1 Samuel 6:1-5 – Dealing with the guilt of sin

Losing the Ark of the Lord to the Philistines was a crisis of titanic proportions for Israel. But for the Philistines, who had captured the Ark, their calamitous experience was equally colossal. In 1 Samuel 5, we saw the calamities they had to endure at the hand of God since they captured and took the Ark of the Covenant into their cities. We saw how the power of Dagon their god was totally decimated by the God Almighty. He did not only make Dagon fall face down on the ground but also severed its head and hands leaving it with a trunk. First Samuel 6:5 tells us there were other gods of the Philistines who were diminished by the power of the true God. The question we ask is: which cheap imitation of the true God can stand against Him? The same verse tells us that their suffering was more than just being inflicted with tumors, but also the land was ravaged by a plague of mice. 

For a duration of seven months, when the Ark of the Lord was with them, the hand of the Lord was upon them. A great sense of terror had seized the hearts and minds of the Philistines. The Philistines had sent the Ark from place to place and everywhere it went, the people were inflicted with tumors and seized with great terror. In confusion, the Philistines consulted with their priests and diviners seeking a remedy to avert the disaster. They wanted to know what they should do with the Ark of the Lord. They connected the dots and were certain that the calamities they were experiencing came because of the Ark of the Lord that they had captured. Yet they do not know where to return it to.

The Ark at this point was still in Ekron and they knew that it was not a good idea to just discard it somewhere in the wood. But then not even the priests or the diviners whom they consulted knew where to send it to. But one thing they did know, i.e. they had to pay for what they had done with a guilt offering. The question the Philistines asked in verse 4 was “What shall be the guilt offering which we shall return to Him?”  This tells us that even non-believers of God do have a conscience. But they often go about the wrong way to deal with the guilt of their sin. For the priests of the Philistines, they wrongly supposed that making five golden tumors and five mice and offer them to God would settle the issue. People would conjure up all sorts of ways to deal with their guilt. Whenever we have offended God we are also confronted with the same question. “What shall be the guilt offering which we shall return to Him?” What is the Christian’s answer to this question? Our answer is found in Jesus Christ who gave Himself on the cross for us. We need to come back to the Lord and apply the cleansing power of the precious blood of Christ. We need to repent and seek forgiveness. And when we are cleansed, we must seek to be obedient to His word and walk uprightly before Him. Return to God with a sincere and pure heart!