Latest / Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan / October 7, 2026 - 1 Samuel 4 & Proverbs 17:13-16

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October 7, 2026 - 1 Samuel 4 & Proverbs 17:13-16 · Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bybooting Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, with God's word letting the way.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Josiah Smith, joined by Tyler Sanborn.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Today is Wednesday, October 7th, 2026.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Listen intently to God's written word.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: 1 Samuel 4.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the word of Samuel came to all Israel.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: They encamped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines encamped at Aphek.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: The Philistines drew up in line against Israel, and when the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the field of battle.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines?
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let us bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh, that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were there with the Ark of the Covenant of God.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel gave a mighty shout, so that the earth resounded.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, What does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And when they learned that the Ark of the Lord had come to the camp, the Philistines were afraid, for they said, A god has come into the camp.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, Woe to us, for nothing like this has happened before.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Woe to us, who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Take courage and be men, O Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Be men and fight.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home, and there was a great slaughter, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell, and the Ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophne and Phineas, died.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: A man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh the same day, with his clothes torn and with dirt on his head.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: When he arrived, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road, watching for his heart, trembled for the ark of God.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: And when the man came into the city and told the news, all the city cried out.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: When Eli heard the sound of the outcry, he said, What is this uproar?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Then the man hurried and came and told Eli.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes were set so that he could not see.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And the man said to Eli, I am he who has come from the battle, I fled from the battle today.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, How did it go, my son?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: He who brought the news answered and said, Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has also been a great defeat among the people.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Your two sons also, Hophni and Phineas, are dead, and the Ark of God has been captured.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as he mentioned the Ark of God, Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken, and he died.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: For the man was old and heavy.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: He had judged Israel forty years.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant, about to give birth, and when she heard the news that the Ark of God was captured, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed and gave birth, for her pains came upon her.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And about the time of her death the women attending her said to her, Do not be afraid, for you have borne a son.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: But she did not answer or pay attention.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory has departed from Israel, because the Ark of God had been captured, and because of her father-in-law and her husband.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, The glory has departed from Israel, for the Ark of God has been captured.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Proverbs 17, verses thirteen through sixteen.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: If anyone returns evil for good, evil will not depart from his house.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: The beginning of strife is like letting out water.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: So quit before the quarrel breaks out.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom when he has no sense?
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, first Samuel, if you haven't picked it up already, is the transition between the time period of the judges and the what's referred to as the monarchy of Israel.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: So during the time period of the judges, Israel was kind of a conglomeration of different tribes that were ruled by differing judges.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here in the book of Samuel, it's telling the story of the baton being passed, if you will, from that kind of leadership or even national structure to the national structure and leadership of a king that ruled over a unified nation.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: But before we get to that, of course, with Saul being the first king, David being the second, and Solomon being the third, first Samuel being more highlighting David, and of course in First and Second Chronicles, David is highlighted there as well.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality is that Israel's still in a time period of desperation.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: They're still in a time period where the sin that we saw and read about in Judges continues to plague them.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: We see kind of illegitimate priests, we see um even the priests doing things that they ought not to be doing.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And here in 1 Samuel 4, we see the nation of Israel as a whole, honestly, very strangely trying to use the Ark of the Covenant as some sort of uh rabbit's foot, if you will, some sort of good luck charm where they're losing the battle, they're losing the battle.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know what they don't do?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: They don't go to the Lord in prayer, they're not seeking to honor the Lord.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: They come up with this neat idea in their little huddle to go and grab the Ark of the Covenant and then they will win the battle.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, they go and do just that.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: They take the Ark of the Covenant, they bring it to the battle line where they're fighting the Philistines and they're loud shouting and cheering, and they're thinking to themselves, and now we've got the victory.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: The the battle before this, they'd lost 4,000 soldiers, it wasn't a good day.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so now they're thinking, here's our chance, there's no way that we lose now.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: We've got our good luck charm, we've got God's presence on our side.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the Philistines, even they're kind of afraid, right, Tyler.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: They're right, they're trembling.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: What was us?
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: And they must have been thinking, uh, PJ, surely it worked for Joshua and Jericho.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but like you said, it's God's guidance that was given.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: This is what you are to do.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: This is your how this is how you're to do it, and this is a victory that will come about.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: The instructions from God to God's leaders to take to take the ark out.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: However, in this case, it's it's not given by God.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: These instructions are their own.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's so many instructions about even who's supposed to be carrying the ark, where it's supposed to be carried, where it's supposed to rest.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, all kinds of things that are being violated here.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: But of course, they they have this this idea, they've got this loud shouting.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: It puts some fear in the hearts of the Philistines, and they basically have a little power of their own.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: And and to summarize it, they basically say, act like men, draw your swords, and let's get after it.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: And they destroyed the Israelites.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they conquered them, it seems no problem.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so much so that they took the Ark of the Covenant, which represented, of course, the glory of the Lord that now, even in a physical way, symbolized by the Ark of the Covenant, has departed from the nation of Israel.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: So you should see that and read that as just the depth of which the spiral of sin that we saw in Judges, how truly far Israel has fallen, and how just truly uh uncovenantal you could say they are being unfaithful in their covenant to the Lord, to Yahweh.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so as a result, they are conquered.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: They're in, they're given over to their enemies here, the Philistines.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: They are brought to shame and ruin.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, the Lord's gonna handle business in the next couple of chapters, and he's gonna uh recover the Ark of the Covenant on his own.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna send plagues, very much reminiscent of the Exodus.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: But God literally says, okay, Israel, step aside.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'll take care of this one on my own, because you guys are foolish and you're you're being unfaithful.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: But that's that's really the shock of 1 Samuel chapter 4 is rather than trusting in the Lord, seeking his direction, submitting to his commands, they try to parade the Ark of the Covenant in front of the Philistines as if it's their secret weapon.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, today in in sporting events, you've you've got all the different things about superstition.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: I wear the same socks, you know, I sit in the same chair, I eat the same foods, I stand in the same corner.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, people have that kind of stuff.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: And some people are serious about that.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Some of it is just lighthearted joking.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: But there are genuine people out there that think to themselves, we win because of X.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: We win because of Y.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that that seems to be the mentality here, rather than actually trusting in the Lord and submitting to His will and seeking to obey Him and honor Him.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: They just think to themselves, well, if I just rub this lamp, or if I bring this, you know, if I wear this pair of socks, or I bring this Ark in the Covenant, then we'll get exactly what we want, which is victory over the Philistines.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, God does not honor that.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't honor being treated as such, God's being disrespected.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: He's not being worshipped, he's not being seen as holy, holy, holy, he's not being rev revered.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly, there's no fear of the Lord present here in the nation of Israel.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so as a result, God hands him over to the Philistines.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really a heartbreaking chapter.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: We we see, of course, again, the depravity, how just how far Israel has fallen.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: But we're also going to continue to see the sovereignty of the Lord, the providence of God to work in the midst of all that mess, which is exactly what the book of Ruth was intended to show us.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: That in the time period of the judges, God was at work being just faithful, making it so that the seed of the woman promised all the way back in Genesis 3 was still being preserved and kept.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, uh Boaz and Ruth fathered Obed, Obed, right, which ended up being in the line of David, of course, whom Jesus is is born from.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: So we see that here in uh 1 Samuel, that God's at work, that even though there's sin and there's tragedy and uh even a priest falling off of a wall and breaking his neck, I mean, just things that are happening that are startling and somewhat shocking.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: God is still at work, God is still faithful, even in the midst of Israel's unfaithfulness.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now, one thing that we can pull away from this, not to belabor the point, uh, is that we we should not act this way when it comes to the Lord.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: And what I have in mind in a modern day sense, you know, we're not parading an arc of ark of the covenant around or something like that.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I think there are people out there that have this sense, even from a business perspective or just life in general, that if I have, if I have God on my side, if I if I wear the cross necklace, if I do this and do that, then my life is going to be uh hunky-dory, that I'm gonna get what I want, I'm gonna be blessed in some very perhaps materialistic ways, financially, with a nice house, with a with uh whatever it is that our heart is desiring in that specific moment.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's just a dangerous place to be.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Does the Lord provide those things at times?
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, absolutely.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord can bless, the Lord can bless in extravagant ways.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: He has the the freedom and the prerogative to do so.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: But what we can, even today, from a modern sense, what we can treat God and parade him around as if he's just some uh rabbit's foot or some sort of mystical trophy that is intended to bring us good, our good luck charm.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: And and God is so beyond that.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's that's so demeaning of uh the one true God of the Bible.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so we should never view God in that way.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: We should always seek to have a high view of God, seek to revere him, to fear him, to worship him, and uh ultimately to to obey him as we see him uh you know give commands and even expectations, if you will, from the scriptures.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: So just a good application that we can take there from 1 Samuel chapter 4.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: All right, as we transition to our Proverbs section today, we have this comparison with evil and good and strife in the first couple verses here.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: If anyone returns evil for good, evil will not depart from his house.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: If you're sowing evil, if you're if you're in investing into the things that would be um dishonoring to God, you're gonna you're gonna reap that.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's not gonna, you're not gonna be able to escape that.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, as we see God defining what is good and what is evil, uh we have to think about a world today that is still wrestling with those terms.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: Mankind wants to define, define on their own terms what is good and what is evil.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: But uh for those who are made in uh made in the image of our creator, we have to understand and submit that it's God, it's the creator, the designer of this world, of our bodies, of our universe that defines what is good and what is evil.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: So the next time we we get into this conversation about well, what is good?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let's look to the scriptures and see what God defines as good and what he defines as evil.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: And in our next verse, the beginning of strife is like letting out water.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: So quit before the quarrel breaks out or magnifies.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm thinking about uh maybe a leak or a uh a pool that you might have that is above ground or um a balloon or something that is letting out water slowly.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's manageable for a time.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's you could look over and it'll it'll be fine.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's not too catastrophic, but when things break or burst, if you've ever had a flood in your house where there's an internal pipe that that breaks loose, yeah, it's a very big problem very quickly.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: And a great reminder for us to to think about what are the ways that we are just kind of tolerating or looking, looking on, looking past strife in our lives, whether it's a conflict at home, a conflict with with family or with in-laws or with with people in our church, even.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh let's let's address these things quickly before they get worse, before they magnify and get larger, and before things break out, and and it makes reconciliation even harder, where there's a longer list of things that you need to address.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: So keep short accounts uh and nip strife in the bud before it grows and becomes larger, uh, before the the sin multiplies and magnifies.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: And be be a person that's willing to uh to model and just confess.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: If there's things that are bothering you, don't sit on them, don't bottle them up.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: If you have a genuine concern with somebody, go and go and talk, have a conversation, um, and do it humbly and uh in a loving way before things get out of control.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and Proverbs 17, 15 reminds me of, I believe it's Romans 1, where it talks about those who uh call good evil and evil good, just as a way to kind of describe sin and its pervasiveness and God handing people over to their debased minds.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: But here in Proverbs 17, 15, it says he who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, right?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: So he who gives an excuse or even exalts wickedness, and he who condemns the righteous, what is good, are both alike.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: They are an abomination to the Lord.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is not pleasing to the Lord, this is not right.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: And even we can see that overlaid in what we just read in 1 Samuel 4, that this is what the nation of Israel was doing in a sense.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: They're trying to justify their own wickedness.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, they're they're trying to condemn even uh righteousness at times through their actions or their lack of obedience and things like that.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's just a great reminder of we need to affirm what God has said.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: We need to stand by God's word, by God's clear commands, his clear teachings, his scriptures, and not try to justify wickedness or condemn the righteous.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Both of those are an abomination to the Lord.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Then the last verse here, why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom when he has no sense?
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the way that I kind of take this proverb is uh wisdom's not for sale, right?
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like at least in the in the sense of uh wisdom comes through the fear of the Lord.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you can't short circuit that process.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: You can't go to the market and purchase uh wisdom in in that kind of way.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: You can't short circuit it.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: It comes through just faithful, diligent, growing in understanding of who God is, growing in your worship of Him, your knowledge of Him, your fear of Him, of course, that leads to true and genuine wisdom.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not something everyone, in some sense, desires wisdom.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: We see the value of it even sort of intuitively, and people can try to get it and maybe even get rich quick schemes.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: You can think of it in even in that way.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: We want things now, especially in our culture.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: We want them quick, we want them in the easy way.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about efficiency.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: And and the proverbs is saying that's that's just not how wisdom is acquired.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is acquired through the fear of the Lord.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: Fools despise wisdom and instruction.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: But thank you so much for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bob Reading Podcast.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass Bible SV.org.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Keep reading, keep growing.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.