The ark’s arrival

20. May 2009 by Bernice Davis.

Hello:

Today we continue our story as to what happened to the ark of God as it was released from the Philistine camp.   In yesterday’s text, we learned that after the ark had been with the Philistines for seven months, they called the diviners together and they asked how to get rid of it.  The ark’s presence had already mutilated the Philistine God Dagon and had caused tumors to come upon the people.  The advice from the diviners was to build it a new cart and send it away with a trespass offering which included gold images of the mice and tumors that had affected the people.   They told the Philistines that if the cart headed to the direction of Bethshemesh which is the way to the Israelite camp then it was the God of Israel who afflicted them but if it headed in some other direction then they would consider their misfortunes a mere coincidence.   Let’s pick up our story.  Here is our text for today.

I Samuel 6:10 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. 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?” 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.”

As you see in our text today that even thought the Israelites were excited to see the ark, they experienced trouble also.  God killed some of the men of Beth Shemesh because they had looked into the ark of God.  Moses had given the children of Israel specific instructions from God on how the ark of God was to be handled and treated.  The men of Beth Shemesh violated these commandments and therefore suffered major consequences.  This event caused the people to send messengers to the people of Kiriath Jearim telling them that the Philistines have returned the ark of God and asking them to come retrieve it from their place.   

Tomorrow, we will continue our journey as to what happens to the ark.   All this is key history.  This ark story plays a major part in the life of the kings and where the ark will be during their reigns.    As a reminder, remember we are leading up to the study of Israel as a monarchy which means the reigns of Saul, David and Solomon.

Stay encouraged!!!!!

Don’t forget to pray and read God’s word daily.

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