Consecration, Service to God

"Consecration, Service to God" - 1 Samuel 6:19-21; 7:1-2 Consecration (dedication or offering of the person, surrender, ardor) is demanded by God to be served. It's not showing off, it's not face up to, it's not talking, it's not pretending, much less placing oneself in the holy as pretending to deserve it. In God, consecration is not just when you arrive at the holy place, it is the whole time of your life.

I. Look inside the bag.

A. Beth-semes; In the west of Israel, the ark of testimony was miraculously led by God.

1. When it was sent by the Philistines at Ekron (1 Samuel 5:10) to be taken to BethShemesh, filled with curiosity or triumph that it was great to have the Ark, they looked into her.

2. Man's ruin was due to the ambition of "a forbidden knowledge."

3. What constituted a great sin in looking into the Ark was that it proceeded from a "contemptuous view of the Ark."

4. Perhaps this was influenced by the humiliating circumstances in which the Ark found itself, as having just arrived from captivity and not being decently settled.

5. (M.H.) We commit an offense against God if we disregard His ordinances because of their simplicity and the modest manner of their administration.

6. If they had discerned the high meaning of the Ark and had not judged merely by outward appearances, they would have realized that the Ark had never shone so brightly as it does now: It stood on its own, in the glory of Jehovah.

7. The punishment they suffered for their sin: God put to death the men of Beth-Shemesh; He punished them with great slaughter.

8. The terror that seized the inhabitants by such a severe blow.

9. They said, and rightly so, "Who can stand before Jehovah the holy God?"

10. Blessed be His name, that it is not impossible to stand before God to worship Him!

11. But to stand before God to contend with Him is not possible for us. (Romans 9:20; 1 Corinthians 10:22).

12. With the fear that came over them, they wanted to get rid of the Ark as soon as possible.

13. So, they sent messengers to the elders of the city of Kiriath-Jearim.

14. About thousands of men had looked (1 Samuel 6:19) into the Ark, this was not when with David they tried to take it to the Tabernacle (2 Samuel 6:6 of Uzzah), and they all died (fifty thousand and seventy men).

15. (1 Samuel 7:1-2) The Ark is hidden, and Samuel does not seek it.

16. Samuel, the last of the chief judges of the town.

17. The people of Kiriath-Jearim gladly took her with them.

18. The Beth-Shemites knew that the justice that the Ark had done was necessary, in the Ark there were rules, divine commands.

19. They took every diligence to procure a decent accommodation for the Ark in Israel, with true affection and with all respect and reverence.

20. They looked for the right place to receive her, the house of Abinadab, which was located at the top and was probably the best house in the place.

21. The people of Beth-Shemesh had left her exposed to the public on a large stone in the open field, but the people of Kiriath-Jearim provided her with decent accommodation in a good room in a good house.

22. God Himself is to find for His Ark a worthy resting place; If there are those who want to cast it away, there will be other hearts inclined to receive it. Hill = natural elevation of land, lower than a mountain and gently shaped, hill, height.

23. It is nothing new for the Ark of God to be housed in a private home.

24. They sought "the right person" to take care of her: They sanctified Eleazar their son so that he would keep the Ark of the Lord, not his father who was old and with old age the impediments of diseases.

25. He was therefore charged with guarding the Ark, not only that it might not be captured by the wicked Philistines, but also that it might not be profaned "by curious Israelites."

26. He was also to keep the room in which the Ark was kept clean and decent, so that it would not look like an unkempt object.

27. It doesn't say in the Word, but it would be possible that was a Levite relative, though not from the house of Aaron.

28. Perhaps, it may be surmised and not far off that some pious Israelites came there to pray before the Ark and would be well cared for by "Eleazar."

29. For this purpose, they sanctified him, that is, they set him apart to exercise this ministry in the name of all the citizens.

30. It was not normal, but it was excusable under the present circumstances.

31. The Ark was left in a remote place, said to have been neglected for about more than forty years.

32. It is very strange that, during the entire time of Samuel's rule, the Ark was never taken to its place in the Holy of Holies, evidence of the decline of "holy zeal" among the Israelites.

33. Twenty years passed before the people of Israel missed the presence of the Ark.

34. While she was absent from the tabernacle for twenty years, the sign of God's special presence was missing, and they could not observe the Day of Atonement (absolved from guilt) as it was to be observed.

35. They were content with the heights without the Ark; how lukewarm and carnal believers can so easily be satisfied with a series of outward rites without any sign of the presence and "acceptance of God."

36. But at last, they came to themselves and began to mourn after Jehovah, enlivened, as is very probable, by the preaching of Samuel, accompanied by an extraordinary operation of the Spirit of God.

37. True conversion begins with a lament to God because of conviction of sin.

38. The Israelites fared better when they missed the Ark and lamented before God, than when they had the Ark, but did not care for it or felt "proud" to have it not out of pity, but out of pride (humor, arrogance, superiority, pride, conceited). Amen.