The Ark Of The Covenant Returns To Israel

1 Samuel 6:7-9 “Now then, get a new cart ready, with two (milk) 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.

The Philistines here are conducting an experiment. They believe there is a possibility that all of the devastation, the death, rats and tumors was not brought on from the LORD God of Israel, but by chance. So, they devise this test.

The test is simple and stacked against God. By nature, two milk cows that have never been yoked should not pull a cart, they would have resisted being yoked at all. The Philistines also take the calves of these cows away from them and pen them up somewhere else. The “maternal instinct” of these cows should not draw them towards the land of Israel, but to where their calves were. So, the Philistines devised this test to challenge the God of Israel to do something miraculous to demonstrate He really was the cause of the plagues. (Chance)

Exodus 25:12-15 Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other. ¹³ Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. ¹⁴ Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry it. ¹⁵ The poles are to remain in the rings of this ark; they are not to be removed.

Numbers 4:15 “After Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy furnishings and all the holy articles, and when the camp is ready to move, only then are the Kohathites to come and do the carrying. But they must not touch the holy things or they will die. The Kohathites are to carry those things that are in the tent of meeting.

The Ark was never to be transported by cart. It was always to be carried by the golden poles made for it, and only by a certain group of people.

It’s interesting that God gives these pagans a pass for handling and transporting the ark in a way that was prohibited by the law. They were smart enough to put the chest with the gold rats and tumors beside the Ark and not in it.

CHANCE The world believes things happen by chance. They even believe the world was created by chance.

Assigning such power to “chance” is crazy because chance has no body, being or power. Nothing happens by chance. We live in a cause and effect world, and chance is not a cause, but God is the great cause.

But people would rather believe in chance, than believe the visible evidence of God’s existence, His power and His providence.

1 Samuel 6:10-12 So they did this. They took two such (milk) 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.

These milk cows that should have resisted the yoke, and went in search of their young calves, with no driver to lead them headed straight down the road to Beth Shemesh.

They don’t stop to graze, turn to the right or left; they simply marched the 10 miles to a city they have never been to. What a remarkable miracle.                                 The Israelites were corrupted-Philistines were pagans, so the LORD found a couple Philistine milk cows to show His glory through. (lowing)

1 Samuel 6:13-16 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 (Jehovah is salvation), 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.

The people of Beth Shemesh (Levites) chopped up the wood of the cart and offered the milk cows as a burnt offering. (Do you see the mercy of God here?)

Leviticus 1:3 If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, you are to offer a male without defect. You must present it at the entrance to the tent of meeting so that it will be acceptable to the Lord. (spiritual condition) God was merciful.

Vs16 The five rulers of the Philistines saw all this and then returned that same day to Ekron. God passed their test, and their reaction isn’t recorded here. But we will see in the upcoming chapters they were not persuaded.   (Hard Heart)

 1 Samuel 6:17-19 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.

These were Levites. God extended His mercy when they sacrificed female cows somewhere besides the tabernacle. Then they decide to look inside the Ark. They should have known better. (spiritual condition) How many looked? Every person who looked into the Ark was killed. There is a limit to mercy of God.

 1 Samuel 6:20-21 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.”

For the people of Beth Shemesh, the holiness of God was a problem, a problem they thought 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?”

The people of Beth Shemesh blame their suffering on God’s holiness, instead of the true reason- their sin.

The people of Beth Shemesh come face to face with the holiness of GOD. But because of their spiritual condition (SIN) it didn’t draw them closer to God, instead It made them want to distance themselves from God. (Philistines did?)

(Todays app)(Weeds-Thorns-Path) “Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?            When sinful man encounters the holiness of God, they are not necessarily attracted to it. It’s like you want to be there, but you don’t want to be there.

Early on Jesus teaches from Peters boat: Explain. When Peter realized the holiness and the power of Jesus this happened: Luke 5:8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”

Transfiguration: Who’s there? Who shows up? (Peter-build shelters) Bright light-My Son–I love and am well pleased, listen to Him. Confronted with the holiness of God: Matthew 17:6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified.  (fast forward)

Jesus has been to the cross-paid the penalty for sin-Rose from the dead

John 21 Jesus does the exact same thing he did in Luke 5. They fished all night, caught nothing. Jesus says cast to the right side, and they caught 153 fish.                Peter again has come face to face with the holiness of God.

But look at Peters reaction now: John 21:7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him and jumped into the water.

What has changed? Has God changed? No. Peter has changed. Peters spiritual condition and understanding have changed. Is Peter still a sinner? Yes. But now instead of running away or pushing away, or being terrified of the holiness of God, he runs to it.

 I am acutely aware of God’s holiness when I am in my sin, because the Holy Spirit (holiness of God) is convicting me of it. But I welcome it and the discipline it may bring. And here’s why: Hebrews 12:5b-6,10b “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, ⁶ because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” 10b but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness.

Holiness cannot be achieved through our own efforts, but holiness is given/received when we place our faith and trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and we receive the Holy Spirit.

Holiness is not so much something I have, as much as it is something that has me. Stop, drop and repent.