Who Can Stand

 DEVOTION

1^ST SAMUEL

WHO CAN STAND

1 Samuel 6:13-21

13 Now the people of Beth Shemesh were harvesting their wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they rejoiced at the sight. 14 The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and there it stopped beside a large rock. The people chopped up the wood of the cart and sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD. 15 The Levites took down the ark of the LORD, together with the chest containing the gold objects, and placed them on the large rock. On that day the people of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the LORD. 16 The five rulers of the Philistines saw all this and then returned that same day to Ekron. 17 These are the gold tumors the Philistines sent as a guilt offering to the LORD-one each for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron. 18 And the number of the gold rats was according to the number of Philistine towns belonging to the five rulers — the fortified towns with their country villages. The large rock, on which they set the ark of the LORD, is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh. 19 But God struck down some of the men of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy of them to death because they had looked into the ark of the LORD. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the LORD had dealt them, 20 and the men of Beth Shemesh asked, "Who can stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God? To whom will the ark go up from here?" 21 Then they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath Jearim, saying, "The Philistines have returned the ark of the LORD. Come down and take it up to your place."

NIV

Rejoice and again rejoice, for the ark of God has returned to Beth Shemesh, and the people cut up the cart and sacrificed the cows that had brought the ark back to them. Everything was going just great; surely God was pleased with the offering the people made. However, they also did something foolish and looked inside the ark of God. They removed the mercy seat, exposing themselves to the glory of God. We expect they just wanted to check that the Philistines did not steal anything from within the ark of God, but nevertheless, they should never have taken it upon themselves to look inside. It cost them their lives as God struck down seventy of them. Once again, a heavy blow came from the LORD upon the men of Shemesh because they had looked inside the ark. The question they asked is our lesson. “Who can stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God?” David asked that same question in Psalm 24, when he asked, “Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?” He also answered his own question, “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false”. David goes on to say that the person will be blessed by the LORD and vindicated by God, his Savior. This is our story, for we have been vindicated by Jesus Christ our Savior; therefore, we now have the answer, and because we are in Christ, our hands should be clean, as should our hearts, although they should be pure. Interestingly, the Hebrew word translated as pure means to have a clear, sincere, empty heart. What good would an empty heart be in order to ascend the hill of the Lord, or enter into his presence? Again, David answered that for us. Our hearts cannot be bent toward any idol or anything false. When we allow the Lord to circumcise our hearts, he cuts away all that is impure, all that our heart had been bent toward evil, or fulfilling our own desires, and chasing after the false things of this world, and leaves us with a pure, sincere empty heart so that he can fill it with himself. The problem we might see is that we could start all over again, getting distracted by those things, those idols of the world, and push the Lord to the back of our hearts, so to speak. Sure, we still consider ourselves believers, but do we really have a heart that is pure, sincere, and empty of everything else, then full of the Lord? We might get so busy with life and all its responsibilities that our hearts start fretting over what we need to do, getting anxious for tomorrow, worrying about so many things that our hearts become overwhelmed, almost stuffed with everything we think we need to accomplish before our day runs out, that we leave little room for the Lord, and in the middle of all that chaos within our hearts, we can miss out on the blessings of the Lord. Let us keep our hearts open and empty, pure and sincere before the Lord our Savior, seeking him first and foremost, ascending to his hill, or standing in his presence, and his blessings will be upon us.