seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
1 Samuel 6:1 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.”
3 They answered, “If you return the ark of the god of Israel, do not send it back to him without a gift; 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 give glory 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 Israel’s god dealt harshly with them, 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 but 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.
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 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.”
Here's the link to the commentary I read.What shall we do with the ark of the LORD: When the Philistines first captured the Ark of the Covenant, they thought it was a great victory but as time went on the Philistines began to regard the ark as a burden, not as a trophy.
Why did they keep it seven months at all? Because they were reluctant to give up such a wonderful “trophy” of what they at first felt was a great victory over the God of Israel. It can take a long time before we realize the futility of resisting God.
Take two milk cows which have never been yoked: Here, the Philistines conducted an experiment. They thought all the calamity of the plagues was from the LORD God of Israel, but they were not 100% sure. So, they devised another test. Men are almost always reluctant to repent, and they guard against repenting “unnecessarily.”
The test was simple and stacked against God. By nature, two milk cows which have never been yoked should not pull a cart at all, instead they should have resisted their yokes. Additionally, they decided to take their calves home, away from them. The “maternal instinct” of the cows would draw them not towards the land of Israel, but back home to their own calves. The Philistines devised a test that “forced” the God of Israel to do something miraculous to demonstrate He really was the cause of the plagues.
Lowing as they went: This means the cows were not especially happy. They longed for their calves at home, yet they still did the will of God.
Then He struck the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD: The Ark of the Covenant was only to be touched and handled by specific Levites from the family of Kohath, and even they were commanded to not touch the ark itself (Numbers 4:15). The men of Beth Shemesh sinned by not only touching the ark, but also looking into it inappropriately.
And to whom shall it go up from us: For the men of Beth Shemesh, the holiness of God was a problem, a problem that could be fixed by putting distance between themselves and God. Their question was not, “How can we be made right with a holy God,” but it was “Who can we give this problem to so the holiness of God is no longer a burden to us?”
As I post this, Iran has attached Israel. Rockets fell in Israel because Israel went after Hizballah. Hizballah has been firing rockets at Israel for a while. Israel just got tired of it and struck down the leader of Hizballah. Sounds Biblical, right?Meanwhile, Israel is also invading [or ready to invade] Lebanon. Rockets have been shot at Israel from Lebanon too. Israel warned the innocent people to get out of town.
It's almost October 7th. Some kind of retaliation for the attack Israel suffered through at the hands of Hamas of Gaza is probable. I've heard the question "what will Israel do on the anniversary of that attack?".
Here at home 140+ Americans have died because of a vicious storm that took out homes, roads, and livestock all along the path it cut from Florida to the Midwest. Homes were washed away by a storm that has never been experienced in that territory. They call it Global Warming. There are some who say "it's just a coincidence.... here fill up your tank".
I was about to leave out the small news of a second moon [temporary?] that has fallen, or is soon to fall, into an orbit around earth. I was about to leave out the news that Mt. Rainier is heaving, or growing. I was about to leave out the volcanic eruptions in Iceland and Hawaii. I was about to forget about the underground mountain that seems to be heating up deep in the Atlantic Ocean.
Does anyone dare say "we need to get right with God"?
Do we need to cook up some gold tumors and rats?
Do we need to get right with God?
