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Published April 22, 2024

The Fear of the Lord

Two weeks ago we were looking at 2 Samuel chapter 6 and we only got about half-way through the story, so today I want to finish up that chapter. Now if you missed part 1, let me give you a quick recap of the story thus far.

At this point in the book of 2 Samuel, David is the newly appoint King over all Israel. He has just conquered the fortress of Jerusalem and has made it his capital city – and as part of that process, he also wants to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem as well.

Now the Ark of the Covenant (Or the Ark of God as it is called in 2 Samuel) symbolized God’s presence among His people. It was basically a gold-plated wooden chest that normally resided within the Tabernacle in the inner room called the Holy of Holies – but for the last several years, the Ark had been at the home of a man named Abinadab. It had been taken there after the Philistines captured the Ark and then, shortly thereafter, returned it back to the Isrealites.

And so now, after several years of basically being forgotten about, David determined to bring the Ark of God back to Jerusalem. However, David neglected to carefully follow the instructions of the Lord – as given to Moses way back when the ark and the whole Tabernacle were first put together.

You see, because the Ark of the Covenant represented the very presence of God – it was to be treated with the utmost respect and reverence. It was never to be touched by anyone other than the priests – and when being transported, it had to be carried by the Kohathite family from the tribe of Levi – and it was only to be be carried on it’s built-in carrying poles.

However, when David attempted to move the Ark to Jerusalem – the Ark was placed on a cart pulled by some oxen and guided by Abinadab’s sons (who were not part of the Kohathite family from the tribe of Levi, but were from the tribe of Judah). And then, as they were moving the Ark, one of the oxen stumbled, and one of Abinadab’s sons – Uzzah – instinctively reached out his hand to steady the Ark, and God immediately struck him dead!

What was intended to be a great day of celebration for Israel as they brought the Ark to Jerusalem – had turned into a very sobering reminder of the awesome power and holiness of God – something that the Israelites had seemed to have forgotten. And that’s about where we left off last time – with Uzzah lying dead beside the Ark – and everyone in the processional not really sure what to do next.

So we’re going to look at the rest of the story today. We pick up the story now in 2 Samuel chapter 6 – starting today at verse 8.

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Published April 9, 2024

In the Presence of a Holy God

Today we will be looking at 2 Samuel chapter 6. At this point in our journey through the book of Samuel, David has recently been crowned king over all Israel. Originally, he had ruled over just one tribe of Israel – the tribe of Judah – and he did that for about 7 years, but now the other 11 tribes of Israel have also accepted him as King – so David is now King over the entire unified kingdom of Israel.

As one of his first acts as King, David set out to conquer the Jebusite fortress of Jerusalem – one of the last unconquered strongholds within the borders of the Promised Land. And as we read last time, David successfully conquered this fortress and made it his new capital city. He renamed the city – The City of David – and build a palace for himself within it’s walls. And now, as David moves into his new home in the capital, he also desires for the Lord to make His home there as well!

You see, over the last 40 years, it seems that the Israelites had kinda neglected their relationship with God! Specially, the Ark of the Covenant (which was to represent the very presence of God) had been more or less forgotten about – and wasn’t even kept in the same place as the tabernacle! And we’ll talk more about that in a bit – but today we’re going to see how David determines to fix all that! He knows how important it is to have God at the centre of all life – and so he wants to bring the Ark of the Covenant back into the center-focus and attention of all the people of Israel.

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Published October 26, 2020

What To Do With An Uncontrollable God

Last Sunday we read about the first of many battles recorded in the book of 1 Samuel. And at this time in Israel’s history – their main enemy was the Philistines! The Philistines had been a thorn in Israel’s side throughout their early history – battling first with Shamgar and then Samson – later on they would battle against King Saul and against David…. but at this time there was no judge or king to lead the Israelites into battle against the Philistines. Although Samuel was widely recognized as the prophet of God by this time – He had not yet become Isreal’s judge – that would happen shortly, but at this time, Israel was led primarily by the elders – the older, supposedly wiser leaders of the different clans and tribes of Israel.

But these elders didn’t seem to be particularly in-tune with God. And as we’ve noted over the past few weeks, the nation of Israel as a whole had kinda drifted away from following God. Their relationship with God had become a religion rather than a relationship, even though they were God’s specially choose people. Out of all the people on earth, God had specifically chosen them to be His holy nation – and they would be His people and He would be their God! He even promised to dwell among them… We saw last week how the Ark of the Covenant would identify God’s presence among his people. It was from the Ark that God promised meet his people and speak to them from above the cover of the Ark.

But as we’ve noted, the people of Israel weren’t all that interested in hearing from God at this point. They chose to ignore God’s commands – and everyone did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. They had no interest in serving and pleasing God – they really just kept God around because of what God could do for them!

And last week’s battle with the Philistines was a prime example of that. After being defeated in the first battle against the Philistines, the elders of Israelites decide to go get the Ark of the Lord and carry it into battle with them. We read in 1 Samuel 4 verse 3…

Then they said, “Let’s bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from Shiloh. If we carry it into battle with us, it will save us from our enemies.” 1 Samuel 4:3b

And I think it’s very telling that they say “IT will save us from our enemies” – Not, “GOD” will save us from our enemies – but “IT” – the Ark of the Covenant – will save us from our enemies.

Their faith was in a gold box, rather than in the God who spoke to them from the gold box. They had been disobedient to God for years and really had no interest in changing their ways, but yet, they thought they could harness and manipulate the power of God by trotting out the Ark of the Covenant and carrying it into battle with them.

But one of the main themes that comes out of the book of Samuel – and we’ve seen this several times already – is that God will honor those who honor Him, but he will despise those who think lightly of Him. And we see that playing out clearly in this story.

The Israelites carry the Ark of the Covenant with them into battle – hoping to manipulate the power of God in their favour, but God does not honor those who refuse to honor Him and the Israelites are soundly defeated. 30,000 men are killed and the Ark of the Covenant is captured by the Philistines!

And that leads us into our passage today. As I mentioned last week, the story of 1 Samuel doesn’t revolve around Samuel – it doesn’t even revolve around the Israelites – it revolves around God! This is His story, and so the camera pans away from the defeated Israelites and it follows the Ark of the Covenant carried by the victorious Philistines into the nearby Philistine town of Ashdod.

We pick up the story in 1 Samuel chapter 5, verse 1.

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Published October 19, 2020

God’s Not Your Lucky Charm

This morning we are continuing on in our study of First Samuel. For the first 3 chapters of this book, the author has focused mainly on the birth and early life of Samuel, but for the next three chapters, the focus shifts and the story revolves mainly around the Ark of the Covenant (or the Ark of the Lord.) Samuel isn’t even mentioned again until chapter 7.

And in some ways, this next part about the Ark of the Lord might seem like a bit of a rabbit trail from the story of Samuel – but it’s not a rabbit trail at all. It actually reminds us who this story is really about – this is not a story about Samuel – this is a story about God!

And that’s important to remember when we read through any of these great old testament stories! These stories are not about Daniel and the lions or David & Goliath or Moses or Jonah or any of those guys – the entire Bible is the story of God. He is the main character. These fantastic stories are only in the Bible because they teach us about God – Who He is, what’s He’s like, what He’s done, and what He’s going to do! 

So today’s passage about the Ark of the Lord is most certainly not a rabbit trail from the story of Samuel – but rather it conveys to us some very important information about who God is and how we are to interact with Him! As we go through it, we’ll see that it fits very much within the themes of the book of First Samuel!

First Samuel chapter 3 ends on the note of little Samuel growing up to a confirmed prophet of the Lord. His messages proved to be true and reliable as He faithfully delivered the Word of God to all the people of Israel.

But after saying that, the scene totally changes and we are told in chapter 4 verse 1…

At that time Israel was at war with the Philistines. The Israelite army was camped near Ebenezer, and the Philistines were at Aphek. The Philistines attacked and defeated the army of Israel, killing 4,000 men. 3 After the battle was over, the troops retreated to their camp, and the elders of Israel asked, “Why did the Lord allow us to be defeated by the Philistines?” Then they said, “Let’s bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from Shiloh. If we carry it into battle with us, it will save us from our enemies.” 1 Samuel 4:1b-3

Now just for a little bit of background here, the Philistines are probably the most well-known enemies of the Israelites. We first hear about the Philistines way back in Genesis – during the the time of Abraham. But of course, there was no nation of Israel to fight with at that time – there was just Abraham’s family!

But the real fighting between the Philistines and the Israelites began during the time of the judges. We’re told that one of the first Judges, Shamgar, once killed 600 Philistines with an oxgoad! The strongman, Samson, fought his many battles against the Philistines – burning down their crops, killing them with a jawbone of a donkey, pulling down their temple on top of them! Most of Saul’s battles, as the first king of Israel, were fought against the Philistines. David’s first battle was against the Philistine giant, Goliath. And so its not unusual to see Israel at war with the Philistines! But this particular war was going to be unusual.

As we read in the passage, the first battle in this war was a total loss for the Israelites. They were soundly defeated and 4,000 men were killed. So they go back to their camp and regroup. It’s at this point that the elders of Israel ask a very important question. They say “Why did the Lord allow us to be defeated by the Philistines?”

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