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still a hot potato

1 Samuel 6:1-21 (JDV)

1 Samuel 6:1 When the ark of Yahveh had been in Philistine field for seven months,
1 Samuel 6:2 the Philistines summoned the priests and the diviners and said, “What should we do with the ark of Yahveh? Tell us how we can send it back to its place.”
1 Samuel 6:3 They replied, “If you send the ark of Israel’s God away, do not send it empty. Send back a mistake offering to him, and you will be healed. Then the reason his hand hasn’t been removed from you will be revealed.”
1 Samuel 6:4 They asked, “What mistake offering should we send back to him?” And they answered, “Five gold tumors and five gold mice corresponding to the number of Philistine rulers, since there was one plague for both you and your rulers.
1 Samuel 6:5 Make images of your tumors and of your mice that are destroying the land. Give glory to Israel’s God, and perhaps he will stop oppressing you, your gods, and your land.
1 Samuel 6:6 Why harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened theirs? When he afflicted them, didn’t they send Israel away, and Israel left?
1 Samuel 6:7 “Now then, prepare one new cart and two milk cows that have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart but take their calves away and pen them up.
1 Samuel 6:8 Take the ark of Yahveh, place it on the cart, and put the gold objects that you’re sending him as a mistake offering in a box beside the ark. Send it off and let it go its way.
1 Samuel 6:9 Then watch: If it goes up the road to its homeland toward Beth-shemesh, it is Yahveh who has made this terrible trouble for us. However, if it doesn’t, we will know that it was not his hand that punished us — it was just something that happened to us by chance.”
1 Samuel 6:10 The men did this: They took two milk cows, hitched them to the cart, and confined their calves in the pen.
1 Samuel 6:11 Then they put the ark of Yahveh on the cart, along with the box containing the gold mice and the images of their tumors.
1 Samuel 6:12 The cows went straight up the road to Beth-shemesh. They stayed on that one highway, mooing as they went; they never strayed to the right or to the left. The Philistine rulers were walking behind them to the territory of Beth-shemesh.
1 Samuel 6:13 The people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they were overjoyed to see it.
1 Samuel 6:14 The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there near a large boulder. The people of the city chopped up the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to Yahveh.
1 Samuel 6:15 The Levites removed the ark of Yahveh, along with the box containing the gold objects, and placed them on the large boulder. That day the people of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to Yahveh.
1 Samuel 6:16 When the five Philistine rulers observed this, they returned to Ekron that same day.
1 Samuel 6:17 As a mistake offering to Yahveh, the Philistines had sent back one gold tumor for each city: Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron.
1 Samuel 6:18 The number of gold mice also corresponded to the number of Philistine cities of the five rulers, the fortified cities, and the outlying villages. The large boulder on which the ark of Yahveh was placed is still in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh today.
1 Samuel 6:19 God struck down the people of Beth-shemesh because they looked inside the ark of Yahveh. He struck down seventy persons. The people mourned because Yahveh struck them with a great slaughter.
1 Samuel 6:20 The people of Beth-shemesh asked, “Who is able to stand in the presence of Yahveh this holy God? To whom should the ark go from here?”
1 Samuel 6:21 They sent messengers to the residents of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of Yahveh. Come down and get it.”

still a hot potato

The Philistines returned the ark of the covenant to the land of Israel, but it was still a hot potato. Seventy Israelites died because they looked into the ark. It would take a long time before the consequences of their failure would be removed from Israel.

Evangelical Christianity will have to learn that lesson as well. We have been guilty of treating God’s word and his presence as a minor thing. We are experiencing Ichabod, and it will take some time and effort for us to get back right with him. He gave us life by grace, but we took his grace for granted. We should prepare ourselves for a season of recommitment and waiting on Him.