Sunday, August 23, 2015

Question 28 - Alas, grace, compassion and mercy mean to smitten many of the people with a great slaughter!

Psalm 145:8-9 NKJV - "The LORD is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy. The LORD is good to all, And His tender mercies are over all His works."
Proverbs 16:11 NKJV - "Honest weights and scales are the LORD's; All the weights in the bag are His work."
1 Samuel 6:19 NKJV - "Then He struck the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD. He struck fifty thousand and seventy men of the people, and the people lamented because the LORD had struck the people with a great slaughter."
Answer:
                The Ark of the Covenant must be amidst the divine nation and get the prayers done by the priests. Why did the Philistines, who worship the creatures in creation by leaving the Creator, bring the Ark of covenant to their country? They brought the Ark of Covenant and kept it in the temple of Dagon, which was the base for the dark evil power related to the idolatry. First day, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of the Lord.
                By seeing these incidents, Philistines must glorify the Lord, who gave salvation to the Israelites from the slavery of Egyptians and must say that there is no God, except the Lord of Israelites and bow down before the ark and worship the Lord. But, they did not do so. Instead of that, they took the parts of Dagon and set it in its place again.
                And when they arose early in the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon and both the palms of its hands were broken off on the threshold; only the torso of Dagon was left of it. Then also, they did not believe by seeing the power of the invisible Lord or Israelites.
                They were in negligence to worship the true God. So, the Lord ravaged them and struck them with tumors.
                When they realized that it is not good have the ark of the Lord with them, and made a new cart and took two milk cows which had never been yoked, and hitched the cows to the cart; and took their calves home, away from them. And they set the ark of the Lord on the cart, and the chest with the gold rats and the images of their tumors for their trespasses - offerings. Then, they sent it away, and let it go. But, these cows pulled the cart according to their will, and went in the way of Beth Shemesh and stood there, a long stone was there. The lords of Philistines, who went back of the cart, informed all the incidents, which happened in their area to those people.
                Even after the people in Beth Shemesh heard the words of the lords of the Philistines and saw the golden article which was the trespasses - offerings, the people of Beth Shemesh touched the ark and opened it and saw with their negligence. Thus, the angry of the Lord became furious.
                In reality, there was no one worthy to see in the ark except the main priest in Israelites. They were the uncircumcised people. They would not show the obedience before the Lord of Israel even after they saw the golden offerings for trespasses of the people and heard the words of the lords of the Philistines. And they did not send the ark of the Lord of Israel in majestic way. So, the Lord God should have destroyed the village of the city of Beth Shemesh like the Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord God, who is merciful, struck only fifty thousand seventy.

                This incident did not occur in unknown stage. They committed sin by knowing the power of God, because of their pride nature, and negligence. So, there was no forgiveness to them.

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