6:3What was this guilt offering supposed to accomplish? This Was a normal reaction to trouble in the Canaanite religion. The Philistines thought their problems were the resuit of their gods being angry. They recognized their guilt in taking the Ark and now were trying everything they coutd to placate Israel's God. The diviners (6:2) probably hetped choose the gift they thought would placate Yahweh. But the offering consisted of images of tumors and rats, not the kind of guilt offering prescribed in God’s laws (Leviticus 5:14-6:7; 7:1-10). How easy it is to design our own methods of acknowledging God rather than serving him in the way he requires.
Life Application Study Bible1 SamuelChapter 6
1 Samuel 6
New Living Translation · Life Application Study Bible · Original page: 416
A few verse numbers on this page were hard to read in the scan and are marked with a dotted underline — compare with the original page image if in doubt.
61 Samuel 6
1same day. He had tom his clothes and put dust on his head to show his grief. ' 3Eli was waiting beside the road to hear the news of the battle, for his heart trembled for the safety of the Ark of God. When the messenger arrived and told what had happened, an outcry resounded throughout the town. 14“What is all the noise about?” Eli asked. The messenger rushed over to Eli, 5who was ninety-eight years old and blind. '*He said to Eli, “I have just come from the battlefield—I was there this very day.” 6What happened, my son? 9Eli demanded. 17“Israel has been defeated by the Philistines,” the messenger replied. “The people have been slaughtered, and your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were also killed. And the Ark of God has been captured.” 18When the messenger mentioned what had happened to the Ark of God, Eli fell backward from his seat beside the gate. He broke his neck and died, for he was old and overweight. He had been Israel's judge for forty years. 19F]i’s daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and near her time of delivery. When she heard that the Ark of God had been captured and that her father-in-law and husband were dead, she went into labor and gave birth. 20She died in childbirth, but before she passed away the midwives tried to encourage her. “Don’t be afraid,” they said. “You have a baby boy!” But she did not answer or pay attention to them. 21She named the child Ichabod (which means “Where is the glory?”), for she said, “Israel’s glory is gone.” She named him this because the Ark of God had been captured and because her father-in-law and husband were dead. 22Then she said, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the Ark of God has been captured.”
The Ark in Philistia
After the Philistines captured the Ark of God, they took it from the battleground at..5
Textual footnotes
- 6:19 As in a few Hebrew manuscripts; most Hebrew manuscripts read 70 men, 50,000 men. Perhaps the text should
Life Application Notes 4 notes
6:7-12The Philistine priests and diviners devised a test to see if God was really the one who had caused all their recent troubles. Two cows who had just given birth were hitched to a cart and sent toward Israel’s border carrying the Ark of the Covenant. For a cow to leave her nursing calf, she would have to go against al! her motherly instincts. Only God, who has power over the natural order, could cause this to happen. God sent the cows to Israel, not to pass the Philistines’ test, but to show them his mighty power.
6:9The Philistines acknowledged the existence of the Hebrew God, but only as one of many deities whose favor they sought. Thinking of God in this way made it easy for them to ignore his demand that people worship him alone. Many people “worship” God this way. They see God as just one ingredient in a successful life. But God is far more than an ingredient—he is the source of life itself. Are you a “Philistine,” seeing God's favor as only an ingredient of the good life?
6:19Why were people killed for looking into the Ark? The Israelites had made an idol of the Ark. They had tried to harness God's power, to use it for their own purposes (victory in battle). But the LORD of the universe cannot be controlled by humans. To protect the Israelites from his power, he had warned them not even to took at the sacred sanctuary objects in the Most Holy Place or they would die (Numbers 4:20). Only Levites were allowed to move the Ark. Because of their disobedience, God carried out his promised judgment. God could not allow the people to think they could use his power for their own ends. He could not permit them to disregard his warnings and come into his presence lightly. He did not want the cycle of disrespect, disobedience, and defeat to start all over again. God did not kill the men of Beth-shemesh to be cruel. He killed them because overlooking their presumptuous sin would encourage the whole nation of Israel to ignore God.