1 Samuel 4–7

1 Samuel 4–7

Israel marched the Ark of the Covenant into battle expecting guaranteed victory — and lost everything. Thirty thousand soldiers dead, the Ark seized by pagans, and the glory of God seemingly gone from His people. In this episode of The One Accord Podcast, Joe, Eric, Greg, and Micah dig into 1 Samuel 4–7 to explore why God allowed His own Ark to be captured, what the pagan Philistines understood about God that Israel didn't, and what it means when the glory departs.

1 Samuel 1-3

In this episode of The One Accord Podcast, Joe, Eric, and Greg begin their journey through 1 Samuel by exploring chapters 1–3. The conversation covers Hannah's barrenness and the sovereignty of God behind it, the inadequacy of human comfort in the face of deep suffering, the wickedness of Eli's sons and God's irreversible judgment, and the dramatic return of prophetic revelation to Israel through the boy Samuel.

The Book of Ruth

The One Accord Podcast tackles the entire book of Ruth in a single episode, exploring how a woman from a nation banned from the assembly of the Lord ended up in the genealogy of both King David and Jesus Christ. Joe, Eric, Greg, and Micah dig into the Deuteronomy 23 ban, the theology of God's providence in suffering, the beauty of kinsman redemption, and what this short but stunning book reveals about God's redemptive plan.

Judges 19-21

Joe, Eric, Greg, and Micah close out the book of Judges by working through chapters 19–21 — the Levite and his concubine, the atrocity at Gibeah, the near-extermination of Benjamin, and the bizarre "wife catching" plan to preserve a tribe. These three chapters are widely considered some of the darkest in the Old Testament, and the team wrestles honestly with what the text is actually emphasizing, who is morally culpable, and what God is teaching His people (and us) through this period of national apostasy.

Judges 17-18

We are back together for a verse-by-verse walk through Judges 17 and 18; two of the most disturbing and revealing chapters in the entire book. With no judge named and no foreign oppressor in sight, the narrative pulls back to show us the moral and religious condition of Israel itself. A wandering Levite, a homemade shrine, a stolen blessing, and an entire tribe carving out an inheritance God never gave them, all stitched together by the haunting refrain: "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes."