Wed 80 - 1 Samuel 6–8 · Acts 7 - FeedTheGoodHorse
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Day 80: 1 Samuel 6–8 · Acts 7 · Commentary · Commentary² · Audio
The Bible text is included for reading continuity; it is accurate in substance, aligned with major modern translations, and may be read alongside any Bible you prefer.1
Special Note about the following Bible text: The following translation uses the Hebrew terms tamé (טָמֵא) and tahor (טָהוֹר) instead of the traditional “unclean” and “clean.” These terms describe ritual status in relation to sanctuary access, not moral fault, shame, or physical dirtiness. A fuller explanation will follow in a dedicated article.
1 Samuel 6
The ark of the Lord was in the territory of the Philistines seven months.
The Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it back to its place.”
They said, “If you send back the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but return to him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will become known to you why his hand has not turned away from you.”
They said, “What is the guilt offering that we should return to him?”
They said, “Five gold tumors and five gold mice, according to the number of the rulers of the Philistines, because one plague has been on all of you and on your rulers. Make images of your tumors and images of your mice that devastate the land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand from you and from your gods and from your land.
Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After he dealt harshly with them, did they not send the people away, and they departed?
Now take and prepare a new cart, and two milk cows on which there has never been a yoke. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away from them and send them home. Then take the ark of the Lord and place it on the cart, and put the objects of gold that you are returning to him as a guilt offering in a box beside it. Then send it off and let it go.
Watch: if it goes up by the way to its own territory, to Beth-shemesh, then he has done this great harm to us. But if not, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance.”
The men did so. They took two milk cows and hitched them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home.
They placed the ark of the Lord on the cart, and the box with the gold mice and the images of their tumors.
The cows went straight on the road toward Beth-shemesh. They went along one highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines went after them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.
The people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting their wheat in the valley. When they lifted their eyes and saw the ark, they rejoiced to see it.
The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stood there, beside a large stone. They split up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord.
The Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the box beside it in which were the objects of gold, and set them on the large stone. The men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices to the Lord that day.
When the five rulers of the Philistines saw it, they returned that same day to Ekron.
These are the gold tumors that the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to the Lord: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron; and the gold mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five rulers, both fortified cities and unwalled villages. The large stone beside which they set down the ark of the Lord remains in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh to this day.
He struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they looked into the ark of the Lord. He struck seventy men of the people, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great blow.
The men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? To whom shall he go up away from us?”
So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up to you.”
1 Samuel 7
The men of Kiriath-jearim came and took up the ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill. They consecrated Eleazar his son to guard the ark of the Lord.
From the day that the ark remained at Kiriath-jearim, many days passed—twenty years in all—and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.
Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve him alone, and he will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.”
So the people of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and served the Lord alone.
Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you.”
They gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord. They fasted that day and said there, “We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah.
When the Philistines heard that the people of Israel had gathered at Mizpah, the rulers of the Philistines went up against Israel. When the people of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines.
The people of Israel said to Samuel, “Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, so that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines.”
Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him.
As Samuel was offering the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with a loud thunder on that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel.
The men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them down as far as below Beth-car.
Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Up to this point the Lord has helped us.”
So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel. The hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.
The cities that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath, and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites.
Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.
He went on a circuit year by year to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah, and he judged Israel in all those places.
Then he would return to Ramah, for his house was there, and there he judged Israel. He also built an altar there to the Lord.
1 Samuel 8
When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges over Israel.
The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second was Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba.
Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after dishonest gain. They took bribes and distorted justice.
Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.
They said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”
But this matter displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the Lord.
The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in everything they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.
Just as they have done from the day that I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you.
Now listen to their voice. Only you must solemnly warn them and tell them the ways of the king who will reign over them.”
So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king.
He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and they will run before his chariots.
He will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.
He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.
He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants.
He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officials and to his servants.
He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work.
He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you will become his servants.
On that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you on that day.”
But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel. They said, “No, but there shall be a king over us,
so that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”
When Samuel heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord.
The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to their voice and appoint a king for them.”
Then Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Each of you go to his city.”
Acts 7
Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
Stephen said, “Siblings and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, ‘Leave your land and your relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.’ Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God moved him to this land in which you now live. He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, even though he had no child.
God spoke in this way: that his offspring would live as foreigners in another land, and they would enslave them and mistreat them for four hundred years. ‘But I will judge the nation they serve,’ God said, ‘and after that they will come out and serve me in this place.’ He gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
The patriarchs, becoming jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt, but God was with him and rescued him out of all his troubles and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.
Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great hardship, and our ancestors could not find food. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our ancestors the first time. On the second visit Joseph made himself known to his siblings, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. Then Joseph sent and called for Jacob his father and all his relatives, seventy-five persons in all. Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our ancestors. They were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt until another king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. This king dealt shrewdly with our people and mistreated our ancestors, forcing them to abandon their infants so that they would not survive.
At this time Moses was born, and he was pleasing to God. He was raised for three months in his father’s house, and when he was abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and raised him as her own son. Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds.
When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his siblings, the children of Israel. Seeing one of them being wronged, he defended him and avenged the one being mistreated by striking down the Egyptian. He supposed that his siblings would understand that God was giving them rescue through his hand, but they did not understand.
The next day he appeared to them as they were fighting and tried to reconcile them to peace, saying, ‘Men, you are siblings; why are you harming one another?’ But the one who was wronging his neighbor pushed him aside, saying, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ At this remark Moses fled and became a foreigner in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he approached to look, the voice of the Lord came to him: ‘I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ Moses trembled and did not dare to look.
Then the Lord said to him, ‘Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I have surely seen the mistreatment of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’
This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and rescuer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.
This is the Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your siblings.’ This is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai and with our ancestors; he received living words to give to us.
Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him, but pushed him aside, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, saying to Aaron, ‘Make gods for us who will go before us, for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt—we do not know what has happened to him.’ They made a calf in those days, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.
But God turned away and handed them over to serve the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:
‘Did you bring to me slain animals and sacrifices
forty years in the wilderness, house of Israel?
You took up the tent of Moloch
and the star of your god Rephan,
the images that you made to worship,
and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’
Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the wilderness, just as the one who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. Our ancestors in turn brought it in with Joshua when they took possession of the land of the nations that God drove out before the face of our ancestors, until the days of David, who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But Solomon built a house for him.
Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands, as the prophet says:
‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord,
or what is the place of my rest?
Did not my hand make all these things?’
You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your ancestors did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered—you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
When they heard these things, they were enraged in their hearts and ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. He said, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
But they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and rushed together at him. They threw him out of the city and began stoning him. The witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
While they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this wrongdoing against them.” And after saying this, he died.
Commentary - Day 80
1 Samuel 6–8 · Acts 7
Summary:
In 1 Samuel 6, the Philistines return the ark using a new cart and two milk cows, watching as the animals walk straight toward Beth-shemesh, where celebration turns to fear when men look into the ark. In 1 Samuel 7, after many years, the people remove foreign gods, gather at Mizpah, and watch Samuel set a stone called Ebenezer to mark remembered help. In 1 Samuel 8, corruption among Samuel’s sons leads the elders to demand a king, choosing visible rule despite warnings about loss of land, labor, and freedom.
In Acts 7, Stephen retells the long history of rejected leaders—from Joseph to Moses—before being dragged outside the city and stoned, while Saul stands nearby watching.
Teaching the Pattern Through the Stories
The opening movement in 1 Samuel 6 shows what happens when people realize they are dealing with something they cannot control. The Philistines have held the ark for seven months, and trouble has followed it wherever it has gone. Instead of keeping it as a trophy, they begin asking how to send it back. Their priests tell them not to return it empty, so they craft gold images of the tumors and mice that have plagued their land. Then they place the ark on a new cart, hitch two milk cows to it, and send the cart off without guiding it. The cows walk straight toward Beth-shemesh, lowing as they go, never turning aside. The rulers follow behind at a distance, watching to see whether this movement will confirm what they suspect—that the trouble came from the God of Israel.
When the ark arrives in the fields near Beth-shemesh, the people rejoice at first. They split the wood of the cart and offer the cows as sacrifices. But celebration turns quickly to fear when some of the men look into the ark and many are struck down. The same object that brought victory in earlier times now exposes danger when handled carelessly. The people ask a hard question: Who can stand before this holy God? Instead of keeping the ark nearby, they send messengers to Kiriath-jearim to have it taken away. The lesson unfolding here is not about possession but about recognition—learning that sacred things cannot be treated as ordinary tools.
The next stage unfolds in 1 Samuel 7, where time passes—twenty years—while the ark rests in Kiriath-jearim. The people begin to feel the weight of distance and loss, and Samuel calls them to remove the foreign gods they have kept among them. They gather at Mizpah, pour out water, fast, and admit their failure openly. This is not sudden change but deliberate removal—physically putting away the objects that had divided their loyalty. When the Philistines approach again, fear rises, but this time the response is different. Samuel offers a nursing lamb and cries out, and during the battle thunder breaks across the field, throwing the Philistines into confusion. Afterward, Samuel sets up a stone between Mizpah and Shen and names it Ebenezer, marking the place as a memory of help received. A visible object now serves as remembrance, not as a weapon.
The shift becomes clearer in 1 Samuel 8, when the people begin asking for something else—a king. Samuel has grown old, and his sons, appointed as judges, take bribes and distort justice. Instead of correcting the corruption, the elders gather and demand a ruler like the surrounding nations. They want someone who will lead their armies and fight their battles. Samuel warns them carefully, describing what such a king will do—take their sons, fields, flocks, and labor. The warning is detailed and concrete: chariots, taxes, forced service. Yet the people refuse to listen. They repeat their request until it is granted. The turning point here is subtle but decisive: rather than trust what has guided them so far, they choose visible power that looks like what others possess.
At the same time, Acts 7 records a long speech that looks backward before it moves forward. Stephen stands before the council and begins retelling the story of Abraham leaving his homeland, Joseph being sold into Egypt, Moses rejected by his own people, and the long years of wandering in the wilderness. Each section of his speech follows the same pattern: a leader is raised, the people resist him, and only later do they recognize what was given to them. He speaks of Moses being questioned—“Who made you ruler and judge?”—and of the golden calf made when patience failed. He reminds them that even the temple, built by Solomon, cannot contain the presence of God. The history he tells is not random; it builds toward a confrontation.
The speech ends sharply. Stephen accuses his listeners of repeating the same pattern of resistance—rejecting those sent to guide them. The reaction is immediate. The crowd becomes enraged, drags him outside the city, and stones him. As this happens, witnesses lay their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul, marking the entrance of someone who will become important later. Stephen dies while calling out for forgiveness for those killing him, echoing the long history he has just described—resistance met with persistence.
Taken together, these chapters teach a repeated movement that unfolds across different settings. People first react to trouble by trying to manage it—like the Philistines testing the cows, or Israel demanding a king. Then comes a slower recognition that change requires removal—foreign gods set aside, past patterns named aloud. Finally, choices become visible in action: stones set up to remember help, rulers demanded to provide security, witnesses silenced when their words become uncomfortable. Across all of this, the pattern is not hidden. It is seen in carts rolling across roads, stones placed between towns, speeches spoken before councils, and decisions repeated until their consequences take shape.
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