This man went up from his city each year to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh. Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests to the Lord there. 1 Samuel 1:3
Jehovah-Saboath the Lord of Hosts.
Here the title is a derivative of the Hebrew word ‘tsaba’ meaning armies (23), army (79), army* (1), battle (1), combat (1), conflict (1), forced to labor (1), hardship (1), host (30), hosts (292), hosts is the army (1), most (1), service (10), struggle (1), trained (1), war (35), warfare (1).
Elliot’s Commentary for English Readers says this about the title… “This is the first time in the Old Testament Book that we find the well-known appellation of the Eternal “Jehovah Sabaoth,” Lord of hosts.
It is computed that this title of God occurs 260 times in the Old Testament, but it is not found in any of the books written or compiled before this time. In the New Testament it is only once used (see James 5:4).
The glorious title, with which Isaiah, who uses it some sixty times, and Jeremiah some eighty times, have especially made us familiar, represented Jehovah, the Eternal One, as ruler over the heavenly hosts: that is, over the angels and the stars; the stars being conceived to be the dwelling-places of these deathless beings.
The idea of their invisible God-Friend being the sovereign Master of a host of those innumerable glorious beings usually known as angels, or messengers, was no strange one to Hebrew thought. For instance, already in the story of Jacob we find the patriarch calling the angels who appeared to him the “camp of God”(Genesis 32:1-2).
In the blessing of Moses in the magnificent description of the giving of the law on Sinai (Deuteronomy 33:2), we read of “ten thousands of saints” (Kodesh). The glorious Angel who allowed Joshua to worship him under the towers of Jericho (Joshua 5:14) speaks of himself as “captain or prince of the host of the Lord.” It is especially noteworthy that here in these Books of Samuel, which tell of the establishment of an earthly sovereignty over the tribes, this stately title of the real King in Israel, which afterwards became so general, first appears. It was the solemn protest of Samuel and his school against any eclipsing of the mighty but invisible sovereignty of the Eternal by the passing splendors and the outward pomp of an earthly monarchy set up over the people.
It told also the strange and the alien peoples that the God who loved Israel was, too, the star ruler, the Lord of the whole universe, visible and invisible.”
This current culture and our ancient history is filled with stories of ‘aliens’ from other planets / places. The Bible clearly states that there are beings that are NOT from this earth, but that they are His Creation. The Israelites understood angels, and had encounters with them. They also understood demonic spirits. Then there are the angels who ‘fell with the dragon’ (Revelation 12:4) and are now the enemies of the Lord of Hosts and have launched a cosmic war against God and His Creation. There is a difference between the fallen angels and demons (disembodied spirits), but that is for another time. Plus not all of the beings in His Kingdom (not on this earth) are the same, but the Bible lists some of them in the prophetic books. My guess is that there are more species of beings in His Kingdom than what is found on earth. But ALL are subject to Jesus Christ.
The book of Hebrews (13:2) even mentions that angels are here on earth with the statement, “…for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.” What should be our ‘take-away’ from all of this? God’s creation is MUCH larger than we can currently imagine and comprehend. This wonders of the universe are His to command. But our God / the Lord of Hosts / angel armies and His King Jesus Christ are our covering and fortress. We should not be afraid of the ‘aliens’, as they are subject to Him, even though some are His enemy. This is why we need the gift of the ‘discerning of spirits’ Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 12:10. And we need to learn how to ‘test the spirits’ mentioned in 1 John 1:4.
Our best helper with all of these weird subjects is the Holy Spirit and what He can teach us. Have you learned how to press into Him and ask Him questions about all of these subjects?