For October 12, 2026
Choose Your King by Greg Holmes, D.MIN – Director of Missions serving 17 churches
FROM THE TIME of the death of Eli forward until Samuel became judge over Israel there is no specific calendar of events that give a reliable datable timeline. Samuel was still a boy, perhaps eleven to seventeen years old, when Eli died at ninety-eight. As Samuel’s story opens, a critical piece of information is made clear: the ark of the covenant has already been stored at the house of Abinadab under the watchcare of Eleazar for twenty years. Some amount of time passed before that occurred, with the ark in captivity to the Philistines. There, it became a bitter curse to the Philistines, as a result of which they sent it back to Beth-Shemesh, its former place of residence, on a new cart with gold offerings. “But God struck down some of the men of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy of them to death because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. The people mourned, and the men of Beth Shemesh asked, ‘Who can stand in the presence of the Lord, this holy God? To whom will the ark go up from here?’” (1 Sam. 6:19-20)