By Chance

04.09.12

1 Samuel 6.9 9 "Watch, if it goes up by the way of its own territory to Beth-shemesh, then He has done us this great evil. But if not, then we will know that it was not His hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance.” NASB

(It takes more than a verse to get the point, so before you read this, you might want to read 1 Samuel 6 entirely so that you get the whole picture of what is going on.) Now then, what is important is the issue of respect. The Philistines – enemies that they were – understood the importance of the Ark. They also understood (and remembered) history: they remembered what happened to the Egyptians several centuries back… That ought to say something about the pagan view of God; at least back then… They might’ve been pagans, they might’ve been enemies, but they knew they weren’t messing around with just any God – they were messing around with Israel’s God; and they had a healthy measure of respect for Him. The Israelites on the other hand didn’t seem too respectful at times.

So, when the Philistine lords knew they were in deep weeds with Israel’s God (because of the mice and the tumors (the mice had brought upon them a plague of open sores)) they sought advice from their own priests and diviners as to what to do to stop the plague. The diviners and priests said, “Whatever you decide to do, don’t omit sending a guilt offering when you send the Ark back to Israel!” They understood that when a God (or god) gets mad, one needs to appease Him (him) to assuage the guilt. (See 1 Samuel 6.1-9)

So, in order to be respectful to this Deity, the lords did as advised and sent the Ark (on a cart pulled by two cows) on its way. The interesting part was what they said in verse 9: Watch, if it goes up by the way of its own territory to Beth-shemesh, then He has done us this great evil. But if not, then we will know that it was not His hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance.” You can bet that they never let that cart get out of their sight. And it did just what they said, they sent the cart on its way and the cows made a beeline to Beth-shemesh. And the lords knew they were, in fact, guilty and had done the right thing in sending the guilt offering with the Ark.

I noticed they placed the golden guilt offering in a box NEXT to the Ark – they didn’t place the offering into the Ark – that’s important. The Israelites on the other hand, looked into the Ark (they weren’t supposed to do that) and about 50,000 of them died as a result. The Philistines despite their paganism and their hatred for God’s people, at least respected Israel’s God. I think part of their gripe was that the Israelites didn’t even respect their own God! I think they were baffled by that as well. I don’t think the Philistines looked into the Ark either (I think they were scared to death of it…). What’s interesting in this chapter is the contrast of how the pagans treated God and how His own people treated Him.

The lesson for me today is to be careful not to emulate ancient Israel – it’s true, people will judge my God by the way I treat Him. And my behavior is a great indicator of my level of respect for the God I insist they ought to get to know. If my behavior doesn’t match my testimony then the unbelievers will simply say, "Watch, if it goes up by the way of its own territory to (whatever the preferred future), He has done us this great evil. But if not, then we will know that it was not His hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance.” There are a lot of people out there hoping, “…it happened to us by chance…” And when they watch us, that sometimes helps them make up their minds hoping by chance is how it’s all gonna pan out.