I am going to have to keep at this book of Samuel because I
started a bit late. Here is the latest.
My
goodness! The to-do in Chapter 6 about sending the ark back! The
priests and diviners said that they must send a “trespass offering” with
it. Five golden emerods and five golden mice (they had been overrun by
mice as well hemorrhoids) were to be the offering in the hope of placating the
God of Israel.
A
digression. In reading the first few verses of Luke’s Chapter 8, I noted
that women were healed by Jesus, but we do not hear of any of the apostles
being healed. At least, I cannot think of any. Any comments?
The
chapter goes into fine detail about how they go about returning the ark. Phew!
Now
Chapter 7 takes up the ark back in the hands of the children of Israel. It seems that we leave it with the men of Kirjath-jearim for 20 years.
And
Samuel gets on with his job of sorting out the children of Israel. It
seems they were into strange gods. He told them that if they served the
Lord only, he would deliver them from the Philistines. They put away the gods
Baalim and Astaroth and served the Lord only. But perhaps that was a token
adherence, for they still feared the Philistines, asking Samuel to pray for
them. Burnt offerings were the go, so Samuel did his thing with
them. The Philistines were subdued, and Samuel was established as a judge. He "judged Israel all the days of his life.”
Joyce Voysey
1 comment:
Your aside makes me think we could do a special search of this question. The gospels do tell about the disciples failing to heal a case at one time and Jesus loving response; and we learn about Peter a few times e.g. being saved from sinking.
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