Please visit the website SaveLivesNow.org to see the property Times of Refreshing is claiming in faith as our new headquarters to save lives and train lifesavers. Then please ask God how you can be blessed to help.
Worship: For Heaven’s Sake Obedience brings blessings. Disobedience brings disaster. The Israelites still had not learned this lesson. (Read more below.)
Wellness: For Health’s Sake The wife of Priest Eli’s son Phinehas died when she learned of the death of her husband and father-in-law and that the ark of God had been possessed by the Philistines. Pastor Flemons, a doctor of biblical wellness, explained why. (Read more below.)
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TOPICS THIS WEEK – February 26 to March 4.
Worship Sunday -Samson; Monday – The Child Samuel; Tuesday – Eli and His Sons; Wednesday – The Ark Taken by the Philistines; Thursday – The Schools of the Prophets; Friday – The First King of Israel; Saturday, the Sabbath – The Presumption of Saul
[All topics per Patriarchs and Prophets (PP) by Ellen G. White, available at this link: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/pp/pp.asp.]
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Words of Encouragement
Romans 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool.
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For Heaven’s Sake…
The open sins of Eli’s sons had been allowed to continue for years after God, through the child prophet Samuel, warned of impending destruction. In this state of open sin against God, the Israelites ventured to go into battle without God’s permission and they took the ark with them. Not surprisingly, they lost the battle. There was a miserable slaughter of God’s professed people. Thirty thousand died. In the battle, not only did Eli’s sons die but the ark of God was taken by the Philistines. When Eli learned of the death of his sons and the loss of the ark, he realized that God’s presence was removed. That was more than the old heavy priest could take. He fell backward off of his seat and died of a broken neck.
Meanwhile, the Philistines exulted from their great win over God’s people and the supposed “capture” of their God. They set the ark of God next to their idol-god Dagon. The next morning, they found Dagon’s face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. Dagon’s head and palms were cut off. Only the stump was left. That was only the beginning.
Thereafter, a plague of disease and death followed wherever the Philistines placed the ark in their camp, until it was set free to miraculously return to the the camp of God’s people in Bethshemesh. But the people of Bethshemesh ventured to mishandle the ark of God and caused over fifty thousand of them to die. The ark was then taken to Kirjathjearim, where it remained twenty years.
During this time, the prophet Samuel ordered all of Israel to put away idol worship and return to God. While Samuel was leading God’s people into repentance and worship, the Philistines mistakenly took the gathering for worship to be a gathering for battle and they went to war, intending to war against the Israelites. Instead, they found themselves at war against God. God thundered storm that frustrated and brought a great loss to the army of the Philistines on the same field the ark had been taken years prior. Samuel then memorialized the event with the Ebenezer stone, saying “Hitherto hath the LORD helped us” (1 Samuel 7:12). The Philistines never again came against God’s people during the days of Samuel. And the people of God recovered all the cities the Philistines had taken from them.
The final battle will be over worship. God’s people will be thought of as a threat to the saving of a nation, when really they will only be interested in worshipping God, according to His Word. In so doing, they will be targeted for war. But God’s repentant and obedient people can take courage that He will fight for them in similar fashion.
“For nations as well as for individuals, the path of obedience to God is the path of safety and happiness, while that of transgression leads only to disaster and defeat.” (PP 591.1)
(This study is based on 1 Samuel 3 to 7 and chapter 57, “The Ark Taken by the Philistines,” in Patriarchs and Prophets (PP), by Ellen G. White, available at this link: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/pp/pp.asp.)
For Health’s Sake…
In the early stage of pregnancy, estrogen and progesterone levels are naturally increased. It is needed for a healthy pregnancy. It thickens the womb and nicely packs it with adequate blood flow for the protection of the growing fetus.
At the end of the pregnancy, estrogen spikes again to cause cramping, which causes the contractions to begin for delivery. It also causes additional blood to flow for successful delivery of the child. That is the way God designed it for birth.
In the story, the stress of the bad news caused a premature delivery. Likely, the spike of estrogen caused excessive blood loss. As a result, she most likely bled to death.
All these premature deaths happened simply because Priest Eli failed to restrain his sons as children and then failed to remove them from the ministry when they persisted in open sin as priests. But before she died, she named the child Ichabod and said, “The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken” (1 Samuel 4:22).
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