1st Samuel 6. THE DANGER OF CURIOUSITY What are we to do when we are made conscious of our guilt? People respond to guilt in many different ways. Some try to ignore it. Some excuse it as an innocent mistake. Others look for someone else to blame for what is wrong with me, so guilt is not even my fault. Still others get religious and impose on themselves pain and affliction to try to pay for the sin that caused the guilt. Religious symbols have even been formed to identify themselves with like snakes and other creatures like demons and gargoyles. Many have formed beads like small tumors and they pray over these things that symbolize the sins they have done. The Philistines made images of those things that had brought disaster upon them. They formed emerods (tumors) out of gold and made gold images of rats that spread disease, as symbols of the things that plagued them. The focus of the Philistines was on what was wrong and they ignored repentance for their sin and doing what was right before God.
Our own interests and methods in seeking the Lord are not necessarily what is right before God. Many do what they do in religion to try to get to God their own way. "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is the way of death." After seven disastrous months it was easily seen that the presence of the ark in the land of the Philistines was impossible to continue. Their victory had turned to disaster that spread and was demonstrated from place to place that it was because of the ark being there. However, they had either not been willing to learn the lesson of humility before God, or they were not willing to act on what they knew. Either way adversely affects us if we act similarly when God deals with us. The chastening hand of God is to bring us to humble ourselves before Him and commit ourselves to changing what is wrong and doing that which pleases the Lord.
The Philistines were still not sure if it was the "God of Israel" who was bringing judgment on them or if the things that were happening to them were acts of chance. They did know that God was greater in power than normal acts of nature so they used two cows with nursing calves as a test. They wanted to rid themselves of the presence of God. Bondage to sin makes awareness of God very troublesome to people today the same as in those days. The test the idolatrous priest used was that if two cows acted against their natural instinct it could be concluded that God brought the judgment on them. Even though they acknowledged the hand of God in their troubles, and the fact that propitiation had to be made, they chose to do it their own way which was an insult to God.
They only recognized that "the God of Israel" was a god among other gods. Many people today include "God" as another ingredient in the mix to provide for them what they consider a successful life. "Worshipping God" is just one of many things they do to feel satisfied in themselves. It is a memorial to what is wrong in them rather than what is right about God. The practice of the Philistines is a common practice in religious activity today. A formal, gaudy religion with expensive "new carts" and the trappings of wealth is insulting to God because it exalts man and hides his need of Christ.
A "new cart" is a work of men designed to connect what it carries to the earth to support it, and relieve the responsibility of men to carry the weight of truth. Modern methods of worship and remembrance carry little resemblance to the original pattern God gave. These new ways have replaced the biblical practices that are clearly taught in the scriptures. Natural ability has taken the place of the filling and guidance by the Holy Spirit. Human learning taught by scholarly people who pass on their own ideas about God and the scriptures have taken the place of teachers our Lord set in the church in which "the prophets speak two or three" and the others judge. Teaching of the Lord 's people has been taken over by one man (or woman) instead so those things they hear are without the safety of plurality. Religious ceremonies have taken the place of divine simplicity even in the Lord's Supper. That which is esteemed by men in "Christian" churches has no authority from God if it is not according to the word of God. To set aside the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit leaves the people of God open to the attractions of a "new cart" and the appeal of the "traditions of the early fathers." All of this appeals to those who are unsaved or to carnal believers.
God who can make "the wrath of man" to praise Him, brought the ark back to Israel by His own power even though the materials and the method was not of His choosing. The Holy Spirit is still moving today to give the Lord Jesus Christ His right place among His people who gather in His name. There are still those who
He moves from darkness to light. How gracious is was of God to allow the test of unbelief to work under His divine authority. In His grace He condescended to act in a way to convince even the hard unbelief of idolaters. Those animals went from what was natural to an altar testifying to the fact that that the spiritual has precedence over the natural.
The Ark returned, announced by lowing cows walking without human guidance, followed at a distance by five Philistine leaders who watched this remarkable act of God to its conclusion. The painful tumors that God sent on the Philistines finally produced the necessary results. “The ark of the God of Israel” was returned in the Philistine way – on a cart pulled by beasts. To walk in faith is not complicated. It simply means to take the next step God places in front of us no matter what might call to us from either side. "Make straight paths for your feet" and it will lead to the place of blessing, worship, testimony and rest of soul.
Bethshemesh, means "the house of the sun" which is where the path of separation leads to. God manifests Himself there in the light of His Person through the light of His word. In times of revival, light from God radiates as truth is preached even in dark places. The truth of God has not changed and light characterizes the recovery of God's people to Christ and to gather unto His name alone. When the ark came to the valley at the wheat harvest, the harvesters saw “the ark”. When the truths of God come home to the souls of God's people, the "valley of Baca (weeping)" becomes a well of water and spiritual truth recovered moves God's people to rejoice. There was great weeping and wailing when the ark was taken. Now there was rejoicing when it was returned. Though they reaped in joy what they had sown in sorrow seven months earlier, and there was there was re al joy, they still saw only the object, not the “ark of God.” They should’ve fallen down in worship. Shiloh was no more, so there was no resting place for the ark. Even though the testimony of God's people may be in reproach, when "we see Jesus" there is joy.
We do not live in the heady days of the early church during which thousands were saved and gathered to the name of the Lord, but our Lord is the same One who they lived for in those days. We rest in our Lord Jesus Christ even in these dark days of departure. We can never design our own methods of worshipping God. We must always serve Him in the way He requires. God’s mighty power over-rides all-natural things. God could not allow people to think they use His power for their own ends. In the field of Joshua (Jehovah the Savior) there was a rock that may have been considered a nuisance to farm around, but that rock became a very special place when it became an altar where sacrifices were offered, a place of worship and a resting place for the ark based on a sure foundation.
When we are looking by faith on our Lord and rejoicing in Him, we have joy and gladness. His truth is unchanging as the rock is. "Whoso heareth these sayings on mine and doeth them is like a man who built his house upon a rock." His love, mercy, and grace that have been shown to us, lifts our hearts in praise to Him. But when we leave the enjoyment of what we know of Him revealed to us in the Word of God, and go into speculation and questioning about things not revealed to us by the Spirit of God - and try to pry into the mystery of an Infinite Person, we are in danger of being chastised as sons. With our frail, limited, puny finite minds we are not able to form right teaching regarding the Person and work of Christ or any other biblical doctrine. Most cults have their own explanation of Jesus. "What think ye of Christ is the test, to try both the state and the scheme. You cannot be right in the rest, until ye think rightly of Him."
We cannot disregard His warnings and treat the things of God lightly. Joy turns into sorrow when we act impulsively according to our own desire rather than in a manner suitable to the holy things of God. When we lose the adoration of our hearts toward God and substitute our curiosity or intellectual interest into the things of God, we have lost the sense of holy awe that is essential in our worship and our dealings with Him. A fleshly approach to divine truths dishonors God, hardens our own heart and divides God's people. A personal awareness of the holiness of God, keeps us from carelessness and carnality in dealing with spiritual truth. Our fellowship with God, our communion and dependence on Him is maintained by the Holy Spirit guiding and leading us "into all truth."
To look into the ark was to disregard God. Everything inside of that ark was of special significance to them because of who God is. By their curiosity instead of reverence, they were reducing God to be of no more value than themselves. It is amazing to me that after the first few who gathered around the ark to look in and died, there were others who kept coming and did the same thing until someone must’ve had the sense to close his eyes and cover the ark again. Whether the number was seventy or 50,070 who died – they needed to be reminded that “the ark” is more than a gold-covered box. It was where God dwelt with His people. Those Israelis died because they still looked at the ark in the same way as they had before - as an idol. They had not, or would not, accept the fact that God alone is to be worshipped because He is the Living God. He could not permit them to make up their own minds as to what they believed and use that which belonged to Him in a way that disregarded Him.
His warnings were to the people of God who had strayed were very clear. No longer will you disregard, disrespect, dishonor, disobey and defy that which belongs to God and in doing so - God Himself. Any presumptuous sin affects others beside those who are engaged in it. This discipline was not only on those who looked in the ark, but on those around "that others might fear." Finally, Israel learned that that box was “The Ark of the Lord.” However, the men of Israel living in Bethshemesh didn't repent or judge themselves. Their curiosity didn't bring them to the ark in a humble spirit or a contrite heart. They actually wanted others to come and remove the ark from their community. It is possible that an individual or even an assembly, to be so self-centered and self-satisfied that they do not want even God Himself to upset the status quo which they are used to.
Kirjathjearim seems like a strange place to take the ark of God. Instead of being in the center of the nation, it was taken to "the city of the woods," and more or less hidden there in the forest. But there was one man there named Abinadab who lived out of town on a hill who gladly opened his home to shelter the ark of God. He even had a son with a priestly name, Eleazar, who would tend to the ark. He was glad to have his home used as a sanctuary for the ark of God. That which was of God had a place of affection in his heart, and he "kept" it as a cherished trust from the Lord. He was a true steward. Abinadab and his family opened their hearts and home to the testimony of that which belonged to God for twenty years. Each child that would be born into that family circle would be conscious of the testimony of God in that home. We need to always give our Lord the supreme place in our hearts, homes and gatherings.