It Could Have Ended Here!

It Could Have Ended Here

11/24/16

Do you ever wonder why humans cannot stop foreseen escalatory proceedings before they spiral out of control?  Why is it that we must continue our path of problems when the answer to all is already known?  For some reason it is a popular belief that we must operate in crisis mode in order for anything to get accomplished, this is rubbish!  God does not wish to see His children go through any unnecessary adversities for any reason.  So much so, that He has provided us with the perfect guide to avoid these situations and until we really grasp this truth our lives shall continue to walk the wayward path of destruction.

Why would anyone stand and continue to lie when the truth would be easier to tell is a statement that my mother has said many times in my life.  While that is not a direct quote from her, one can get the gist of what her words are trying to get across. Thankfully, for the majority of those times, those words of hers were not directed towards me but towards someone else. However, I cannot always state that I was truthful with my parents and that I never hid any details of my life from them, nor can I state that when I hid some of these issues from them that I did such in a manner of a continual pattern.  In other words, I continued to keep such a belief and story when they would ask things about a certain story of mine in the future.  Lying and keeping false pretenses is one of the human traits that many humans indulge themselves in and as long as this pattern remains in place, our lives as we know it will continue to be in decline.

I have always wondered why humans cannot keep the laws that are in place and that we believe that we can get around those laws without any damage coming to our lives.  One of the more frustrating occurrences in the Bible occurs at the beginning of God’s Word and through this miscarriage of the truth, we are still battling our demons on a day-to-day basis.  In Genesis Chapter 2 God has already created the earth and every part of its beauty and He has also created His prized creation and masterpiece the human being.  He then charges man with one law and this law is a simple one without thousands of pages of ridiculous and contradicting information either.  Do not eat of the fruit of the tree of good and evil.  That is it!  Plain and simple.  But within an unspecified amount of time the humans revamped this law for their good and then fell for a lie when challenged, which brings us to the present day of millions of laws worldwide and we wonder why we continue to have problems in every area of our lives.

Of course, as humans, we do not like to have our mistakes pointed out to us either, especially so that the public can have the opportunity to ridicule our choices or laugh at us as we fall on our behinds.  A question that begs to be answered is this: if this is such of a great importance to us why then do we continue to disobey these laws and simplify our lives according to their obedience instead?  If this is a legitimate question then wouldn’t it make sense to obey them instead of creating more to disobey?  Maybe this is why God only began with one law for mankind, but because of mankind’s ability to choose it is our own doings that more have been established, something to ponder I guess.

One can horrifically state that after mankind chose to disobey God’s only law that things have been and are still developing into a complicated mess.  We can only hope that we break this cycle of problems by beginning to obey laws instead of breaking them for when we do then our lives will be placed on a steady plane once again.  So, why don’t we just obey God and when we do it is guaranteed that our lives shall be better.  We have a great example of this human pattern of disobedience even when knowledge of such laws have already been established, plus it is in line with the series that God is showing us through 1 Samuel chapters 4-6 and how important it is to have God #1 in our lives and to live by His protective ways instead of going about our business in our own finite and limited manner.

In 1 Samuel Chapter 4, we learned that the army of Israel was thoroughly defeated by their enemy the Philistines.  We also learned that through this defeat a prophecy concerning the existence of the High Priest and his house would be completed.  We then found out that the destruction of Israel was so complete that their victorious enemy captured the Ark of the Covenant and placed it in their own god’s room for keeping and display.  Furthermore, we learned that even when humans believe that they have contained God, He is still in control and shall ensure that everyone around knows that He has no rival and that there is none like Him.  This brings us to the current state of the passage that is going to be used and it will be 1 Samuel 5:6 – 1 Samuel 6:21.  This usage seems like a lot of verses but it follows one theme as it plays out and includes several details that follow this human pattern of succession.

The Philistines have just found out that the statue of their god Dagon has been toppled over by God as the night progressed after the victorious battle over the Israelites.  I can guarantee that God did not waste any time while being pinned up in the same room with the statue of Dagon, for I am confident as soon as that door or curtain shut behind the deliverers God destroyed that statue with complete ease.  It must have been quite the shock to walk into that room after a night of partying and find the god that you hold so dearly to be lying on the ground, face down and in pieces.  This had to have shaken these people’s faith and probably warned them not to fool around with the Israelite God.  However, we are talking about humans here and once a human faces embarrassment they must retaliate as only humans of that time period (and all others) know how.

Verse 6 states that God was very angry with Ashdod and that He destroyed them, allowed a plague to come over their lives and this was acknowledged by the Philistines because it is stated that “for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god.” Through this admission, they understood that God was the one responsible for the devastating effects on their population and through this admission they understood the reason why He was upset.  It is at this point that the Philistines gathered their leaders together and had a powwow to see what could be done to rid themselves of the issues God had with them.  They directly knew that the Ark was the source of their problems and they understood that they had to get rid of it as soon as possible.  So, with the great minds, all gathered in one area they made the command decision to move the ark down to another town and with this action they continued to believe in a lie rather than accepting the truth about the one true and living God.

With the destruction of the Philistines’ fertility and agriculture god one would think that their belief in these areas would have been shattered just as much as their statue was but the leaders decided to send the Ark to another town called Gath.  So, according to 1 Samuel 5:8-9 the Philistines moved the Ark to the town of Gath and once there God decided to continue His completeness on the town’s people of Gath by continuing the plague of death and the plague emerods but this time He added another aspect of the emerods that He placed them on their reproductive parts, kind of a recognition to them that He destroyed their fertility god so why keep ignoring the truth?  One can find these examples from God all throughout His Word and one can follow these examples until the human sees fit to die or to actually change.  Keep in mind that the Philistines still believe that they have control of God even though all of these issues are continuing and growing.  What is an emerod?  It is the equivalent to a bleeding hemorrhoid, usually referring to both internal and external hemorrhoids that are bleeding.

After the enormous death toll and genital plagues occur in Gath, the Philistines once again meet and decide to change their ways and turn their hearts to God.  Actually, that conference did not occur and instead the Philistine leaders decided to give their problem to someone else and then sent the Ark down the road to Ekron.  Once again proving that the will of the human is just as stubborn today as it was back in biblical times.  God continued His pattern of destruction through the city of Ekron and the sores that had occurred on those remaining alive with devastating results just they occurred in Ashdod and Gath.  Dudes, you have lost a great number of people in your territory and had awful sores and ugly things occur to your bodies at least return the Ark and go your own way.  It is clear that you and your false gods are not a match for the One True God, give up or turn from your ways and serve this God that is before you.

As we move into 1 Samuel Chapter 6 we find that the Philistines have had enough with God and decide to return the Ark to Israel – a novel idea.  They dress two milk cows that have never been yoked before, place the Ark on their backs and send it on its way along the coast with the help of another friendly group called the Bethshemites.  Now, when news of a battle has occurred and there is a sound victor involved there will always be stories of booty that has exchanged hands.  Capturing the holy symbol of a nation is gigantic news and the Bethshemites would have heard about this capture by this time for the Ark stayed with the Philistines for seven months.  So, returning the most prized treasure would bring about, even more, news and greater questions to curious minds, wouldn’t you expect?

One has to guess that the Bethshemites must have asked why they were sending the Ark back and after the stories had been shared you would think that the Bethshemites would do as little as possible to disturb the Ark and to just get it back to where it belongs.  But, once again we are dealing with humans and the men who were handling it decided to take measures into their own hands and look inside the Ark and thus violate the conditions that God had established concerning the Ark a long time before these events occurred.  With God being a complete God, He destroyed the men of Bethshemesh for their sin and since they knew of the instances of the Philistines and did not listen to their turmoils, they too were included in the devastating lie that the Israelites initiated.

WHAT????  The lie that the Israelites started?  Yes, that is exactly what God says in His Word.  Israel knew that God had established their land through His Covenant with them and His presence amongst them was in the Ark of the Covenant. Therefore, knowing all of this plus the fact that God stated He would never leave them, they understood completely what the presence of God meant to their existence and they knew how close God wanted them to be to Him which means they understood but ignored the command of God.  So, it is through this ignorance of God that they built a lie, then tried to use God in battle through this lie and in the end it cost them thousands of lives on the battlefield and a completed prophecy against their High Priest.  When one looks back on this setting and sees the entire picture, it makes sense that Israel had all of these deaths and consequences occur to them, for God cannot be mocked even if the mocking stems from His blessed people or His enemies.

Also, we must consider just how far a lie goes and to what extent that its content accrues.  Not only did the Israelites lose over 30,000 men on the battlefield due to its lie but a great number of Philistines lost their lives as well as a result of this lie.  Then you add the loss of life to the Bethshemites and you have a gigantic disaster and loss of humanity that resulted from a wicked high priest who did not obey the commands and anointing of God.  I believe we can see how important it is to keep the Word of God close to our heart and to make sure we know what its words contain and mean to our existence.  In no way does God ever wish death upon any of His children, but if we force His hand into such an act we have no one to blame but ourselves.

As of this moment, we have the opportunity to break this cycle of lies that we currently live under.  We do not have to follow in the footsteps of those before us because in the Garden of Eden God started out with one command to His perfect children.  In Exodus Chapter 20, God gives us a command with the words “thou shalt have no other gods before me” but He knew that this would never last and therefore was forced to create much more afterward.  It is obvious that other cultures during the time of the ancients that they knew about God and the ways of the Israelites but they too had made it clear that they had their own gods and wanted nothing to do with the One True God.  Through the lies of mankind, the innocent perish and thus justifying the reality that the just and the unjust come into contact with God all the same.

Church, we can avoid this type of judgment from God if we only stop the lies that we live by and turn around and repent of our sins to God.  Confession of our sins is the first step to a healing process in which God promises to complete but if we do not and continue to live through our lies then at some point God will have no choice but to strike this nation – including the just and the unjust – in such a manner according to His Word.  God is calling for us to repent and to save this nation and the world from a devastating catastrophe, let us start now so that we can miss the hand of God in a way that is not favorable.  Repent, and allow God to restore our royal status as His Church and His people.  I believe God has adequately demonstrated how important it is for us to know and to understand every detail about His Word and if we completely turn over our lives to Him, it can still end here!

DLB