ripple effect: vacaville

Read 1 Samuel 8:1-5.

[Stuff we’re skipping over…

* OK, so Israel gets their butts kicked by the Philistines. And, in the words of the leprechaun, they asked themselves, “Where’s me lucky charms?” They try, along with Eli’s moron sons, to use the ark of the covenant as a luck charm or a weapon (see the Nazis in Indiana Jones); and they end up getting the thing captured! Also, our boys Hophni and Phinehas died that day. When a messenger told Eli what had happened, he fell back, broke his neck, and died (the Bible says he was old and “heavy”). Phinehas’ wife ended up having a baby that day and naming him Ichabod.

* Meanwhile, the Philistines had brought the ark to the temple of Dagon (a fish-man). The next day, they went inside and the statue of Dagon had fallen face first (prostrate?) before the ark. They put it back; and then, the next day, it fell on its face with its head and hands falling off. Also, every Philistine town that housed the ark became cursed—the men would get tumors and die. They’d move the ark from town to town, but wherever they went they would get sick and die. So they decided that they should probably give the ark back.

* OK, so they had the ark for seven months; and it wasn’t really working out for the Philistines. So the “holy” guys of the Philistines decided that they way to go would be for them to give the ark back (taken by two cows) and with a box containing five golden TUMORS and five golden MICE. Yeah…those Philistines had style. Interestingly enough, the leaders cite Pharaoh’s stubbornness and all that happened to him in Egypt as the reason that they should “glorify” God with a guilt offering and give the ark back.

* The men of Beth-shemesh saw the ark coming over the hill on the backs of some cows, and they called up the Levites. They killed the two cows as a sacrifice right then and there. Seventy men from Beth-shemesh died, though, because they tried to peek inside the ark. Because they got scared to “possess” the ark, they had some guys from Kiriath-jearim take it. They held it in the home of a man named Abinadab. His son Eleazar was set apart as a priest to care for the ark. It stayed there for 20 years. All of Israel mourned the loss because they now couldn’t have the ark in a central place like Shiloh (where it was before).

* Samuel told the people that they needed to get rid of their idols to Baal and Asherah and get real with God. They said they would at a large gathering. During this gathering, the Philistines attacked; but, since the people offered sacrifices and humility to God, God caused the Philistines to get thrown into confusion and be defeated. Then it says that Samuel went on to judge Israel by going from city to city throughout his life. Whew…]

1. OK…down to the nitty gritty. Samuel seemed to have the same problem Eli had: bad sons…Joel and Abijah were supposed to be priests, but they took bribes instead.
2. Major transition…the Israelites realized that this whole “judge” thing wasn’t going to work for them if Samuel’s sons were idiots…so they decided that they wanted a king instead. Like little children, their plea included, “Everybody else is doing it!” Uh oh. Was Israel ever supposed to be like everybody else?
3. What do you think could be some positives of having a king? I mean, in a way, are the Israelites “proving” that this whole judges thing doesn’t work for them?
4. Then again, what are the negatives?