1 Samuel 6: Lost

The ark of the Lord’s covenant – LOST. Can you imagine what this must have been like for Israel? Imagine for a moment having the ark of God, that which represented His presence taken from you. Imagine not having access to God. This is what they were experiencing; a LOST sense of relationship with their God.

The Philistines had captured the ark and God’s glory departed from Israel. But there was a problem. God sent a plague on those who’d stolen the ark from Israel. Large tumors affected the Philistines. So in despair they decided to send the ark away. The Philistines were doing what they did best – trying to appease the gods. They had all sorts of gods, all sorts of superstitions, so to them the god of Israel was just another god. They wanted to be healed, so they devised a plan to see if it was the God of Israel or just by chance that they were affected and infected with these huge tumors.

When they set the ark on the cart, placed the five gold models of the tumors and of the rats (apparently the disease and tumors were transferred by these animals), one for each of the Philistine rulers, they sent it on its way with the cows pulling and taking the covenant on its way. If the cows went straight to Israelite territory, toward Beth Shemesh, then the LORD they decided is the one who brought this great disaster on them. If the cows don’t go this way, well then these tumors have happened to us only by chance. Heads its God, tails it’s by chance. Well God wanted the ark back in the hands of His people so that’s where the cows went – exactly where God wanted regardless of their superstitious test.

The key point of this whole story is summed up in verse 20. After the Levites took the ark off the cart, they made a burnt offering to the LORD. Then God strikes down a number of the men of Beth Shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the LORD. You see the Philistines suffered, these men suffered and we suffer when we don’t realize that NO ONE can stand in the presence of the LORD, because He is holy. When we live in such a way that our lives get complacent and casual about the holy things of God, we’re walking on dangerous ground. God is holy. We’re called to be holy. But we can’t be holy on our own. We must stay connected with our Holy Father. We must never allow our relationship with Him to be LOST. It’s important for us to remember the old saying, I was lost but now I am found.

Friends, remember God’s presence is available and it’s for our benefit. Think about all the ways we’ve allowed God to in a sense get LOST in our lives. Where we’ve turned away from Him; where we’ve chosen to think and act different than we know He wants. Then spend some time today confessing our guilt before our Holy God. And then realize once we confess, we’re forgiven. Now that’s a holy God. Amen.

Posted by Joe Stecz