The Ark Is Taken To Kirjathjearim

 When the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the Philistines, the Israelites felt like they had lost their God.  They were overjoyed when they saw the Ark returning on a cart with no one driving it, as we see in I Samuel 6:13-15.  “And they of Bethshemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley: and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.  And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they clave the wood of the cart, and offered the kine a burnt offering unto the LORD.  And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD, and the coffer that was with it, wherein the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone: and the men of Bethshemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day unto the LORD.”

 

Levites from the local Levite settlement were called in to handle the Ark and offer burnt offerings for its safe return.  By this time the Philistine leaders were convinced it was God who had caused the plague and who had directed the milk cows where to go, and they returned home leaving their golden offerings behind, as we see in I Samuel 6:16-18.  “And when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.  And these are the golden emerods which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering unto the LORD; for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Askelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one; And the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fenced cities, and of country villages, even unto the great stone of Abel, whereon they set down the ark of the LORD: which stone remaineth unto this day in the field of Joshua, the Bethshemite.”   The rulers were so convinced it would be twenty years before the Philistines dared attack Israel again.

 

God had given specific instructions as to how the Ark was to be handled, in Numbers 4:15.  “And when Aaron and his sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it: but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation.”  In their excitement over the return of the Ark and fearing the Philistines might have taken something out of it, the Levites forgot about God’s warning and opened it, as I Samuel 6:19 describes.  “And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.”  Apparently it never occurred to them that if God could cause the Philistines to send back the Ark, he could be trusted to protect what was inside of it.  

 

Still thinking of the Ark as God, the people of Bethshemesh were terrified by the death of over fifty thousand people.  They contacted the people in Kirjathjearim to take responsibility for it, in I Samuel 6:20-7:2.  “And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God? and to whom shall he go up from us?  And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjathjearim, saying, The Philistines have brought again the ark of the LORD; come ye down, and fetch it up to you.  And the men of Kirjathjearim came, and fetched up the ark of the LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD.  And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjathjearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD.”  

 

According to Numbers 4, a man could not serve as a priest until he was at least thirty years old.  Since Samuel was not old enough and was no High Priest to take responsibility for taking the Ark back to the Tabernacle in Shiloh, it remained in Kirjathjearim for twenty years. As a result, they were not able to keep all the sacrifices God had commanded, and the nation suffered spiritually as a result, much as many Christians have suffered as a result of the restrictions on church attendance and worship.  .