Read: 1 Samuel 5:1-7:17; John 6:1-21; Psalm 106:13-31; Proverbs 14:32-33
Today’s reading gives us a picture of how God feels about other gods. The Philistines had put the ark of God in Ashdod in the temple of Dagon. I guess they were going to add God to their gods. The ark of God’s covenant made a mockery of Dagon’s power. Dragon was the fish god. God is the creator of all the fish in the sea so Dagon had to bow before his creator. God’s judgment on the people of Ashdod was tumors. The Hebrew word for tumor is “ravager”. What a description of cancer!
The ark of God was in Ashdod for 7 months before they decided to do something about it. The ark had to be returned and their priests told them not to send it back without a guilt offering. Since their were five Philistine rulers from five Philistine towns that had been affected by God’s plague, they sent five gold tumors and five gold rats with the ark. They knew that if they did this it would assure their healing and the plague being lifted. Sometimes the world catches on to God’s dealings faster than the church. We seem to forget that God is a God who chastens and disciplines those He loves. God requires the enemy to pay back what he steals and more.
Next the priests of Ashdod told his people to take two cows that that just given birth and never been yoked and yoke them to the cart that would carry the ark. They were to put the guilt offering and the ark on the cart and just let it go. There are so many supernatural things about what happened. Cows that have just given birth would never have left their calves. Cows that have never been yoked would have put up a fight. And… how did they know where to go? God defied natural instincts and had the cart go straight up to Beth Shemesh. Beth Shemesh means “house of the sun”. When they got there it was wheat harvest making it the season of Pentecost. Pentecost represents spiritual warfare and the bringing in of the Holy Spirit. Through spiritual warfare the Presence of the Lord was coming back to the people.
When the ark got to Beth Shemesh, they set the ark on a rock which represented Jesus. Jesus would be the one God would place his spirit in and send to earth. Seventy of the men of Beth Shemesh were killed because they looked into the ark. Next came the victory. Now that Israel had repented and had God’s presence back, they were able to fight and win against their enemies, the Phistines.
Jesus, as our example, walked in the presence of the Lord and nothing about his life was natural. He healed the sick, fed the multitudes, walked on the water and translated his disciples out of a storm safely to the other side. We are to walk in this type of power. In our Psalm we read that God gave the Israelites what they asked for; it was calamity.
Lord, we don’t want calamity, we want the power of the Holy Spirit to live a supernatural life. We ask for that!
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