Potential For Power

Penetrating Enemy Lines

Journey Into The Promised Land

1 Samuel 6:1–21 (CSB)

THE RETURN OF THE ARK

6 When the ark of the Lord had been in Philistine territory for seven months, ²the Philistines summoned the priests and the diviners and pleaded, “What should we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we can send it back to its place.”

³They replied, “If you send the ark of Israel’s God away, do not send it without an offering. Send back a guilt offering to him, and you will be healed. Then the reason his hand hasn’t been removed from you will be revealed.”

⁴They asked, “What guilt offering should we send back to him?”

And they answered, “Five gold tumors and five gold mice corresponding to the number of Philistine rulers, since there was one plague for both you and your rulers. ⁵Make images of your tumors and of your mice that are destroying the land. Give glory to Israel’s God, and perhaps he will stop oppressing you,^, your gods, and your land. ⁶Why harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened theirs? When he afflicted them, didn’t they send Israel away, and Israel left?

⁷“Now then, prepare one new cart and two milk cows that have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up. ⁸Take the ark of the Lord, place it on the cart, and put the gold objects that you’re sending him as a guilt offering in a box beside the ark. Send it off and let it go its way. ⁹Then watch: If it goes up the road to its homeland toward Beth-shemesh, it is the Lord who has made this terrible trouble for us. However, if it doesn’t, we will know that it was not his hand that punished us—it was just something that happened to us by chance.”

¹⁰The men did this: They took two milk cows, hitched them to the cart, and confined their calves in the pen. ¹¹Then they put the ark of the Lord on the cart, along with the box containing the gold mice and the images of their tumors. ¹²The cows went straight up the road to Beth-shemesh. They stayed on that one highway, lowing as they went; they never strayed to the right or to the left. The Philistine rulers were walking behind them to the territory of Beth-shemesh.

¹³The people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they were overjoyed to see it. ¹⁴The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there near a large rock. The people of the city chopped up the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. ¹⁵The Levites removed the ark of the Lord, along with the box containing the gold objects, and placed them on the large rock. That day the people of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the Lord. ¹⁶When the five Philistine rulers observed this, they returned to Ekron that same day.

¹⁷As a guilt offering to the Lord, the Philistines had sent back one gold tumor for each city: Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. ¹⁸The number of gold mice also corresponded to the number of Philistine cities of the five rulers, the fortified cities and the outlying villages. The large rock^, on which the ark of the Lord was placed is still in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh today.

¹⁹God struck down the people of Beth-shemesh because they looked inside the ark of the Lord.^, He struck down seventy persons. The people mourned because the Lord struck them with a great slaughter. ²⁰The people of Beth-shemesh asked, “Who is able to stand in the presence of the Lord this holy God? To whom should the ark go from here?”

²¹They sent messengers to the residents of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and get it.”

1 Samuel 7:1–2 (CSB)

So the people of Kiriath-jearim came for the ark of the Lord and took it to Abinadab’s house on the hill. They consecrated his son Eleazar to take care of it.

VICTORY AT MIZPAH

²Time went by until twenty years had passed since the ark had been taken to Kiriath-jearim. Then the whole house of Israel longed for the Lord.

It was at Ekron that the Ark of God changed directions and began its long and slow journey back to Israel, but God’s presence did not immediately return to His people. It would take over 20 years to arrive in Jerusalem!

After what happened at Ekron, the Philistines decided they had better send the Ark back where it belonged (1 Samuel 6). They built a cart, placed the Ark on it, and used two milk cows to pull the load. These cows had calves shut up at home and their natural instinct when left to their own resources would have been to head towards their young ones. Instead, the cows headed straight towards Israel. (Even dumb animals know the glory belongs to God’s people and not in the hands of the enemy!)

The cows and their precious cargo arrived first at a place called Bethshemesh where some people of Israel were reaping their harvest. When they saw the Ark, they began to rejoice. They took the cart and cows and offered them as an offering to the Lord.

But the men of Bethshemesh did not realize that holiness must be at the heart of any move of God. These men wanted God’s presence among them, but they did not want it God’s way. They looked into the Ark, which was forbidden by God, and 50,000 people died because of their sin (Exodus 19:21). Many times we rejoice when the presence of God begins to move in our midst, yet we refuse to walk in holiness. We want the presence of God, but we refuse to abide by His standards. Because of this, God’s move passes us over.

Because the people of Bethshemesh refused God’s standards, the Ark was sent on to Kirjath-Jearim where it remained for 20 years (1 Samuel 7:2). Although the Ark itself was in the midst of the people of Kirjath-Jearim, they rejected its power. They had the symbol of the presence of God in their midst, yet they and all of Israel “lamented” after the Lord. This means they longed for His power, hungering and thirsting for His presence. Jerusalem was void of the presence of God — and all the time the Ark of God was only eight miles away!

For years, the Ark of God’s glory was shifted from city to city with little or no regard, respect, or understanding of its significance. The Ark carried within it the potential of all the mighty power of God, but nobody understood, nobody cared, and no one paid much attention to it. That is how many of us today treat the power and presence of God that dwells within us, dormant until we release its potential.

Make this declaration:

I am releasing the power of God’s presence which has laid dormant within me.

*Adapted from MCWE email – Journey Into The Promised Land by Morris Cerullo

Potential For Power – 8/22

Penetrating Enemy Lines

Journey Into The Promised Land