“Turn It Around”
Click below to download the Cornerstone Connections leader’s guide and student lesson. This week’s resources also include two lesson plans and a discussion starter video which offer different ways of looking at the topic. Each lesson plan includes opening activities, scripture passages, discussion questions, and real-life applications.
The story of the ark shows God as holy, just, yet full of mercy.
Patriarchs and Prophets (Beginning of the End), Chapter 57
Punishment, the Ark Taken
SCRIPTURE PASSAGES
OVERVIEW
When was the last time you wanted something so bad it hurt? I’m not talking about a passing fancy, but something that was so important to you that you made it a significant priority to attempt to get it. How many times did you ask God to help you find a way to make it possible? How many times did it seem that God didn’t answer, or He said no? Did you give up or did you keep looking, hoping, or praying that somehow, some way God would allow you to have your heart’s desires? Our lesson today is about that same kind of want/hope/need. As you study today’s lesson, keep an open mind and see what God is trying to tell you about how He answers prayers and how He wants to live in your life.
OPENING ACTIVITY: CHECK IN
No matter who you are, how you are feeling impacts your attitude and how you look at your day. Have you ever wondered what’s going on in the life of someone who just blew up at you? Have you ever tried to put yourself in someone else’s position when they told you no or ignored your opinion or advice? How you view scripture, relationships, or God is deeply impacted by the events in your life and the lives of others. Today, as we open scripture, take a moment to answer the following questions and share with the group, if you are comfortable:
Now that you have taken a moment to be self-aware, remember how your feelings may impact your view of the story in today’s lesson. Take a moment to clear your head and pray asking God to take the distractions of your life and your conscious or unconscious bias away so that the principles of the story of Samuel can become clear to you.
TRANSITION
To be a woman in Biblical times was different than it is today. According to the social norms women weren’t considered equal to men nor did they have the same rights. Childbearing was one of those factors that upped the value of a wife. A woman who had lots of children, especially boys, was held in higher esteem than one who couldn’t have children. The beginning of our story today is about a wife who couldn’t have children so she bargained with God hoping that somehow a divine intervention would happen and she would have a child. God answered her prayer and she kept her part of the bargain which meant leaving her son in the care of Eli. It may not seem like too good of a deal, but the outcome of the deal was that Samuel began to serve the Lord at a very young age and his mother was blessed by God. Now to scripture.
BIBLE STUDY GUIDE
Historical Setting
Have you ever wondered if it was easier to have a relationship with God in Biblical times? Especially in the setting of today’s lesson, the people of Israel had the Ark of the Covenant that had been with them since their time in the desert when God visibly lead and fed His people. Today, in many ways, the closest we get to a visible understanding of God is when people go to the Middle East and walk where Jesus and His disciples walked and visit historical sites. Understanding this concept will help us understand what happens in our lesson.
Read 1 Samuel 3:1-18.
The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.
2 One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. 4 Then the Lord called Samuel.
Samuel answered, “Here I am.” 5 And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.
6 Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
“My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”
7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.
8 A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. 9 So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
10 The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”
Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
11 And the Lord said to Samuel: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle. 12 At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family—from beginning to end. 13 For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons blasphemed God, and he failed to restrain them. 14 Therefore I swore to the house of Eli, ‘The guilt of Eli’s house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.’ ”
15 Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of the Lord. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, 16 but Eli called him and said, “Samuel, my son.”
Samuel answered, “Here I am.”
17 “What was it he said to you?” Eli asked. “Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you.” 18 So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, “He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.”
DISCUSSION
Read 1 Samuel 4:1-10.
And Samuel’s word came to all Israel.
Now the Israelites went out to fight against the Philistines. The Israelites camped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines at Aphek. 2 The Philistines deployed their forces to meet Israel, and as the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand of them on the battlefield. 3 When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why did the Lord bring defeat on us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the Lord’s covenant from Shiloh, so that he may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies.”
4 So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim. And Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
5 When the ark of the Lord’s covenant came into the camp, all Israel raised such a great shout that the ground shook. 6 Hearing the uproar, the Philistines asked, “What’s all this shouting in the Hebrew camp?”
When they learned that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp, 7 the Philistines were afraid. “A god has come into the camp,” they said. “Oh no! Nothing like this has happened before. 8 We’re doomed! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? They are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness. 9 Be strong, Philistines! Be men, or you will be subject to the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Be men, and fight!”
10 So the Philistines fought, and the Israelites were defeated and every man fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great; Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. 11 The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died.
DISCUSSION
Read 1 Samuel 5:1-12.
After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2 Then they carried the ark into Dagon’s temple and set it beside Dagon. 3 When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. 4 But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained. 5 That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon’s temple at Ashdod step on the threshold.
6 The Lord’s hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity; he brought devastation on them and afflicted them with tumors. 7 When the people of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, “The ark of the god of Israel must not stay here with us, because his hand is heavy on us and on Dagon our god.” 8 So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked them, “What shall we do with the ark of the god of Israel?”
They answered, “Have the ark of the god of Israel moved to Gath.” So they moved the ark of the God of Israel.
9 But after they had moved it, the Lord’s hand was against that city, throwing it into a great panic. He afflicted the people of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumors. 10 So they sent the ark of God to Ekron.
As the ark of God was entering Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They have brought the ark of the god of Israel around to us to kill us and our people.” 11 So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, “Send the ark of the god of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it will kill us and our people.” For death had filled the city with panic; God’s hand was very heavy on it. 12 Those who did not die were afflicted with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.
DISCUSSION
Read 1 Samuel 6:1-12.
When the ark of the Lord had been in Philistine territory seven months, 2 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.”
3 They answered, “If you return the ark of the god of Israel, do not send it back to him without a gift; by all means send a guilt offering to him. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand has not been lifted from you.”
4 The Philistines asked, “What guilt offering should we send to him?”
They replied, “Five gold tumors and five gold rats, according to the number of the Philistine rulers, because the same plague has struck both you and your rulers. 5 Make models of the tumors and of the rats that are destroying the country, and give glory to Israel’s god. Perhaps he will lift his hand from you and your gods and your land. 6 Why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When Israel’s god dealt harshly with them, did they not send the Israelites out so they could go on their way?
7 “Now then, get a new cart ready, with two cows that have calved and have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up. 8 Take the ark of the Lord and put it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to him as a guilt offering. Send it on its way, 9 but keep watching it. If it goes up to its own territory, toward Beth Shemesh, then the Lord has brought this great disaster on us. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us but that it happened to us by chance.”
10 So they did this. They took two such cows and hitched them to the cart and penned up their calves. 11 They placed the ark of the Lord on the cart and along with it the chest containing the gold rats and the models of the tumors. 12 Then the cows went straight up toward Beth Shemesh, keeping on the road and lowing all the way; they did not turn to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh.
DISCUSSION
APPLICATION
The story of Samuel is an interesting one. Samuel arrives at the temple as a very young boy because his mother promised his life to God. Samuel encounters God at a very tender age and because of his willingness to follow God, he is chosen to become one of the most influential leaders in Israel’s history. What is God telling you through this lesson? Hopefully, you leave this lesson knowing that God chooses people who aren’t perfect, who aren’t a certain age, or ethnicity. God chose a young boy to follow Him because he was willing. Are you willing to follow God’s calling in your life? You never know where God is going to take you.
FOLLOW UP
Read 1 Samuel 7:7-11.
7 When the Philistines heard that Israel had assembled at Mizpah, the rulers of the Philistines came up to attack them. When the Israelites heard of it, they were afraid because of the Philistines. 8 They said to Samuel, “Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines.” 9 Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and sacrificed it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. He cried out to the Lord on Israel’s behalf, and the Lord answered him.
10 While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in battle. But that day the Lord thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites. 11 The men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Kar.
DISCUSSION
SCRIPTURE PASSAGE
LEADER’S NOTE
For a Relational Bible Study (RBS) you’ll want to get into the Scripture passage and encourage the youth to imagine participating in the story while it’s happening. Then you will be able to better apply it to your own situation today.
You will need to ask God for the Holy Spirit to be present as your small group discusses the questions (no more than 3-6 people in a group is recommended). Start with the opening question. It is a personal question and the answer is unique for each individual. There is no right answer and nobody is an expert here, so don’t be surprised when you hear different responses. You are depending on the Holy Spirit to be present and to speak through your group. Say what God prompts you to say, and listen to what others share.
Take turns reading the chapter out loud. Follow that with giving the students some time to individually mark their responses to the questions (a PDF version of the handout is available as a download). This gives each person a starting point for responding when you start to share as a group. Next, begin the discussion by asking the students to share what they marked and why on each question as you work your way through. Feel free to take more time on some questions than others as discussion warrants.
Encourage each person in the group to apply what is discussed to their personal lives and to share with the group what they believe God wants them to do. Then ask them to pray that God will help each of them to follow through in doing so. Remind them to expect that God will show them ways to live out the message of this passage in the coming week, and that they are free to ask others in the group to help hold them accountable.
OVERVIEW
This passage marks a pivotal moment in the ongoing conflict between the Israelites and the Philistines during the time of the judges. It begins with the Israelites gathering their forces at Ebenezer to confront the Philistines, who have encamped at Aphek. The tension is palpable as both sides prepare for a decisive battle.
In their desperation for victory, the Israelites come up with a plan: they decide to bring the Ark of the Covenant from the tabernacle at Shiloh and place it in their midst. The Ark, we know, is a sacred chest containing the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments. This Ark was to symbolize the presence of God among the Israelites. They saw it as a powerful symbol that would ensure their success in battle.
News of the Ark's presence among the Israelites spread rapidly, reaching the Philistine camp. The Philistines, who were aware of the stories of God's mighty deeds in favor of the Israelites, became fearful. They understood the implications of facing an enemy with the Ark of the Covenant in their midst.
As the battle unfolds, it becomes evident that the Philistines are gaining the upper hand. They defeat the Israelites decisively, causing panic and chaos among the Israelite ranks. About four thousand Israelite soldiers lose their lives, and the defeat is a devastating blow to the people.
Amidst the chaos of the battle, a Benjaminite man manages to escape and rushes to Shiloh to bring the dire news to Eli, who serves as the high priest of Israel. Eli is an elderly and blind man at this point. The messenger tells Eli about the loss of the battle, the capture of the Ark by the Philistines, and the death of his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who had been serving as priests.
Eli, upon hearing this devastating news, is overwhelmed by grief and shock. He falls backward from his seat, breaking his neck, and dies. His death is a poignant symbol of the consequences of the Israelites' spiritual decline and the loss of the Ark, which represented God's presence among them.
“A Sad Climax”
Share a story about when you were duped.
Read 1 Samuel 4:1-18.
And Samuel’s word came to all Israel.
Now the Israelites went out to fight against the Philistines. The Israelites camped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines at Aphek. 2 The Philistines deployed their forces to meet Israel, and as the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand of them on the battlefield. 3 When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why did the Lord bring defeat on us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the Lord’s covenant from Shiloh, so that he may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies.”
4 So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim. And Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
5 When the ark of the Lord’s covenant came into the camp, all Israel raised such a great shout that the ground shook. 6 Hearing the uproar, the Philistines asked, “What’s all this shouting in the Hebrew camp?”
When they learned that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp, 7 the Philistines were afraid. “A god has come into the camp,” they said. “Oh no! Nothing like this has happened before. 8 We’re doomed! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? They are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness. 9 Be strong, Philistines! Be men, or you will be subject to the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Be men, and fight!”
10 So the Philistines fought, and the Israelites were defeated and every man fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great; Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. 11 The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died.
12 That same day a Benjamite ran from the battle line and went to Shiloh with his clothes torn and dust on his head. 13 When he arrived, there was Eli sitting on his chair by the side of the road, watching, because his heart feared for the ark of God. When the man entered the town and told what had happened, the whole town sent up a cry.
14 Eli heard the outcry and asked, “What is the meaning of this uproar?”
The man hurried over to Eli, 15 who was ninety-eight years old and whose eyes had failed so that he could not see. 16 He told Eli, “I have just come from the battle line; I fled from it this very day.”
Eli asked, “What happened, my son?”
17 The man who brought the news replied, “Israel fled before the Philistines, and the army has suffered heavy losses. Also your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured.”
18 When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backward off his chair by the side of the gate. His neck was broken and he died, for he was an old man, and he was heavy. He had led Israel forty years.
1. What did the Israelites use in their camp to ensure victory in the battle against the Philistines?
A. The Ark of the Covenant
B. The High Priest
C. The Golden Calf
D. The Ten Commandments
E. A statue of a warrior god
F. A sacred fire
G. A prophetic scroll
H. Holy oil
I. Other.
2. Why did the Philistines become fearful upon learning about the Ark's presence among the Israelites?
3. How many Israelite soldiers were killed in the battle against the Philistines?
4. What role did Eli play in the events described in the passage?
5. How did Eli react upon hearing about the loss of the battle, the capture of the Ark, and the death of his sons?
6. What did the name "Ichabod," given to the child born during these events, mean?
H. "Light of the World"
I. Other.
7. What’s in your life right now that would make your climax a sad one?
8. What battles are you fighting now without God’s direction?
SUMMARY
The plot, plan, and pursuit of war was entrenched and executed by the Israelites. However, their hopes are shattered as they suffer a devastating defeat, and the Ark is captured by the Philistines. The news of this calamity reaches Eli, the elderly high priest of Israel, who, upon hearing of the loss of the battle, the capture of the Ark, and the death of his two sons, tragically falls backward from his seat, breaking his neck and dying in shock. This passage underscores the sacred significance of the Ark, the consequences of its misuse, and the unfolding narrative of God's dealings with His people during this turbulent period in Israel's history. This serves as a reminder to us all to be constantly connected to God’s presence and power.
APPLICATION
As we engaged with this biblical story, we saw the necessity of embracing God’s presence and ideal for our lives. We need to be sure that we only move at His dictates. These all remind us of the importance of blending God into all of our decision making. It is important to work along with our young people to share with them how vital it is to have a God-saturated life.
Below, find some application activities to interface with this lesson. These are simply to provide ideas for your usage, or to invite you to imagine and create some of your own, as you impact the lives of teens for God’s glory.
What if the Miracles of Jesus are more than meets the eye?
What if there is so much more to each story than we see?
What if each time Jesus did something supernatural, He was inviting us to look deeper?
Beyond the healing.
Beyond the deliverance.
Beyond the acts that defied the laws of nature.
What if Jesus were inviting us to see something bigger?
Something more amazing about the love of God.
Something mind-blowing.
What if the ultimate Miracle is that God can transform us?
The Miracle Series is an interactive study of 15 of Jesus’ awe-inspiring encounters while here on earth. These lessons, and messages are designed to connect with teens and youth and take them on a journey of discovery. Included in this kit is everything you need:
We invite you and your youth to not just study the Miracles of Jesus but to experience The Miracle.
