1 Samuel 5:4-6 - The Lord's hand was heavy on the people

5:4,5

The next morning the same thing had happened, but even worse this time. Dagon had again fallen down on his face before the Ark, but this time his head and hands had broken off. We human beings pride ourselves on being rational and intelligent, but if this was genuinely true the Philistines would have worked out by this point that their god Dagon wasn’t up to much. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov 9:10) and knowledge (Prov 1:7). When we abandon God our thinking becomes futile (Rom 1:22,23).

5:6

What should the Philistines have done? They should have repented, acknowledged that the Lord was God, given the evidence that they had seen in their temple. However, they did not. So the people were afflicted with “tumours”. These may not necessarily have been cancerous tumours. One suggestion is that they were afflicted with bubonic plague, a symptom of which can be lumps of various sorts.

1 Corinthians 1:5-7 - You have been enriched in every way

1:5,6

Paul is still preparing the ground before he starts to deal with the serious issues which abounded in Corinth. These issues included specific items, such as lawsuits and incest, but there were also serious attitudinal matters. Indeed these wrong attitudes could be said to lie at the root of many of the problems. One of these was a competitive nature, wanting to prove oneself better than others, or boasting about what we have and what we can do. One of these was the matter of spiritual gifts, and taking pride in wisdom or speaking ability. Paul begins by recognising that these are good gifts. Paul then reminds them that these confirm the testimony that Paul and his companions had given them about Jesus Christ. 

1:7

So it is good that they “do not lack any spiritual gift”. This may have been said somewhat tongue in cheek. The Corinthians actually needed a lot more knowledge and wisdom than they thought they had. Moreover, they should have been waiting for “our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed”, i.e. waiting for the return of Christ. Paul is aiming to get them to put their primary focus on Jesus Christ.

1 Samuel 5:1-3 - Dagon fell on his face before the ark of God

5:1

The Philistines had defeated Israel, they had also captured the ark of God and so thought that they had defeated God. They were very much mistaken about this. Remember also that Eli was distraught at the capture of the Ark. They were both very much mistaken and lacked understanding. Today the church often fails badly, and we may be dismayed when this happens. We are right to be dismayed, but it does not mean that “God is defeated”. We should be dismayed at man’s sin, at our failure, but God has not failed. 

5:2,3

In their ignorance the Philistines took the Ark to Ashdod and carried it into the temple of their god, Dagon. Dagon was a fertility god of some description. They probably thought that their god had defeated the God of Israel. They could not have been more wrong. In the morning they found the idol Dagon fallen down on its face before the ark. They completely failed to understand, and thought that putting the idol back upright would solve the problem. They didn’t seem to ask how the idol had fallen down in the first place, nor the symbolism of it having fallen down on its face before the Ark.

1 Corinthians 1:3,4 - Grace given to you in Christ

1:3

This verse is very typical of Paul’s introductions, and is the blessing that occurs in most of them. We need grace and peace, and these are given to us from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Note the equivalence of the Father and the Son. Notions that the divinity of Christ was a later addition to Christian theology are completely without foundation. Note also that God is our Father, there is a personal relationship here, and it is quite amazing that the creator of the whole universe should be our Father!

1:4

As with most letters, Paul then gives thanks for the church in Corinth. The one exception to this is the church in Galatia. It may seem surprising to us that Paul gives thanks for them, given the mess the church is in. However, Paul still sees that God is at work in the church. We can look at a church (or even ourselves) and see all the things that are wrong. We should not overlook these things, but we should seek to correct them. Things can only be corrected if the grace of God is at work in our lives. We are utterly dependent upon the grace of God, but when the grace of God is at work all things are possible.

1 Samuel 4:14-22 - The Glory has departed from Israel

4:14-18

Eli heard the uproar, but didn’t know what had happened. One could maybe see him as the Joe Biden of his day!  The Benjamite told Eli all that had happened. This included the great losses, the death of his two sons, and the capture of the Ark. On hearing of the loss of the Ark Eli fell backwards, broke his neck and died. It seems that the loss of the Ark was of most concern to him. He had probably written off his two sons, they got what they deserved. We are now told that Eli had “led” or “judged” the nation for forty years.

4:19-22

The death in the family of Eli continued. The wife of Phinehas was pregnant and about to give birth. The news of the death of her husband and father-in-law sent her into labour.  She gave birth, but died as a result. She did, however, have time to name the child in a meaningful way. She called him Ichabod, which means “no glory”, and declared that “the Glory has departed from Israel”, because the ark had been captured. Our reaction may well be to think it unfair of God to take her life, but the wife saw the true meaning and importance of the event more clearly. It is also interesting that both the wife here, and Eli, saw the capture of the Ark as the more significant event, more significant than the death of their loved ones.

1 Corinthians 1:2 - To the church of God

1:2

This is a little different from the normal introduction, though not massively so. Paul refers to the Corinthians as “the church of God '', as “those sanctified in Christ Jesus”, and those “called to be His holy people”. Given the state of the church in Corinth, and the issues that the letter goes on to address, this introduction seems somewhat out of place. One might reasonably think that the church was anything but holy and sanctified! However, Paul was reminding them of who they were in Christ, and therefore how they should be living. First, they are God’s church, not their own. The church is Christ’s body, not our body. We are part of the body, but the body belongs to Christ. We live for His sake. We have been sanctified in Christ and called to be holy. We have not been called to be like the world, but to be like Jesus. We are called for His purposes, not for the world’s purposes. Therefore we should live Christlike lives, not worldly lives. The church today badly needs to remind itself of this.

Paul then reminds them that they are part of the global church, i.e. “together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”. We belong to and serve the same Lord.

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.