Today is the ninth day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. Welcome back to the global

campfire. I'm Brian. It is an honor and a joy and a privilege. And I am grateful to be here

with you today as we, well, as we experience the 20th, May 9th in a row,

but as we take the next step forward because we got to the 20th one by day by day step by step

taking every single step every single day to get here so I'm glad that we got here

I'm glad that we can be here together and take another step forward

as we continue into the future together so So we're in the book of Samuel, first Samuel, and we're learning about Samuel and how he was raised, how he came up, his story.

We also understand that this is the time of the judges, So it's a little bit of a crazy time.

Eli, the high priest, is a judge of Israel at this point.

It's been a battle.

And it's been with the Philistines.

And it's been tragic.

The Ark of the Covenant has been captured by the Philistines,

which is profoundly symbolic for the covenant that it represents and its brokenness.

Let's take the next step forward.

1st Samuel, chapters 5, 6, and 7 today.

Now the Philistines had captured the Ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.

The Philistines took the Ark of God and brought it into the Temple of Dagon, where they positioned it beside Dagon.

When the residents of Ashdod got up early the next day, Dagon was lying on the ground before the Ark of the Lord.

So they took Dagon and set him back in his place.

But when they got up early the following day,

Dagon was again lying on the ground before the Ark of the Lord.

...