“Sh’mu’el did what Adonai said and arrived at Beit-Lechem. The leaders of the city came trembling to meet him and asked, ‘Are you coming in peace?’ He answered, ‘In peace. I have come to sacrifice to Adonai. Consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.’ He consecrated Yishai and his sons and summoned them to the sacrifice.”-1 Samuel 16:4-5
So Samuel has arrived at Bethlehem to perform a reconciliatory sacrifice.
As suspected, given the ongoing cold war between the North and the South, the leaders of Bethlehem were suspicious of Samuel’s motives.
Had he come to spy on them?
Or pronounce a curse on them?
Perhaps he had come to rebuke them to drop their stubbornness and turn their loyalty back over to King Saul for the good of Israel.?
They wanted to know his real purpose for venturing outside of his normal circuit which was usually restricted to the central Canaan area.
So they ask him, “Do you come in shalom”?
Samuel assures the elders he has come in peace.
Keep in mind, that Samuel was the supreme priestly authority for all of Israel at this time…even though there were other “High Priests” in operation during this period.
So exercising his power, Samuel commands those present to “Consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.”
This meant they probably just had to wash their clothes and bathe.
Alrighty, let me finish up today’s post with a fun quiz that’s pertinent to the content we’re studying.
QUESTION ONE:
How do you say Bethlehem in Hebrew (just provide the transliteration), and what does it mean?
QUESTION TWO:
Again, why were the elders of Yishai’s (Jesse’s) family suspicious of Samuel?
QUESTION THREE:
The sacrifice that Samuel would be offering was a voluntary sacrifice that can be offered up any time a person wants to thank or honor the Lord. It is also a suitable sacrifice for a feast because the laypeople can eat most of the meat. So based on these facts, what kind of sacrifice was Samuel going to perform here?
Let’s see how well you know your Bible by answering in the comments section.
My guess is most of you won’t be able to answer question three.
But let’s see.
I’ll provide the answers in tomorrow’s post in the P.S. section.
See you all next time.
1] House of Bread בֵּית לֶחֶם
2] They were unsure of Samuel’s intentions
3]Peace Offering
Nice.
And how would you say “Peace Offering” in Hebrew?
Check out the next post for the answers.
Shalom!
Shalom Korban
1.Bait-lehchem (accent on the last syllable), which means House of Bread
2. Sh’mu’el specifically told Yishai to be there with all his sons- since there was mistrust amongst the tribes, asking for the entire family to be there was a suspicious thing; perhaps to get rid of them all at once?
3. The sacrifice being made was a Thanksgiving, or Friendship sacrifice. That was the only sacrifice where the people who brought the sacrifice were allowed to eat it, but they had to eat it in a holy place. Because of that, the archeologists who discovered the place where the Tent of Meeting was set up in Shiloh knew that was the right spot because they found a lot of plate and cup shards surrounding the mount, indicating that people ate there and then smashed their dinnerware afterward. They would have done that because the meal was holy, and holiness was transferred to the plates and cups, so they had to be destroyed because they couldn’t later be used for common meals.
How’s that for extra credit? 🙂
Will provide answers tomorrow.
But I think you got an A +!
I think the answer is the ZEVAH SHELAMIM or the Peace Offering?
Check out the next post for the answers brother.
Blessings!