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Dailies March 2021 |
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04/13/2021 Daily Devotions: by Christina Farris 1 And the ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines seven months. 2 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. 3 And they said, If ye send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty; but in any wise return him a trespass offering: then ye shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you. 4 Then said they, What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden emerods, and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for one plague was on you all, and on your lords. 5 Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye 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. 6 Wherefore then do ye 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? 7 Now therefore make a new cart, and take two milch kine, on which there hath come no yoke, and tie the kine to the cart, and bring their calves home from them: 8 And take the ark of the LORD, and lay it upon the cart; and put the jewels of gold, which ye return him for a trespass offering, in a coffer by the side thereof; and send it away, that it may go. 9 And see, if it goeth up by the way of his own coast to Bethshemesh, 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. 10 And the men did so; and took two milch kine, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home: 11 And they laid the ark of the LORD upon the cart, and the coffer with the mice of gold and the images of their emerods. 12 And the kine 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. 13 And they of Bethshemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley: and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it. 14 And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they clave the wood of the cart, and offered the kine a burnt offering unto the LORD. 15 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. 16 And when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day. 17 And these are the golden emerods which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering unto the LORD; for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Askelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one; 18 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 of country villages, even unto 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 Bethshemite. 19 And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter. 20 And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God? and to whom shall he go up from us? 21 And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjathjearim, saying, The Philistines have brought again the ark of the LORD; come ye down, and fetch it up to you. It is a miracle that the Ark of the Lord remain in Philistine area seven months with all the harm God did to the people, but the people had not known what to do with the Ark of the Covenant of Israel. First of all the Ark was easily taken. Yet it was not taken by plot or theft, God allowed it to be taken, for the purpose of teaching another nation to fear him. Now with the plagues reaching every community, Philistines were besides themselves to know what to do. The decision was made to send it with trespass offering on a cart tied with two cow toward the area of Bethshemesh, if the Ark of the Covenant made it to the Bethshemesh, then the plague was caused by the Ark of the Covenant. As a trespass offering they made golden mice representing number of lords of the Philistines and they made images of the emerods/tumors/hemorroids. There hope was the Lord of Israel would remove the plagues from them, because they remember the plagues of Egypt and were in fear. Their hope was nothing worse would happen to them. Philistines knew God of Israel had power, yet their fear of the God of Israel was based on the territory of Israel. They believed that returning the Ark of the Covenant would appease the God of Israel, because it was going back to the area it belonged. They believe Dagon was the God of their area, despite the fact Ark of the Covenant knock him over and cut off his arms. With the idea of God being territorial and sending the Ark back if it went another way the plague was not sent by the God of Israel. As the story goes it is returned and Ark of the Covenant was because Philistines had taken the Ark that the plagues had come. A fear of God without knowledge of how vast and how powerful the God of Israel truly is, for did not Dagon bow to the Ark of the Covenant. The Israelites that received the Ark back into their territory sacrifice the cows that were tied to the ark, and used the cart for kindling. Then called for the Priest of Israel to come get the Ark of the Covenant. The sacrifice was made for the Philistines to heal them. Can you imagine seeing the Ark of the Covenant coming on a cart toward you. Can you imagine the realization that God had won the battle against the Philistines without you, would only make one bow to God also. The idea of you need God to win the battle but God does not need Israel to win the battle makes Israel feel ashamed at their idea of God. God was teaching Israel his need of them was not, but his love for them was greater. No more slaughter of Israel for a time, because of God going through the Philistine territory. The battle is not ours but the Lords. If we wait to only call on God when we are in trouble, and in the heat of battle, and not before, he will win the battle without us. We fight in our own strength and not the strength of the Lord we will fail every time. God is not a trophe to just place on the battle field thinking the enemy is going to tremble. The enemy may be trembling, but might also be thinking they can take the Ark, not knowing the ark is not like their idols. The Ark of the Covenant is the very thing God's Spirit dwelt in. Yet God's Spirit hovers over the entire earth. The Ark of the covenant being a symbol of God was with Israel. The Ark of the Covenant being an image to remind Israel of God with them. With it gone, it left a hole in the heart of Israel, until the day of its return. When it was returned they knew God was with them, yet he always was with them. They could not get rid of God. Man may try and remove God from us through spiritual rape, through spiritual assault, through spiritual holocaust, but man can not remove God from us when we truly believe in Christ Jesus. People can take our church, and try and take our soul but they can not take God from us. The whole point of recent plague of our century has proven that God can not be removed from the believers heart. Those that seem gone from our church family, may not of been part of the family of God spiritually or these people maybe battling the value of God in their life like Israel battled the absents of the Ark of the Covenant. A person can say they have Jesus they need not God, but that not true, For God is the Father of Jesus. We need God's salvation plan not the plan of man. You can not house God without giving God glory and honor, you can not worship God without humility before God. Israel had to come to a place of humility to be able to humbly bow before God. God return with the sacrifices for not only the sin of Philistines to be removed but the sins of the Israel to be removed. God is not emblem we wear for luck, God is our Lord and our Savior, He is the victor in the battle, He is the victor and defeater of the storms. We call to him in reverence before the battle, with the knowledge God has to go before us in the battle, sometimes into the territory of enemy before the battle can be won. God had already enter hell before his Son ever went to get the key. The point being God is to be first place, we can not think we can win without him. We must fight every battle before us with God in the lead. Israel had a lot to learn. Yet we must remember this was another generation of Israelites. Sometimes the stories of old of God before us is not enough to understand the importance of allowing God to go before us. It sometimes a lesson we must learn ourselves with a price. Israel lost men because God was not invited to the battle from the beginning. Where is God in your relationship with him, is he first in your life or his he only a trophe or emblem to display in the heat of battle hoping to send fear to the enemy. Think where is God in your heart, first, second, hundreth from where he should be in your heart. Ask God and His Son to be first in your life and you never can go wrong. Dear Heavenly Father be first in my life, knowing you going before me in battle means victory, you going before me in daily living you are always beside me. Let me not use you as a trophe, but know you are always with me and do not let me forget it. In Jesus precious name, Amen. Continual Scripture Study: Deuteronomy 1:29-33 KJV29 Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. 30 The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes; 31 And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place. 32 Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God, 33 Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to shew you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day.
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