A Lesson for the Israelites

The Israelites’ joy over the return of the ark of the covenant is replaced by grief and fear when some of the people of Beth Shemesh take an improper liberty. Our text indicates they “look into” the ark, perhaps out of a desire to see the tablets of the testimony, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the jar of manna that are kept within the ark (Heb. 9:4). However, the Hebrew grammar indicates that the people simply gaze at the ark. As strange as it may sound, doing so is improper. The ark usually sits concealed within the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle, where it is seen only once a year by the high priest. Even during Israel’s wilderness wandering, the tabernacle furnishings were covered by the priests before the people began a march so that the Kohathites, the Levitical family assigned to carry the furnishings, would not see them (Num. 4:1–20). When the ark arrived in the fields of Beth Shemesh, the priests should have covered it so as to spare those who might be tempted to look at it. Of course, the people should voluntarily avert their eyes. But the priests do nothing and the people apparently congregate to see this amazing sight. By doing so, they violate God’s holiness, treating His symbolic throne on earth indifferently. They offered sacrifices when the ark arrived, but God would have preferred their obedience (1 Sam. 15:22).

As a result of their sin, God brings death to a number of the people. The text puts the number at “fifty thousand and seventy,” but because the fifty thousand figure is missing in some ancient manuscripts, most translators think the actual toll is 70. This outbreak of divine justice causes a great lament and fear among the people. They begin to ask, ” ‘Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?’ ” The answer, of course, is that no one can stand before God in his or her natural sinful condition. Quite naturally, then, the people of Beth Shemesh want to be rid of the object that exposes their unholiness. They therefore invite the people of Kirjath Jearim, another city of Judah some nine miles to the east, to take the ark, and they do. They place it in the home of one Abinadab and consecrate his son to be its caretaker, and there it remains for 20 years. All this is irregular, but God permits it in light of the fact that Israel apparently is without a central worship shrine at this time.