FROM TODAY’S RECAP: - Leviticus 1:3 - Numbers 4:5-6 - Deuteronomy 17:14-20 - TBR Large Print Note: We provide links to specific resources; this is not an endorsement of the entire website, author, organization, etc. Their views may not represent our own. SHOW NOTES: - Follow The Bible Recap: Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | YouTube - Follow Tara-Leigh Cobble: Instagram - Read/listen on the Bible App or Dwell App - Learn more at our Start Page - Become a RECAPtain - Shop the TBR Store - Credits PARTNER MINISTRIES: D-Group International Israelux The God Shot TLC Writing & Speaking DISCLAIMER: The Bible Recap, Tara-Leigh Cobble, and affiliates are not a church, pastor, spiritual authority, or counseling service. Listeners and viewers consume this content on a voluntary basis and assume all responsibility for the resulting consequences and impact.
Full Episode
Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Today, Israel goes to war with one of their most well-known enemies, the Philistines. Israel loses and they attribute the loss to God. But instead of consulting him to find out where they went wrong, they decide that what they need is the Ark of the Covenant.
They think it'll act like a lucky charm for them, so they go to Shiloh to retrieve it. Hothni and Phinehas, Eli's wicked sons, help carry it off to battle. Then Israel loses this battle too, along with 30,000 men. Eli's back home at Shiloh when a messenger comes to tell him everything. We lost the battle, your sons are dead, and the ark has been captured.
Eli knew his sons were going to die on the same day because this was prophesied to him in what we read yesterday. So while that's heartbreaking, it comes as no surprise. However, having the ark stolen was an unexpected tragedy for the entire nation of Israel. This was, by far, the most significant loss of all. When Eli heard that bit of news, he fell over, broke his neck, and died.
Meanwhile, Eli's grandson Ichabod is about to be born. His father has just died in battle, and then his mother dies in childbirth. Back at the battlefield, the Philistines believe they've defeated Yahweh since they've captured what they think is Him. They've conflated God with the golden box that serves as His earthly throne.
They put the Ark in their pagan temple alongside the god they worship, Dagon. So Yahweh does something that is both humorous and weighty. He knocks the statue of Dagon face down in front of the Ark in a posture of worship.
The Philistines set Dagon back up again, and then the next day, not only is Dagon prostrate in front of the ark again, but the hands and head of the statue of Dagon have been severed and are set in the entryway, which makes it clear that they didn't just break off during the fall. Yahweh continues to afflict the Philistines.
There are five main Philistine cities, and they keep moving the ark around from city to city, but no matter where they take it, the people of that city are afflicted with tumors, and some die. Commentators can't agree on what the tumors were about. Ideas range from the bubonic plague to some kind of STD to hemorrhoids. For seven months, this continues.
The Philistines are so distraught that they want to send the Ark back to Israel. So they consult with their own priests and diviners to find out how to go about this. The priests tell them to send a guilt offering along with the Ark to appease the Israelite God.
The guilt offering should be five golden tumors, one for every city in Philistia, and five golden mice, because God maybe also struck the five cities with a mouse infestation that ravaged their land and crops. The text isn't really clear on that. The priest also gave instructions to build a cart for the ark and have that cart pulled by two milk cows. Why milk cows?
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