Daily Devotional for Saturday, June 24

The Tragedy

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

It is a tragedy when people interact with the sacred things of God inappropriately.  The ark of the covenant was the most sacred of the objects in the tabernacle that had been built in the wilderness by the people of Israel.    It represented, in shadow, the heavenly things which could not be seen with human eyes.  Inside the very innermost sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, was the ark.  It represented the place of meeting with God, but this meeting came with very specific instructions (Exodus 25:22).  The ark was sacred. Its location was only accessible by the High Priest.  Even then, the High Priest had to enter with blood to sprinkle on the mercy seat.  No provision is written for opening the ark once its contents had been placed in it.

The men of Beth-shemesh had either not been trained concerning the sacred things or they cared nothing about God’s strict regulations regarding them. The Philistines had been afflicted for their possession of this sacred object, but the men of Beth-shemesh dared to look into the sacred golden box.

Fifty thousand and three-score and ten of the Beth-Shemite men tragically died. They asked the question, “Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?”  Perhaps Ezra thought of this event when he prayed, “behold, we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this” (Ezra 9:15). The Beth-Shemite's solution to the judgement of God was to send the Ark down the road to Kirjath-Jearim. That was a tragedy too.  We should not avoid the sacred but rather consider it for what it is and respond appropriately as God has instructed us according to His word. 

THOUGHT: Commit to avoiding tragedy in your life by approaching the things of God appropriately.

David Thompson