1 Samuel 6 Come and Get It

seekeroftruth

Well-Known Member
1 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 the Levites 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 inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy[a] of them to death because they looked into the ark of the Lord. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the Lord had dealt them. 20 And the people 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 town.”​

a. 1 Samuel 6:19 A few Hebrew manuscripts; most Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint 50,070

OOHH they looked inside! Look at verse 19.... they looked inside and 70 of them died!

Before we go into this a whole lot further.... I want to recap. The Israelites went to war without consulting God first. Then, because they lost a battle, they decided to take the Ark of the Covenant into battle. Now Eli [the priest at Shiloh who chastised Hannah for being drunk in Temple when she was praying for a child] had two sons [who were stealing the sacrifices and re-selling them]. Hannah had a son, Samuel. She felt compelled to take that son back to live in the Temple because she felt that without God, there would be no son.... so Hannah's son was growing up in the Temple. Then one night.... God spoke to the little boy, Samuel, and told him that both of Eli's sons would die. The two boys went with the Ark of the Covenant into battle.... and they were both killed on the same day.... and the Philistines [who have the same roots as the modern day Palestinians] took the Ark of the Covenant. The Philistines started getting sick and dying [something like the plague] so they decided to return the Ark to the Israelites. They made five models that looked like the boils that were killing them and five models of the rats that were spreading the plague.... took two cows who had never drawn a cart and had no idea what they were doing away from their calves and attached them to the cart holding the Ark. The two cows should not have moved that cart... they didn't know how to pull a cart.... there was no one guiding them... but those two cows went straight to Beth Shemesh.... and that's where we are now....

Don't you think the Israelites would have had more sense than to open the Ark? I guess it's true... curiosity really does kill....

This is from the Bible.org site.

To lament is to express regret over the way things are. It seems that all Israel laments over the fact that while the Ark has returned to Israel, it is of no functional use. It is, so to speak, out of commission. It is something like a one-of-a-kind device with a most important function which is out of order, unable to be used. It seems as though this is viewed as a great tragedy, and yet the remaining verses of chapter 7 seem to indicate the opposite. In spite of the fact that the Ark is out of commission and cannot be taken into battle, the people of Israel repent of their sins, turn from their idols, trust in God, and find victory in war.

:coffee:
 
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