(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
1 Samuel 6:19–21, “And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter. And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God? and to whom shall he go up from us? And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjathjearim, saying, The Philistines have brought again the ark of the LORD; come ye down, and fetch it up to you.”
When the Tabernacle was first built, the instructions for the ark included keeping in secret in the Holiest place. The Lord told Moses that He would meet Moses and communicate with him near the ark. (Ex 25:21–22, “And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.”) However, access into the Lord’s presence was restricted to certain times of the year and special sacrifices had to be offered. Only the High Priest was allowed to enter the Holy Place. When the ark was to be transported the priest who was disassembling the Tabernacle was to take the veil from the Holiest Place and cover the ark with that veil. (Ex 40:3, “And thou shalt put therein the ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with the vail.”) This reminds us that Eli’s sons had committed an extra sin by showing the ark to the Israeli soldiers and then to the Philistines. When the ark was returned to Israel, it was uncovered on a cart drawn by two cows because the Philistines didn’t know any better. However, the Israelis should have known better and immediately found something clean to cover the ark. Instead, the local people were curious and opened the ark to see what was inside. This was a serious sacrilege so the Lord killed the people who had looked and approved of this action. They had no excuse because they belonged to the Lord and had full access to His Law. However, they were also filled with a holy fear of the Lord and called to the people of the next town to come and take the ark away from them.
No comments:
Post a Comment