1 Samuel 4:10-13 - The Israelites were defeated

4:10,11

So the Philistines continued to fight, and they defeated Israel again. This time the losses were even greater, thirty thousand. Why did the Ark have no effect on the battle? It was because it was not a “lucky charm”. Israel’s problem was her sin, her abandonment of the ways of God. Israel needed to repent.

As well as losing the battle, the Ark of the Covenant was also captured, and Eli’s two sons both died. The prophecies against Eli’s family were being fulfilled, and more was to come.

4:12,13

Eli “feared for the ark of God”. He probably didn’t think that taking it out into battle was such a good idea, and thought that it might well be captured. Eli was “watching”, though since he was blind he wouldn’t see much. A Benjamite came from the battle, with all his clothes torn in rags, and with dust on his head. The man informed the town of Shiloh of how badly things had gone, so the whole town was in fear.

1 Corinthians 1:1 - By the will of God

1:1

The introduction to Paul’s letter is fairly typical of the introductions to most of his letters. He starts off by introducing himself as “an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God”. Sometimes today the term apostle is bandied about far too freely, and seen as a status symbol. This is not the way that Paul used it. First, we must understand that with respect to people like Peter, John , Paul etc it had a particular relevance, including being a direct witness of Jesus Christ, His resurrection and what He did (Acts 1:21,22). With regard to this, Paul was somewhat unusual, as he acknowledges in this very letter (1 Cor 15:8). Paul is an apostle “of Christ Jesus”. No one was an apostle for their own sake, but for the sake of Jesus Christ. Then he was an apostle “by the will of God”. This is abundantly clear from the Damascus road account in Acts 9. Paul did not apply for the job! He was told by Christ that he was going to do it. Sosthenes is also mentioned. Sosthenes had been the synagogue leader in Corinth (Acts 18:17), this may or may not be the same person. I incline to think he was, it seems he was known by the church in Corinth.

1 Samuel 4:5-9 - Be strong, Philistines!

4:5,6a

Initially it seems that their reasoning was correct. On the appearance of the Ark, all Israel raised an enormous shout. It was so loud that the Philistine camp  heard it as well. However, Israel was treating the Ark more as a luck charm than the actual presence of God. If they had treated it as the actual presence of God then the nation would have gone into deep repentance.  We all need to be very wary of treating religious practices of any sort as “lucky charms”.

4:6b-9

Initially the Philistines were wracked with fear. What had happened in Egypt many years ago was apparently well known in the region, and the Philistines feared that a similar thing would happen to them. Notice that they say “they are the gods ...” While they were aware of the historical events they thought the Israelite God was just the same as other “gods”. Now if they were afraid at this point, why weren't they afraid to attack in the first place? Maybe they thought the “gods” were no longer with Israel (which in a sense was true!), but when the Ark was brought out and they heard the great shout this caused them to reassess the situation. Whatever the case, instead of giving in to fear, they rallied themselves together, not wanting to be enslaved by the Hebrews.

1 Corinthians - Introduction (Part 2)

The letter was written in AD 54 or 55 from Ephesus. It is believed that there were four Corinthian letters in all, though, of course, we only have two of them. There was a letter written previous to 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians itself, a “severe letter” written after 1 Corinthians, and then 2 Corinthian. It is also believed that Paul made three visits there. There is the initial visit when the church was founded and reported in Acts 18, a painful visit, and a visit sometime after 2 Corinthians.

There are a number of sections which are introduced by “Now about ....”, so it seems that the church had asked Paul about various matters. Paul also received visits from people from Corinth who reported to him various concerns about life in the church. The fundamental problem in the church was worldliness, a habit of going along with the world, or at least significant compromise. When this happens the church loses its sharpness, but worse than that it ends up being even worse than the world! The most blatant example of this in the church was the overlooking of incest. In today’s church compromise is a serious issue, and the church has become ineffective. Moreover, the church that compromises ends up just looking stupid.

The letter is one of the longer epistles and covers many subjects. Underlying it all is, of course, that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Saviour. The doctrine of the Trinity is pervasive throughout. The other doctrinal feature that receives more detailed attention than elsewhere is the resurrection. Obviously, the resurrection is pervasive to all the New Testament preaching and teaching, but in 1 Corinthians 15 it receives focused attention and explanation. The letter is well known for chapters 12 and 14 dealing with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but that is far from being the only mention of the Holy Spirit. In addition, the letter deals with a number of specific questions, including marriage, sexual immorality, the Lord’s Supper, divisions, and proprietary in worship.

1 Samuel 4:1-4 - Why did the Lord bring defeat upon us?

4:1

This is another case of a chapter division being put in a rather odd place. The start of 4:1, “And Samuel’s word came to all Israel” would seem to be better placed at the end of the previous chapter. Chapters 4-6 will actually contain nothing directly about Samuel, rather describing the situation into which he would prophecy. It starts out with the Israelites going out to fight against the Philistines.

4:2,3

Initially the Philistine forces are deployed in an orderly manner, but as soon as battle commences the order tends to disappear. This is typical of most warfare. It has been said that precise battle plans rarely last beyond the first shot being fired. However, the Philistines did rather well in this battle, and Israel was defeated and lost four thousand men.

4:4

On returning to the camp the elders of Israel asked “why did the Lord bring defeat to us today?” They seem to have assumed that they almost had a right to win, that the Lord’s backing was almost automatic. The history of the Judges should have taught them otherwise, but they are about to learn the lesson again. Their response is to bring out the Ark of the Covenant. They reasoned that this would mean that the Lord would be with them and so they would win!

1 Corinthians - Introduction (Part 1)

Introduction

While writing these notes I am working through the following commentary:

1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary (TNTC), 2015, Thomas R Schreiner

And a lot of the introductory information, in particular, comes from there.

The city of Corinth was near two important ports, Cenchreae and Lechaeum. It was a wealthy city because of its commerce. These two harbours provided access to Italy and to Asia, making it an important trading centre. The city was Roman in nature at the time of Paul, and this is significant in understanding the passages on head coverings and the Lord’s supper. The city had been destroyed in 146 BC because of its rebelliousness. Julius Caesar reestablished the city in 44 BC, but now with a distinctively Roman flavour.

It had a diverse population, including Jews. Acts 18:1-11 tells us that it had at least one synagogue. The population was somewhere between 80,000 and 100,000. They worshipped many gods, athletics played a significant role in city life. There were temples to Apollo, Aphrodite, Poseidon, Asclepius, Demeter and Kore, and a host of other gods played a role in city life. It was normal to worship several gods. So Judaism and Christianity were unusual in their devotion to the one God. Christianity stood out from Judaism in its lack of cultural practices such as circumcision, Sabbaths etc. Later on the Christians would be branded as atheists because of their refusal to worship a whole panoply of gods. Because of the nature of the city the temptation to compromise was significant. Corinth was also known for its sexual immorality.

We  read about Paul’s initial visit to Corinth in Acts 18:1-8, when Paul founded the church there. This probably happened in about AD 50. Priscilla and Aquila worked with Paul in setting up the church (Acts 18:1-3). In fact, these two make a number of appearances in the New Testament. Initially, as was his practice, Paul went to the synagogue, but after being thrown out, he went next door! It is likely that the church was predominantly Gentile, though there would undoubtedly be a number of Jews. With that came a significant amount of sexual immorality, much of which is addressed in the letter. There were a large number of slaves in Corinth, with slavery being an integral part of the economy in most nations. And it seems that a number of these were in the church. While a large part of the church came from the lower classes, there were some rich and higher class people, and issues related to this are also addressed.

1 Samuel 3:15-21 - He revealed Himself to Samuel through His word

3:15-17

Samuel lay down pondering these things, aware of the awesomeness of them. He did not want to tell Eli what the Lord had said to him. Few, not even Samuel, enjoy giving bad news to people. This time Eli calls Samuel and inquires as to what the Lord said to him. Eli had received the words of the prophet some time ago, and knew that they would come to pass at some point. He instructs Samuel to tell him the truth, otherwise Samuel would suffer judgement.

3:18-21

Samuel now tells Eli all that the Lord had said. Eli, having received the earlier word, accepted what Samuel said, knowing that it was indeed from the Lord. Eli was resigned to the matter. After this Samuel continued to grow. Traditionally it is believed that Samuel was twelve years old when these things happened, and that would make sense. Moreover, all of Israel recognised that Samuel was a prophet of the Lord. None of the judges had been recognised as men of God. The Lord continued to “reveal Himself to Samuel through His word”. It is through His word that God reveals Himself to us.