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. – 1 Samuel 3:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 17, 2019): 1 Samuel 3

I still love the 1981 adventure film “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” the first of the “Indiana Jones” tales, even though Indiana Jones does not seem to have any purpose in the adventure. In the story, he is simply swept along with the action and going for the ride. And also in spite of the huge exaggeration to the destructive powers of the Ark of the Covenant. But the movie does raise one issue. The things of God should not be taken trivially. Making the holy common was one of the repeated sins of Israel. And something that they learned too late to avoid.

The Tabernacle during the days of Eli was experiencing a dark period. They were making the things that were Holy, common. The greatest example of this might have been when the sons of Eli decided to kidnap the Ark of the Covenant from the Holy of Holies and carry it into battle against the Philistines and, in the process, they lost the Ark. The law was clear in this matter. Other than at times when the Tabernacle was being moved from place to place, and by the days of Eli the Tabernacle had not been moved for generations, the Ark of the Covenant was to remain in the Holy of Holies. And only the High Priest, in this case, Eli, was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies and the High priest could only enter the area once a year, on the Day of Atonement.

So, even though the things of God were treated as if they were common, this verse still confuses me. Was Samuel really sleeping in the Tabernacle, or even worse the phrasing of this sentence could indicate that he was sleeping in the Holy of Holies beside the Ark of the Covenant, the holiest thing of which Israel was in possession. Even during the days of Eli, this seems like an unlikely occurrence, and a gross violation of the Laws of Moses considering the Tabernacle. It does not appear that Eli was a great spiritual leader or teacher, but one would think that even he would have moved Samuel out of the Holy of Holies if the child decided that that was where he wanted to sleep.

Maybe things were so lax in the days of Eli that a child could sleep in the Temple, or even behind the heavy curtain that divided the Tabernacle from the Holy of Holies. Or maybe we have this verse wrong.

Translation is often an art. The Bible itself is written without punctuation and with few divisions. Trying to decide what is meant and dividing it into sentences and paragraphs is often a difficult task. And sometimes we might even get it wrong. I often read a passage in several translations to get at the meaning of a verse, and might I suggest that it is possible that the King James Version gets at the central meaning of this verse better than the NIV or many other translations. The King James phrases this verse in the follows: “And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep.” The phrasing allows us to understand that Samuel was in Shiloh, where the Tabernacle was, but not necessarily lying down in the Temple, nor in the Holy of Holies. And that, to me, makes much more sense.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 4