Right after the fascinating incident with the Ark in the Temple of Dagon, the plot thickens even more:

The LORD’s hand was heavy upon the people of Ashdod and its vicinity; he brought devastation upon them and afflicted them with tumors. When the men of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, “The ark of the god of Israel must not stay here with us, because his hand is heavy upon us and upon Dagon our god.” So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked them, “What shall we do with the ark of the god of Israel?” They answered, “Have the ark of the god of Israel moved to Gath.” So they moved the ark of the God of Israel.

But after they had moved it, the LORD’s hand was against that city, throwing it into a great panic. He afflicted the people of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumors. So they sent the ark of God to Ekron.

As the ark of God was entering Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They have brought the ark of the god of Israel around to us to kill us and our people.” So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, “Send the ark of the god of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it will kill us and our people.” For death had filled the city with panic; God’s hand was very heavy upon it. Those who did not die were afflicted with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.
1 Sam. 5:6-12

Chapter 6 verse 5 also adds the detail that apparently rats were destroying the country along with this plague of deadly tumors. Take a minute and read the rest of chapter 6 on your own – it’s too long to quote, but important to our discussion.

I cannot read this section without thinking of a class trip I had taken in college to NYC – we went to go to the Met and see the exhibits on ancient Egypt and other Biblically-relevant things, but we managed to squeeze in a side trip to the Guggenheim museum. On display at that time was a collection of tribal carvings that had been made in the form of various maladies, deformed limbs, etc, as an offering to their gods in hopes of healing. I stood there, so sad for these people lost in idolatry and desperate for hope, and amazed at the similarity to this story in 1 Samuel! Anyway, I don’t have a real point to telling you this, other than a, “huh. Isn’t that interesting” aside. :)

Back to chapter 6 – the Philistines decide to send the Ark packing – 1 Sam. 6:7-9 gives the very detailed instructions given by the Philistine priests for how to send it back, along with a chest of the golden rats and tumors. They said that if the cows took the Ark straight to Beth-Shemesh (an Israelite town) without turning aside, they would know that it was because of the Ark that all of these afflictions had come upon them. Lo and behold,

“Then the cows went straight up toward Beth Shemesh, keeping on the road and lowing all the way; they did not turn to the right or to the left.” (1 Sam. 6:12)

The people of Beth-Shemesh are thrilled to see the Ark coming their way… but did you catch the end of the chapter? God put 70 of the men of Beth Shemesh to death, because they looked inside the Ark!

That might not seem like a big deal to us, but they knew better. The Ark was specially designed with carrying poles so that the priests would not touch it when moving it from place to place. As the place where God’s glory dwelt in the tabernacle, this was not just a religious relic, as we talked about before. You do not approach a holy God with flippancy. You don’t just peek inside it as though it were merely a curiosity. You do not approach a holy God with flippancy.

Some people will get hung up on this story, I am sure, and go back to the classic, “If God is so good and loving, why would he inflict these deadly tumors on innocent people and little children? If God is so good, why would he kill people for wanting to know what was in the Ark?”

[For the sake of retaining some semblance of brevity I am not going to address the "if God is so good..." question. For further reference I encourage you to take a look at our post on the plagues in Egypt. God reveals His glory and supremacy over the false gods of all nations throughout the Old Testament. Notice that in 1st Samuel 5:7 the Philistines state that the hand of God is heavy against them and their god, Dagon. Just like the plagues against Egypt and the idol of Dagon being smashed to pieces, this ultimately boils down to a theological statement.]

God is completely and totally good. God is the source of all goodness. God is love and lavishes his love on us. However, God is holy. Isaiah 6:3 and Revelation 4:8 both speak of the continuous refrain of worship before God in the throneroom of heaven, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty…” In the Bible, when things are repeated it is a literary device to emphasize. Only one attribute of God is repeated three times. God is not described as “love, love, love” or “good, good, good.” He absolutely is those things, but the most emphasized attribute of God is his holiness.

You do not approach a holy God with flippancy.

In my opinion, our modern Christian culture has largely lost the deep urgency of what this means. We are encouraged to call God “Daddy” in our prayers and pray in a casual, almost crass manner. Our children sing songs in Sunday school that use the names of God and his precious holy Son in such a flippant way that I am quite sure it is blasphemous. I once saw a stuffed Jesus doll in a Christian bookstore and almost had a coronary on the spot!

Praise God, through Jesus Christ we have access to the very throne of God. Romans 8:16 and Galatians 4:6 both tell us that we can cry out to God as our “Abba, Father.” Abba roughly means “papa.” We have so much access through Christ – but never, never lose sight of the fact that the God we have such direct access to is HOLY. The fact that we can call him “Abba” should bring us to our knees in humility and awe. It is not a flippant familiarity – it is access to the King of kings who has graciously called us His own! The God of the New Testament is not different from the God of the Old Testament! Do not lose the gravity of His holiness as you embrace the gift of His nearness to us!

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.
Do not be quick with your mouth,
do not be hasty in your heart
to utter anything before God.
God is in heaven
and you are on earth,
so let your words be few.
Ecclesiastes 5:1-2