He is risen!! Hallelujah, our God reigns! Happy Easter everyone!
Today's passage starts with Hophni and Phinehas finally making the decision that costs them their lives. God had put up with them and their shenanigans for long enough and this time they finally went too far.
The ark of the covenant contained the Ten Commandments given to Moses by God, symbolized His very presence, and was supposed to be kept in the Most Holy Place - a place only the high priest could enter only once a year. Not only did Hophni and Phinehas desecrate the Most Holy Place by entering it, they had the audacity to remove the ark and use it as a good luck charm!
I can almost hear the angels gasping in horror at witnessing such desecration. Truly we do not grasp the magnitude of what Hophni and Phinehas did as we read it through 21st century eyes. The result of this sin? 30,000 soldiers died, Hophni and Phinehas died (as God had promised in yesterday's passage), Eli died after learning of his sons' deaths, and Phinehas' wife died after delivering her baby, and the ark of the covenant was captured.
Then we come to chapters 5 and 6 which almost make me laugh out loud at the sheer absurdity of the whole thing. I reread what I wrote about this passage last year, and still feel the same way, so I'm going to repost a portion of it here...
When the Philistines capture the ark after God refused to act like a genie, they place it next to their god Dagon in triumph. That triumph was short lived when they came in and saw their god lying face down in the dust. They likely tried to explain that away and secured that puppy real good so it wouldn't happen again. Didn't work. The next morning, not only is Dagon face down in the dust, but his head and hands are broken right off.
I ask you - what kind of god needs repairs?! How could people be so foolish as to worship something that can't talk, can't move, can't protect itself and needs to be brought in to the repair shop? Ludicrous!
After plagues and whatnot that can't be explained away, they realize they need to get rid of this ark. Of course, appeasing God with idols isn't going to work. They devise a test by yoking the ark to two mother cows that are still nursing their calves. If there was nothing supernatural involved, those cows would go straight to their calves, not head off down the road to Beth Shemesh. Well, God's power over-rides nature, and the Philistines scientific experiment proves that this was all the result of God's power.
Well, after conducting such a grand scientific experiment, do they go where the evidence lies? No, they do not. They do not begin to worship God, they return to their useless god in the repair shop.
So often society now does the same thing. They say they want evidence of God, but when the evidence points to God, they still don't follow it.
And then the Israelites, who should know better, are punished as well because they still do not respect the holiness of the symbol of God's presence.
This Easter weekend we celebrate and commemorate the amazing fact that God the Son volunteered Himself as a substitute for our sin and took the punishment we deserved upon Himself, and then defeated death and Satan forever by rising on the 3rd day - Amen!!
And because of this, we can now enjoy intimacy with our Lord to a degree that was unimaginable to the Israelites of the Bible. But sometimes, I think we have taken this intimacy for granted, and have not treated God with the respect and reverence due His Name. We need to remember that though we have the amazing privilege of calling Him our Friend, He is still the Holy One of Israel, worthy of our utmost respect and deepest worship.
Tomorrow's passage: 1 Samuel 7-9, Luke 18:24-43
2 comments:
Great post. It's true that we cannot grasp the horror of what Hophni and Phinehas did and the significance of the ark because there is no direct comparison by today's standards. I was surprised that it took 7 months for them to return it.
One thing that stuck out for me from the New Testament readings was this verse:
"When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich."
This hit home today because I have been thinking about how rich I am. I may not be "extremely rich" by the standards of celebrities but I have more than I need. I would still find it extremely difficult to sell everything.
Great post, Tammy. I totally agree with your assessment that when many people nowadays see evidence of God's hand at work, they choose to try and explain it some other way rather than admit what it really is. My dad sent me this quote yesterday from the sermon at their church... "When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in
nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything."
— G.K. Chesterton
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