1 Samuel 6:10 – 7:2 July 15, 2018 Faith Presbyterian Church – Morning Service Pr
“Dwelling with Imminent Transcendence” 1 Samuel 6:10 – 7:2 July 15, 2018 Faith Presbyterian Church – Morning Service Pr. Nicoletti We’ll be looking at 1 Samuel 6:10-7:2 this morning. It could be helpful to recap again where we are at in the story in 1 Samuel. In 1 Samuel 4 the Israelites went to war with the Philistines. Because they were not being faithful to their God, the Christian God of the Bible, identified in the Hebrew by the name Yahweh, the maker of heaven and earth – because they had not been faithful to him, he did not help them in battle, but allowed them to be defeated. Then, rather than reflecting on their sin, on their failure to live in the ways God had called them to, the Israelites instead took the Ark of the Covenant, the special box kept in the holiest part of the sanctuary, which was understood to be God’s throne, which represented his special presence, and they brought it into battle with them, as an attempt to force God’s hand to fight for them. They tried to manipulate God rather than renew their faithfulness to him from the heart. God then responded by allowing an even greater defeat and allowing the Philistines to carry the ark into exile. Yahweh was of course not restricted or bound to the ark, but since it was a symbol of his special presence he continued to be specially present with it, even when it went into exile. In Philistia Yahweh, the God of Israel, then defeated Dagon, the god of the Philistines, and he brought judgment on the Philistines through plague and infestation, until they finally decided, after seven months, to just send the ark away, back to Israel, while also making offerings to Yahweh that were intended as a way of asking for his pardon, so that he might end his judgment on them.
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