Approaching His Holiness

Intro:

God as creator frames how his creation shall live. He made fish to breathe under water and he gave them water as a home. He not only gave them the environments to dwell in, but he provides for them all that they need to exist and thrive there.

Imagine with me for a moment birds without feet? God created birds to soar about the earth, their wings giving them the ability that mere cannot cannot attain without invention and technology. But their feet allow them to land and nest in trees. Their feet give them the ability to forage for food and grab their prey in mid-flight. God has equipped creation with what it needs according to the order of his creation.

As Creator, this is His right to do so because He is God! As Lord over all, He made humans in a unique place whereby we can have fellowship with our Creator and Lord unlike any of creation. God made us unique but in his creation of us, he too frames the way in which we relate to him. It is not up to us to invent ways to worship the Lord, he has given us His revelation to instruct us on how to worship.

God’s word teaches humanity how we can have a relationship with Him. It is not of our own invention, but God has given the instructions. Adam and Eve rejected the instructions and all humanity since then has a problem. The corruption of sin has broken our ability to have a relationship with our creator.

God is holy and he will NOT dwell in the presence unholiness and sin. But God fixes the messes of humanity. He provides a way for the broken relationship between God and man to be restored. This occurs through His Son. Jesus is the key to our proper relationship with God because He provides a way of restored fellowship by giving his life as a sacrifice for sinners. In addition to forgiveness of sins, we are given His righteousness applied to our lives so we can fellowship with a Holy God.

Jesus restores a broken fellowship through his death on the cross and the new life we have in him. As new creatures, the redeemed are now called to live holy lives.

1 Peter 2:5 “5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Focus:

The focus of our time today is going to look at how we live our lives as obedient and holy people. We are made holy through the work of Jesus Christ. But if we are in Jesus, we are called to live lives obedient to how God demands we interact with his holiness. This Christian obedience is our spiritual act of worship. Worship demands our best for the Lord’s glory and his holiness. We are called to obedience and repentance. Obedience to the Lord’s holy commands and repentance when we fail to give him our best.

This connects to our story today because Israel, who should have had a glorious celebration when the ark of the covenant was returned, actually had a really hard moment in their story of unfaithfulness and improper worship of the Lord and his holiness.

Review:

the Israel took the ark to battle

the philistines captured the ark and offered it as a vicotorious sacrifice to their god Dagon

they faced great suffering as the One True God revealed he cannot and was not defeated.

they sent the ark away, back to Israel, in order to stop the plagues upon them.

I. The Worship of the Lord is Framed By His Word (13-18)

1 Samuel 6:13–18 “13 Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley, and they raised their eyes and saw the ark and were glad to see it. 14 The cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite and stood there where there was a large stone; and they split the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. 15 The Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the box that was with it, in which were the articles of gold, and put them on the large stone; and the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices that day to the Lord. 16 When the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned to Ekron that day. 17 These are the golden tumors which the Philistines returned for a guilt offering to the Lord: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron; 18 and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fortified cities and of country villages. The large stone on which they set the ark of the Lord is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite.”

This text begins with what appears to be a good day in the city of Beth Shemesh as the ark is returned. It is the wheat harvest the inhabitants of this town are at their normal time of reaping the harvest when they notice a pair of loud cows pulling a cart without someone driving it. There is it carrying the most precious cargo they could have imagined.

It had been seven months and Israel did not know what the Philistines had gone through in their suffering. But their immediate reaction to the ark was jubilation. They rejoiced that the Lord had brought home that which Israel had lost.

This first verse is the most encouraging of the entire section, this is your fair warning. Now remember that the city of Beth-shemesh was a levitical city. As Peter Leithart makes note of in his commentary, of all the mentions of priests in these early chapters of 1 Samuel, there are not ever mentioned in a positive light. We had the failure of Eli the priest raising his sons, correcting his sons, and even profitting off his sons corruption. Then we had Hopni and Phineas who were corrupting the sacrifical worship at Shiloh. They were fornicators instead of holy servants of the Lord. They were guilty of going out with the ark to be used as some good luck charm as they battled the Philistines. Now we will see one more negative light on the priests of Beth-shemesh when the ark returns.

There are a couple actions taken that appear to be a great worshipful response but actually were disobedient to God’s holy word.

The first unholy act tha occured was the sacrifice of the cows there as the traveling unit came to a stop. They broke up the wood, this slaughtered the cows and they offered the cows up as an offering to the Lord. Seems legitimate and worshipful.

Leviticus 1:3 “3 ‘If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer it, a male without defect; he shall offer it at the doorway of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the Lord.”

A burnt offering to the Lord was commanded to be males from the flock, a male without defect. As we have already learned, these were female cows separated from their young.

Secondly, we see that these priestly people took down the ark from the cart to set it on a large stone where the cart came to stop. Again, it appears they are seeking to make an altar there and perform some gracious act of worship. But we will be wrong in thinking that. Turn with me to Numbers 4 and let us remember how the Lord instructed the people of Israel to interact with the holy things like the ark.

Numbers 4:4–15 “4 “This is the work of the descendants of Kohath in the tent of meeting, concerning the most holy things. 5 “When the camp sets out, Aaron and his sons shall go in and they shall take down the veil of the screen and cover the ark of the testimony with it; 6 and they shall lay a covering of porpoise skin on it, and shall spread over it a cloth of pure blue, and shall insert its poles. 7 “Over the table of the bread of the Presence they shall also spread a cloth of blue and put on it the dishes and the pans and the sacrificial bowls and the jars for the drink offering, and the continual bread shall be on it. 8 “They shall spread over them a cloth of scarlet material, and cover the same with a covering of porpoise skin, and they shall insert its poles. 9 “Then they shall take a blue cloth and cover the lampstand for the light, along with its lamps and its snuffers, and its trays and all its oil vessels, by which they serve it; 10 and they shall put it and all its utensils in a covering of porpoise skin, and shall put it on the carrying bars. 11 “Over the golden altar they shall spread a blue cloth and cover it with a covering of porpoise skin, and shall insert its poles; 12 and they shall take all the utensils of service, with which they serve in the sanctuary, and put them in a blue cloth and cover them with a covering of porpoise skin, and put them on the carrying bars. 13 “Then they shall take away the ashes from the altar, and spread a purple cloth over it. 14 “They shall also put on it all its utensils by which they serve in connection with it: the firepans, the forks and shovels and the basins, all the utensils of the altar; and they shall spread a cover of porpoise skin over it and insert its poles. 15 “When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy objects and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, when the camp is to set out, after that the sons of Kohath shall come to carry them, so that they will not touch the holy objects and die. These are the things in the tent of meeting which the sons of Kohath are to carry.”

Now there are two observations here:

The ark was to be covered first and never to be touched.

Both commands of the Lord are ignored here by these religious leaders of Israel. We do not see any attempt to cover the ark and they take down the ark and place it on the stone. in v 19, when God disciplines the people, we are told that the primary violation is “looking at the ark.” There is disagreement as to what actually occured because the HB could mean they “looked at” or “they looked into the ark.” Whichever occured, it was a grave offense to look at an uncovered ark or looking into ark required touching it. In addition, putting the ark upon the stone invited others to gaze upon the ark and fall into sin as well. As Richard Phillips comments,

1 Samuel Standing in God’s Holy Presence

the Levites had allowed God’s holy ark to become a tourist attraction. What a sight it must have been to the eyes of country folk: a large, shining golden box, adorned with such finely crafted angels that God had employed craftsmen specially anointed by the Holy Spirit

We come then to the lesson of obedience to the word of the Lord in all respects. Obedience is our act of worship and our worship through obedience requires that we obey in every way for all of God’s word is holy.

We might be able to say about this passage: “ They were busy in the fields with the harvest. They did their best with what they had to worship the Lord.” But to think in this way, we are saying that God’s word is not important enough to obey it fully. This thinking leads to dishonoring the Lord who demands we worship Him according to His framework, not our convenience.

God demands obedience in every way from his people. When we fail to obey, God gives his people grace. But His grace never negates the call to full obedience. This is abusing grace.

Again Richard Phillips writes,

1 Samuel Standing in God’s Holy Presence

How much flagrantly carnal worship is offered up to God today, designed to appeal to the fashions of men but with no reference to biblical principles (often in direct violation of scriptural teaching), and how greatly such irreverence must account for the lack of true spiritual blessing experienced by Christians!

Friends, consider your worship of the Lord and ask yourself: is my obedience to the Lord as an act of worship based on what is cultural or circumstantially appropriate or is it framed by the word of the Lord alone?

Circumstances might have dictated the Beth-shemites placing that ark on the stone and sacrificing the cows instead of bulls, but it clearly violated the laws of God already commanded. There will always be a temptation to allow the culture or circumstances to try and rewrite what the Lord has said.

I read this story about ….

1 Samuel Escaping God’s Holy Wrath

Harold Kushner, who tells of ministering in the synagogue on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, and feeling distressed by the guilt that his people felt. To address these feelings of guilt, Kushner wrote a book revising the Bible’s story of Adam and Eve and their fall into sin by eating from the forbidden tree. Kushner writes, “A God who punished people so severely for breaking one arbitrary rule was not a God I wanted to believe in.”2 Therefore, in Kushner’s retelling, “the story of the Garden of Eden is not an account of people being punished for having made one mistake, losing Paradise because they were not perfect.… The story of the Garden of Eden is not a story of the Fall of Man, but of the Emergence of Humankind.”3 In short, Kushner responded to the guilt feelings of his congregation by changing the Bible’s story and its teaching

II. The Discipline of the Lord is Given In Love (19-21)

1 Samuel 6:19–21 “19 He struck down some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. He struck down of all the people, 50,070 men, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great slaughter. 20 The men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom shall He go up from us?” 21 So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have brought back the ark of the Lord; come down and take it up to you.””

There is a textual discrepancy that I want to deal with immediately. It does not change the point of this section but its worth noting. The HB in v 19 is hard to undertand. Therefore translators are in one of three interpretations:

NASB: 50,070 men

ESV, NIV: 70 men of 50,000

Some argue of the size of Beth-shemesh and so they number must be just the 70 men while the 50,070 seems more like a great slaughter as the text says. What is key is not the number as much as the people who are being judged by the Lord. These are God’s people being judged by God just like the Philistine people for their lack of reverance for God’s holiness and his holy word.

The living respond to the discipline from the Lord with such striking confessions:

1 Samuel 6:20 “20 The men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom shall He go up from us?””

This is a statement of sheer hopelessness in the face of God’s holiness. Commentator Peter Leithhart says,

A Son to Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel The Glory Departs, 4:1–7:14

Act like a Philistine and you can expect to be punished like a Philistine

The truth is Israel were not treating God’s holiness like God’s people were instructed to. They were acting like the pagans of the world who did not have the instructive law about such things. They had the warnings from the Lord and they had the details of what to do. They just had to do them as the Lord instructed.

There is one key difference here. Their question implies a truth about the Lord and yet ignores the way in which God has already answered such a question. He gave his people a temporary way into the holy of holies by way of the priests. But it was never enough. Man will always blaspheme God’s holiness because the nature of sin drives us to do so.

Foreshadowed in the question by Israel at Beth-shemesh is the person of Jesus: Who can stand before the Lord the Holy God? No one can enter his presence without Christ preparing them for such an interaction. All of His people, who have beleived or trusted in Christ, who are clothed with His righteousness, can enter the holy presence. Jesus has made a way for us to stand before the Lord.

Remember our passage from 1 Peter

1 Peter 2:5 “5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

We are now the priesthood of Jesus Christ as HIs church. He has cleansed us, he has adorned us with His righteousness, He has given us his holy instruction as we enter before Him to offer sacrifices of our lives to Him forever.

We leave chapter 6 of 1 Sam discouraged because the people of Beth-shemesh do exactly what the Philistines did…they send away the ark. They do not learn from the discipline…but instead they discard the ark for their own sakes…for their own self-preservation. It is a sad reminder that even a city of priests are not equipped to do what is right and holy before the Lord and their discipline from the Lord was deserved.

Dale Ralph Davis writes,

1 Samuel: Looking on the Heart The Sanctity of Yahweh (6:13–7:1)

The steadfastness of Yahweh’s love for Israel does not compromise the justice of his judgment

What we learn from their discipline is to look to Christ as the one who prepares us to stand before a Holy God and yet also the need for us to be faithful priests of God’s holy word. This means that our worship is purposefully reverent and service driven. As His holy priesthood, We come to be satisfied in HIm and to serve HIM!

III. The Waiting on the Lord is Ordained For Our Good (7:1-2)

1 Samuel 7:1–2 “1 And 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. 2 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.”

Finally, we come to the where the men of Kiriath-jerim come and take the ark to the house of Abinadab. There his son, Eleazar is consecrated a priest to keep the ark. What is tragic from this ending here is that the ark remains in Kiriath-jerim for 20 years.

20 years is also a separation that Israel will need to learn. It is an ongoing work of God to correct and teach His people about faithfulness and obedience. This people had much to learn.

With the ark displaced, we conclude in thinking about how God might use that time of waiting to teach the people. His judgment of the ark displaced is similar to the 40 years in the wilderness and the 400 years of the intertestamental period.

What do you learn from waiting on the Lord? Perhaps in God’s silence, He is teaching you about a great obedience in your life. Maybe he is teaching you about a greater faith that needs to be displayed. Or perhaps he is teaching about a necessary repentance in response to your sin.

Whatever it is…the Lord’s timing and timeline is for our good. We are waiting for the time of Jesus return…again a time to learn and grow more into the image of Christ. That waiting involves interaction with evil, besetting sin… but God is working out the good,

LORD s supper