The Return of the Ark

Transcript

GRS 2-62
3/25/2007
The Return of the Ark
1 Samuel 6-7
Gil Rugh

As we move through the history of the Old Testament, we have come to first Samuel Chapter six. All of you turn to first Samuel in your bibles, and the sixth chapter and we are coming to the end of the period of the judges a period that has lasted somewhere between 300 and 350 years in Israel’s history encompassed primarily in the book called Judges. The little book of Ruth contains an account that took place within that timeframe and we did not study the book of Ruth on this occasion because it doesn’t move the history along. The opening chapters of Samuel talked about the last two judges Eli followed by the man Samuel and we are going to be looking at chapters six and seven. When we come to chapter eight, we have the issue of a king for Israel. So we move into events that lead us into the establishing of the monarchy in Israel, the kingship first to Saul, then on David and the subsequent Kings. Chapters four and five talked about the capture of the Ark by the Philistines, the Philistines are the major enemy of Israel in this time period and they suppress Israel and they cause Israel a great amount of difficulty in a battle that took place in chapter four with the Philistines, Israel suffers defeat and the Ark Of God is captured and in that chapter Eli dies after hearing the news that his two sons had been killed in that battle and the Ark of God had been captured by the Philistines, in chapter five we read the account of the Philistines taking the Ark of God and they put it into the house of their God Dagon.

Really, it just shows that their god Dagon is more powerful than the god of Israel and so he is put into the house of Dagon. Dagon is found the next day flat before the Ark of the Covenant and then subsequently with his head and hands cut off, then God plagues the Philistines with mice to ruin their crops, with tumors that plagued their physical bodies and now they are concerned. The Philistines, how do we get rid of this Ark? They recognize that it’s the hand of God, the God of the Israelites is heavily – put his hand heavily upon them, now how do we get rid of this Ark? What do we do?

So that’s where we are as we come to chapter six. You know, there is no consideration that we will become worshipers of this God and the God of the Israelites, that’s not one of the options and they have their own gods, Dagon being the prime one. The only issue is how do we get the God of the Israelites out of our territory so he will leave us alone, how do we get them back to the Israelites. So chapter six, the first nine verses talk about the advice that the priest and diviners in the region of Philistia gave them. Verse one, “now, the Ark of the Lord had been in the country of the Philistines seven months and the Philistines called for the priest and the diviners saying, what we shall do with the Ark of the Lord? Tell us how we shall send it to its place”. The diviners were supposedly able by using some of their various means, sometimes it was using the entrails of animals and supposedly reading those other signs that they use, they were supposed to be able to discern the will of God or the gods. I am not telling about the will of the living God because according to Deuteronomy 18, Israel was to tolerate no diviners or spiritists and so on in their midst, but the Philistines being superstitious they naturally turn to their religious leaders, what shall we do? In verse 11 at the end of chapter five, they gathered all the lords of the Philistines and said sent away the Ark of God of Israel, let it return to its own place so that it will not kill us and our people for there was a deadly confusion throughout the city, the hand of the God was very heavy there, the men who did not die were smitten with tumors, so this is what the situation in the major Philistine cities is and so the issue is how do we get the Ark of the covenant out of here without making the situation worse, without angering the God of Israel more.

So the diviners are to give them instruction, now turn back to Deuteronomy 18, because there is an interesting event that occurs here that’s not unique to this, but it reminds us God sometimes uses even pagan, godless people, false religious leaders for the accomplishing of his purposes. In Deuteronomy 18 verse 10 and here is instructions from God when Israel would enter the land. Verse nine, they were not to imitate the detestable things of the nations, they should not be found among you, anyone who makes his son or daughter are passed through the fire, one who uses divination. The leaders of the Philistine cities called for diviners, but in Israel there were to be no diviners and no one practices witchcraft or interprets omens or a sorcerer or casts a spell, a medium, a spiritist, one who calls up to dead, whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord, so the people, they have called for advice, the Philistines are detestable in the sight of God, but God is going to use them and they will give advice that God will honor and what they say will come about.

On occasions God does this in the Old Testament, when we were in the book of numbers, in Numbers chapters 22 and 23 remember Balaam, he was a pagan prophet, an example of false prophets who try to make money by their prophesies, the New Testament would use them as an example, but God used him and some of the things he said are great prophesies in the old testament, but he is a godly man where he is going to die with the godless people of the land when Israel comes in, so this is going to be an example of that kind of situation. Look at verse three, the priest and the diviners said if you send away the Ark of God, the God of Israel “do not send it empty, you shall surely return to him a guilt offering, then you will be healed and it would be known to you why his hand is not removed from you”. You don’t really want to send away the Ark empty, you are guilty before God, you have offended this God of Israel, you must make amends, now we are not talking about salvation and there will be no blood offering here, there is going to be some gold items constructed, but without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins, but these pagans are going to acknowledge their guilt before the God of Israel and give an offering to express their guilt, so let’s compare this two with the Egyptians, Israel go and Israel takes possessions from the Egyptians in effect acknowledging their guilt and that they owe the people of God for their imprisonment, well here the Philistines are going to acknowledge their guilt and provide an offering, it’s not going to be the offerings required by the Mosaic Law, there will be confusion, but as pagans we are acknowledging that we have offended the God of Israel and are giving an offering to him, not for forgiveness of sins, but to acknowledge their guilt before him and what they will do, they are told in verse four, they said what shall be the guilt offering? Five golden tumors and five golden mice according to the number of the lords of the philistines for one plague was on all of you and all your lords, the five major cities of the Philistines and so each of these cities has experienced this judgment of God because its come on the nation of the philistines.

Verse five; you shall make likenesses of your tumors and likenesses of your mice that ravaged the land. Now note this, you shall give glory to the God of Israel, perhaps he will ease his hand from you, your gods, your land, so you have to give glory to the God of Israel, acknowledge that he is the powerful sovereign God, they are not going to become converts, they are going to acknowledge that the God of Israel is greater than their gods, they were to acknowledge that they cannot stand against him, they may have defeated the Jews, they cannot defeat the God of the Jews, so they are going to give him glory and giving this gifts is acknowledging that he is God and they have offended him and perhaps he will ease his hand from you, your gods and your land, take his hand of judgment off of you, they have personally experienced tumors in their body, you saw that at the end of chapter five. Your gods, remember Dagon in chapter five, he was left headless and handless before the God of Israel, your land, the mice are ravaging the land, and you have got this plague of the rodents which can only lead to starvation. The people, the land will be ruined and they realized this. Now keep in mind we are hundreds of years after Israel has come out of the land and yet they remember, look at verse six, 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 allow the people to go and they departed.

Back in chapter four verse eight, when the Israelites brought the Ark of God into the camp thinking that would give them victory over the Philistines, the Philistines were terrified. Verse eight “woe to us, who shall deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who smote the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness” amazing, hundreds of years have gone by and here is these pagan godless people and they can accurately relate what happened in Egypt. The plagues that the God of Israelites brought on the Egyptians, how Egypt was destroyed and ultimately the Egyptians were glad to let the Israelites go. So here do you have these pagan diviners and priests saying, why would you try to fight against this God? Remember what happened to the Egyptians, Egypt was destroyed and they still had to let the Egyptians go, there is no chance you are going to win. I mean it’s amazing, the truth that pagan Godless religious people, priests and diviners can share and yet they are totally ignorant in any saving sense of the God of Israel. They sound like true prophets just like Balaam did in the book of numbers, he is very prophesying.

This is a reminder and something we need to keep before us, you have to take into account the total character and total context of a ministry and we get deluded into thinking, well they said good things, they said good things. I mean if you quote what they say here, these pagan diviners and priests did say, well they must be okay, they must be godly people, if you quote the prophesies of Balaam from Numbers 22 to 24, you think well man, he must be a mighty man of God which you have to put that in its context of the true character revealed of these individuals and the larger context of their ministry and otherwise you are deluded and deceived, these men are in no way saved men, they are just acknowledging the facts that history has presented them and thus are now being demonstrated, but their hard hearts aren’t soft in one day, they have no intention of personally bowing before the God of Israel and calling upon him for salvation.

So, take and prepare a new cart, two milch cows and on which there has never been a yoke, hitch the cows to the cart, take their calves home away from them. These are priests and diviners, so they are aware this has to be something done to honor this God. So it can’t be a cart you used for anything else, it can’t be a cart that might have been used for profane purpose because you might just anger this God more, so it has to be a new cart, never used for anything else, so it never has been polluted in any way. You are going to take two milk cows and they had never been used for any other purpose, they have never pulled another cart, so they won’t offend this God by implying that you use something that used for a lady to hold the garbage or use for something that he might get more angry and we would be destroyed, so they are superstitious people in that sense and they are going to honor this God, all they have in mind, here, now you take these two milch cows and you are going to take their calves away. We are seeing, take the Ark of the Lord and place it on the cart, put the articles of gold which you have returned to him as a guilt offering in a box by its side so they would have a box made for the purpose, remember, they have made the tumors, the five tumors and the five mice, gold mice and golden tumors representing God’s judgment on them, acknowledging this judgment came from the God of Israel and now we are acknowledging our guilt that brought this judgment, we should have never captured him so to speak and brought him to our territory and so now we are going to send the cart away, the end of verse eight, send it that it may go away.

Watch, if it goes up by the way of its own territory to Beth-Shemesh, then he has done us this great evil, but if not then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us, it was just chance. So you see now, they have created a situation where we can get if it’s truly this God, we can get him out of our territory without offending him anymore and we have also learn that maybe this just didn’t happen to be an unusual collection of circumstances, so happened we captured this Ark at the same time, it so happened that you know we got this plague of an illness and the plague of rodents and the normal thing would be, here you have two cows, they had never pulled a cart. The natural thing would be they would want to find their calves that they are nursing, but if they take this cart in just without wearing off one way or the other, note they don’t have anybody driving the cart, the cows will have to go of their own accord so that the God of Israel would have to direct them so that they don’t go assisting their calves or they just don’t wander and if this cart goes directly to the near Israelite city of Beth-Shemesh, then we will know the God of Israel did it, if that cart wanders around and milk cows go looking for their calves, we will know that it was chance.

The men did so, verse ten, and took two milk cows, hitched them to the cart and shut up their calves at home, they put the Ark of the Lord on the cart, the box with the golden mice, the likenesses of their tumors, “the cows took the straight way in the direction of Beth-Shemesh, they went along the highway, lowing as they went, they did not turn aside to the right or to the left. And the lords of the Philistines followed them to the border of Beth-Shemesh, here you see God used the advice of these pagan diviners, if these men had been in and part of the nation Israel, they would have had to be executed, but here God honors their word, that does not justify them or make them in anyway acceptable to God. Remember, God said in Deuteronomy 18, these men are detestable to him, but when it suits God’s purposes, he even uses detestable instruments for his purposes, so their advice here is used by God to demonstrate his character. Does it mean that God speaks through these people? Not generally, no, but here he uses them to demonstrate his power and character on this occasion. Verse 13 and following, the Ark comes to Beth-Shemesh in its harvest time, this would be May or June, the time of the wheat harvest, May-June on our calendar.

Beth-Shemesh is a Levitical city, when we go back to Joshua 21:16, remember the Levitical cities that were spread throughout the lands, so there would be priests spread throughout the territories in Israel. Beth-Shemesh is a Levitical city, now it helps you understand why the men of the city can take the Ark, sacrifice the cows as an offering to God, these are Levitical priests, men of Levitical city inhabited by Levites.

So the people of Beth-Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley, they saw the Ark, they were glad to see it, the cart came into the field of Joshua, the Beth-Shemaite and stood there where there was a large stone, they split the wood of the cart, offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord, the Levites took down the Ark of the Lord and the box that was with it, with the articles of gold, and put them on a large stone. The men of Beth-Shemesh offered burnt offerings, sacrificed sacrifices that day to the Lord. When the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned to Ekron that day so they could go back to testify. You know, it was the God of Israel who did it, you know those cows, they didn’t turn to the right or the left, they went straight to Beth-Shemesh and they sacrificed to the Lord there and so even among these pagans there is a testimony even though it does not result in their salvation.

Verses 17 and 18 tells about the five Philistine cities, Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, Ekron and so the number of the five golden tumors, the five golden mice and so on and that large stone there, that was known even the subsequent days and its there as a testimony of what God did.

Amazing, you think wonderful glory, now we have judgment on Israel. Verse 19, he struck down some of the men of Beth-Shemesh because they had looked into the Ark of the Lord and we will go back to Numbers chapter four. God specifically forbids even the general priest to look into the Ark, you can’t do that and as a result of them doing what God said they cannot do, a number of them are going to die, now you see here, it says he struck down of all the people 50,070 men and the people mourned because the Lord has struck the people with a great slaughter. That number may not be the correct number, I say it because that’s an awful larger number, I mean it encompass a broad area, 50,070 and the Greek translation of the old testament and Josephus the Jewish historian of New Testament times both record the number as 70, not 50,070. So they will be here that we are dealing with 70 men which could be a large number in this city and die as a result of this particular offense of looking into the Ark. It’s not impossible that 50,000 people die throughout the territory as God brings a plague on the people for the action of some of the men here, but you have to be aware that there maybe a difference in the number.

What is God demonstrating here? He is the holy sovereign God who must be honored, whether he is in pagan lands or in Israel, you know because he is the God of Israel, it doesn’t mean now they can become casual in dealing with this God. He is our God, we belong to him, we are his chosen people and we have more latitudes in dealing with him, he would be treated as holy by his people and they offend his holiness by doing what he says they should not do and reminded us these things don’t change because we are the people of God, because you know we have the liberty to be casual if you will with our God, to treat him as less than holy, remember Ananias and Sapphira at the beginning of the church’s history in Acts chapter five, what happened to them when they lied to the Holy Spirit, they died. First Corinthians chapter 11 versus 17 and following in connection with the community service, what happened among the people of Corinth, when they didn’t treat the Lord’s Supper properly, many of them were sick and a number died. I think God will be treated as holy. These people, they sometimes think that well because we are God’s people we can take the liberties, we are a special people, as Israel was a special people, God’s unique treasured possession and we the church today are God’s special redeemed people, but he will be treated as holy by us, you shall be holy for I am holy, he has to be honored by our obedience and this obedience brings the chastening of God, so here you have that clearly set forth.

The men of Beth- Shemesh, they are horrified, who was able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? Sadly, their response is basically the same as the godless Philistines, we have got to get him out of here, when the Philistine say we have got to get this God out of here, here the people, they are Levitical priests in this city. What's your question? To whom shall he go up from us, where are we going to send the Ark?

It’s not a matter, we have to learn something from here, and we must treat him as holy. They said, oh my goodness, who can stand before this holy God? We need to send him on to another city. Sadly, they have the same kind of response as the Philistines did, so they sent messenger to the inhabitants of Kiriath-Jearim and they said "The Philistines have brought back the ark of the Lord; come down and take it up to you.” I don’t think they told them the whole story. The Ark is here, so why don’t you come and take it to your city? So the Men of Kiriath-Jearim came and took the Ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill, and consecrated Eleazar his son to keep the Ark of the Lord. From the day that the Ark remained at Kiriath-Jearim, the time was long, for it was twenty years; and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.

That’s a long time, now we don’t have Jerusalem established yet as the center of the worship of the Lord. But why didn’t they take it back to Shiloh? That’s where its place had been since they came into the land. In all probability, Shiloh had been destroyed to a larger extend in that battle with the Philistines in which the Ark of the Lord was taken captive, but it does not return there. So it’s going to be here for twenty years.

Verse three, Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, "If you return to the Lord with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him alone; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines." Well what happened in verses three to 11, Samuel calls the people to repentance so that God can give them victory. Remember, where Israel got in trouble back in chapter four and they lost the Ark, they treated it as some superstitious magical formula or item, they didn’t repent of their sin, they didn’t turn from their corrupted worship, they just brought the Ark into the camp and thought that would do it. Then it just brought defeat. So now, what happens is Samuel calls them to undivided allegiance to the living God. It tells you something of the condition. Remember, the time of the judges was a time of corrupted worship; he had to tell them, remove the foreign gods, remove the Ashtaroth from among you. Direct your hearts to the lord, serve his alone. He told him the worse part of it actually, return to the Lord with all your hearts and then he can give you victory over the Philistines, not some magical thing you can carry the Ark around and regardless of your character and regardless of how corrupted and mixed your worship is, you can’t be sure of God’s blessing because you have the Ark.

No, there has to be undivided allegiance, you worship the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength as Deuteronomy chapter six instructed Israel, so you come to the Lord with all your heart, you serve him alone and there is repentance on the part of Israel, verse four said, the sons of Israel, remove the Baals, the Ashtaroth and serve the Lord alone. My goodness, we have come through the ministry of Eli, we have come here to the latter part of Samuel’s judgeship and finally we are calling and the nation is responding to the call for repentance, the godless corruption of worshiping the Canaanite gods and the gods of the lands along with the God of Israel. So Samuel said, gather all the Israel to Mizpah and I will pray to the lord for you. Mizpah is seven miles north, we are about ten miles east of Jerusalem if I remember correctly and now he is calling Israel to meet him at Mizpah seven miles north of Jerusalem. Seven or ten miles west of Jerusalem, not east, toward the Mediterranean and here, there is going to be a time of national repentance and mourning, so verse six, they gathered in Mizpah, and drew water and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day and said there, "We have sinned against the Lord." And Samuel judged the sons of Israel at Mizpah. Now, generally this involved then addressing the specific sins they were joking at and calling them to repentance of those sins and by the grace of God they respond. You know, they drew water and poured it out before the lord and this picture is their repentance, they are pouring out their heart to the Lord, there is a physical demonstration as they pour out the water, they are pouring out their heart in repentance and asking for God’s mercy.

Come over to Psalm 62. We have the picture here in verse eight. The statement, trust in him at all times O people, pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. Now keep coming back to after Jeremiah to Lamentations. The Lamentations of Jeremiah and we are going to Lamentations chapter two verse 19, calling then the nation needs to lament the grief over their sin that’s brought the Babylonian captivity and God’s judgment on them. Verse 18, their heart cried out to the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let your tears run down like a river day and night, give yourself no relief, let your eyes have no rest. Arise, cry aloud in the night. At the beginning of the night watches, pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord. So you see that grief that repent, you pour out your heart like water, so here back in first Samuel that pouring out of the water pictures their pouring out their heart. God, we have sinned, we need your mercy and grace and deliverance and true repentance, true humility does bring forgiveness and deliverance, so verses seven and eight, you realize there was no change in heart on the part of the Philistines regarding Israel and their God, they just didn’t like the heavy hand of the God of Israel, but they haven’t changed anything.

So verse seven, when the Philistines heard the sons of Israel had gathered at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel, when the sons of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines, then the sons of Israel said to Samuel, do not cease to cry to the Lord our God for us that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines, you note that there is no self-confidence, there is no confidence that we can do it, there is no superstitious activity here that we need to get the Ark of the Covenant so we can hide behind it and there is just true acknowledgement. Keep crying out to the Lord on our behalf, keep going before God on our behalf and asking for his mercy and his grace, and so true humility here in their attitude, different than their prior confrontation. Samuel took a suckling lamb and the book of Leviticus that this young lamb could not be offered until it had spent seven days with the mother, so it would be a young suckling lamb here to be offered and they offered that as a sacrifice to God.

Verse ten, now Samuel is offering up the burnt offering as he cries to the Lord for Israel, at the end of verse nine, the Lord answers him and he is offering the burnt offering. Not coming because we are worthy, but we are coming with the sacrifice asking you to be merciful, forgive us on the basis of the sacrifice that has been offered for our sins and asking for mercy and the Lord intervenes, with a great thunder on that day against the Philistines, confused them so that they were routed before Israel. The men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and struck them down as far as Beth-Car.

So there is a great victory here, the Lord intervenes with a powerful thunderstorm and that throws the philistine armies into chaos, with the thunder, the lightening, and the rain and there is chaos and the Philistines are routed and Israel comes out and mops up and wins a great victory. Verse 12 says Samuel took a stone, set it between Mizpah and Shen and named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the Lord has helped us". You know, they didn’t have the advantage of everybody having a copy of the scriptures and a written record like we have, but they did establish these memorials as reminders, so Samuel sets up this Ebenezer, this stone that will be an ongoing reminder that the Lord had helped us, here we had a great victory because we came as a repenting people in humility, with the sacrifice that God required and cast ourselves on his mercy and he brought deliverance and he thundered from the heavens and the Philistines are destroyed.

What happens here? You know you have the same people Israel, you have the same opponent, the Philistines and you have exactly the opposite results. Catastrophic defeat in chapter four, glorious victory in chapter seven. Same enemy, the Philistines, same people Israel, but you have a different heart and so God brings the victory, the chapter concludes verses 15 to 17 with a summary of Samuel’s ministry in Israel, he judged Israel all the days of his life, he used to go annual on a circuit to Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpah and he judged Israel on all these places, then his return was to Ramah for his house was there, there he judged Israel and he built there an alter to the Lord, so Samuel was going these regular circuits to these major cities and be like our old circuit riding judge and when he would come to the city, then people would come to him for resolution of matters and so on. Somewhat of a summary of his ministry because chapter eight will open up telling us he is old and Israel wants a king and so then we will come to the anointing of Saul as preparation to assume the role of the first king of the Israel.

Let’s look at a few highlights from chapter six and seven. I have picked the number of perfection, seven points out of these two chapters to summarize them and we maybe done a little early, but don’t count on it yet, but it could happen.

Alright, number one, God can and does use godless men in the accomplishing of his purposes, the philistine priest and the diviner is such an example, I keep stressing this in order to be careful that we don’t get confused to think because God uses them, therefore their activity as diviners for example was any less offensive to the living God. God does on occasion use godless people in the accomplishing of his purposes, but that does not validate them, that does not change the fact they are godless people.

Number two; sinful men want to get rid of the presence of God. The Philistines did not seek to change their gods, but to get rid of the true living good, resolution would had been, what good is Dagon? He lost his head, he lost his hands. He is powerless, we need the God of Israel as our God, let us cry out to the God of Israel, let us tell the Israelites that we want to come to worship their God, that’s not going on here, it’s none of the vandalistic outreach and there is no national repentance and conversion among the Philistines, they are doomed to destruction under the judgment of God, but they want to get rid of God. Amazing, even in the midst of the demonstration of his great power, even with the admission that it is the God of Israel who destroyed Egypt. Hundreds of years ago, this same God is at work now in judging us and destroying us, but the answer is we must get rid of this God. We must put distance between this God and us. I will turn over to Luke chapter eight, some of you are probably thinking of this occasion. Luke chapter eight and here you have Luke telling an account in Jesus ministry, verse 26, when they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, when he came into the land, he was met – verse 27 – by a man from the city possessed with demons and he hadn’t put on clothing for a long time and he was not living in his house, he is living in the tombs outside the city and seeing Jesus, he cried out, fell down before him, said in a loud voice, what business do we have to do with each other Jesus, son of the most high? The demons are crying out not to be tormented and on it goes, they are imploring him, verse 31, not to send them away into the Abyss, so he sends them into the herd of swine, the swine run down into the sea and they are destroyed and drowned and so you think everybody falls in repentance and in verse 37 when the people of the country of the Gerasenes and the surrounding district had heard this, they asked him to leave them. I mean they are not crying out that you are the great savior, you are the messiah of Israel, we cast ourselves before you. They said would you leave please. When it comes about being around you, we are afraid of having you here. So we are not to be surprised in people don’t want to be around the God of scripture, don’t want to be around you. What are you, but a temple of the living God, right? Why should unregenerate people be thrilled to be in your presence? One who is to be manifesting the character of the God that you serve, his holiness, his righteousness, some time by that false humility that we prayed around, there ought to be our character, had it not? It’s that what people really say, well if you are godly, people will be drawn to you. Oh really? That don’t seem to be the case in the accounts we are looking at, if you are godly, it seems a lot of time people are driven away from you. Unless God is doing a supernatural work in drawing those people in these days.

Point three, the holiness of God is demanding and dangerous. Humble obedience is required of all who would stand in the presence of God. Back in Samuel in chapter six, first Samuel six verses 19 and 20, even the Israelites, even the Levites, the priest in Israel suffer severe punishment and death with the hands of our Holy God. The holiness of God is demanding and dangerous, he expects his people to honor him as holy. You can’t do that without obedience to him, you have to say well, he is a holy God, I have to be careful to keep my distance, I have to be careful to honor him as holy by being obedient to him.

They carry the Ark to Kiriath-Jearim, the people of Kiriath-Jearim will die, the problem wasn’t with the presence of God among them, the problem was with the un-holiness of the people in the presence of God. The people at Beth-Shemesh wouldn’t have died if they didn’t look into the Ark, if they had done what God told them to do, then they could have experienced God’s blessing.

Point four, Godly repentance involves turning to God from all sin and serving him alone. Verse three of chapter seven, you return to the Lord with all your heart, you serve him alone, we will just have to get over this idea that somehow God ought to really be pleased because you know, I am willing to give him at least a portion of my life, I mean he ought to be really happy that I am here tonight, I mean I could have done other things, a lot of people are doing other things, I mean the idea that anything we decide to give to the Lord, he ought to just be so happy, but you understand, remember what Jesus said, there is no negotiating him. I require everything, all of you. Go back to Deuteronomy, you must love me with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, you are not your own, you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body because it’s my body, I bought it, it’s all mine. This idea that, well as long as I give a little bit to the Lord and do a little bit for the Lord, he ought to be pleased, but he requires everything. Israel can’t get right with God until they returned to him with all their heart and serve him alone. That mention to you another occasion, you cannot honor God by elevating him to second place in your life, it just can’t happen, you cannot honor God by elevating him to second place in your life, it cannot be my wife and then God, my kids and then God, my whatever and then God. He has to be supreme and the distance between him and everything else is so great, it can be called hate because there is no comparison. So Israel had to turn to God and to him alone and completely.

Number five, Godly repentance involves humbling ourselves before the lord. You know there is no place for me to keep my pride, I can’t say I am going to come to the Lord, but I am going to salvage my pride of this, there is no way for Israel to come to the Lord, but verse six, we have sinned against the Lord, they recognize, verse eight, don’t stop crying out to the Lord, so that’s why. We are not worthy people, we are an undeserving people, Samuel, you got to keep praying, you got to keep going before the Lord on our behalf and keep representing us. He is a priest, remember there the priest had to go before, I mean you know, your self worth, your pride, it all begins to influence our thinking and we are to be a people characterized by humility, we recognize we are unworthy of best, undeserving the best, we cry for mercy, not justice, when you come to God why have you been accepted? Well you know I did the best I could and so he showed mercy on me? No, I was totally undeserving, unworthy and today we try to salvage our pride or include it to disaster.

Number six, God acts mightily on behalf of those who humble themselves before him, verse ten, not great think, God could destroy the Philistines, they are nothing, we have already seen what he says about their God Dagon, it’s powerless, I mean He topple him over and cut off his head and his hands. He tells us, I would say all the gods of the nations are nothing, they are nothing, so you know when we humble ourselves before God, he can work and he does, and that’s our confidence, I am walking in humility before my God, I can trust him and however he chooses to work, I am confident that it will be the right thing and we will honor him and lastly we need to focus on the faithfulness of God to us in the past. Verse 12 and we don’t build literal monuments and we don’t need to, but we do need to remember God’s faithfulness. I am sometimes amazed at how quickly I forget and how much I forget of how great God’s grace has been in my life. Sometimes it’s good for me just to sit down and reflect over what God has done. To remind myself it’s been his grace that has brought me to this place so that we don’t forget, that is God’s grace. Often it doesn’t happen where you have had an occasion to be reminded of something just that I forgot, what God did there, I had forgotten all about that, we had prayed and we had asked the Lord to work and the Lord had worked and I know of that now and yeah I had almost forgotten that, you know we need to be reminded, there is a reason that God gives a lot of history in the bible for us. It reminds us and serves to remind us to keep ourselves reminded of God’s faithfulness on our lives. The verse 12 of chapter seven, he set up a stone, set it between Mizpah and Shen and named it Ebenezer saying thus far the Lord has helped us.

Don’t forget, he is the God who brings help and how did that happen? Remember when we humbled ourselves before the Lord, we turned from the other gods, we committed ourselves to God and him alone with all of our heart, our soul and our mind, we acknowledged their unworthiness, we went into batter not because we were confident in ourselves, but we were totally dependent upon God and he gave us victory, you don’t want to forget that and the Ebenezer is the reminder. So we are blessed, they have the history of Israel, they have the account of the New Testament and be his people now 2000 years after Christ and serving this same God, not one little bit less powerful, one little bit less sovereign over the nations of the earth, over the people individually and corporately and we belong to him and I come with confidence before a throne of grace because of the sacrifice that’s been offered in the person of his son and if I walk humbly before him, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at the proper time.

Let’s pray. Thank you Lord for who you are, for your greatness, your grace, your mercy, your kindness, thank you for your work in our lives, thank you for this account of Israel and your faithfulness, about how simple the solution to their difficulties was. Turn from your sin, humble yourselves before God, call upon him and allow him to do the work that only he can do, so clear in reading the history of Israel. And Lord how blessed we are to be reminded that you are the same God today. The sacrifice has been provided that enables us to come with confidence, a humble confidence, confidence in humility recognizing. So we come not on the basis of who we are, but on the basis of what you have done for us and who we are in your son. So we may recognize the importance of treating you as holy, not looking to hide from you, to put distance between us as though we could, but to walk in obedience honoring you as holy and manifesting your holiness in our life so that you might accomplish your purposes in bringing glory of yourself and victory in our lives and that be true of our walk in the days of the week before us, we pray in Christ name, Amen.