Israel - Bet Shemesh

Glad to see you again and I’m tickled you are here.

I relive the trip and the absolute spiritual ecstasy every time I look at the pictures.

Again I encourage you if you ever can go to Israel, go.

I’d go again in a minute.

Some quick housekeeping,

Next week we will not meet.

Renee’ and I have been invited by Thomas Hammond to attend a Pastor and Wives Conference at Stone Mountain.

The conference is hosted by the Georgia Baptist Mission Board and since the big, dog, daddy invited us

I thought we might ought to go - so Renee’ and I will be leaving after the morning service and we’ll come home Tuesday evening.

We will meet the next two weeks and then we’ll have our final Town Hall for the Proposed By Laws

Then we will meet for the next four weeks uninterrupted.

Fall is a difficult time - a lot of unusual things happen.

We’ll be much more consistent come January.

Let’s pray.

Today we are in Bet Shemesh.

I gave you some scripture to read - 1 Samuel 5:1-7:2 and 2 Kings 14:1-22.

We won’t get to 2 Kings, but when you read it after seeing the pictures, you’ll have a richer understanding of the scripture.

Let’s start with the pictures.

So this was our guide - His name was Yehuda Askenazi - how Jewish, right?

He never defined his faith to us - but from some of the things he said, I’m almost certain he is a Messianic Jew.

He was Mossad - taught desert survival.

He studied archeology under some of the biggest names in Israel.

He was 69 years old and moved like the wind.

My heart hurts that I will probably never see him again.

He was so kind to Anna and me - we asked lots of questions.

So Bet Shemesh - located in the Shephelah - the region for crops and for war.

You can see why - see the broad valley.

This picture is looking towards the Mediterranean.

Notice that this direction is slightly downhill.

You go down to the coast and the land of the Philistines

They were sea people - lived on the coast.

And you go up to Jerusalem - this is the Sorek Valley.

Keep going north and you’ll get to Jerusalem.

This is facing north, towards Jerusalem.

In one of those hills is the city of Zorah.

Who knows who was born and lived in Zorah? (Samson)

Now, we won’t go into detail with Samson because every picture I have for Zorah looks like this one.

But - notice this.

From Samson’s house, he would have turn left - uphill - and gone to Jerusalem - to the people of God.

OR - He could go right - downhill - and go to the sea shore - to the sea people - to the godless Philistines.

Where did he go?

I’m sure the coast was fun - lesser clad people playing in the ocean.

Delilah came from there.

And I’m sure it was easier walking downhill rather than uphill too.

But easy isn’t always the best.

This is the plain directly in front of Bet Shemesh.

You can tell by the power poles and the train just how large the field is.

All along the path

You see these small, wild plants.

This is a closer shot.

See the little yellow flowers?

Wild mustard - it’s everywhere.

Has little brown pods you can break open and get a mustard seed out of.

If you crush it between your teeth, it has a slight taste of mustard with just a hint of spiciness.

As we landed in Istanbul, there are huge fields of cultivated mustard.

And they may have had that in Israel, but I don’t remember seeing it.

But these were everywhere.

As we crested the hill, some shepherds with their sheep appeared.

I don’t know if they own property or if they are simply allowed to wander and graze.

But it was peaceful here - the wind was blowing - not a lot of noise - and sheep.

And this is looking down on Bet Shemesh.

Notice it’s basically carved into the side of this hill.

To get the scale, notice the 4’ fence post in the foreground and on the other side of the dig, you can see another 4’ fence post.

The remaining walls are about a foot to 18” thick.

Some of the walls still stood maybe 8 to 10’ tall

But notice how small the rooms were.

That’s what led me to ask about their size.

See the size of their rooms - that’s probably 8 x 12 maybe

In America we call that a closet.

This is the final view of Bet Shemesh.

Notice the size of the dig - there is still some area that hasn’t been excavated probably

But all in all, you can see Bet Shemesh is a small town.

So before we go further, let’s tackle a translation issue.

In 1 Samuel 6:19 “And he struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked upon the ark of the Lord. He struck seventy men of them, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great blow.”

That’s the ESV - but if you read the KJV or the NASB, you’ll read 50,070 were struck down.

It’s not an error - it’s a translation issue.

There is a word we translate thousand - but when you match geography with translation - you start to realize maybe the word meant something different 3000 years ago.

We know it refers to a certain number of people - but Bet Shemesh was a small town.

If 50,070 had died, the city and all the area people would have been dead.

But if the writer was trying to say that, of the number of inhabitants, 70 were struck down, that would make much more sense.

Do we know for a fact what this number was? No

Does this cast doubt on the Bible? No

Why not?

Because the point of the story we’re going to see, is not the number of people, it was what God did to an irreverent, careless people.

Here are the obligatory food pictures.

We stayed at the Isrotel at the Dead Sea the night we visited Bet Shemesh.

There was this food bar.

And then this one

There was a huge bread table you don’t see.

There was a huge food bar of meat and other entrees.

And they all ended up looking like this.

See that roll - we’d fight over that.

Then of course you had to have desert.

And not just one desert

But a whole plate full.

That was at every meal.

So, that’s Bet Shemesh.

Now how does this help us see the Bible.

We are about to read 1 Samuel 5:1-7:4

Bet Shemesh and the Sorek Valley figure prominently in this story.

So here is the background.

Israel went to battle against the Philistines?

Where did the Philistines lives? (Coast)

Israel went to Battle against God’s direction.

They thought since they brought the ark with them, they couldn’t lose.

Like us thinking if we wear a cross, we’re good.

Entertainers wearing crosses but doing ungodly things - does that work?

Us?

So Israel lost and the ark of God was captured.

First it went to Ashdod - 3 miles from the coast.

It them moved to Gath, 12 miles to the east.

Then to Ekron, 6 miles north

Then to Bet Shemesh up the Sorek Valley

Eventually to Kiriath-jearim.

1 Samuel 5:1–5 ESV

When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.

Philistines were polytheistic.

Believed God was another god.

But his “totem” in their church.

Dagon fell face down, then face down with head and hands off.

What is the significance? (worship, lost head - can’t think, hands - can’t work)

(People of God conquered, but God was not conquered)

1 Samuel 5:6–9 ESV

The hand of the Lord was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory. And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is hard against us and against Dagon our god.” So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” They answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath.” So they brought the ark of the God of Israel there. But after they had brought it around, the hand of the Lord was against the city, causing a very great panic, and he afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them.

What does it mean the Lord’s hand was heavy?

(people confused, died, tumors, we’ll see later, mice

(mice carry fleas, fleas carry the plague, plague causes tumors)

What did the Ashdodites think it best to do? (get rid of it)

Sent to Gath.

1 Samuel 5:10–12 ESV

So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. But as soon as the ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They have brought around to us the ark of the God of Israel to kill us and our people.” They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people.” For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there. The men who did not die were struck with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

How did the people of Ekron feel about the ark?

What happened to them? (panic, tumors, cried out)

What to do? (send it home)

1 Samuel 6:1–10 ESV

The ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months. And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us with what we shall send it to its place.” They said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but by all means return him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand does not turn away from you.” And they said, “What is the guilt offering that we shall return to him?” They answered, “Five golden tumors and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for the same plague was on all of you and on your lords. So you must make images of your tumors and images of your mice that ravage the land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you and your gods and your land. Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After he had dealt severely with them, did they not send the people away, and they departed? Now then, take and prepare a new cart and two milk cows on which there has never come a yoke, and yoke the cows to the cart, but take their calves home, away from them. And take the ark of the Lord and place it on the cart and put in a box at its side the figures of gold, which you are returning to him as a guilt offering. Then send it off and let it go its way and watch. If it goes up on the way to its own land, to Beth-shemesh, then it is he who has done us this great harm, but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us; it happened to us by coincidence.” The men did so, and took two milk cows and yoked them to the cart and shut up their calves at home.

All of this confusion, death and destruction occurred over a period of seven months.

So they called their priests and diviners to figure it out.

What was decided?

What did they expect?

What did they send?

(Guilt offering, tumors, mice - one for each leader of each Philistine city)

Anything here strike you as interesting?

The Philistines knew about the Exodus - verse 6 - and used Pharoah as an example?

What did God say he was going to do with Pharoah? (show his glory)

How did they send it home?

Cart pulled by milk cows.

Read verse 7 - why that detail?

The natural inclination of a mama cow is to do what when they are taken away from their calves?

They stacked the deck - if this was a coincidence, those cows would do what cows would do.

But if it’s God, they would do something different.

1 Samuel 6:10–16 ESV

The men did so, and took two milk cows and yoked them to the cart and shut up their calves at home. And they put the ark of the Lord on the cart and the box with the golden mice and the images of their tumors. And the cows went straight in the direction of Beth-shemesh along one highway, lowing as they went. They turned neither to the right nor to the left, and the lords of the Philistines went after them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh. Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. And when they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, they rejoiced to see it. The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there. A great stone was there. And they split up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the box that was beside it, in which were the golden figures, and set them upon the great stone. And the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices on that day to the Lord. And when the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned that day to Ekron.

Look at verse 12 - the cows were “lowing as they went” - they were crying for their calves but they went on their way.

And if you would have been standing on this hill, what would you have seen?

(Cows coming up from the sea - with the ark)

1 Samuel 6:17–21 ESV

These are the golden tumors that the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to the Lord: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron, and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both fortified cities and unwalled villages. The great stone beside which they set down the ark of the Lord is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh. And he struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked upon the ark of the Lord. He struck seventy men of them, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great blow. Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up away from us?” So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up to you.”

Why did God strike the people down at Bet Shemesh?

(Remember the commandment to not take the Lord’s name in vain? - Means to be reverent and fearful - He is not common and is not to be treated as common.

(They “looked upon the ark” - opened it to look inside - treated it common.

1 Samuel 7:1–4 ESV

And the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took up the ark of the Lord and brought it to the house of Abinadab on the hill. And they consecrated his son Eleazar to have charge of the ark of the Lord. From the day that the ark was lodged at Kiriath-jearim, a long time passed, some twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the Lord only.

Enter Samuel

Put away the Philistine practices

Ashtaroth - female dieties, Ba-al’s - male dieties

Temple prostitution -

A sign of the fall of a civilization is when they fall into sexual immorality.

Next time - 1 Samuel 16 - 17.

You’ll know it when you read it.

Pray