Welcome to a year in the Bible with daily grace. The Bible tells one big story of redemption.

And we want to spend five minutes every day, journeying through the Bible from start to finish,

and exploring how all of it points to Jesus.

Hey everyone, my name is Miranda, and today we are looking at first Samuel 4-6.

Let's dive right in. In the last episode, we saw how Samuel is a picture of our great high priest, Jesus,

because he is faithful in preaching the Word of God.

Samuel is contrasted with the sons of Eli, Hoffney, and Phineas, who are wicked and unfaithful priests

who led the people astray. God was allowing everything Samuel prophesied to come true,

and one of the things Samuel had declared was that Eli's line would be brought to destruction.

At the beginning of chapter 4, we learned that Israel is going out to battle against one of their bitter enemies, the Philistines.

Israel's defeated, and they lose about 4,000 men.

This immediately makes Israel stop, and question what in the world was going on? They were God's people. Why did they lose?

Israel should have asked what sin was present that needed to be dealt with since their loss,

signaled a problem in their covenant relationship with the Lord.

But Israel had been in spiritual disarray for a long time.

Instead, the people decide they will take the ark of the covenant to help them win in battle.

The ark of the covenant was a symbol of God's presence with his people, and it was very sacred and holy.

Yet in this instance, the Israelites are treating it as nothing more than a good luck charm.

When the ark comes into the camp, the people shout, and the Philistines are afraid.

They hear the ark has arrived, and they know that the God of the Hebrews is there, and they have heard of what this God can do.

They show more reverence towards him than his own people, and even though the ark is being lugged around on the battlefield,

the Israelites lose even worse than before.

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