Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Original Game of Thrones

Below is an automated transcript of this message:

All right, good morning, church! We’re continuing our series entitled, “The Original Game of Thrones;” we’re in part three of the series. We’re going to be taking on three chapters of the book of First Samuel today. So I hope you have your seat belts on. We’re going to be going fast. We’ll be taking a lot of turns; we don’t want to throw anybody into the aisle way or something, so hang on. We’re gonna be going fast, but also going verse by verse as much as we can. We hope and pray today that this Word will speak to you.

We take our theme verse, from 1 Samuel 8:7 (ESV) “And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.” This is really the state of all humanity.

When we’re born, we’re born with the desire to be king of our own lives. In other words, we want to sit on the throne of our hearts. We don’t want anyone else to sit there.

Ever since the time of Adam and Eve, people have rejected God as king and want to sit on His throne. And as a result, we go through a lot of pain, sorrow and suffering because we weren’t made for that purpose. We were made to be those who follow the Lord. We were built for Him, created by the Creator for Himself. He loves us. And He made us. And so He sent Jesus in order to restore humanity to Him in order to bring us back to Him that He might have His rightful place on the throne of our hearts.

I believe that most of you are here today and you’re here for that reason. You’re here on the first day of the week to worship King Jesus. Some of you may be here this morning, and you’re still playing the game of thrones. You might be thinking that you can partially share the throne with Lord. Or, you might be thinking, I will give God part of the day or part of the week. You can sit on the throne sometimes, Lord, but I really need to be in charge of these other areas.

If you’re trying to do that, get ready for this message because that game doesn’t work as well today. What happens in this series today is some raiders take the Ark; the Ark is lost to the Israelites. We’re kind of like that, you know; the Ark represents the throne of God, and we’re kind of like the raiders who want to steal the throne. We want to sit on the throne ourselves.

In the book of 1 Samuel 4:1-7:2, the LORD deposed the house of Eli and disciplined Israel so that they might learn to give God the glory that was due Him. We can learn to give God the glory that is due Him. How can we learn to give God the glory that is due Him? The text gives three errors that we can correct in order to give God the glory due Him.As we look at the text today, I think we’ll see three errors that we can correct and learn to give God his rightful throne, His rightful glory. Are you ready to dig in? Here’s what we’re going to do; we’re going to read a chapter and then talk about it. Then read another chapter then talk about it. Then read the next chapter, then talk about it. I’ve never done this in all the years that I’ve been preaching. So hang on ; here we go.

1 Samuel 4:1-22 (ESV) 4:1 …Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines. They encamped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines encamped at Aphek. 2 The Philistines drew up in line against Israel, and when the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the field of battle. 3 And when the people came to 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 here from Shiloh, that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.” 4 So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. 5 As soon as the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel gave a mighty shout, so that the earth resounded. 6 And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, “What does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” And when they learned that the ark of the Lord had come to the camp, 7 the Philistines were afraid, for they said, “A god has come into the camp.” And they said, “Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before. 8 Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness. 9 Take courage, and be men, O Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you; be men and fight.” 10 So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home. And there was a very great slaughter, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell. 11 And the ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died. 12 A man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh the same day, with his clothes torn and with dirt on his head. 13 When he arrived, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road watching, for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city and told the news, all the city cried out. 14 When Eli heard the sound of the outcry, he said, “What is this uproar?” Then the man hurried and came and told Eli. 15 Now Eli was ninety-eight years old and his eyes were set so that he could not see. 16 And the man said to Eli, “I am he who has come from the battle; I fled from the battle today.” And he said, “How did it go, my son?” 17 He who brought the news answered and said, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has also been a great defeat among the people. Your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured.” 18 As soon as he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for the man was old and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years. 19 Now his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant, about to give birth. And when she heard the news that the ark of God was captured, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed and gave birth, for her pains came upon her. 20 And about the time of her death the women attending her said to her, “Do not be afraid, for you have borne a son.” But she did not answer or pay attention. 21 And she named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!” because the ark of God had been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband. 22 And she said, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.” This is God’s word.

Three errors that we make about God and his glory. Here’s the first:

1. We assume He should be on our side.

Look at verse three; the Israelites had asked the right question. They had lost 4000 men in their first engagement with the Philistines. They asked the right question; they wondered why the Lord had defeated them. Look at verse three with me, “why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines?” It was a rare occasion for them to lose a battle because the Lord was for them; or so they thought. They thought He was always on their side. They thought the Lord was always on their side.

This is important for us to understand. The Lord wants us to be on HIS side. They said to themselves, why has the Lord defeated us in front of those old Philistines because they are some horrible people and we’re good people? We are the Lord’s people; why has He defeated us? They had the right question but their answer was wrong. That happens to us, doesn’t it? We ask the right question, but we come up with the wrong solution. You know what? I don’t see them praying. Do you see any prayers going up? I don’t see them calling for wise counsel. The elders are there and those are wise counselors I guess, but they don’t pray. They don’t bend the knee to pray. They don’t ask for Eli , probably because Eli and his sons have ruined the ministry in Israel as we’ve been learning the last few weeks. They don’t trust them. They don’t pray; they assume if they just go get the ark that they will win. They should have known the Word better.

Remember what it said in Leviticus, chapter 26? Leviticus 26:15-17 (ESV) 15 “if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you: … 17 I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you.” Leviticus tells them exactly what would happen if they were not obeying his commands. They, instead of looking at His word and saying we might be out of line here, we might need to repent., there might be a sin in the camp, instead of asking the right questions, they just assumed. We will just wear a cross around our neck. I should go to church again. If I go to church, maybe things will get better. You know what? I’m having nightmares. Maybe I should put my Bible under my pillow. They had magical thinking. They thought somehow the symbols that represented God somehow saved; they were wrong. They needed to repent. They needed to take note of something; that they need to be on God’s side, not on their own side. You see, God would be glad to defend them; glad to save them. He loved them and He called them to Himself. But He’d given them commandments and they had broken them. They had mishandled their worship and they’ve taken idols to themselves. Now, they were defeated. They were defeated in the very way that He said they would be. It should not have been a surprise.

What is this Ark of the Covenant? This is the main subject in verse 4, 5 and six and those three chapters. Oddly, there’s not one mention of the young man, Samuel. What we have here, if we were watching a movie, is we’ve been all about Hannah and Samuel for the first two parts of the series. I guess, if you were on Netflix, it would be the first two episodes; it’s all about Samuel. The book is entitled Samuel. Now in this section of the book, there’s no Samuel. It’s almost to emphasize something; that the man of God is now absent. Look at what happens.

For three chapters, it’s about the Ark. The Ark is named 38 times in three chapters. It’s about the Ark, but it’s not really about the Ark. It is emphasized, but what it’s really about is what the Ark represents; it’s the throne of God. It is the throne of God; the people are trying to sit on it. They’re taking turns; they’re trying to be in charge. It’s called the Ark of the Covenant four times in those first couple of verses.

What is the Ark of the Covenant? Let’s talk about that for a second. Hebrews 9:4 (ESV) … the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. The golden urn held the manna, which they had eaten in the wilderness. The ark held Aaron’s staff, which had budded miraculously. The tablets of the covenant, which God had written with His own fingers, were in the Ark. The Ten Commandments were written on both sides of the stone tablets. This is what is in the Ark.

The Ark looks something like this. (picture on screen) This is an artist’s rendering of the Ark; notice that it had wooden handles. You weren’t supposed to touch it. It had cherubim on the top, whose wings spread across it and touched in the middle. It was called by many names and many of these names were found in these three chapters. Some of the names were Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of the Lord, the Ark of Yahweh and the Ark of God. The Ark of the God of Israel is what the Philistines called it later. Other names were the Ark of the Testimony and the Mercy Seat; these are among some of the names.

Now, who are these Philistines? They were seafaring, war- like people who probably came from the island of Crete. They arrived in the promised land almost the same time that the Israelites came in the land. The Philistines came over water; they were both trying to conquer the peoples there. The Philistines were a people who were more advanced in their technology and in their metallurgy, especially. The Greeks later called the whole country, Palestine, because when they came ashore and they heard of the Philistines, they named the whole area Palestine, which comes from the word Philistine. These people were worshippers of a false god named Dagon.

Now the people of Israel cried out , it says in verse 13, the first time they asked the question. They said, you know what, let’s get the Ark of God, God’s on our side, isn’t He? Let’s go to church. We haven’t gone to church in awhile. Let’s start doing the right things. Maybe if we write a tithe check.

They started thinking, if they could cover their sin, but they were wrong. Only God can cover their sin. And that requires repentance. Repentance means this, it doesn’t just mean saying I’m sorry. That’s what the world says. People say they’re sorry when they get caught. They say, I’m sorry I got caught. But repentance means this; I’m sorry that I offended you, God, I’m sorry. Don’t you think about it today, where the places that you’re trying to get God to join your team, and you know it’s wrong. Someone here is dating an unbeliever. You’re thinking, I feel like he’s a fixer upper. If I date him, he’ll probably come to Jesus. But then, the Bible says, “Do not be unequally yoked with an unbeliever.” What are you doing? Why are you breaking God’s Word? Do you think He is going to come to your side? He’s not. He gave you the word to protect you. Do I need to go through more details?

Read the word. Get on His side. Listen, we’re dealing with so many things today. I could name a few, culturally, that we’ve decided to go so far from God’s Word. We are so confused about our sexual orientation today. God said in the beginning, He made them male and female. It’s pretty clear we’re very confused about these things; there’s a whole alphabet of decisions we can make about this will here. You may think, Gary, I can’t believe you’re talking about this. Well, somebody needs to. Somebody needs to say, God, what should be on Your side? He’s not gonna be on your side. Showing up and sitting in church will not mean that He will somehow be on your side. He will not. He is holy. We kill our babies and we call them fetuses. We love violence and so we watch all kinds of media about violence.

Who’s here that is listening? Who here would recognize God’s not on your side? He wants you to be on His side. If you’re on His side, He’s on the throne and He will take care of you. You can’t just get His ark; you can’t just jump on His throne and expect Him to take care of you. It makes sense. If you think about it, we assume he should be on our side, but it’s not.

Here’s the man of God , Eli. God had warned him three times; the last time through a little boy, and he would do nothing about it. He would not repent. So, God said, You’ve made yourself fat; you have fattened yourself. This is a play on words. It’s that word I told you last week. It was translated, honor. It could be translated, glory. It was Chabod. This week it’s the longer version, which is Ichabod. We’ll see this in the next chapter. God says that Eli was so Chabod that he fell off of his chair and broke his neck because the Chabod had left Israel. The woman, the daughter-in-law of Eli, named her son, Ichabod, as she lay on her deathbed. Ichabod means no glory; the glory is gone.

How would you like to grow up with that being your name, Ichabod, meaning no glory? Eli’s sons made themselves “glorious;” they fattened themselves on the Lord’s offering. God said that you had better watch out because I’m gonna make you “light.” You’ve made yourselves heavy, but I’m going to make light of you, and that’s what He did, he said.Here’s the sign for you; you’ll know that I have warned you when you realize both your sons will die on the same day. I wish I could lighten this for you.

I’m looking at your faces right now. I see the look on your faces. I can only “throw the newspaper up in your lawn.” I’m just a “paperboy;” it’s all I am. I just deliver the Word. It hits my lawn first. I’m one of you.

God is not on your side until you are on His side. If you’re on His side, He will care for you. Get on the Lord’s side. Here’s the correct understanding in Exodus 32:26 (ESV) “ Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him.” That’s the question I want to ask you today. Who’s on the Lord’s side? Is it you? How about you and your family members? Have you said what Joshua said, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Have you said that yet?

How did Jesus teach His disciples to pray? “Our father, which art in heaven… My kingdom Come, My will be done? Is that how the prayer goes? Are you going to climb upon the throne? God, could You come and help me with my laundry list of things I’m planning to do today? Is that how God taught them to pray? Jesus said, “Our father, which art in heaven… Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is…” That’s how He tells us to pray, right? Get off the throne. Get on His side.

Let’s keep reading in chapter five:

1 Samuel 5:1-6:12 (ESV) 5:1 When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2 Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. 3 And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. 4 But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. 5 This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day. 6 The hand of the Lord was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory. 7 And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is hard against us and against Dagon our god.” 8 So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” They answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath.” So they brought the ark of the God of Israel there. 9 But after they had brought it around, the hand of the Lord was against the city, causing a very great panic, and he afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them. 10 So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. But as soon as the ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They have brought around to us the ark of the God of Israel to kill us and our people.” 11 They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people.” For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there. 12 The men who did not die were struck with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven. 6:1 The ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months. 2 And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us with what we shall send it to its place.” 3 They said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but by all means return him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand does not turn away from you.” 4 And they said, “What is the guilt offering that we shall return to him?” They answered, “Five golden tumors and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for the same plague was on all of you and on your lords. 5 So you must make images of your tumors and images of your mice that ravage the land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you and your gods and your land. 6 Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After he had dealt severely with them, did they not send the people away, and they departed? 7 Now then, take and prepare a new cart and two milk cows on which there has never come a yoke, and yoke the cows to the cart, but take their calves home, away from them. 8 And take the ark of the Lord and place it on the cart and put in a box at its side the figures of gold, which you are returning to him as a guilt offering. Then send it off and let it go its way 9 and watch. If it goes up on the way to its own land, to Beth-shemesh, then it is he who has done us this great harm, but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us; it happened to us by coincidence.” 10 The men did so, and took two milk cows and yoked them to the cart and shut up their calves at home. 11 And they put the ark of the Lord on the cart and the box with the golden mice and the images of their tumors. 12 And the cows went straight in the direction of Beth-shemesh along one highway, lowing as they went. They turned neither to the right nor to the left, and the lords of the Philistines went after them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.

Here’s the second error that we tend to make when it concerns God and His glory.

2. We attempt to share His glory with another.

The Philistines made a grave theological error. They thought that their God, Dagon,had defeated Yahweh. They thought he had defeated Yahweh because they defeated Israel with the ark in their presence. They thought, our God is greater, so let’s put him in the temple. But you know what? They were polytheistic; they worshipped many gods, so they felt, well, we will worship their god too. He apparently fought for us now. So let’s put him in the temple.

They get up the next morning, and their fish god, Dagon, is laying on his face, bowing down to the Ark of the Covenant. I find that hilarious. You can’t tell me God doesn’t have a sense of humor. They think, well, let’s set our god back up because their God has to be set back up. And so they set him back up. They get up the next morning and so it would be more clear to them. God had broken off the god Dagon’s hands and his head. His head, representing authority, and his hands, representing strength and power. God takes authority and power, and he destroys their god, Dagon.

Here’s what the land looks like; show this map. You know, I love maps, right? This is where the ark was; it was in Shiloh. That’s where the Tabernacle had been ever since the Israelites had come into the land with Joshua. They fought the battle with the Israelites and took up their place, “Ebenezer to Ashdod” (5:1) — Ebenezer (“Stone of help”) was a town in Ephraim near the coast. Ashdod was one of the five cities of Philistia.that Ebeneezer the Philistines in effect, and they lost. The Philistines carried the Ark to Ashdod. As we read in the chapter, they all started dying. Their god fell down; his head and his hands broke off.

So they said, you know what? We have got a good idea. Let’s send the Ark to . And so they sent the Ark to Gath. They felt maybe Gath would like it better, but they started dying off and getting tumors, and the pestilence came and they were overrun with mice. And so they said, I’ve got a good idea. Let’s send the Ark to Ekron. From there, the Ark is put in a cart with two milk cows; and they walk back to Israel and into Beth-shemesh. There’s your map.

Here’s what the god, Dagon, looked like according to an early artist’s rendering. (photo) He was a fish god because the Philistines were sailors. They were people who came ashore, probably from the island of Crete, and so that’s what he looked like. But here’s what he looked like after God got ahold of him. He fell down at the Ark of God and his head and his hands broke off. That story really affected them. The hand of the Lord was heavy. We see this over and over again; the hand of the Lord was heavy. We need to get rid of this Ark of Yahweh because His hand is heavy on our gods. His hand is heavy on our land and He is heavy on our people. The Hebrew word for heavy is kabad. There’s that word again; glory. The glory of God is heavy on us. We need to get rid of Him.

They finally make a decision. They said, you know what? We’ve carried Him to all the cities and all that’s happening is everybody’s dying. They’re all getting tumors. Some translations say it was probably boils. . It was nasty. A pestilence broke out on the land and they were overrun by mice. And so they went to their diviners and their priests.

Diviners were those who would cut open an animal and look at its internal parts in order to predict the future. Or, they would throw dice. But they, in spite of their lack of knowledge, they knew about the Egyptians. Maybe the Israelites should have tried to remember their own story. Sometimes the people outside the people of God know the stories better. They didn’t want to harden their hearts because the heavy hand of God was on them. We didn’t want to be like Pharoah. Let’s sit back. When God finally released them, they left and God quit punishing Egypt. So let’s not be like Egypt. And so they repented. The Philistines repented and they said, we need to make a guilt offering. It’s an odd guilt offering, but it was a guilt offering, nonetheless. Remember, they don’t have the five books of Moses, so they come up with their own guilt offering. Let’s see, He gave us tumors and mice, so let’s make golden versions of those and put them in a box. And so, that’s what they did.

It’s not dissimilar to what God told Moses whenever the people grumbled, and He sent fiery serpents into their midst (from the story in the Book of Exodus) because they were grumbling. He sent snakes to bite them and then Moses prayed for them. God said, make a bronze serpent and put it up where the people can see it. When they look upon it in the face, he will heal them of their snakebite. That’s strange to me. I don’t know about you, until you think about what Jesus told Nicodemus. Jesus said, “just as Moses lifted up the serpent (this is John, chapter three) the Son of man will be lifted up and will draw all men to Himself.” Jesus said He would be lifted up as the symbol of your suffering; He would take upon the sins of this world, and we will see what sin looks like on the cross. If you’ll look upon Jesus in faith, your sins will be forgiven.

If somebody calls you a Philistine today, that usually means you don’t appreciate art. I don’t know how it became that word, but that’s what they thought. And so, the Philistines up with this plan. I used to spend summers on the farm with my grandfather and so I know about milk cows. I know, when they first have a calf, if you try to separate a cow from its calf, that cow will kick you, bite you and try to break through a corral. If it hears a bawling calf calling for its mama, it will not do what you tell it to do. I know this firsthand. So the Philistines came up with a plan. They said, let’s make sure it’s not a coincidence. Let’s take two milk cows and take their calves away from them. Put their calves in a corral back here. Let’s take two cows that have never been yoked. That’s the other thing; if you try to put something on their neck and it’s never happened before, they don’t like that either. But these two cows calmly accepted the yolk. And then they said, let’s put our tumors and our mice in a box next to the ark on this cart because we don’t want to send the Ark back without an offering. We will watch and see if it goes to Beth-shemesh, which is the closest city to us. Then we’ll know it was God’s hand on us and we’ll know that God is God. But if the milk cows turn back around and go back to their bawling calves, we will know it’s a coincidence.

Now they set this thing up in their own favor; they did not set it up in God’s favor. But, it doesn’t matter. God was sitting on His throne again, and He drove those cows straight to Israel. You couldn’t see it, but He was smiling. He was sitting on His throne again because they’ve given Him the glory. He marched that cart right back to Beth-shemesh.

Can you see it? This is what happens when you put Got back on the throne. Beth-shemesh is in Judah; it’s on the north eastern side of the region of Judah. Notice that the cows stopped when they got there. They were home.

God will not share His glory with idols. Isaiah 42:8 (NLT) “I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to anyone else, nor share my praise with carved idols.” What is the first commandment of the Ten Commandments? “You shall have no other gods before me.” He will not share His throne with you. He’s God and you’re not. Have you come to that place yet?

The theological theme of Exodus is clearly in view here. The Philistines were the ones who remind us of it. God himself exiles Himself into the enemy’s land. For seven months, He goes into the land on behalf of Israel. And he is Victor. He wins the battle against the Philistines alone, and then comes back as a radiant victor with a crown upon His head again. He pulls back up into Beth-shemesh.

We try to take God’s glory. He will not allow it. If you try to share it, He will not allow it. But if you give Him the glory, He will lead you out of captivity and He will share His glory with you if you don’t try to take it for yourself.

Here’s the third error coming up. Let’s keep reading. We’re going to read the rest of chapter six and a little bit of chapter seven, picking up at verse 13.

1 Samuel 6:13-7:2 (ESV) 13 Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. And when they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, they rejoiced to see it. 14 The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there. A great stone was there. And they split up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. 15 And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the box that was beside it, in which were the golden figures, and set them upon the great stone. And the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices on that day to the Lord. 16 And when the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned that day to Ekron. 17 These are the golden tumors that the Philistines returned as 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 fortified cities and unwalled villages. The great stone beside which they set down the ark of the Lord is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh. 19 And he struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked upon the ark of the Lord. He struck seventy men of them, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great blow. 20 Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up away from us?” 21 So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up to you.” 7:1 And the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took up the ark of the Lord and brought it to the house of Abinadab on the hill. And they consecrated his son Eleazar to have charge of the ark of the Lord. 2 From the day that the ark was lodged at Kiriath-jearim, a long time passed, some twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.

Here’s the third error.

3. We assume to stand before Him without a Mediator.

We assume we can stand before God without a “go-between,” without a mediator. They asked another good question. The Israelites are good at asking the right questions. It’s another good question: “Who can stand?” It’s in verse 20, “who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God?” They had the wrong answer. They gave the same answer that the Philistines tried out. Let’s send it to another city.

Notice that they didn’t tell the people up there in Kiriath-jearim that a whole lot of us died with this thing. They mostly said, Hey, the ark of the Lord came back. Come get it. You can have it in your town. They didn’t tell the whole story. There’s a good question but the wrong answer again. The people are not repenting. What does it take? How much sorrow, how much defeat? You might look at this and think, those Israelites; what is wrong with those people? But that’s not the right question. Well, maybe it is the right question but it’s not the right answer. It’s not those people.

It’s us people. What’s wrong with us is that we go through sorrow after sorrow, difficulty after difficulty. It never crosses our minds that we need the Lord on the throne, that we can’t share it with Him, knowing that once He’s on the throne, we need someone to lead us into the throne room so that we can approach the Holy of Holies. We need someone, a “go-between.”

They were not supposed to just look at the Ark with the naked eye. They needed someone who would cover them and give them white clothes that are holy so they could come into His presence.

The name of the town of Beth-shemesh literally means “House of the Sun.” It was a town in Judea. They were reaping wheat , which means it was the spring in Israel, probably sometime between March and June. It was the season where they would have celebrated Passover, and if it was a late season, they were celebrating Pentecost. Pentecost also means “Feast of the Harvest.” It’s a time of the year of celebration. They took the Ark and they put it upon a rock and they did some good things. They celebrated; they had a big worship service. God’s glory is back and our God is for us again. What’s in the box? Gold? They put that on the rock next to the Ark. Let’s not forget they put this gold on the rock right beside the Ark. And then, they looked upon the ark. It says in the Hebrew, they looked into the Ark. It doesn’t matter; they weren’t supposed to look upon it. They definitely weren’t supposed to look in it. It was supposed to be in the holy place, covered. They knew better. They had the word in Numbers 4:5-6 (ESV) “5 When the camp is to set out, Aaron and his sons shall go in and take down the veil of the screen and cover the ark of the testimony with it. 6 Then they shall put on it a covering of goatskin and spread on top of that a cloth all of blue, and shall put in its poles.”

When they were carrying it publicly, they were supposed to cover it very carefully because only the high priest was supposed to see it. They knew this; it’s in the Word. I think there were the people of the book, but they’re not obeying it. They’re looking more like the people of the culture. It actually looked like they were worshipping the Ark and the new sidekicks that came with the Ark; the five tumors and the five mice. That’s what it kind of looks like.

God struck them. He drove it all the way back to His people, and they still will not obey His Word. So, they send it to Kiriath-jearim, which means “City of Forests.” There’s a man there who owns the place. His name is Abinadab. He may have been a Levite. We don’t It doesn’t say. He had a son named Eleazar, which was certainly a priestly name that was one of the sons of Aaron. So maybe they were Levites.

It seems that Shiloh, at least according to archaeological evidence and according to what we see here, must have been destroyed when the Tabernacle was destroyed. And so, for 20 years, it seems to have been hidden in the house. Eleazar guarded the door so no one could see the Ark. It seems during this season there was no worship, at least not in the kind of way that Moses taught them. There’s no Tabernacle, their system has broken down.

I want you to see how they finish the story; it is pretty important. As you look at the end of this, the last phrase is key. A long time has passed; some 20 years in all. The house of Israel lamented after the Lord, not after His ark, not after the church, not after the golden dross that you hang around your neck to let people know you are a Christian. Not after that bumper sticker with a fish that you put on your bumper. None of that did they lament after. They lamented after the Lord. They no longer looked for His hands. They were mourning for His face. They wanted the Lord back in their land.

Next week we’ll see that Samuel shows back up when the people repented in lament. Lament means, “crying aloud, to wail, to mourn, to dump ashes upon their heads” and say, where is the Lord? They wanted Him to be king again. They wanted to see His face.

There’s no one who can stand before the Lord without a mediator. Remember how Eli warned his sons back in 1 Samuel 2:25 (ESV) “If someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him, but if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?” Yet we see, in the New Testament, Paul writing to Timothy. 1 Timothy 2:5 (ESV) “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Christ Jesus is our mediator. He stretches his hands out like this, between heaven and earth. And he says, I am the one.

Remember when He was crucified, and the earthquake came, the veil was torn in the Holy of Holies so that people could approach the holy place and so that they could approach the throne of God. He’s the mediator.

Will you lament after the Lord today? Remember how Peter responded to him in Luke, chapter five when he caught that great catch of fish? He couldn’t believe it. He turned to the Lord and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Jesus said, “Do not be afraid. You have been catching fish. Now I am going to show you how to catch men.”

This is how He replies to you. He wants you to repent and say you are sorry that you tried to get Him on your side when all He wanted was for youto come to His side. You are sorry that you tried to share the throne with Him. You lament and you are sorry that you tried to boldly think you could stand before Him someday without Jesus.

Someday, we will all stand before that throne and those who have Christ as their mediator will stand. Like the Ark that was taken into the captivity of the Philistines and put into that temple with Dagon, so Jesus was taken by the enemy up the hill called Golgotha. Satan and all of his minions rejoiced; they thought they had won. But then early that morning, He got up. Jesus got up. Just as it was predicted in the book of Genesis, chapter three, verse 15 it says, “…he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” He’s cut off the head of the snake. He went into the tomb, but he came out victorious . Clearly, we see something here. God went and took our sin on; He went into the enemy territory on our behalf, and He’s come out rejoicing when you get on His side.

Will you make him Lord? “If he’s not Lord of all, he’s not Lord at all.” Will you accept Jesus as your mediator? Let’s pray.

Lord, thank you for Your Word. Thank you that we have Your Word. But more than that, thank you that we have Jesus as our mediator, as the one who goes between us and boldly opens up the throne room doors so that we can enter in before the Father, the Holy God. He gives us holy clothes; He counts us righteous so that we can enter and go in and out before Him at any time of the day. We can go right now, at this moment; it’s the right time. If you’re here today and you’ve been on the throne and you’ve experienced the sorrow and brokenness of trying to live life your own way, you can get off the throne right now. Would you do it right where you’re at? Praying, Father, forgive me; I want You to be on the throne. I know You sent Jesus to die for me on the cross and that He paid for my sins with His own blood and His own life. But then He got up on the third day. He’s risen. He lives today. I want Him to come and live in me. I want to be a child of God. I want Christ on the throne. I want Him to be my Savior and Lord. If you’re praying that right now, believing, He will save you and He will lead you. Others are here today and you’ve been trying to have it both ways. You believe, but you hang on, trying to live life your own way. You’re thinking He’ll join you there. Cry out, Lord, I want all of You and I give all of me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.