WEBVTT NOTE This file was generated by Descript 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.140 Ethan: Welcome to Immerse: the daily bible reading experience. 00:00:03.257 --> 00:00:04.667 Day 100 and 86 00:00:04.868 --> 00:00:07.538 the Ark of the Lord remained in Philistine territory. 00:00:07.538 --> 00:00:08.738 Seven months in all. 00:00:09.368 --> 00:00:13.958 Then the Philistines called in their priests and diviners and asked them, what 00:00:13.958 --> 00:00:15.758 should we do about the ark of the Lord? 00:00:16.238 --> 00:00:18.668 Tell us how to return it to its own country. 00:00:19.568 --> 00:00:22.598 Send the Ark of the God of Israel back with a gift. 00:00:22.658 --> 00:00:23.378 They were told. 00:00:23.948 --> 00:00:26.558 Send a guilt offering so the plague will stop. 00:00:27.053 --> 00:00:31.433 Then if you are healed, you will know it was his hand that caused the plague. 00:00:32.273 --> 00:00:34.493 What sort of guilt offering should we send? 00:00:34.643 --> 00:00:37.013 They asked and they were told. 00:00:37.373 --> 00:00:43.283 Since the plague has struck both you and your five rulers make five gold tumors and 00:00:43.288 --> 00:00:48.983 five gold rats, just like those that have ravaged your land, make these things to 00:00:48.983 --> 00:00:51.773 show honor to the God of Israel, perhaps. 00:00:51.773 --> 00:00:55.403 Then he will stop afflicting you, your gods and your land. 00:00:56.168 --> 00:01:00.068 Don't be stubborn and rebellious as Pharaoh and the Egyptians were. 00:01:00.668 --> 00:01:04.928 By the time God was finished with them, they were eager to let Israel go. 00:01:05.978 --> 00:01:10.898 Now build a new cart and find two cows that have just given birth to calves. 00:01:11.498 --> 00:01:14.168 Make sure the cows have never been yoked to a cart. 00:01:14.918 --> 00:01:18.698 Hitch the cows to the cart, but shut their calves away from them in a pen. 00:01:19.298 --> 00:01:24.128 Put the arc of the Lord on the cart and beside it, place a chest containing 00:01:24.128 --> 00:01:27.788 the gold rats and gold tumors you are sending as a guilt offering. 00:01:28.508 --> 00:01:30.818 Then let the cows go wherever they want. 00:01:31.478 --> 00:01:36.098 If they cross the border of our land and go to Beth Shems, we will 00:01:36.103 --> 00:01:39.248 know it was the Lord who brought this great disaster upon us. 00:01:39.878 --> 00:01:41.618 If they don't, we will know. 00:01:41.618 --> 00:01:43.988 It was not his hand that caused the plague. 00:01:44.378 --> 00:01:45.998 It came simply by chance. 00:01:47.438 --> 00:01:49.298 So these instructions were carried out. 00:01:49.988 --> 00:01:52.958 Two cows were hitched to the cart, and their newborn 00:01:52.958 --> 00:01:54.788 calves were shut up in a pen. 00:01:55.598 --> 00:01:59.588 Then the arc of the Lord and the chest containing the gold rats and gold 00:01:59.588 --> 00:02:04.598 tumors were placed on the cart, and sure enough, without veering off in 00:02:04.603 --> 00:02:09.848 other directions, the cows went straight along the road toward Beth Shem lowing. 00:02:09.848 --> 00:02:13.988 As they went, the Philistine rulers followed them as far 00:02:13.988 --> 00:02:15.728 as the border of Beth Shemesh. 00:02:16.853 --> 00:02:20.783 The people of Beth Shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley, and when 00:02:20.783 --> 00:02:23.153 they saw the ark, they were overjoyed. 00:02:23.843 --> 00:02:27.143 The cart came into the field of a man named Joshua and 00:02:27.143 --> 00:02:28.973 stopped beside a large rock. 00:02:29.483 --> 00:02:33.023 So the people broke up the wood of the cart for a fire and killed 00:02:33.023 --> 00:02:36.593 the cows and sacrificed them to the Lord as a burnt offering. 00:02:37.403 --> 00:02:40.973 Several men of the tribe of Levi lifted the arc of the Lord and 00:02:40.973 --> 00:02:45.443 the chest containing the gold rats and gold tumors from the cart and 00:02:45.448 --> 00:02:47.093 placed them on the large rock. 00:02:47.783 --> 00:02:51.173 Many sacrifices and burnt offerings were offered to the Lord that 00:02:51.173 --> 00:02:53.453 day by the people of Beth Shamus. 00:02:54.083 --> 00:02:56.993 The five Philistine rulers watched all this and then 00:02:56.993 --> 00:02:58.943 returned to Akron that same day. 00:03:00.053 --> 00:03:03.023 The five gold tumors sent by the Philistines as a guilt 00:03:03.023 --> 00:03:06.443 offering to the Lord were gifts from the rulers of Ash stud. 00:03:06.998 --> 00:03:10.418 Gaza, Ashlan, Gath, and Akron. 00:03:11.138 --> 00:03:15.128 The five gold rats represented the five Philistine towns and their 00:03:15.128 --> 00:03:18.728 surrounding villages, which were controlled by the five rulers. 00:03:19.328 --> 00:03:23.558 The large rock at Beth Shamus, where they set the Ark of the Lord still 00:03:23.558 --> 00:03:27.248 stands in the field of Joshua as a witness to what happened there. 00:03:28.418 --> 00:03:32.048 But the Lord killed 70 men from Beth Shamus because they 00:03:32.048 --> 00:03:33.938 looked into the ark of the Lord. 00:03:34.493 --> 00:03:38.753 The people mourned greatly because of what the Lord had done, who is able 00:03:38.753 --> 00:03:40.673 to stand in the presence of the Lord. 00:03:40.673 --> 00:03:45.533 This holy God, they cried out, where can we send the ark from here? 00:03:46.523 --> 00:03:51.803 So they sent messengers to the people at Ky Jiram and told them the Philistines 00:03:51.803 --> 00:03:53.273 have returned the ark of the Lord. 00:03:53.273 --> 00:03:54.383 Come here and get it. 00:03:55.223 --> 00:03:58.823 So the men of Curth, JIRAM came to get the ark of the Lord. 00:03:59.588 --> 00:04:03.968 They took it to the hillside home of Abada and ordered Eliezer, 00:04:03.998 --> 00:04:05.948 his son to be in charge of it. 00:04:06.728 --> 00:04:11.408 The ark remained in Kieth GM for a long time, 20 years in. 00:04:11.413 --> 00:04:15.938 All during that time, all Israel mourned because it seemed 00:04:15.943 --> 00:04:17.708 the Lord had abandoned them. 00:04:19.328 --> 00:04:23.618 Then Samuel said to all the people of Israel, if you want to return to 00:04:23.618 --> 00:04:27.908 the Lord with all your hearts, get rid of your foreign gods and your 00:04:27.908 --> 00:04:32.918 images of eth, turn your hearts to the Lord and obey him alone. 00:04:33.188 --> 00:04:35.648 Then he will rescue you from the Philistines. 00:04:36.188 --> 00:04:39.968 So the Israelites got rid of their images of Baal and eth 00:04:40.298 --> 00:04:41.948 and worshiped only the Lord. 00:04:43.298 --> 00:04:47.618 Then Samuel told them, gather all of Israel to mpa and I 00:04:47.618 --> 00:04:49.148 will pray to the Lord for you. 00:04:49.898 --> 00:04:54.998 So they gathered at MPA and in a great ceremony, drew water from a well 00:04:55.058 --> 00:04:56.768 and poured it out before the Lord. 00:04:57.548 --> 00:05:01.058 They also went without food all day and confessed that they 00:05:01.058 --> 00:05:02.618 had sinned against the Lord. 00:05:03.158 --> 00:05:06.878 It was at MSPA that Samuel became Israel's judge. 00:05:07.958 --> 00:05:12.038 When the Philistine rulers heard that Israel had gathered at mpa, they 00:05:12.038 --> 00:05:14.228 mobilized their army and advanced. 00:05:14.798 --> 00:05:17.618 The Israelites were badly frightened when they learned that the 00:05:17.618 --> 00:05:21.998 Philistines were approaching Don't stop pleading with the Lord our God, 00:05:22.003 --> 00:05:23.798 to save us from the Philistines. 00:05:24.038 --> 00:05:25.058 They begged Samuel. 00:05:25.678 --> 00:05:30.848 So Samuel took a young lamb and offered it to the Lord as a whole burnt offering. 00:05:31.298 --> 00:05:35.108 He pleaded with the Lord to help Israel and the Lord answered him. 00:05:36.098 --> 00:05:40.148 Just as Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines 00:05:40.148 --> 00:05:42.098 arrived to attack Israel. 00:05:42.848 --> 00:05:46.148 But the Lord spoke with a mighty voice of thunder from heaven that 00:05:46.148 --> 00:05:50.228 day, and the Philistines were thrown into such confusion that 00:05:50.228 --> 00:05:51.878 the Israelites defeated them. 00:05:52.628 --> 00:05:57.128 The men of Israel chased them from SBA to a place below Beth Carr, 00:05:57.368 --> 00:05:59.558 slaughtering them all along the way. 00:06:00.488 --> 00:06:05.918 Samuel then took a large stone and placed it between the towns of SBA and Ana. 00:06:06.428 --> 00:06:09.968 He named it Ebenezer, which means the stone of help. 00:06:10.268 --> 00:06:15.548 For, he said, up to this point, the Lord has helped us, so the 00:06:15.548 --> 00:06:20.258 Philistines were subdued and didn't invade Israel again for some time. 00:06:20.948 --> 00:06:24.458 And throughout Samuel's lifetime, the Lord's Powerful hand was 00:06:24.458 --> 00:06:26.468 raised against the Philistines. 00:06:27.113 --> 00:06:31.733 The Israelite villages near Akron and Gaff that the Philistines had captured 00:06:31.973 --> 00:06:35.843 were restored to Israel along with the rest of the territory that the 00:06:35.843 --> 00:06:41.123 Philistines had taken, and there was peace between Israel and the Amorites. 00:06:41.183 --> 00:06:42.143 In those days. 00:06:43.523 --> 00:06:46.943 Samuel continued as Israel's judge for the rest of his life. 00:06:47.633 --> 00:06:51.713 Each year he traveled around setting up his court, first at Bethel, 00:06:52.013 --> 00:06:54.373 then at Gilgel, and then at mspa. 00:06:55.073 --> 00:06:58.163 He judged the people of Israel at each of these places. 00:06:58.883 --> 00:07:03.383 Then he would return to his home at Rama and he would hear cases there too. 00:07:03.863 --> 00:07:06.923 And Samuel built an altar to the Lord at Rama. 00:07:08.873 --> 00:07:11.723 This concludes today's immerse reading experience. 00:07:11.873 --> 00:07:12.923 Thank you for joining us.