Making sense of scripture Friday 23rd January The film “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” may give many who are unfamiliar with the Old Testament an idea of what the Ark of the Covenant would have looked like. The Ark, which the Philistines had captured as a war prize seemed to bring them nothing but trouble but it took seven months for that fact to sink in. When people resist God and go their own way it often takes time before that futility becomes apparent and they turnto God in repentance. Eventually the Philistine priests (more accurately “witch doctors”) realised they had offended Almighty God. They devised a plan to send the Ark back to Israelite territory with a costly offering in order to demonstrate their genuine desire to be rid of the source of their trouble. That desire should not for a moment be confused with real repentance which would have seen the Philistines to leave behind their fortune telling and divination and turn to God. Today’s scripture may seem hard to make sense of because it is culturally different from anything we are used to – but press on through the first 12 verses then we’ll meet up again. * * * The Ark Returned to Israel 1 Samuel 6 Now the ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months. And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it to its place.” 3 So they said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty; but by all means return it to Him with a trespass offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why His hand is not removed from you.”Then they said, “What is the trespass offering which we shall return to Him?” They answered, “Five golden tumours and five golden rats, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines. For the same plague was on all of you and on your lords. Therefore you shall make images of your tumours and images of your rats that ravage the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps He will lighten His hand from you, from your gods, and from your land. Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He did mighty things among them, did they not let the people go, that they might depart? 7 Now therefore, make a new cart, take two milk cows which have never been yoked, and hitch the cows to the cart; and take their calves home, away from them. 8 Then take the ark of the Lord and set it on the cart; and put the articles of gold which you are returning to Him as a trespass offering in a chest by its side. Then send it away, and let it go. 9 And watch: if it goes up the road to its own territory, to Beth Shemesh, then He has done us this great evil. But if not, then we shall know that it is 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 up their calves at home. 11 And they set the ark of the Lord on the cart, and the chest with the gold rats and the images of their tumors. 12 Then the cows headed straight for the road to Beth Shemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right hand or the left. And the lords of the Philistines went after them to the border of Beth Shemesh. * * * You’ll notice that as the months passed the Philistines did everything they could to act in a reverent way towards the Ark. They conducted an ingenious experiment to try and work out whether the bad things which had happened were God’s judgment or what many might call bad luck. Just to cover their backs they made a token offering of gold to try and appease God – if He really did exist. Doesn’t sound much different today when unbelievers devote themselves to good works “just in case” God exists! The cows selected all had feeding calves dependent on them. The calves were shut up and the cows made to drag the Ark on a cart. The reasoning was if the cows left their calves willingly it was God directing them because normally speaking the cows would have stayed with their calves. The cows left their calves and the conclusion is that it was the Lord who had allowed misfortune to come upon the Philistines. So the Ark returns to Israelite controlled territory. The next few verses are self explanatory- the people rejoiced greatly to see the Ark returned. The action of the Philistines wanting to return the Ark should not be taken to mean the Philistines were softening in their overall rebellion against the Lord- they merely wanted to be rid of a problem. A prayer – Lord please soften the hearts of people I know who see my faith in Jesus as a problem to be tolerated rather than a faith to be embraced for themselves https://youtube/watch?v=QGlTzH9xkXQ&index=7&list=PL6JUEGY2dA7madOgl5VUvF1gXMZnpte1d * * *
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 00:01:00 +0000
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