You want to turn over to 1st
Samuel, Chapter 6. 1st Samuel, Chapter 6. We're going to try
to make it through the entire chapter this morning, but if
we don't, that's fine. We'll just stop wherever we're
at. Before we begin, let's have a
word of prayer. Our Father in heaven, Lord, we
come to you this day in the name of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And Lord, we beg that you would walk among us here this morning.
We ask, Lord, that you would meet with us. You'd bless our
services. And we pray, Lord, that you would open this portion
of your word to us, that we might see your son high and lifted
up, Lord, the only acceptable offering. Lord, bless us. Be
with us. Be with those who mourn and struggle
in tribulation. Lord, bless our trials to us.
Cause us to cling to Christ even tighter. We ask these things
in Christ's name. Amen. Now look down at the first
two verses there in 1 Samuel chapter 6. It says, And the ark of the Lord
was in the country of the Philistines seven months. And the Philistines
called for the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall
we do to the ark of the Lord? Tell us wherewith we shall send
it to his place. So what's going on here? Very
interesting things. The Philistines have the Ark
of the Covenant, that symbol, that type of the presence of
God with Israel. It's actually in their possession
right now. And what's interesting about this is this, is that they're
feverishly and desperately trying to give it back. So what happened? You got to go all the way back
to chapter four to read about this, but I'll just tell you
about it. So the children of Israel go to war with the Philistines,
right? And they go out there and they
fight the Philistines. There's a great battle and Israel
gets whipped. They lose about 4,000 men. So they go back to
the camp and they lick their wounds. And they say, all right,
here's what we're going to do now. The Lord wouldn't grant the battle
the first time around. He didn't give us the victory. We're going
to go down to Shiloh. We're going to go get the ark.
And we're going to bring it up here with us. We're going to march
the ark into battle. Then he'll have to give us the
victory. We'll bend his arm on this one. He's going to have
to give us the victory if we do that, right? He won't have
a choice. What are they trying to do there? They're trying to
manipulate God. And what they're about to find
out is that the Lord, the true and living God, He is no one
to be manipulated. This is the absolute sovereign.
This is not the one who is manipulated by men. This is the one who does
the manipulating. And they're retaught this lesson
in a very, very harsh way. They go back into battle. They
fight the Philistines again. This time they lose 30,000 men. It's a great, great defeat. Worse
yet, the ark is taken. It's taken, and the Philistines
take it. That brings us to chapter five. So they take the ark, and
they put it in one of their temples in Ashted. And all of a sudden,
you know, they put the ark in there, and this is kind of their
war prize, right? We've got them. We've got the
God of Israel. They put them in the temple there, and all
of a sudden, the entire community, that whole city, they are smitten
with a great curse. And the curse is actually kind
of comical. the Lord smites them with emeralds. If you don't know
what that word means, it's an old timey word for hemorrhoid.
So the entire city is smitten with hemorrhoids and many people
die of this. Not only that, the Lord sends another curse, a curse
of mice. So this great horde of mice come through. They end
up eating up all the crops, causing all kinds of problems. So the
people of Ashton get together, they talk to the leaders of the
Philistines and they say, get this ark out of here. This thing's
a curse to us, get it out of here. So they do that. They take
it up to the next city. Guess what happens? the exact
same thing all over again. They take it to another city,
exact same thing happens all over again. All of a sudden,
they're like, okay, what are we gonna do? And they take it
to the middle of a field, and they just back away, and they have
a discussion. What are we gonna do with this ark? And they come
to this conclusion, let's just get rid of it. We just wanna
be away from this God. We just want him out of our lives,
too much of a problem. I just wanna be away from this
ark. Let's just send this ark back. Now here's my question to you.
What does the natural man want with the true and living God
of this book? The one who's sovereign, the
one who does according to his will, and he says whom he will
by the means he chooses, and he chooses to pass by others.
What does he want with that God? He wants separation from it.
Some of these Philistines wandered with this ark. I just want God
out of here. I just want him to leave me alone,
not to intervene, to leave me to my business. That way I can
go any path I want. I want to approach God on the
grounds I see fit. Those grounds are my own works
and my own merits. I believe they're good enough. And I seek
to approach him under those grounds. I don't want God interfering
in this thing. Just leave me alone. That's what the natural
man wants. I want you to view that in light of divine election.
before the foundations of the world were ever built the Lord
made a choice. He chose to intervene for some,
to save some, and He chose injustice to pass by others. And what is
the call of the world when it comes to election? What do they
say? That's not fair. It is not fair that God intervenes
for some and He leaves other men alone. My question is this,
why? When the Lord does not intervene,
when He simply bypasses a man, He is simply giving that man
exactly what he wants. What is unfair about that? You
can write this statement down. The Lord is going to give to
every man exactly what he wants. If he wants God not to intervene,
if he wants to be left alone to do whatever it is he wants
to do, to approach God under any means he sees fit, He'll
leave you alone to do that. But here's the blessed part.
If you wish to be saved, If you wish Jesus Christ to be your
surety before God, him represent you before the Father so that
the Father looks to him for everything he requires and doesn't look
to you for a thing, you have it. The Lord is going to give
to every man exactly what he wants. Now, look down at verse
three and let's see what these priests prescribe. And 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. Then you shall be healed. And
it should 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 lands.
you shall make images of your emirates, your hemorrhoids, and
images of your mice that moor the land, and you shall give
glory unto the God of Israel. Peradventure he will lighten
his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your
land." Now these priests and these diviners, here's what they're
paid to do in Philistia. They're paid to know thy enemy.
So, these guys go along and they learn everything they can about
their enemies, about the religious practices of their enemies, and
they were very, very familiar with the true and living God,
the God of Israel. Look down, I think it's verse
6. It says, 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? They knew all about the God of
Israel, and what He had done in Egypt. Pharaoh said, I will
not let the people go. And the Lord said, yeah, you're
going to. And all those plagues that rained down upon them. And
these priests, these diviners are telling these leaders of
Philistia, they're telling them, remember when Pharaoh hardened
his heart? Remember what happened with him? He gets drowned in
the ocean? Same thing is going to happen to you. Just give in.
Surrender. That's what we need to do. What I think is interesting
about this is These priests and these diviners, they don't know
who the true and living God is. They're ignorant of Him. They
know some things about Him. They've done some research, but they
don't know Him. But they do know this. They know
intuitively that they have offended against this God, and that God
demands an offering. And you know, the natural man
knows that. He knows that he is offended against the true
and living God, and he knows that that God demands an offering.
Now, the extent of that offense he does not know. He does not
know that he is truly a sinner before God. And you find a man
who may confess, never done anything good. I've always lived poorly,
never done anything good. He at least believes that he
can get better, that he has the capability of it. He does not
know that he lacks even the capability of being good in any way. He
doesn't know that the only acceptable offering is Christ Himself. The
only thing that can save a man is Jesus Christ bearing a man
in His body on the cross and dying for that man. That is salvation. He doesn't know that that's the
only acceptable offering. In fact, if you ask a man what
the offering is, it's your best works. If you think of what you're
doing there, what are you trying to make up for? Your sins. What
do they offer to make up for their sins? More sins. make any sense. The only acceptable
offering is Christ Himself. And what's interesting here I
say these men do this ignorantly. They don't know the true and
living God of the Bible. But when they prescribe this
offering it's a beautiful type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think
about what it is. So this is your offering, you
take gold, that which is most precious. and you make images
of your curse. You make images of your emirates
and you make images of your mice. That which is your curse, you
make images of it out of the gold. Five of them, the number
of grace. Where else in the scripture do
we read about a group of people making an image of their curse
and the Lord healing them? Numbers 21, the brazen serpent. murmured against the Lord. The
Lord sent serpents, fiery serpents, bit all the people. Many people
died. They saw their need for an intercessor. They went to
Moses. The Lord told Moses, here's what you do. You make a serpent
of brass. You make an image of your curse. You put it on a pole. And everybody who looks to the
serpent of brass, they live. This cure had a 100% success
rate. That's Christ. the serpent of
brass, his deity and his humanity. He was made the curse of his
people. Everyone who looks to him in faith, they're healed.
The same thing can be applied right here. Gold. What did the
father sacrifice for the elect? He sacrificed that which is most
precious to him. That's his son. The offering
itself, it's the curse, the emirates, and the mice, Christ being made
the curse, being made the sins of his people, and dying under
the wrath of God for those sins. The number five, grace. What
did that death accomplish? It opened the door so that God
can be just merciful and be gracious to His people at absolutely no
expense to His justice." It's the perfect offering. And these
men did this ignorantly. They didn't know what they were
doing. They were groping in the dark. They had heard of this brazen serpent. They
thought they made an image, it worked for them, we should try
it. But in all this ignorance the Lord gives us a beautiful
type of the one and true offering, our Lord Jesus Christ. And here's
my last thought on this. In the verses that will proceed
this, they're going to prescribe a manner of transporting this
ark back to Israel. And everything they talk about
speaks of an aspect of salvation. But I think it's very interesting
that they begin with the offering. Before they talk about anything
else, they say there must be an offering. And here's what
I want to stress to you. Folks, the offering, Christ and Him
crucified, it is everything. Everything flows from that offering. Everything begins with that lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. Everything is for
that. Why does this creation exist? If we had to boil it down
to its most simple faculty, why does this place exist in this
reality? So there would be a place where
a hole in the ground could be dug to place a pole so the Lord
Jesus Christ can be offered. That's why this creation exists.
because that is where God achieved His chief glory. How can God
become more glorified? I do not know. But through this,
through the salvation of all God's people, through the single
offering of Christ Himself, He achieved His greatest glory.
That's the reason for this creation. That's the reason for the fall.
I appreciate when Todd brings that out. It was not that the
cross was for the fall as if it was God's plan B because man
sinned and he didn't see that coming, so he made the offering.
Absolutely not. The fall was for the cross. so
that someone needed saved so God could be greatly glorified
in the salvation of those people. It is the single reason every
member of the elect is going to be saved. Listen to the scripture.
Hebrews 10.14, for by one offering, only one, he hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified. It is the single reason every
member of the elect is going to be saved, and it is singularly
our hope. Paul said this, this is 1 Corinthians
2.2, he says, for I determined not to know anything among you,
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That does not mean that Paul
didn't know the other aspects of the gospel. Faith, the new
birth, repentance. He knew all those things. He
said, there's only one thing that's worth talking about. There's
only one thing to tell you about, because this is urgent, because
this is of a necessity. There is one hope for you, that
Jesus Christ died for you. Now look to him. Just like that
serpent of Braz, just look to him. 100% success rate, folks.
Everybody who looks, just looks to him alone, he lives. Now look down at verse seven. The priests say, now, therefore,
make a new cart, and take two milk cows, on which there have
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
return 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 of his own coast to Beth Shemesh. Then he hath done us
this great evil. But if not, then we shall know
that it is not his hand that smote us. It was a chance that
happened to us. here's what they're going to
do. They say, you take two milk cows, right? You take a new cart, and
you're going to put the Ark of the Covenant in the back of that
cart, and you put the offering in the back of that cart. And
here's what we're going to do, right? We're not going to give
these cows any type of a leader. We're not going to do anything
to influence this whatsoever. We're simply going to leave them
alone. And if they go back to Beshamesh, which is the border
town of Israel. If they just go straight back
there, then we'll know that the Lord is in control of this. The
true and living God of Israel, He's the one who smote us. He's
the one who's in control. But if not, then Well, no, it
was just chance, right? It was just fate. It was just
something that happened. I think it's interesting. The natural
man finds more comfort that things are controlled by blind fate,
that just happenstance. Things just happen more than
a sovereign, an almighty, an all-knowing, an all-intelligent
being purposing everything happens. Isn't that our hope though? That
the Lord is in control of everything. If you get a group of believers
talking long enough they will come up with this conversation
point. People who don't believe that the Lord is sovereign, that
He does everything for the good of His people, how do they get
out of bed in the morning? How do they deal with the things
that happen in this life if not knowing that our Lord is in control
of it? He does everything for His glory and our good. If it's
just chance, if it's just stuff happens this is a terrifying
place. but it's not. The Lord's in control
of everything that happens here. But notice what they prescribe.
They said, here's what you begin with. You begin with a new cart. An old cart wouldn't do, it had
to be new. Speaks of the New Covenant. The
Old Covenant, the one that was made with Adam in the garden,
it could not do. What's the Old Covenant? The
Lord went to Adam, He said, if you want to stay in this blessed
state with Me, it's very simple, you have one rule, Don't eat
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the day
you eat thereof, you shall surely die." One upright and one innocent
man with one command and what happened? He broke it. Any covenant
that is made between God and man where it rests on the shoulders
of a man to fulfill some portion of that covenant for the blessedness
to happen, guess what's going to happen? There will be no blessedness. It will be an absolute failure.
The old court, the old covenant, salvation by works is never going
to do us any good. It has to be the new covenant.
It has to be the covenant of grace, which is actually older
than the old. It's the eternal covenant. This new court, what
was in the back of that new court? Did you catch it? The ark, God
the Father. The offering, God the Son. Who
was the new covenant made between? Was man involved in that? No. This is a covenant that was made
between God the Father and God the Son. When God the Father
said, these are my folks, these are my people, they're yours.
I'm going to look to you for everything I require of them.
I'm not going to require anything at their hand. All at your hand.
And you're going to save them single-handedly. And the Son
said, I will. And this court, this covenant,
it had to be hitched to two milk cows. Now how are you going to
preach Christ out of two milk cows? His deity and his humanity. Altogether God, in every attribute
that God has, that is Jesus Christ, His sovereignty, His holiness,
His omniscience, His omnipotence. Everything God is, everything
the Father is, it is found in this man, Jesus Christ, and yet
altogether man. Knowing all the limitations of
a man. Now this is a comforting scripture. Hebrews 4.15 says, for we have
not in high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities, but was in all point tempted, like as we are,
yet without sin. You think about that. When we
go to the Lord and we bring to Him our earthly tribulations,
our sufferings, you know what He says? I know exactly what
you're talking about. We have a high priest who's altogether
God and yet is altogether man. He knows what it's like to be
betrayed. He knows what it's like to be weary. He knows what
it's like to be in need, to be hungry. He knows all these things
and he pities these people and all these things because he's
touched with the feelings of our infirmities. We have someone
who actually knows what we're going through. But there's a
huge difference between his humanity and everyone else's humanity.
These two milk cows, did you notice the specifics behind them?
There was one prerequisite. They had to have never known
a yoke. No yoke could have ever been
placed on them. The Lord Jesus Christ was completely
and utterly without sin. The yoke of bondage, the yoke
of a sinful nature, He did not take that on. He was completely
and utterly sinless His entire life. He simply honored God's
holy law the entire time He lived. But folks, that's our righteousness. It really is. It is the righteousness
of everyone who looks to Him. Now, see what happens. Look at
verse 10. They prescribed this method,
and so here's what happens. And the men did so, and took
two milk cows, and tied them to a cork, and shut up their
calves at home. And they laid the Ark of the
Lord upon the cork, and the coffer with the mice of gold, and the
images of the Rembrandts. kind took the straight way 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 after them unto the border
of Bethshemesh." Now, they've stacked the deck in their favor,
right? They've taken these cows and they took their babies, their
calves, they locked them up in the barn. So, the natural instinct
of these cows is to stay right there, they don't want to leave,
right? They said, If the Lord's behind this, these cows are going
to go back to Israel with no leader whatsoever, against all
odds, because we're going to lock their babies up. And I'm
sure they're standing around saying, this ain't going to happen. Right?
These cows might go in a circle at best. And as soon as they
turn them loose, back to Beth Shemesh they go, just straight
off. And you have to imagine being one of these Philistine
leaders. Uh-oh. But all this speaks of is the
Lord Jesus Christ coming into this world. It especially speaks
of his motivations. Now, if you would have noticed
there, the cows, they're lowing as they went. And that lowing,
that speaks of mooing, right? Why are they lowing? Why are
they mourning? Why are they mooing? It's because they miss their
babies. These Philistines have taken their calves and they've
locked them up in the barn and they miss their children. What
is the motivation of the Lord Jesus Christ coming into this
world? He loved his children. He loved his people. He came
into this world because he would not be separated from his people. He was willing to sacrifice himself
so that he might have his people. The other motivation is identified
here as well. It says with these cows, they did not turn to the
right hand or to the left. You see, he came under order
of his father. His father gave him an order,
gave him a covenant he had to fulfill. Save them, bring all
of them back, lose absolutely none of them. And when he came
to this world, he never turned to the right hand or to the left.
He was always about his father's business. He had two motivations. One, honoring his father in all
things and just doing his father's will. Two, he loved his people. He loved his calves. And he came
into this world to save them. Where are you going to find those
people? And how could I know if I am one of those people?
Which direction did these calves go? What path did they take?
Did you catch it? Look at verse 12 again. And the
kind took the straight way to the way of Beshemesh and went
along the what? The highway. What type of people
do you find on the highway? Blind boy of Timaeus, son of
Timaeus, sat by the highway side, begging. You know who you find
out by the highways? You find the blind beggars. That's who
you're gonna find. And that's who the Lord Jesus
Christ came lulling into this world after, blind beggars. Blind
to what? Blind to any reason in me that
God would have mercy on me. When you look at yourself, if
you're a believer, here's what you see. I can't find one reason
he'd choose me. I can't see one reason in myself
that he would do anything for me. But thank the Lord he does
not look for a reason in me. He looks to his son. And we're
beggars. We are completely and utterly
dependent on the kindness, unmerited, of someone else to have everything
we need to live. And folks, if that's you, You
can't find a reason in you that God would show you mercy. And
you are completely dependent on Christ to have done everything.
He came into this world loathing after you. His father sent him
into this world after you. You think of how personal that
is. There's absolutely nothing generic
with God. He's a God of particularity.
You think about this, you, this speck of dust in the vastness
of this universe. It was you who was on his mind
and his heart when he came into this world, lowing after you. Now, look at verse 13. And they of Beshemesh were reaping
their wheat harvest in the valley. And they lifted up their eyes
and saw the ark and rejoiced to see it. And the court came
into the field of Joshua a Beshemite and stood there. where there
was a great stone, and they claimed the wood of the court, 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 put them on the great stone.
And the men of Bethshemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed
sacrifices the same day unto the Lord. And when the five lords
of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same
day. And these are the golden emirates which the Philistines
returned for a trespass offering unto the Lord, for Ashted one,
for Gaza one, for Eschalon one, for Gath one, for Ekron 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 country villages, even under the great stone of
Abel, whereon they set down the ark of the Lord, which stone
remaineth unto this day in the field of Joshua the Beshemite."
Now, see if you can visualize this. These cows are coming in
to Beshemesh, right? This Jewish city. And they turn
into the field of Joshua, the field of the Savior. And they
come down next to this huge, massive rock, this rock that
had always been there, the Rock of Abel. And all of a sudden,
it just stops. And the scripture I thought of
there is this, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.
He just stops. And the Philistines, they turn
around and they drive away. They said, this is it. God of Israel, he's in
control. That's the only way this could
have happened. And then we have a beautiful type in a picture
of the cross here. And we talked about the covenant. Covenant.
The Covenant where the Father said, you're going to have to
be sacrificed for your people. And He is the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. But those things which are purposed
in time they must play out in time. soon as this cart shows
up these men take that cart, they hack it into firewood. They
take these two milk cows and they offer it as a burnt offering
unto the Lord. And this entire scenario here,
this actually speaks about what happened on the cross. And it
actually tells the story through these cities. Five cities are
mentioned here. Each one of them have a particular
meaning to their name. I'm going to read these to you.
Ascalon, the fire of infamy I shall be weighed. What happened on
the cross? The Lord Jesus Christ was weighed
in the balances of God's perfect justice and he was found wanting
because he was bearing the sins of his people. Gath means winepress. He tread the winepress of God's
wrath alone. He was found wanting. The wrath
of God fell down upon him because of that sin, because of our sin,
because the sins of his people were found on him. The wrath
of God fell down upon him and he tread the winepress of God's
wrath alone. Ashted in Gaza means powerful. and strong. Every other sacrifice
that had been offered up to this point, the exact same thing happened.
The fire came down, it consumed the sacrifice, and it was all
burnt up and there was nothing left. For once, this only happened
once, the sacrifice consumed the fire. The Lord Jesus Christ
being so strong, being so powerful, he was able to actually absorb
the wrath of God, to take it all in, to put it away, and actually
satisfy God through his suffering. And you can't make this up. Ekron,
you know what it means? It literally means eradication.
Once he swallowed up all that wrath, what happened? My sin
and the father's wrath for that sin, it was absolutely eradicated. He was actually satisfied through
the suffering of his son. So much so, and this is real,
everybody who's looking to him right now, every blind beggar,
you truly are without sin. truly have peace with God. That's not just a theological
teaching, that is the reality of your circumstances right now.
Let's look at how it ends, we'll take a couple extra minutes.
Look at verse 19, And he smote the men of Bethshemesh,
because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. Even he
smote the people, 50,000, three score and ten men, that's 50,070.
And he And the people lamented because the Lord had smitten
many of the people with a great slaughter. And 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? And they sent messengers
to the inhabitants of Kirjath-Jerim, saying, the Philistines have
brought again the ark of the Lord. Come ye down and fetch it up
to you." Very interesting ending. So these priests, they're Levites. They find the Ark there, they
take it off, they put it on this great rock of Abel, and at some
point, they get curious. And I think I know their motivation
here. They wanted to see whether the Philistines had taken what
was in that Ark. They wanted to see if they had taken the
contents of the Ark. So they go up. And they look
inside the ark. And because of this, the Lord
kills over 50,000 people. That's more than they lost in
the battle for trying to bend the Lord's will and brought the
ark into battle. Why? What is the great offense in
this? What does it represent? Think about the mechanics behind
this. To look inside the ark, what did they have to do? They
had to remove something. They had to remove the mercy
seat. That was the lid that sat on
top of that ark that had the two cherubims that faced each
other. And Lord had given this promise. I will commune with
you. I will have communion with you.
I will meet with you. You'll have my presence in one
place above the mercy seat. Christ is our mercy seat. Who
can stand before this holy Lord God? That was their question.
The answer, none of us. Not a one. Do not come unto God
based on what you've done. You will die every single time.
Only come one way. You come through the mercy seat.
You come trusting the person and the merits of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Trusting that he's going to bring you before the Father
and you're going to have acceptance in him. That's the teaching there. I'll leave you there.