1 Samuel 6 Commentary
You wonder why the Philistines kept the Ark for such a long time. The guess is that they reckoned keeping Israel’s god in captivity amounted to disarming Israel. Without this god, Israel was impotent, so they must have thought.
The Philistines shared the same primitive and sinful mentality with Israel that the Creator God could be housed in a box and could be captured and confined.
Then we have a long section of material coming from the diviners. The reader is warned against taking the “guess-work” views of the diviners for factual elements of the true worship of the LORD. They are guessing.
The proposed action is actually an experiment to determine whether the Ark is responsible for their misfortunes at all. Therefore, they draw on their pagan practices and deploy means to appease the supposedly offended god of Israel.
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14.
This is what we know. The God of Israel is holy, and you appease Him by humility, prayer, and repentance. The pagan diviners and priests have wrong ideas and methods.
Nevertheless, the LORD God does play along, and the Ark finds its way to Beth Shemesh. But here we have another problem. The Israelite men of Beth Shemesh irreverently look into the Ark. The LORD strikes many of them.
See how the Ark punishes humanity without looking at men’s titles! The only language the LORD understands is humility and repentance! Your name doesn’t matter, Philistine or Israel!
Like the pagan cities of Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron, the Israelite city of Beth Shemesh no longer wants the Ark. So the Ark makes its way to Kiriath Jearim.
The Glory or presence of the LORD is very interesting. It is such a calming influence of peace and tranquility. How we seek it! But at the same time, to the irreverent and sinful, the Presence is actually death.
We also note how pagan nations have their own organized system of worship. They have temples and priests who serve in those temples. Nothing has changed. Temples to satan still exist, and there are priests who serve him.
The saint must watch out for these facilities and see how they may influence the environment in which the LORD God has put him.
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