January 31, 2025
Passage Read: 1 Samuel 5-8
Meditation Verses: 6:18-20
Thought
How often is this the response to God's holiness, to His righteous standard? Send Him somewhere else! Get away from Him, but not too far. The Philistines couldn't stand before Him, so they sent Him away. They weren't impressed by His power over them so that they thought about changing gods and taking on this more powerful God. Instead, they just wanted Him out of their territory so that He would no longer oppress them and their god. How often the Israelites abandoned God to worship their neighbors' gods, why didn't their neighbors do the reverse? Then the ark comes back to Israel and some men look inside it--and seventy are killed! Immediately they recognize that God is holy and who can stand before Him! Instead of remembering and submitting to His rules and enjoying His favor, they look for someone else to take the ark. He's too holy for us, you take Him! If they had just left the ark alone, they would have been fine, even blessed! But they didn't want to live in the fear of the Lord or the pressure to do His will. Let someone else live with this holy God and risk having Him kill you for doing something stupid.
Application
Why is the response never to accept His presence and adjust our lives to do His will, to please Him? Instead, we want a distance so that we can live in ignorance and get away with things that He might frown on. Going to church is always a risk, because I might hear something I love doing is wrong! Every week I walk away without conviction is a good week. Why don't I want to know and do whatever He asks? That should be my attitude, if I truly love Him. I should want to know His will, eagerly seeking Him and eager to conform to His desires, not eyeing the exits and preparing to make a break for the doors. He is a holy God, holy on a level I can't fully understand, but if I do His good pleasure, He is also a generous God, eager to reward and honor those who honor Him by how they live and speak, even someone like me.