1 Samuel 6, verse 1, and the
ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months.
Now, the historians say over the time of this seven months
that the ark was sent to each of the five principal cities
of the Philistines, and we read about some of them last week,
that each time it went to one of the different cities, each
city was struck with the same results. They had the pestilence
in the city, and all the men were come down with these hemorrhoids
and dysentery. Well, they finally figured, we're
not going to do this to any more cities, so they sent the Ark out into
an open field, away from all the cities, thinking that at
least would protect the people, you know. And what the historians
say, and we'll see this, where they get this from here in a
minute, is when they sent the Ark to the open fields, mice
suddenly came and just overran all the fields, destroyed all
the crops. So all the time that the Ark
was kept in the land of the Philistines, they were punished. But do you
know Israel was punished during those seven months too? For seven
months, Israel was without the presence of the Lord. The presence
of the Lord dwelt between those wings of the cherubim and the
holy of holies. And the temple was empty of the
crown of the temple. It was empty of the throne of
the God, of God in Israel. God's presence was gone. seven
months. That's a long time to be without
the presence of the Lord. Israel was punished too, but
they don't seem to be doing as much about trying to get rid
of this, this being punished as the Philistines do. Look at
verse two. The Philistines called for the priests and the diviners
saying, what should we do to the ark of the Lord? Tell us
wherewith we shall send it to its place. I don't know if Israel
was ever doing anything to try to get the ark back, but the
Philistines were trying to do something to get rid of it. They
didn't want this on them anymore. So they called for the diviners.
They called for the priests of Dagon. They never called for
the priests of Israel. They called for their diviners.
And these diviners were men who studied Jewish religion. They
knew it frontwards and backwards. They knew it. They knew the Jewish
history. They knew all the ceremonies
of the religion. But, you know, they also studied
the stars, too. You know, they pretended to be
able to tell the future from the stars. You know, they had
a very well-rounded religion or education in all these different
religions. And they did know the form and
the ceremony of true religion, but they denied the power thereof.
And it's sad how many people in this world, in time of trouble,
Go to a man just like this. He's supposed to quote unquote,
he's a religious leader. He supposedly studies the word
of God, but he doesn't follow what he reads. He doesn't follow
Christ as he's presented it to us in God's word. And I know
these diviners didn't follow what they'd read because they
didn't call for the priests to come and carry the ark with the
staves on their shoulders away. Look what they said in verse
three. Now they said, if you send away the ark of the God
of Israel, send it not empty. But in any wise return him a
trespass offering, that ye should be healed, and it shall be known
to you why his hand is not removed from you. Then said they, What
shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him?
They answered, Five golden emeralds and five golden mice, according
to the number of the lords of the Philistines. For one plague
was on you all, and on your lords. Wherefore ye shall make images
of your emeralds, and images of your mice that mar the land.
and you should give glory unto the God of Israel. For adventure
he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods,
and from off your land. Wherefore then do you harden
your hearts, as the Egyptians? And Pharaoh hardened their hearts,
when he had wrought wonderfully among them. Did they not let
the people go, and they departed?" Now even the heathen know instinctively
that man needs to offer a trespass offering to Man knows instinctively
we've sinned against God and we've got to do something to
make that up to him. Instinctively, man knows we've
offended God. And these diviners, they knew
there had to be an atonement made or the people would never
be healed. They knew that the reason this
was upon them is because they had offended God. So we've got
to make it up to him some way. And their idea was very similar
to the brazen serpent in the wilderness, wasn't it? Pretty
similar, make something in a likeness of the problem. Now, the difference
between, you know, the golden mice and the golden emeralds
and the brazen serpent was, first of all, God told Moses to make
the brazen serpent, didn't he? And the brazen serpent was a
picture of Christ lifted up. The golden emeralds and the mice,
they're a picture of the problem itself. They're a picture of
sin, not a picture of Christ. And these diviners, now they
studied Jewish religion, they studied Jewish history, but they
did what every son of Adam by nature will always do when they
try to come up with their own idea to offer the trespass offering.
They left off the blood of the sacrifice. They offered some
of the gold, you know, they offered something that was important
and precious to them, but they left off the blood of the sacrifice. Sin can only be put away with
the blood, with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The atonement
can only be made with the blood of the sacrifice that's been
appointed by God. Now, there are many offerings
in the Old Testament law, the Mosaic law, the Levitical law.
They had wave offerings. No blood involved. There was
a burnt offering. There was an offering of burning
of incense. No blood was involved. But the
trespass offering. The offering for sin was always
made by blood. The blood of the sacrifice. The
blood of the substitute. And these diviners left that
out. Now they were right about one thing. The same plague was
on everybody wasn't it? It didn't matter whether you
were a lord or whether you were a pauper somewhere. The same
plague was on everyone. Everyone was equally guilty.
Everyone was equally smitten. poor little pauper somewhere
out there, just scratching out a living out in the field. He
had nothing to do with him taking that art hitting. He was guilty
because of federal headship, because of what those Lords did.
He was guilty and he was smitten because of it. And everyone,
I don't care who you are, everyone needed this trespass offering
because their best doctors could offer no relief. Their best doctors
couldn't provide any healing for this diseases, sicknesses
that come upon them. And you know, those lords must
have given them a little bit of pushback. They had to have
some resistance. I don't know. We need to make
five golden hemorrhages, five golden mines. That's a lot of
gold, boys. They must have met with some resistance because
these diviners said, now don't follow the example of Pharaoh.
Don't harden your heart like Pharaoh did. Pharaoh hardened
his heart. What did he end up doing anyway? letting the people
go. He could have let the people
go the first time, but he didn't do it. He hardened his heart what
happened to him. He let the people go, but God
destroyed him and destroyed his army. So don't follow his example. And these diviners, they don't
have any faith toward God. They don't have any love toward
God, but they knew this fact about God. God is God. You cannot fight the will of
God. Can't do it. I don't know what
the will of God is in many different matters, but I can tell you this,
it's going to be done. Whatever his will is, is exactly
what's going to be done. And we need to pray. Let us,
Lord, be in thy will, show us thy will and give us the faith
to do thy will, which you show us, because you're not going
to fight against his will. That's what they told him. So
verse seven, they go on and say, here's what you do. He said,
Make a new cart, and take two milk kind, on which there hath
come no yoke, and tie the kind to the cart, and bring their
calves home from them. And take the ark of the Lord,
and lay it upon the cart, and put the jewels of gold, which
ye returned him for a trespass offering, in a coffer by the
side thereof, and send it away, that it may go. And see if it
goeth up by the way on his own coast to Bethshemesh. Then he
hath done us this great evil. But if not, we shall know that
it is not his hand that smote us, and it was just a chance
that happened to us." So they said, take these two milk cows
that have calves. And the reason they told them
to do that is it's against those cows' nature to leave their calves. They're not going to do that
by nature. But if they leave their calves
and go down the road, then you know God's done this. God's leading
them to do that. And these two milk cows make
sure there's never been a yoke put on them. See, a cow or oxen
or whatever you put the yoke on, they have to be taught to
wear that yoke. They have to be taught to pull
in the same direction with the other ox or cow, you know, that
they're yoked with. But if nobody ever teaches them,
nobody ever trains them to wear the yoke and they pull in the
same direction, you know, now that's against their nature.
So God's doing that. And these two milk cows, now
they don't know where they're supposed to go. They don't know
where the city is. They've never been there. They
don't have any clue. They have to be led there. But if they
go there on their own, and don't turn off the road anyway, don't
stop to eat, don't turn around, and they go straight to Beth
Shemesh, then you know God's done this. Otherwise, it's just
all happened by chance and it'll go away on its own, you know.
That's the way men think. I don't know about women, but
men think this way. You know, you get sick, you think,
well, it'll go away on its own, you know. They say, well, maybe
it's just chance. Maybe it'll just go away on its
own. So verse 10, the men did so.
They did what the diviners told them to do. And they took two
milk kine and tied them to the cart and shut up their calves
at home. And they laid the ark of the
Lord upon the cart and the copper with the mice of gold and the
images of their emeralds, and the kine took straightway to
the way of Bethshemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as
they went, and turned not aside, to the right hand or to the left.
And the lords of the Philistines went up after them into the border
of Bethshemesh." Now, these two cows, they took them to this
crossroads where three roads met, and these cows took the
right road. They took it straight to Bethshemesh,
lowing as they went. They hadn't forgotten their calves,
but they still went anyway. They're lowing in sorrow, missing
their calves, but they went anyway, showing this is the God of nature
that's leading them to do this against their nature. A number
of years ago, Todd Nyberg called me and asked me to go to this
place at the very end of western Kentucky. Mom went with me. She
had some friends that lived in that area. She went with me.
And we stayed at this farmer. And the day before, he'd sold
a calf. And that mama cow was out there
just lowing, just mooing. Mom felt so awful. She felt so
awful because she could just feel the sorrow just lowing the
cow. Well, that's the way these milk
cows were. But they went anyway. And look over to Isaiah 1. I'll
show you why they went. I know exactly why. Isaiah 1,
verse 3. The ox knoweth his owner, and
the ass his master's crib. But Israel doth not know, my
people doth not consider, but the ox and the ass know. And
those cows know their master, and they win at his bidding.
Straight to bed. They didn't turn off the course
either way. Huh. It'd be nice if at the end of
my life somebody could say, he followed the Lord. Didn't turn
to the left or the right. You know, you don't have to be
great. Just be like a milk cow. Follow the Lord. It didn't turn
off to the left or the right. So the Philistines came to this
conclusion. Jehovah is in control. God did this. He did this to
us and maybe he'll take his hand off of us now. Look at verse
13. And they of Beth-shemesh were
reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. And they lifted up
their eyes and saw the ark and they rejoiced to see it. Now
the Ark came back to Israel. Israel didn't do anything to
get it. They didn't have to go fight a war to win it back. They
didn't go pay a ransom to get the Philistines to give it to
them. As a matter of fact, the Philistines sent it to them with
a ransom for them to take. They got it back freely. And
the Ark came back suddenly. The presence of the Lord suddenly
appeared. They weren't looking for Him.
They weren't calling for Him. They were just going about the
normal chores of their life. And the Lord suddenly appeared,
and they rejoiced." Look at verse 14, "'The cart came into the
field of Joshua of Bethshemite, and stood there, where there
was a great stone. And they clad the wood of the
cart, and offered the kind of burnt offering unto the Lord.
And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord, and the coffer
that was with it, wherein the jewels of gold were, and they
put them on the great stone. And the men of Bethshemesh offered
burnt offerings and sacrifices the same day unto the Lord. And
when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to
Ephron the same day. Now these cows went all the way
to Beth-shemesh and suddenly came to a stop right beside this
great rock, just like the driver said, whoa. Well, he did. That's why they stopped. They
stopped right where the Lord told them to. But you know, they
came to the city of Beth-shemesh. Now, for whatever reason, it
came to the mind of these diviners, send the Ark to Beth Shemesh.
I wonder why they picked that city. Well, Beth Shemesh was
the city given by Joshua to the Kohathite Levites. And you know
what those Levites' sole purpose in life was? Carry the Ark of
God. They brought the Ark to the place
where the men lived who could pick that Ark up and carry it
on their shoulders. God's in control of everything. There's no accidents with God.
He's in control, working out His will perfectly. And these
men recognized the Lord had done this. Now the Lord's returned
the ark to Israel. He's returned His presence to
Israel and they were thankful. They gave offerings to the Lord. They were so thankful. And look
at verse 17. Now these are the golden emeralds
which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering. under
the Lord. I don't know how I feel about
getting these golden images of a hemorrhoid, but that's what
these things were, golden images of hemorrhoids and mice, and
that's what they got. And they had for Ashdod one,
for Gaza one, for Ascalon one, for Gath one, and for Akron one.
And the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities
of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fenced
cities and of country villages, even under the great stone of
Abel. whereon they sat down the ark of the Lord, which stone
remaineth unto this day in the field of Joshua the Bethshemite."
But you know the story doesn't end there. Look at verse 19.
And he smote the men, God smote the men of Bethshemesh, because
they had looked into the ark of the Lord. Even he smote of
the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men. And the
people lamented, because the Lord had smitten many of the
people with a great slaughter. Now hear these Levites. looked
inside the ark, and they should have known better than anyone. Only the high priest can even
look upon the ark, and that just once a year, through the haze
of the incense as he's sprinkling blood on the mercy seat. And
here they looked in it. Well, they were smitten with
this horrible, you know, all these men died. In verse 20,
the men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to stand before this
holy Lord God, and to whom shall he go up from us? Now God is
holy. How many times do we have to
read this in scripture and see this before we really, truly
learn? God is holy. No son of Adam can
stand before this holy God in himself, because God is holy. perfectly and flexibly holy. Well, if no son of Adam in our
sin can stand before God, then this is the question. Who shall
go up for us? Who shall cause God's wrath to
go up from us? That's what the men of Beth-shemesh
are asking. Who shall intercede for us? Because it's proven none
of us can stand before this holy God because we're so sinful. They sent messengers to the inhabitants
of Kivjath-Jerim, saying, The Philistines have brought again
the ark of the Lord. Come ye down and fetch it up
to you. Now their solution was the same
solution the Philistines had. Get rid of the ark. Just get
it out of our city. Get it out of our presence. Send
it away. They went from one extreme to
the other, didn't they? They went from over familiarity
in rejoicing, which is such a horrible problem in religion in our day.
They went from over-familiarity with God to the opposite end
of the spectrum, a slavish fear because of God's character, and
they sent the Ark away. That's the story, and we had
to get to the end of the story to find the message. This is
the message of the text. All men lost the presence of
Not just for seven months, but forever. We lost the presence
of God. We lost fellowship with God when
Adam fell. All men came under the curse
of death because of Adam's sin. And ever since then, men have
been asking, how can we get out from under the curse? Who shall
go up for us? Just like the divine or just
like the men there, the Philistines, people innately know we've sinned
against God. They innately know it's in men
to know we've got to answer to God for our conduct, for our
sin and our rebellion. And we've got to make it up to
him somehow. So men come up with all kinds of different ways to
offer a trespass offering to God. They say, well, we'll just
do as good as we can. We know we're not perfect, but
we'll just do as good as we can. Or we'll do better than most
people. A man at work actually told me this this week. Lord
comes back, I'm going to stand next to so-and-so here at work
and hold his hand, because I'm going to look good next to him.
Honestly, that's the way people think. I'm going to do better
than most people. I'll do more good things than bad things.
I'll punish myself by going to church on Sunday morning rather
than sleeping in or going to play golf or something. That's
the way people think. They call for the diviners, and
they'll do whatever they say. People will do anything a preacher
tells them to do. I mean, it's astounding. Anything
except go to Christ. You know, don't do anything that
this flesh can do. They'll invite Jesus into their
heart to be their personal Savior. They'll say whatever silly prayer
the man will repeat. They'll say anything. They'll
do anything. They'll tithe. They'll give money to that diviner
all day long. And they'll do many wonderful
works. Isn't that what they said in Matthew 7? Lord, we praise
thee in your name. We've cast out devils in your
name. We'll do anything. And all of that fleshly activity
is for naught. It won't put away one sin because
God is holy. And in all this activity of trying
to offer the trespass offering, you notice there was never any
blood. Just like the Philistines, there was never any blood. And
before man or woman is going to be saved, we've got to be
brought to the place where God the Holy Spirit shows us we're
all under one plague. We're all under one plague. We're
all equally guilty of sinning against God. And we're all equally
guilty. Right? You know what that means? I tried this out on Janta tonight.
What that means is there's nobody out there more wicked than Frank
Taker. We believe that? Come on now,
there's nobody more wicked out there than you and me. If we're
all equally guilty, that's what that means, isn't it? That's
what scripture says. Well, God, God's got to show us that. He's
got to. We'll never believe that in ourselves. God's got to show us that no
matter what we do or what we don't do, we are sinful men and
women. And that means we can never please
a holy God. Well, who shall go up for us?
Oh, I wish somebody asked me that question. Who shall go up
for us? Who is able to stand before this
Holy Lord God? That's the question Job asked,
isn't it? I know it's so, but how should a man be just with
God? David said, enter not into judgment
with thy servant, for in thy sight no man living shall be
justified. So who shall go up for us? Look
at Psalm 24. Psalm 24, verse 3. Who shall ascend into the hill
of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? Well, here's
the man. Who shall go up for us? Well,
here he is. He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor
sworn deceitfully. He, this man, shall receive the
blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Who's going to sin? Who should
go up for us? Who can stand before this holy
Lord God? Well, man is perfect. He has
clean hands and a pure heart. He's never lifted up his soul
into vanity or sworn deceitfully. Well, there's only one man that
can be talked about. Only one. The Lord Jesus Christ. He can stand before the Father. He can go up before this holy
Lord God for us. The Lord Jesus Christ stood before
the tribunal of God's justice, and he satisfied every requirement. He stood before the Father. The
sin of God's people imputed to him, and he stood, and he put
that sin away, not by doing good, with his blood, the blood of
the sacrifice, and he put that sin away. And because Christ
is the sinner's substitute, he is our trespass offering, We
can stand before the Father in Him. Look at verse 6 there in
Psalm 24. This is the generation, this
is the description of them that seek Him, that seek thy face,
O God of Jacob. Who shall stand before this Holy
Lord? Those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ does, and
all those who are in Him. Only in Christ. And it's not
because of what we've done, is it? Can't be. Absolutely cannot
be. We can't stand before this holy
God, whose all-seeing eye imputes every iniquity. He imputes every
transgression, every act, every word. He imputes every conscious
thought and every unconscious thought. He imputes every sinful
impulse. Even if you don't outwardly act
on it, He imputes every impulse. No one in this flesh can stand
before a holy God because there's none that doeth good, no not
one. Yet the men of Beth-shemesh had
the answer right in front of them. It was right there in their
eyesight. It's the mercy seat. It's the
mercy seat. Look in Psalm 130. In Psalm 130, it's the mercy
seat. Psalm 130, verse 3. If thou,
Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Well,
none. But there is forgiveness with
thee that thou mayest be feared. You know what that word forgiveness
is? Propitiation. The mercy seat. That's the New
Testament word for the mercy seat, propitiation. But there
is propitiation with thee. There is a covering. for our
sin with thee. There is forgiveness with God
because of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, because of
his blood put on the mercy seat. The Father fully and completely
punished every sin of his elect in God's Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He poured out his wrath. His
justice is satisfied because of the blood, the sacrifice of
his Son. The Father forgives, propitiates
sin for Christ's sake. There is forgiveness with thee
because of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
the men of Beth Shemesh, you know, they felt unworthy to have
the ark in their city. They called the men from this
other town and said, you come take it up from us. They felt
unworthy because we're too sinful. Let me ask you something. Do
you feel too sinful to deserve Christ? Do you feel too sinful
to deserve his mercy? Do you? Well, you ought to because
you are. But that's not the point. We
don't receive mercy from God because we deserve it. We receive
mercy and salvation from God because Christ bought it with
his precious blood. But there is propitiation with
thee. And we receive salvation freely
without any of our works. We don't earn it. We receive
it freely, just like the men of Bethshemesh. They're harvesting
their wheat and they looked up. There's the ark. They received
it freely. That's the same way we receive
salvation. Christ suddenly appears in the
heart by his sovereign will and his sovereign mercy. And we believe
him. If Christ comes into your heart,
you believe him. So who shall go up for us? Who
shall intercede for us? Who shall stand for us before
this holy Lord God? We'll look at Romans chapter
10 and we'll quit. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. There's none other. There's hope in no other. Romans
10 verse 5. For Moses describeth the righteousness
which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things
shall live by them. But the righteousness which is
of faith speaketh on this wise, say not in thine heart, who shall
ascend into heaven? That is, to bring Christ down
from above. But who shall descend into the deep? That is, to bring
Christ up again from the dead. Faith doesn't have to ask who's
going to send a Savior, who's going to send a substitute, or
who's going to make this salvation effectual. Who can do this for
us? Faith doesn't need to ask that question because they already
know. They already know the answer. Verse 8, but what saith it? What
does faith say? Well, the word is nigh thee,
even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is, the word of faith
which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised
thee from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed." You won't be ashamed
standing before the Father. in the Lord Jesus Christ. Never
will be. You won't be ashamed because
Christ is standing for you and you're standing in Him. I hope
that will be a blessing to you.