1 Samuel 6:1-21 (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is 1 Samuel 6:1-21. As usual, I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
1 Samuel 6:1-2 (NIV)
1 When the ark of the LORD had been in Philistine territory seven months,
2 the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how we should send it back to its place.”
On verses 1-2: For seven months the Philistines had removed the ark of God (a symbol of God’s presence) from its rightful place. As a result, they experienced devastation and disease throughout their land, to the point that all five Philistine rulers felt they had no choice but to return the ark of God to its rightful place in Israel.
What can we learn from this? There won’t truly be peace in your land (your home, your heart, your marriage, relationships, city, school, workplace, etc.) until God is given His rightful place. If you want true, lasting peace, give Jesus His rightful place as king of your life.
Also, we can’t have God on our terms, only on His. The Philistines thought they could keep the ark of God (representing God’s presence) and do whatever they wished with it. It turns out it doesn’t work that way. If we want God’s continual presence in our lives, it has to be on God’s terms, not ours. What are God’s terms? Nothing with sin can stand in God’s presence. Only that which is holy and sinless can be with God. And that’s why God in His mercy sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins, so that we could be forgiven, justified (i.e. made right with God) and declared blameless in His sight. It’s only on those terms that we can have anything to do with God. If we try to have anything to do with God apart from those terms – apart from Jesus – we’re only fooling yourselves.
1 Samuel 6:3-12 (NIV)
3 They answered, “If you return the ark of the god of Israel, do not send it away empty, but by all means send a guilt offering to him. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand has not been lifted from you.”
4 The Philistines asked, “What guilt offering should we send to him?” They replied, “Five gold tumors and five gold rats, according to the number of the Philistine rulers, because the same plague has struck both you and your rulers.
5 Make models of the tumors and of the rats that are destroying the country, and pay honor to Israel’s god. Perhaps he will lift his hand from you and your gods and your land.
6 Why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When he treated them harshly, did they not send the Israelites out so they could go on their way?
7 “Now then, get a new cart ready, with two cows that have calved and have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up.
8 Take the ark of the LORD and put it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to him as a guilt offering. Send it on its way,
9 but keep watching it. If it goes up to its own territory, toward Beth Shemesh, then the LORD has brought this great disaster on us. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us and that it happened to us by chance.”
10 So they did this. They took two such cows and hitched them to the cart and penned up their calves.
11 They placed the ark of the LORD on the cart and along with it the chest containing the gold rats and the models of the tumors.
12 Then the cows went straight up toward Beth Shemesh, keeping on the road and lowing all the way; they did not turn to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh.
On verses 3-12: The priests and diviners of Philistia gave the Philistine rulers a detailed plan for how to return the ark of God to the Israelites:
– get a new cart with two cows that had just given birth and had never been yoked (v7);
– place the ark on the cart (v8);
– as an admission of guilt and to make peace with the Israelites, place beside the ark a chest containing 10 gold objects (namely, 5 gold tumours and 5 gold rats, representing the devastation that the Philistines had suffered) (v8);
– if the cows pulled the cart toward the town of Beth Shemesh in Israel, this meant the devastation was indeed from God. But if the cows pulled the cart anywhere else, then this devastation was not from God and happened by chance (v9).
The Philistines followed this plan and found that, instead of trying to move toward their penned up baby calves in Philistia, as any mother cow naturally would, the cows — without any guidance — pulled the cart straight and all the way to Beth Shemesh in Israel (v10-12). This showed the Philistines that God had been at work. Sadly, though all the Philistine rulers saw what happened (v16), they would continue to worship their own much weaker gods and go to war with Israel.
What can we learn from this? God wants to reveal Himself to people who don’t yet know Him. God will go out of His way to get people’s attention. The question is: will we take the time to see if it is Him or are we too caught up in our own things to notice?
1 Samuel 6:13-20 (NIV)
13 Now the people of Beth Shemesh were harvesting their wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they rejoiced at the sight.
14 The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and there it stopped beside a large rock. The people chopped up the wood of the cart and sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD.
15 The Levites took down the ark of the LORD, together with the chest containing the gold objects, and placed them on the large rock. On that day the people of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the LORD.
16 The five rulers of the Philistines saw all this and then returned that same day to Ekron.
17 These are the gold tumors the Philistines sent as a guilt offering to the LORD–one each for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron.
18 And the number of the gold rats was according to the number of Philistine towns belonging to the five rulers–the fortified towns with their country villages. The large rock, on which they set the ark of the LORD, is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.
19 But God struck down some of the men of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy of them to death because they had looked into the ark of the LORD. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the LORD had dealt them,
20 and the men of Beth Shemesh asked, “Who can stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God? To whom will the ark go up from here?”
On verses 13-20: The Israelites in Beth Shemesh were overjoyed when they saw the ark return (v13). They offered burnt offerings to God, including sacrificing the cows that had brought the ark back to them (v14-15). Yet God still struck down many people in Beth Shemesh because they looked into the ark, contrary to Numbers 4:20 which warned that no one was to look inside the ark or they would die.
What can we learn from this? G
Since God is holy, no matter how many Christian symbols you place around you, you can’t expect the blessings of God without obeying the commands of God. You may think you are sacrificing a lot for God, but the fact is God is more interested in your obedience than He is in your sacrifice. As Samuel would later say in 1 Samuel 15:22: “…Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”
To expect God’s blessings without obeying God’s commands is delusional, a recipe for frustration and failure. But praise God that while we could never obey God’s commands fully on our own, Jesus obeyed God’s commands fully. He earned all of God’s blessings through His perfect obedience. Now these blessings flow to all of us who have trusted in Jesus Christ as our Saviour.
1 Samuel 6:21 (NIV)
21 Then they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the LORD. Come down and take it up to your place.”
On verse 21: After the devastation they experienced in connection with the ark (6:19-20), the people of Beth Shemesh did not want the ark near them. They may have thought about returning the ark to its original resting place in Shiloh, but apparently archaeologists have found evidence suggesting that by this time (approximately 1050 B.C.) Shiloh had already been destroyed by the Philistines. So they told their neighbours in Kiriath Jearim to take the ark instead (6:21).
What can we learn from this? Every town has a posture toward the presence of God. Some towns are generally resistant; some are generally receptive. I believe Vancouver is generally receptive toward the presence of God. Vancouverites are mainly missing two things: (1) an understanding that Jesus Christ is the unique and supreme expression of God’s presence; and (2) courageous, selfless Christians who will love the people in our city with God’s courageous, selfless love. As the church, we are to bring that understanding of who Jesus is and that love to the city we live in.
Father, I acknowledge You as holy and pure beyond anything I have ever seen. Thank You that when I had no way of surviving in Your presence because of my sin, Jesus You died as my atoning sacrifice so that I could be forgiven, blameless and acceptable in the Father’s sight. Thank You that all because of You Jesus, I have the presence of God in my life. May I, my family, my church, my town live with a posture that welcomes Your presence. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
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