The Berean Pursuit
And the boy Samuel ministered to the LORD before Eli.
Now in those days the word of the LORD was rare and visions were scarce. And at that time Eli, whose eyesight had grown so dim that he could not see, was lying in his room.
Before the lamp of God had gone out, Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was located.
Then the LORD called to Samuel, and he answered, "Here I am."
He ran to Eli and said, "Here I am, for you have called me."
"I did not call," Eli replied. "Go back and lie down."
So he went and lay down.
Once again the LORD called, "Samuel!"
So Samuel got up, went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you have called me."
"My son, I did not call," Eli replied. "Go back and lie down."
Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, because the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. Once again, for the third time, the LORD called to Samuel. He got up, went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you have called me."
Then Eli realized that it was the LORD who was calling the boy. "Go and lie down," he said to Samuel, "and if He calls you, say, 'Speak, LORD, for Your servant is listening.'"
So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
Then the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, "Samuel! Samuel!"
And Samuel answered, "Speak, for Your servant is listening."
Then the LORD said to Samuel, "I am about to do something in Israel at which the ears of all who hear it will tingle. On that day I will carry out against Eli everything I have spoken about his family, from beginning to end. I told him that I would judge his house forever for the iniquity of which he knows, because his sons blasphemed God and he did not restrain them. Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli, 'The iniquity of Eli's house shall never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.'"
Samuel lay down until the morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the LORD. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, but Eli called to him and said, "Samuel, my son."
"Here I am," answered Samuel.
"What was the message He gave you?" Eli asked. "Do not hide it from me. May God punish you, and ever so severely, if you hide from me anything He said to you."
So Samuel told him everything and did not hide a thing from him.
"He is the LORD," replied Eli. "Let Him do what is good in His eyes."
And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and He let none of Samuel's words fall to the ground.
So all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the LORD. And the LORD continued to appear at Shiloh, because there He revealed Himself to Samuel by His word.
Thus the word of Samuel came to all Israel.
Now the Israelites went out to meet the Philistines in battle and camped at Ebenezer, while the Philistines camped at Aphek. The Philistines arrayed themselves against Israel, and as the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who struck down about four thousand men on the battlefield.
When the troops returned to the camp, the elders of Israel asked, "Why has the LORD brought defeat on us before the Philistines today? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Shiloh, so that it may go with us to save us from the hand of our enemies."
So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the LORD of Hosts, who sits enthroned between the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
When the ark of the covenant of the LORD entered the camp, all the Israelites raised such a great shout that it shook the ground.
On hearing the noise of the shout, the Philistines asked, "What is this loud shouting in the camp of the Hebrews?"
And when they realized that the ark of the LORD had entered the camp, the Philistines were afraid. "The gods have entered their camp!" they said. "Woe to us, for nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness. Take courage and be men, O Philistines! Otherwise, you will serve the Hebrews just as they served you. Now be men and fight!"
So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and each man fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great-thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell. The ark of God was captured, and Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died.
That same day a Benjamite ran from the battle line all the way to Shiloh, with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. When he arrived, there was Eli, sitting on his chair beside the road and watching, because his heart trembled for the ark of God.
When the man entered the city to give a report, the whole city cried out.
Eli heard the outcry and asked, "Why this commotion?"
So the man hurried over and reported to Eli. Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his gaze was fixed because he could not see.
"I have just come from the battle," the man said to Eli. "I fled from there today."
"What happened, my son?" Eli asked.
The messenger answered, "Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been a great slaughter among the people. Your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are both dead, and the ark of God has been captured."
As soon as the ark of God was mentioned, Eli fell backward from his chair by the city gate, and being old and heavy, he broke his neck and died. And Eli had judged Israel forty years.
Now Eli's daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and about to give birth. When she heard the news of the capture of God's ark and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband, she collapsed and gave birth, for her labor pains overtook her.
As she was dying, the women attending to her said, "Do not be afraid, for you have given birth to a son!"
But she did not respond or pay any heed. And she named the boy Ichabod, saying, "The glory has departed from Israel," because the ark of God had been captured and her father-in-law and her husband had been killed.
"The glory has departed from Israel," she said, "for the ark of God has been captured."
After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod, carried it into the temple of Dagon, and set it beside his statue.
When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.
But when they got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD, with his head and his hands broken off and lying on the threshold. Only the torso remained. That is why, to this day, the priests of Dagon and all who enter the temple of Dagon in Ashdod do not step on the threshold.
Now the hand of the LORD was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity, ravaging them and afflicting them with tumors. And when the men of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, "The ark of the God of Israel must not stay here with us, because His hand is heavy upon us and upon our god Dagon."
So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked, "What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?"
"It must be moved to Gath," they replied. So they carried away the ark of the God of Israel.
But after they had moved the ark to Gath, the LORD's hand was also against that city, throwing it into great confusion and afflicting the men of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumors.
So they sent the ark of God to Ekron, but as it arrived, the Ekronites cried out, "They have brought us the ark of the God of Israel in order to kill us and our people!"
Then the Ekronites assembled all the rulers of the Philistines and said, "Send away the ark of the God of Israel. It must return to its place, so that it will not kill us and our people!"
For a deadly confusion had pervaded the city; the hand of God was heavy upon it. Those who did not die were afflicted with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.
A Psalm of David.
The LORD is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
for the sake of His name.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.
In those days when the disciples were increasing in number, the Grecian Jews among them began to grumble against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.
So the Twelve summoned all the disciples and said, "It is unacceptable for us to neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. Therefore, brothers, select from among you seven men confirmed to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will appoint this responsibility to them and will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word."
This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, as well as Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these seven to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
So the word of God continued to spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem grew rapidly, and a great number of priests became obedient to the faith.
Now Stephen, who was full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. But resistance arose from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and men from the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. They began to argue with Stephen, but they could not stand up to his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.
Then they prompted some men to say, "We heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God."
So they stirred up the people, elders, and scribes and confronted Stephen. They seized him and brought him before the Sanhedrin, where they presented false witnesses who said, "This man never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. For we have heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us."
All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.