1 Samuel 6:1-6 Resisting God

 ”Now 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 with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it to its place.” So they said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty; but by all means return it to Him with a trespass offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why His hand is not removed from you.” Then they said, “What is the trespass offering which we shall return to Him?” They answered, “Five golden tumors and five golden rats, according to the number of the Lords of the Philistines. For the same plague was on all of you and on your Lords. Therefore you shall make images of your tumors and images of your rats that ravage the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps He will lighten His hand from you, from your gods, and from your land. Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He did mighty things among them, did they not let the people go, that they might depart?“ ‭‭

I Samuel‬ ‭6‬:‭1‬-‭6‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? When the Philistines first captured the ark of the covenant, they thought it was a great victory but as time went on the Philistines began to regard the ark as a burden, not as a trophy.

i. Why did they keep it for seven months? Because they were reluctant to give up such a wonderful “trophy” of what they at first felt was a great victory over the God of Israel. It can take a long time before we realize the futility of resisting God.

b. By all means return it to Him with a trespass offering: The Philistine priests had enough sense to know they had offended the LORD God. Therefore, they knew they should do something to express their sorrow and repentance before the LORD.

c. Five golden tumors and five golden rats: The specific offering recognizes that it was the LORD who brought the plague upon the Philistines. They said, “We know these plagues were not accidents. We know the LORD God of Israel has caused them. We apologize to the LORD God and ask Him to turn away His anger.”

i. We know the plague involved tumors (1 Samuel 5:6, 9, 12). We were not told in 1 Samuel 5 that the plague involved rats. Some think the tumors were the result of bubonic plague, carried by rats. Others think the rats were part of another plague or calamity mentioned in 1 Samuel 5:11: For there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.

d. And you shall give glory to the God of Israel: Acknowledging God’s judgment is one way to give glory to the God of Israel. We often fail to give God this glory because we ignore His judgment or write it off as fate or bad luck.

e. Perhaps He will lighten His hand from you, from your gods, and from your land: The Philistines admitted that the God of Israel judged their gods and had jurisdiction over their lands. They confessed that He was Almighty God, yet they did not worship Him instead of their gods.

f. Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? Aware of the Exodus account, the Philistines rightly remembered that no good comes when anyone hardens their heart against the LORD. Even in a purely self-interested sense, it isn’t smart to harden your heart against the LORD.

(Guzik)

Resisting God

We’ve all done it and we currently know of others that are resisting God. Some of us were raised in Christian homes but we rebelled in our teens because the world enticed us and drew us away from our faith. So the Philistines resisting God for seven months isn’t surprising because in my case it was years!

Have you been resisting God and kicking against the goads?

Blessings