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 1st Samuel 7-9.

Let's dive right in. We've been in the middle of chaos in 1st Samuel,

as the people lost the ark to the Philistines in battle, and have been without God's presence.

Remember that the ark is the ark of the covenant. In humanize, it would just look like a sacred

or nate box being carried on poles by priests. But this was no ordinary object.

It was the sight God chose to dwell with his people. The ark symbolized his presence.

In the last episode, the ark returned to Israel, and God's people did not have to even go out looking for it.

The Lord brought the cart back himself. He was in full control of the entire situation,

and he used his absence from his people to make his presence known to the Philistines.

The enemies of Israel. We also learned in yesterday's reading that when the ark returns to Israel,

it goes to the people of Beth Shamash. But they are careless with it, and some of the men look inside.

This is an obvious disregard for God's holiness, so people from the town are struck down as a consequence.

The people of Beth Shamash imitate the Philistines, and they send the ark away.

After it being gone for so long, they are willing to part with it.

I think this may show us the spiritual condition of Israel at the time.

There is an unawareness of who God is, and there is also no understanding of how to repent.

We see this again when the ark ends up in Curious Jiram.

It remains there are twenty years before the people lament and ask Samuel to help them have restoration with the Lord.

They are most likely being ruled by the Philistines at this point, and things must have been getting pretty bad.

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