relationships (1 Samuel 6:1-21) To Stand

(1 Samuel 6:1-21)  Now the ark of the Lord had been in the territory of the Philistines for seven months. 2 And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, “What are we to do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we may send it to its place.” 3 And they said, “If you are going to send the ark of the God of Israel away, do not send it empty; but you shall certainly return to Him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be revealed to you why His hand does not leave you.” 4 Then they said, “What is to be the guilt offering that we shall return to Him?” And they said, “Five gold tumors and five gold mice corresponding to the number of the governors of the Philistines, since one plague was on all of you and on your governors. 5 So you shall make likenesses of your tumors and likenesses of your mice that are ruining the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps He will lighten His hand from you, your gods, and your land. 6 Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He had severely dealt with them, did they not let the people go, and they left? 7 Now then, take and prepare a new cart and two milk cows on which there has never been a yoke; and hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves back home, away from them. 8 Then take the ark of the Lord and place it on the cart; and put the articles of gold which you return to Him as a guilt offering in a saddlebag by its side. Then send it away that it may go. 9 But watch: if it goes up by the way of its own territory to Beth-shemesh, then He has done this great evil to us. But if not, then we will know that it was not His hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance.”

10 Then the men did so: they took two milk cows and hitched them to the cart, and shut in their calves at home. 11 And they put the ark of the Lord on the cart, and the saddlebag with the gold mice and the likenesses of their tumors. 12 Now the cows went straight in the direction of Beth-shemesh; they went on the same road, bellowing as they went, and did not turn off to the right or to the left. And the governors of the Philistines followed them to the border of Beth-shemesh.

13 Now the people of Beth-shemesh were gathering in their wheat harvest in the valley, and they raised their eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced at seeing it. 14 And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite and stopped there where there was a large stone; and they split the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. 15 And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the saddlebag that was with it, in which were the articles of gold, and put them on the large stone; and the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices that day to the Lord. 16 When the five governors of the Philistines saw it, they returned to Ekron that day.

17 Now these are the gold tumors which the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to the Lord: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, and one for Ekron; 18 and the gold mice, corresponding to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five governors, both of fortified cities and of country villages. The large stone on which they placed the ark of the Lord is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite.

19 Now He fatally struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. He struck 50,070 men among the people, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great slaughter. 20 And the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom will He go up from us?” 21 So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have brought back the ark of the Lord; come down and take it up to yourselves.”

TODAY'S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATION:

We all have been created with a free will, a conscience, and a soul intended for only God to fill, because He created us to have a personal relationship with Him.  But mankind brought sin into the world, and with that came both physical and spiritual death - a separation between us and God.  So now we all have the choice to make, do it our own way (the world's way), or choose God's way.  FYI - God desires that all come to know Him - personally!  It is then that the void in our soul is filled with God's Holy Spirit.

How the world attempts to fill that void, and how the world wants to view right from wrong is very linear, very limited and very self-serving.  Just so, to address their personal problems as it related to "the God of Israel", the Philistines naturally thought that God would want from them whatever they themselves would expect.  That, or they tried to be clever in attempts to placate and manipulate!  So they came up with the five golden tumors and five golden mice as a guilt offering, thinking that the value and the significance would suffice.  

All the Philistines needed to do was return the ark of the Lord.  But more than that, God would have LOVED for them to give their hearts to Him, which is the only way to "placate" God.  As well, it is the only way to fulfill and satisfy one's soul, and truly be healed.  The appropriate "guilt" offering is to repent and confess one's sins to the Lord, who is the only One able to forgive.  Yet even though they heard and remembered stories of how God dealt with Egypt, and even though they saw the power of God first hand, they chose to stay focused and dedicated to their gods, and to themselves.

We also see how some of the Israelites behaved in disobedience and suffered the consequences.  And still, after this happened, they asked with bewilderment and forgetfulness - "who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God?"  Well, no one can!  One has to be holy in order to stand before the Holy One!

God cannot be fooled, bought or manipulated, and most certainly, we cannot take Him for granted.  So it is impossible for anyone to stand before God, except through faith in Jesus, forgiven and clothed in His righteousness.  Then, we can not only stand before God, but we can have a personal relationship with Him.  The best possible relationship we could ever have is with our heavenly Father who wants to so richly fill us and bless us for all eternity.  All He wants from us is our heart!