Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today, Israel goes to war with one of their most well-known enemies, the Philistines. Israel loses,

and they attribute the loss to God. but instead of consulting him to find out where

they went wrong, they decide that what they need is the Ark of the Covenant. They think it'll

act like a lucky charm for them, so they go to Shiloh to retrieve it. Hoffney and Phineas, Eli's wicked

sons, helped carry it off to battle. Then Israel loses this battle too, along with 30,000 men.

Eli's back home at Shiloh when a messenger comes to tell him everything. We lost the battle,

your sons are dead, and the ark has been captured. Eli knew his sons were going to die on the

same day because this was prophesied to him in what we read yesterday. So while that's heartbreaking,

it comes as no surprise.

However, having the ark stolen was an unexpected tragedy for the entire nation of Israel.

This was, by far, the most significant loss of all. When Eli heard that bit of news,

he fell over, broke his neck, and died. Meanwhile, Eli's grandson,

Iqabod is about to be born. His father has just died in battle, and then his mother dies in childbirth.

Back at the battlefield, the Philistines believe they've defeated Yahweh since they've captured what they

think is him. They've conflated God with the golden box

that serves as his earthly throne. They put the ark in their pagan temple alongside the God they worship,

Dagon. So Yahweh does something that is both humorous and weighty. He knocks the statue of Dagon

face down in front of the ark in a posture of worship.

The Philistines set Dagon back up again, and then the next day, not only is Dagon prostrate in front of the ark again, but the hands and head of the statue of Dagon have been severed

and are set in the entryway, which makes it clear that they didn't just break off during the fall.

Yahweh continues to afflict the Philistines.

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