Hebrews Lesson 138 October 20,
2008
NKJ John 10:10 "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to
destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more
abundantly.
We’re continuing our study in
Hebrews 9 in terms of our sub-series on the Tabernacle. Some of you remember
that two years ago we had John Cross here for the Pastor’s conference. He is
the head of Goodseed Ministries and he has invited me to come up and speak on
the Tabernacle at their annual Bible conference somewhere between Calgary and
Banff. I hear that’s a horrible place to go especially in November so I’ll just
have to suffer and go there. But I have only 8 hours to cover the Tabernacle.
So I’m going to have to either figure out how to talk very, very fast or cut
something out. But I’ll be ready.
We’re studying the Tabernacle and we
have gone through all the different aspects of the Tabernacle - each piece of
furniture - the two pieces in the outer courtyard (the brazen altar, the
laver). We’ve looked at the furnishings, the wall coverings, and the veil. We
went inside the Tabernacle itself, the tent of meeting. We looked at each of
the different pieces of furniture inside the tent of meeting. We looked at the
golden menorah (the lampstand) as it pictures Jesus Christ as the light of the
world.
On the right side as go into the tent
of meeting you would see the table of showbread which pictures Jesus Christ as
the bread of heaven. Straight ahead there is the altar of incense by the veil
separating the outer Holy of Holies from the inner holy place. The altar of
incense depicts Jesus Christ in His high priestly ministry as our mediator, our
intercessor. Then as you go into the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctum of the
tent of meeting, which the high priest of Israel would be allowed to enter only
once a year on the Day of Atonement which was just celebrated last week...
Beginning sundown Wednesday a week
ago, the Jews celebrated Yom Kippur which is the Day of Atonement. That was
celebrated. That was the only time anyone could go into the Holy of Holies. The
only one who could go into the Holy of Holies was the high priest. He had to
carry out several sacrifices for himself as well as for the nation.
It is a picture ultimately of the
positional cleansing of the nation. And I think that’s an important thing to
deal with: this idea of positional salvation, positional cleansing versus
experiential salvation, experiential cleansing. “Positional” has to do with our
position before the Supreme Court of Heaven. Our legal standing before God when
we trust Christ as Savior is that we are justified; but we still continue to
sin. So once a year there is this picture of positional cleansing; and then
there is the ongoing depiction of experiential cleansing through the washing of
the hands and washing of the feet with the water in the laver.
We looked at the construction of the
Ark of the Covenant, the purpose of the Ark of the Covenant, the various three
items that are inside that are inside the Ark of the Covenant - the manna
representing spiritual provision of God for the spiritual nourishment of the
people which was of course rejected as they turned their noses up at the food
God provided for them. We saw the rod of Aaron from the almond tree (the rod
that budded) as a depiction of God’s selection of Aaron as the High Priest. Of
course the people had rebelled against Moses accusing him of nepotism putting
his family in positions of leadership and so God was showing that He was the
one who chose the high priest and the high priestly line. Then the third item
was the tablets of the Ten Commandments picturing the Law that people had also
broken.
So the top cover of the Ark of the
Covenant I pointed out was the Mercy Seat called the kappor, which pictures the place where
God’s justice and righteousness are satisfied by the blood sacrifice. The blood
is the exchange medium for the payment of sin, which is that which provides
positional cleansing.
That’s the key idea in the word for
atonement. I need to repeat this again and again so everybody remembers this
because most of us were brought up and taught what was commonly understood to
be the meaning of the word for atonement in the Hebrew. The Hebrew is kaphar. If
you look it up in a lot of older dictionaries now, (and some of them aren’t
that much older); but if you look them up in certain English-based dictionaries
such as Vines
Expository Dictionary of the Old Testament and New Testament even look them
up in some of the Hebrew lexicons that were published earlier in the 20th
century…
I point these out because a lot of
these are available now in various electronic formats. I know some of you have
computer programs and you look at these.
Some of you go to websites that have different computer tools. I don’t
know how many different tools – I think there’s Blue Mountain Bible or
Blue Letter Bible and there’s E-Sword and a number of others that are online.
There are a number of tools you can get that are good programs. But a lot of
people don’t get the more sophisticated, expensive packages. There are a lot of
little things that people don’t know about.
I know this is running down a rabbit
trail, but there are people that need to hear this. For example when I went to
seminary back in the 70’s, the standard lexicon dictionary for Hebrew and
Aramaic was called - we always referred to it by the initials of the editors -
BDB (Brown, Driver and Briggs). Now anybody can go out and buy a computer
program, and it will come with an edition of BDB. Now the edition which we used
when I was in seminary was the latest edition which was published - I believe
it was in 1918. That’s a little old. A lot of linguistic things were discovered
between 1918 and 1978 - a tremendous amount of stuff. So it was outdated even
when I was in seminary. If you use a New American Standard Bible, the editors
of the New American Standard Bible basically went with the primary meaning of
every Hebrew word stated in BDB which is one of the minor flaws with the New American
Standard translation because it didn’t take into account more recent studies.
So that’s a problem. But the more recent edition that most people get in their
computer Bible is the 1914 edition of BDB which isn’t quite as good as the 1918
edition. It’s little stuff like that that they don’t tell you and you’re not
familiar with because the 1914 edition is in public domain and the 1918 edition
is still copyrighted by I believe it’s Oxford or Clarendon that puts it out. I
can’t remember who.
Then there was a German lexicon that
came out in the 40’s or 50’s that was edited by Ludwig Kohler and I forget the
other guy’s name - Baumgartner. That was always referred to by those initials
KB. That was revised in the 90’s from a one volume work to a four or five
volume work. I just have it electronically so I don’t remember how many volumes
it is. That’s considered the most recent and latest and greatest tool for doing
Hebrew studies. Then there is another that’s out there that Randy Price told be
about a two years ago and it’s 6 or 7 volumes. Each volume is like $200 so
we’ll just wait on that one until the grace of God pops up somewhere.
But the HALOT or the Hebrew Aramaic
Lexicon of the Old Testament that came out in ‘98 is considered to be the
best and most recent tool. But, what you run into when you get onto various
websites with different people doing different things is that they rely on
older tools that have older or in some cases a little bit of outdated
information. One of these has to do with the word kaphar. It was always easy to remember
that kaphar
means to cover. It had that similar sound. But there were actually, according
to most recent scholarship, two different words that were homonyms or
homophones that occurred in Hebrew. One is the word that was used of the pitch
that Noah used in covering, sealing the ark. That is the boat that he used. The
ark - the word there is a different Hebrew word than Ark of the Covenant. Then
you have this homonym or homophone that’s used in Exodus related to atonement.
But what’s interesting about this word is when the Jewish rabbis that they
brought down to Alexandria around 240 to 200 BC because the Hellenized Jews in
Alexandria in north Egypt had lost their Hebrew. They needed to have a Bible,
an Old Testament in their language. So they decided to go back to Israel and
find some scholars who could translate into Greek. They brought them back and
they translated what was known as the Septuagint which means “the 70” because
the legend was that 70 rabbis in 70 days translated the Pentateuch. This was miraculous.
So these rabbis more than 50% of the time translated that Hebrew word kaphar with
the Greek word katharizo
which is the word for cleansing in the Greek. And current scholarship has
substantiated the fact that the root meaning of this second kaphar has to
do with cleansing and purification.
So the focal point of atonement is
on the ritual cleansing and purification from sins which I think makes a lot
more sense than the idea of covering. But because the High Priest brings the
blood in, sprinkles it before the Ark and puts the bowl up there, it covers and
the Mercy Seat covers. That had a certain sound to it a certain ring to it that
makes sense to people, but that misses the point here. The focal point is that
this idea of cleansing. The root issue that experientially in salvation is that
we have to be cleansed of sin and that’s related to the idea of forgiveness. I
am running down a really off rabbit trail here, but I think this is important.
I mentioned in my opening prayer Colossians 2:12-14 on my opening introduction
related to confession. In Colossians 2:12-14 we have this emphasis on the
nailing of that certificate of debt to the cross and it’s related there to
having nailed that to the cross He forgives us. So the action of nailing it to
the cross precedes forgiveness. It’s the basis of forgiveness.
You also have a verse in Colossians
1:14 and Ephesians 1:7 that says:
(parallel verse, identical verse)
NKJ Colossians 1:14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the
forgiveness of sins.
NKJ Ephesians 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins,
according to the riches of His grace
Now some of you have been around
more than a week or two, remember that there was a bit of a theological dust-up
about 15 years ago over the issue of whether or not Christians really need to
confess their sins. There were some people who were going to Ephesians 1:7 and
Colossians 1:14 and saying, “See, it’s at the cross that we have forgiveness.”
The failure was to distinguish what is going on here between positional
forgiveness and experiential forgiveness and also a failure to properly
understand the noun that was used there for forgiveness. The noun that’s used
there for forgiveness was aphesis. Aphesis is only used like 5 times in the New Testament.
It always bothered me because if you
look in any dictionary, any theology on redemption there are two basic word
groups that are used for redemption in the New Testament - agorazo which has to do with the
marketplace, exagorazo
the same word with a prefix or a couple of prefixes and lutrao or lutrosis (lutrao being the verb, lutrosis the
noun) having to do with purchasing something from the market place. It’s just
standard drill into people – what’s the meaning of redemption? To buy or
to purchase, to pay the price for something. But if you look at the grammar of
Ephesians 1:14 and Colossians 1:14 where it says:
NKJ Colossians 1:14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
It’s very clear that the phrase “the
forgiveness of sins” is appositional to the word redemption. That means that an
appositional phrase is explaining the head noun in other words. Most people
think of forgiveness as not holding something against somebody or not being
bitter against somebody or not being resentful of someone. If you look it up in
Webster’s
Dictionary or The Oxford English Dictionary that’s the definition you’ll get for
forgiveness.
But how is the idea of personally
not harboring a grudge against somebody appositional? How it that even related
to the meaning of the word redemption? Redemption means to pay a price, to
purchase something. How are those two ideas related? I knocked around on that
for a long time and then I realized… Recently I went back to do another study
on this that aphesis
wasn’t used of this idea of not holding a grudge or not being bitter; but it
was used in numerous economic contexts to refer to the forgiveness or the
cancellation of a debt. That is exactly what redemption means. Redemption means
to buy something or pay for something and that is the canceling of a debt.
Then you come to Colossians 2:12-14
and it’s the same thing. It tells you that the cancellation of debt of decrees
against us is the basis for forgiveness. So it puts it together realizing that
this issue of positional, which is just a legal term. A lot of people have
trouble with that.
One day I was talking to some
pastors and one guy who was there is a lay pastor. He was a lawyer by
profession. I’ve known him for many, many years. I was talking to him
afterwards and I didn’t know how much of a grasp he would have on some of these
things.
I said, “You know a lot of folks
have trouble with position.”
He said, “Not if you’re a lawyer.
You stand in the courtroom before a judge and whether you did it or not if
you’re declared not guilty, you’re not guilty. That’s your position before the
law. It doesn’t matter what your experience might have been.”
That’s what we mean by positional
truth. It is our position before the Supreme Court of Heaven. So that’s what’s
depicted with this whole ceremony of the Day of Atonement. It is that
positional or experiential cleansing that takes place at the cross because it’s
at the cross that our debt is cancelled; the sins are paid for; but it’s not
applied until we trust in Christ.
So the Ark is the center because it
is the place where God has the focal point of His presence upon the earth.
The Midrash Tanhuma says that
Jerusalem is the center of the world, the Temple Mount is in the center of
Jerusalem, the Temple is in the center of the Temple Mount, The Holy of Holies
is in the center of the Temple and the Ark is in the center of the Holy of
Holies.
Now don’t you like the picture in
the background, if you can see it? The picture of the Second Temple has been
superimposed over that gold dome thing that’s there just to give you an idea of
the way things ought to be.
Okay, now moving ahead what I want
to do is look at the Ark in history and prophecy. This is an important study
because it shows God’s dwelling among His people and His protection and
provision for His people and it also gives us a tremendous illustration of the fact
that God is very precise in the way He has revealed that the Christian life
should be led and how believers should do things. We get this idea today often
that we can come before the Lord with a kind of loosy-goosy idea that do
whatever I want to do is the movement of the Holy Spirit within me and so
that’s okay. But it often violates a specific protocol that’s laid down in the
Scripture. We see this pattern of precise and specific protocol all the way
through the Scriptures.
One of them has to do with the Ark
of the Covenant. In the Old Testament there were specific directions given for
how the Ark was to be taken care of and how it was to be transported. In
Numbers 4 we have directions on how the Levites were to pack up everything
within the Tabernacle and how they were to transport it.
In Numbers 4:5-6 there is the
description related to the Ark of the Covenant.
NKJ Numbers 4:5 "When the camp prepares to journey, Aaron and his sons shall come,
and they shall take down the covering veil and cover the ark of the Testimony
with it.
So what has happened is as they’re
getting ready to move out they would come in (Aaron and his sons would come
in.) and they would take the veil down. There would be maybe two or three of
them holding the veil up so see they’re not going inside the Holy of Holies and
his sons are not seeing the Ark of the Covenant. They take the veil down and
then they would walk forward and they would cover the Ark with the veil.
Then they would be able to pick the Ark
up by the two carrying poles that are there because they are never removed from
their holders.
So when the camp sets out we read:
NKJ Numbers 4:6 "Then they shall put on it a covering of badger skins,
This would protect it from the
elements.
and spread over
that a
cloth entirely of blue; and they shall insert its poles.
Now the next thing we learn about
the carrying of the Ark is that:
When the Israelites would move out
from their encampment each morning, then the Ark of the Covenant (with the
Kohathites carrying the Ark of the Covenant) would move out in front of all the
tribes; and they would lead the way as the people followed the Lord as He
guided them through the wilderness.
Now as they went through the 40
years in the wilderness for discipline and then you come to the end of the 40
years and it’s time for the new generation to go into the land; then it was the
Ark that would lead the people into the land. This is described in Joshua 3:6f.
The focal point of that has to do with the description that was given first
from God to Joshua and then from Joshua to the people. So there was a certain
amount of repetition of the commands in this chapter so I’ll just summarize it
by focusing on the action that occurred in Joshua 3:11f.
NKJ Joshua 3:11 "Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is
crossing over before you into the Jordan.
This is in direct obedience to the
command that God had given to Joshua beginning in verse 6. So as the Levites (the Kohathites)
carrying the Ark took off, they headed to the Jordan, which was flowing at
flood stage. It’s early spring. They just celebrated Passover. The Jordan is at
flood stage.
You don’t get a sense of this today
because there is so much water taken out of the Jordan as it comes down from
the Sea of Galilee for irrigation, both by the Jordanians to the east and the
Israelis to the right or to the west. You don’t really get a sense when you
look at it… go over the bridge there, it’s about as wide as maybe 4 of these
chairs. It doesn’t look like there’s a lot of water there today; but at flood
stage at that time it was quite impressive.
In verse 13 we read:
NKJ Joshua 3:13 "And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles
of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the
earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be
cut off,
I don’t know how many of you have
ever seen or been near a river that is flowing at flood stage and how rapidly
that is rushing passed you. But what the Levites were told to do is to walk up
to the water and to step into the flowing stage. As the soles of their feet hit
the water, then it stopped. That’s called trust. You believe that God is going
to do it. Now remember this generation did not go through the Red Sea. They’ve
heard the stories; but their parents all died off (with the exception of Joshua
and Caleb) as they were going through the wilderness. So they have to walk up
to the water; and they have to step into it. As they step down, the waters of
the Jordan will be cut off above them. It just stopped.
the waters that
come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap."
NKJ Joshua 3:14 So it was, when the people set out from their camp to cross over the
Jordan, with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people,
NKJ Joshua 3:15 and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and
the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for
the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest),
NKJ Joshua 3:16 that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose
in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan.
This is upstream.
So the waters that went down into the Sea of the
Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
Now it was important for the
Israelites to keep their distance from the Ark; and they were told not to come
within 2,000 cubits of the Ark. So that’s approximately 1,000 yards. They had
to keep their distance. The priests would have carried the Ark out. The water
would have stopped. Then the people probably crossed downstream about 1,000
yards south of the Ark.
NKJ Joshua 3:17 Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood
firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on
dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan.
Then they were sent back (one man
from each tribe) to the middle of the Jordan while the Ark was still there -
each to retrieve a rock. Now if you’ve ever been there, you know it’s not
difficult to find rocks anywhere in that area.
They came out and the built a rock
cairn. The purpose of the rock cairn was to act as a memorial so in you in
future generations fathers could teach their children. When they came back to
this spot they would say, “Well Daddy, why is that stack of rocks there?”
Then they could tell the story of
how God had dried up the Jordan to allow them to cross over miraculously into the
land that He had given them. It
shows that their advance into the land is led by the Lord and blessed by the
Lord and that this is no accident and it’s not a result of their military
prowess. So they entered the land. This is described there in Joshua 4 and
Joshua 5.
Then the first thing is they do is
go to Jericho. Jericho is the lowest city on the earth. Jericho is only about
10 miles or so from the crossing of the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is about 1400
feet below sea level. Jericho is about 800 feet below sea level. They came up
to the city of Jericho and then God gave them their marching orders for
defeating and capturing the city of Jericho. This is given in Joshua 6:3.
NKJ Joshua 6:3 "You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around
the city once. This you shall do six days.
NKJ Joshua 6:4 "And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before
the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and
the priests shall blow the trumpets.
Now there are approximately 600,000
Jewish males in their army and they’re going to march around the city once a
day until that last day when they go around 7 times. That would have taken most
of the day to do that. They must have started very early in the morning and
then they would have marched in formation around the city in silence until the
last time and then the priest would blow the trumpets and the walls would fall
down.
NKJ Joshua 6:5 "It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you
hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great
shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go
up every man straight before him."
So they did exactly what God said to
do and the walls fell down and they captured the city. But it is the Ark
leading the way. Now not every time Israel went into battle did the Ark go out
in front out; but at these key events you see the Ark out in front indicating
something about God’s leading the people. Of course word would spread
throughout all of Canaan about this particular formation and this strange box
that led them and that this was the Ark of the Lord.
Now the next thing we read about the
ark in terms of its travels is it’s taken to Shechem. Now in this map which
tracks later travels we see Shechem which was the focus of our study on Tuesday
night. We see Shechem located up here about 70 or 80 miles north of Jerusalem
located just to the east actually on a little bit of a saddle, just a little
bit east of the saddle between Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal.
In Joshua 8:33 we read:
NKJ Joshua 8:33 Then all Israel, with their elders and officers and
judges, stood on either side of the ark before the priests, the Levites, who
bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, the stranger as well as he who was
born among them. Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount
Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded before, that they should
bless the people of Israel.
So it was here that they read antiphonally
the cursings and the blessings from the Mosaic Law; and it was a covenant
renewal ceremony for this generation is affirming their commitment to obey the
Mosaic Law.
Now following the conquest, the Ark
found its resting place at Shiloh. Now Shiloh is located within the territory
of Benjamin and during the period following the conquest we have the period of
the judges. During the period of the judges, the Ark is not mentioned very
much; but there’s one event that occurs in Joshua 18 and also in Joshua 22. In
this passage there is a battle between the tribe of Benjamin who is being quite
rebellious and idolatrous and the rest of Israel.
So there is this civil war that
takes place. The high priest at the time is Phinehas who has the Ark at Bethel.
Now you see on the map here Bethel is located here. It’s much closer to
Jerusalem. It’s not in the area around Shiloh probably because of the idolatry
and the fighting. It goes back to Shiloh later on; but Phinehas the son of
Eleazar the High Priest comes and retrieves the Ark to take it into battle
against the Benjamites. They’ve already been defeated. The rest of the nation
had already been defeated twice and now they’re going to go against the
Benjamites a third time. This time with the Lord’s direction they go to battle
and defeat the Benjamites. So once again showing which side had the blessing of
the Lord.
Now after all this happens, what
occurred with the Israelites was something that occurs with a lot of
Christians. We all know Christians who sort of treat their Bible or a cross or
some other symbol of Christianity as if it has some sort of inherent power
some; sort of talisman or good luck charm. This is the influence of paganism
and of course Israel was very prone to being influenced by paganism during the
period of the judges. So they began look at the Ark as some kind of super good
luck charm that would give them victory in battle. They lose sight of the fact
that it is simply a symbol of God’s presence. The real issue is their
relationship to the God who is the One who dwells between the cherubs. So while
it’s at Shiloh, this is a place where Samuel ministered before the Lord at Shiloh
according to I Samuel 1:3, 9; 4:3.
Here on the map we have Shiloh over
here and then over here we have Aphek. This is Joppa. Later on this is the
seaport from which Jonah is going to leave to head to Tarshish. This is where
Peter is sleeping in Acts 10 when he has the vision of the tablecloth coming
down from heaven. Up here in red we have Aphek. Aphek is the location of this
battle that occurs between the Philistines and the Israelites. The Israelites
are afraid that they are going to be defeated and so they decide, “Oh, we’re
going to go get the Ark and God will protect us.”
We read in I Samuel 4:1ff:
NKJ 1 Samuel 4:1 And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel
went out to battle against the Philistines, and encamped beside Ebenezer; and
the Philistines encamped in Aphek.
NKJ 1 Samuel 4:2 Then the Philistines put themselves in battle array
against Israel. And when they joined battle, Israel was defeated by the
Philistines, who killed about four thousand men of the army in the field.
So there is this initial defeat and the people come back to
the camp and rally themselves.
The elder says:
NKJ 1 Samuel 4:3 And when the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said,
"Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring
the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Shiloh to us, that when it comes among
us it may save us from the hand of our enemies."
No relationship with God, they just
treated the Ark as if it is a good luck charm.
So in verse 4 we read:
NKJ 1 Samuel 4:4 So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from there the ark
of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. And the two sons
of Eli,
These worthless no-good sons
Hophni and
Phinehas, were
there with the ark of the covenant of God.
They bring the Ark of the Covenant
into the camp. All of Israel shouts.
NKJ 1 Samuel 4:5 And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all
Israel shouted so loudly that the earth shook.
Philistines hear all of this tumult
going on. They say, “What can that mean?”
They hear that the Ark has come and
so now they’re convinced that they are going to be defeated because Israel has
the Ark. But what happens is that the Ark (according to 1 Samuel 4:11 the Ark
of God) was taken. It is captured. So now the Philistines think that their god
Dagon must be really great, really powerful. The Ark of God is taken and the
two sons of Eli (Hophni and Phinehas) die. So this is divine discipline on the
family of Eli and on his line of the high priest because of their
corruption.
Then in the rest of this particular
chapter (chapters 4 and 5) we have the description related to the movement of
the Ark. So I’m going to go back to this particular slide. You might turn with
me to I Samuel 4 because long chapters like this are not worthy of sticking up
there on a bunch of slides.
So the Ark is taken. Word gets back
to Eli’s family that the Ark is taken and he falls over dead. Phinehas’ wife
who is pregnant has a child. She dies in childbirth. They name the child Ichabod meaning “the glory of God has
departed from Israel.”
Then you get to chapter 5 and we
read this. I always think this is one of the most amusing stories in all of
Scripture. Not only does God have a great sense of humor, but God has an earthy
sense of humor. You really see that in the Hebrew text in I Samuel. In fact, if
Hebrew scholars had real integrity they would have translated a number of
phrases in I Samuel a little differently. But most people would not like those
Bible because it would offend their sense of propriety. The language is
extremely earthy because the Holy Spirit is really making fun of the
Philistines and of their religion.
This is so politically incorrect
today for God or for a pastor to get up and to satirize and make fun of
somebody else’s religion. Yet there are numerous passages in the Old Testament
that are just that. They are divinely inspired satires that are poking fun at
the religion of other people. We in our self-righteousness think that’s wrong;
but that is actually the right thing to do. That is what Christians should be
doing on the offensive: ridiculing other people’s religion not as an end in
itself, but as a way to show its invalidity and its irrationality because that
is what God is doing in this particular section.
So the people take the Ark and they
take it back to Ashdod, which is probably the largest center and the chief city
of the Pentapolis (the 5 cities of the Philistines), and they take it into the
temple of Dagon. Dagon is their god. It’s the state god of the Philistines and
is depicted usually as half fish and half man. The people of Ashdod take the
Ark in there and they set it before Dagon showing that our god has conquered
the God of the Jews.
The next morning they go in and God
has knocked Dagon down on his face and Dagon is bowing down to the God of
Israel as represented by the Ark of the Covenant. So the Philistines probably
don’t know exactly what has happened yet so they raise the idol back in place.
Then they get up early the next morning they go back to the temple. This time
God wants to be sure they get the message. So Dagon is not only down on his
face, but His head and his hands are cut off and set aside so that the only
thing that is there is his torso. This is the typical kind of torture that
pagans engaged in the ancient world. Jews did not; but the pagans did where
they would decapitate an enemy. They would cut off their hands and their feet.
This is one way in which they would count the enemy dead is by collecting their
hands.
So it’s also probably the actual
forerunner etymology of the word disarmament because if you don’t have an arm
you can’t throw a spear and you can’t hold a sword. That’s why in the early
part of Judges when they they defeat Cushan-Rishathaim (I think it is) and they
cut off his toes and cut of his thumbs. Israel shouldn’t have done that. That
was a sign they were already being influenced by pagan ideas. Rather than
trusting to God to protect them, they were trusting in these pagan
methodologies. It was just an early form of disarming the enemy. Cut off their
thumbs and cut off their toes and you’ve effectively rendered him incapable of
ever fighting you again because he can’t hold a sword; he can’t hold a spear.
So anyhow God’s having a lot of fun
with this and Dagon is bowing down before the Ark. Now God is going to give them another little fun event.
In verse 6:
NKJ 1 Samuel 5:6 But the hand of the LORD was heavy on the people of
Ashdod, and He ravaged them and struck them with tumors, both Ashdod and its
territory.
I really like the way the King James
translates this—hemorrhoids. It’s extremely painful tumors in their
posteriors. It wasn’t exactly hemorrhoids, but the people are struck with these
tumors that are extremely painful and do not allow them to sit down. But they
immediately understand that this is the result of the God of Israel in verse 7.
So in verse 8 they decide they’re
going to have a meeting with all of their leaders to try to decide what to do
with the Ark of God.
So they say, “Well, He doesn’t like
it here in Ashdod so let’s send Him over to Gath.”
With friends like that who needs
enemies?
So they send the Ark of the Covenant
over to Gath, which is the next city. Then we’re told:
NKJ 1 Samuel 5:9 So it was, after they had carried it away, that the hand of the LORD
was against the city with a very great destruction; and He struck the men of
the city, both small and great, and tumors broke out on them.
Then in verse 10:
NKJ 1 Samuel 5:10 Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. So it was, as the ark of
God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, "They have
brought the ark of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and our people!"
So God is taking care of Himself. The
picture here is that Israel needed to learn to trust God to be their Defender
and they didn’t need to trust in anything else. They didn’t need to trust in a
standing army. They didn’t need to trust in other weapons. They needed to relax
and trust God to protect them. So God has been captured and now He has been
taken around to the various cities of the Philistines. God is fully capable of
taking care of all of them.
Eventually what happens is that they
send Him back to the Jews on a cart. They are going to attach two milk cows to the
Ark to carry the Ark back. The idea is that milk cows are not broken. They just
had calves so the mothers do not want to be separated from the calves. So the
last thing in the world two untrained mama cows are going to want to do is be
yoked together and to pull a cart. They are going to want to go in different
directions and they are going to want to go back to their babies. So it shows a
miracle here that God is directing things when the milk cows take them back.
They also add their images that they’ve created of the tumors and the
rats.
I wonder what those tumors really
looked like. I have no idea – what a gold hemorrhoid looks like. I always
wanted to know.
So they send them back.
NKJ 1 Samuel 6:12 Then the cows headed straight for the road to Beth
Shemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn
aside to the right hand or the left. And the lords of the Philistines went
after them to the border of Beth Shemesh.
Watch it! What’s going to happen?
They are probably amazed that it worked and that the Ark went on a straight
line to Beth Shemesh.
NKJ 1 Samuel 6:13 Now the
people of Beth Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley; and they lifted their
eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.
NKJ 1 Samuel 6:15 The Levites took down the ark of the LORD
See there was an understanding that
only Levites should handle the Ark. The reason nothing happened to the
Philistines is they’re putting it on the Ark is they’re not under the Law and
God is allowing them to do that so that the Ark would be taken back to Israel.
and the chest
that was with
it, in which were
the articles of gold, and put them on the large stone. Then the men of Beth
Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices the same day to the LORD.
This included the two cows that had
brought the cart back to Israel.
NKJ 1 Samuel 6:16 So when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.
Now there’s a further problem though
with what happens in Beth Shemesh; and in verses 19 to 20 the men of Beth
Shemesh become curious thinking they can control things and they’re going to
peak and try to look inside the Ark of the Lord.
NKJ 1 Samuel 6:19 Then He struck the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into
the ark of the LORD. He struck fifty thousand and seventy men of the people,
and the people lamented because the LORD had struck the people with a great
slaughter.
The point is the Ark can only be
handled in a specific and precise way. You can’t just handle God anyway you
want to. God tells us exactly how we are to approach Him and the basis of our
relationship to Him, and man cannot make it up on his own. Man cannot have a
relationship with God unless his unrighteousness has been dealt with and he approaches
God in a cleansed manner.
So we come to verse 1 on the next
chapter and the men of Kirjath Jearim where they take the ark at the end in
verse 21. They send messengers to the inhabitants
NKJ 1 Samuel 6:21 So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjath
Jearim, saying, "The Philistines have brought back the ark of the LORD;
come down and take
it up with you."
NKJ 1 Samuel 7:1 Then the men of Kirjath 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.
So this is now in the house of a
Levite and Eleazar has been properly consecrated (set apart) to take care of
the Ark of the Lord. He will take care of the Ark of the Lord for 20 years. But
there is a greater length of time between this time and the time when David finally
takes it into Jerusalem. The Ark was in the land of the Philistines for
approximately 7 months. Now the Ark has been returned and taken to Kirjath
Jearim.
Now Kirjath Jearim is the modern
town (suburb of Jerusalem actually) Abu Gosh. Those of you who were on the
first trip we took to Israel a couple of years ago, Abu Gosh is where we had
our last night dinner. So that’s where Kirjath Jearim is – about 9 miles
from the Temple Mount. So that was Abu Gosh the modern Arab village which is
the ancient Kirjath Jearim.
Three principles that are emphasized
here
NKJ Jeremiah 17:5 Thus says the LORD: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes
flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the LORD.
We are to trust in the Lord. God is never defeated. His plan will work
itself out.
Now the next thing that happens
after they brought the Ark back and it comes to Kirjath Jearim and it comes to
the house of Abinadab and Eleazar, it is going to stay there for some time. Now
during the period that follows this – this is I Samuel 7, I Samuel 9. We
have the anointing of Saul. Apparently the Ark is kept there at Kirjath Jearim
throughout the most of the period of Saul. Throughout most of Saul’s period -
there is one time possibly when the Ark is taken and moved; but it stays in the
house of Eleazar. One time it’s taken out at the Battle of Michmash which is
recorded in I Samuel 14:21. It’s taken out by Saul and returned to the house of
Eleazar.
Now in terms of the chronology of
this, we’re told it spent 20 years in the house with Eleazar. That’s when
Abinadab dies. Then there is a 40-year period with Saul and a ten-year period
for the reign of David. All of that and then a couple of those periods may
overlap so it’s a little bit uncertain exactly how it works out - but it’s at
least a period of 60 or 70 years before David will bring the Ark into
Jerusalem. So it stays with that family. So Abinadab is a Levite. His son is Eleazar and Eleazar has two
sons and these are the two sons that are going to be involved in the transfer
of the Ark into Jerusalem.
There we are going to see a problem
with Uzzah and Ahio. They are the two brothers who are the sons of Eleazar who
are not going to be properly trained for the transfer of the Ark.
What I want to do is just stop there
tonight because we’re at a good transition point before we get to David’s
moving of the Ark into Mt. Zion. Then we’ll back and look at that and what
happens with Solomon and also what has happened to the Ark of the Covenant and
where might the Ark of the Covenant be today. I think there’s a good chance
that we know, but we won’t know until we know. So we’ll address that next
time.
Let’s bow our heads in closing
prayer.