 66:21
Ch 3:1-18 The LORD speaks to Samuel in a dream and confirmed the end of Eli’s house as the line of the high priests. [Num 12:6-8]
Vs15-18 The burden revealing the prophesy to Eli
· Nan 1:1; Hab 1:1; Zec 9:1; Mal 1:1; Eze 12:9-10
· Ch3:1-20 The LORD confirmed Samuel as His prophet to all of Israel in Shiloh.
· The Duel Fulfillment of Deu 18:15, 18-19
Ø Samuel: 1Sam 3:20
Ø Jesus Christ: Acts 3:12-26; 7:37
Ch4: Eli, Samuel and Eli’s sons Hophni and Phinehas were all in Shiloh where the tabernacle was raise up by Joshua.
V1-2 Israel was still living under the rule of the Philistines Sampson only began to deliver Israel out of their hands [Jug 13:5]
· Israel rebelled against the Philistines and they were defeated.
· V3 Their answer: bring the ark of the covenant out of the tabernacle in Shiloh into the camp.
V4 They went to Shiloh andentered the most holy place and carried the ark from between the cherubims. Note; God’s glory was not with the ark in the most holy place but the wicked Hophni and Phinehas were there with the ark. [4:4]
· Lev 3 The LORD separated the Levites for the care of the tabernacle .V10 Aaron and his sons were appointed to fill the office of priests.
· Lev 4:5 When the tabernacle was to be taken down the sons of Aaron covered vessels of the tabernacle before it was moved by the other families of the Levites. [V15]
V6 The Philistines heard the great noise of Israel over the presence of the ark and were afraid.
V7-8 Note: God, Gods: The Philistines could not believe that the God of Israel could be only one God; they believed no one god could do all that was done to Egypt.
Vs9-21he LORD’s answer: the ark was captured by the Philistines and was in their possession for 7 months.
· The prophesy of Ch3 of the cutting off of the house of Eli began to be fulfilled. The sons of Belial {Hophni and Phinehas} were slain.
· When Eli, in Shiloh, heard all that happened he fell backward in his chair and broke his neck. Eli’s daughter in law delivered a son and called his named Ichabod: the glory of the LORD departed.
Ch5-6:12 The Philistines place the ark in the house of Dagon their god the idol falls down twice toward the ark. The second time the head and hands of Dagon were cut off, only a stub remained.
· The ark was sent to Gath and Ekron where there was much destruction and the LORD smote the men with emerods and many died.
· Ch6 The Philistines placed 5 golden emerods and 5 golden mice [V5-6, 17-18] in a coffer beside the ark and sent it back to Israel. They considered theses as a trespass offering.
· They knew better than to open the ark and put the jewels inside the ark. They used a new cart drawn by two milch kine with calves.
Ø V5 it seems the Philistines recognized the God of Israel was greater than their gods. They did not want to worship or turn to the God of Israel only appease Him so He would lighten His hand upon their gods.
Ø How often did the LORD God of Israel show His supreme power over the gods of the Gentile nation, proving that the Gentiles
· V12 they kept the claves from the milch kine so they would low or bellow as they pulled the cart back to Israel.
· The Philistines wanted to express their lamenting over the LORD”s curse of their land.