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A Heart for God

This Holy God!

Scripture: 1 Samuel 6:1-7:2

I. God reveals His holiness to unbelievers.

A. In 1 Sam. 6:1 we see that after the ark of the Lord had been captured by the Philistines, it stayed with the Philistines in their country for seven months. During those seven months, God was doing some serious damage to the Philistines. God in His holiness had done damage to the Philistines’ gods (1 Sam. 5), bodies and land (1 Sam. 6:5). If the two miracles described in vs. 7-8 occurred with this cart taking the ark directly to Israel, the Philistines would know for sure that it was the LORD who was responsible for doing all this damage to their country.

B. So, what happened to the cart? We read in vs. 12 that the cows and their cart went straight in the direction of Beth-Shemesh in Israel. They turned neither to the right nor to the left. The cows left their babies behind. They did what no normal cows would do. And the cows who were untrained with a yoke went straight to Israel. So, who was responsible for all the disaster that fell on the Philistines? The Philistines had no doubt that it was the LORD who was responsible.

C. Now, the Philistines needed to decide what they were going to do with the truth that had been revealed to them about the holiness of God. They could confess their sin to the holy God and turn away from it. Or, now that God was going to bring an end to the judgment against the Philistines because they returned the ark of the LORD to Israel, they could just say, “Glad that’s over!” The holy God wants to be near to you. And that is good news! Draw near to Him then today with repentance and faith.

II. God reveals His holiness to believers.

A. Here the holy God is judging believers. He puts to death 70 Israelites (vs. 19). Why? The Israelites directly disobeyed two of God’s specific commands. We read in vs. 14 that the men of Beth-Shemesh took the cows that had brought the ark to Israel, and they offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD. But see Lev. 1:3: “If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish.” Then in 1 Sam. 6:15 we read there that they took down the ark from the cart and set it upon a great stone so that everyone could look at it. But see Num. 4:5: “When the camp is to set out, Aaron and his sons shall go in and take down the veil of the screen and cover the ark of the testimony with it.”

B. We cannot take God lightly. To have our glorious God live among us and within us as His people is a weighty matter. God is dangerous. God is good. But He’s not safe. We read in vs. 19 that the people mourned because the LORD had struck the people with a great blow. The people mourned. Why were they sad? Because of the pain of the loss of life. The people did not examine their hearts to discover their sin. They didn’t search their hearts in order to change. But we read that after the ark of the LORD had been in Kiriath-Jearim for 20 years all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD (1 Sam. 7:2). The people of Israel were finally getting a heart for God. They were saddened now not just because God had brought the pain of judgment into their lives. They were saddened now because their sins had separated them from their holy God. They missed God. And they had a heart to draw near to God.

Application:
The only way to stand in the presence of this holy God is by faith in Jesus.

Sources:
The book of 1 Samuel
Commentaries on 1 Samuel by Robert Bergen, Dale Ralph Davis and Tim Chester

Sermon Discussion Questions

  1. When God reveals His holiness to you, do you genuinely repent (turn away) from your sin?
  2. You can stand before your holy God because of Jesus’ death on the cross for your sins. How does knowing that truth make you feel?
  3. God wants us to feel both love and fear as we come before Him. Can you see how thinking of God as a good father can help us come before him with both love and fear?