GOD IN A BOX - HEMORRHOIDS & MICE - IITB 01.19

 

Chapter 1. 19

God in a Box

Hemorrhoids

and Mice

The Permissive Father; the Prophet Eli

The Fake Priest; Hophni and Phinehas

The Ark of the Covenant

God’s Anointed People

Other gods

 

 

First Word

     This Word study is about the Hebrews losing the Ark of the Covenant to the Philistines.   It has three basic themes running through it.

First; Disciplining children with the rod.

Second; Worshiping the creator instead of the creation; and

Third; Don’t mess around with God’s anointed.

 

First Theme - Preacher’s Kids story

     This story is ripped right out of the scriptures about two PK’s; Preacher’s Kids, Hophni and Phinehas who were Priest serving in the tabernacle under their father Eli, the high Priest.  The words that describe them are; Sons of worthlessness, scandalous in their habits, wickedness, impurity, bribery, tyranny and miseries, lust by force; raping the young women who served at the entrance of the tabernacle as if they were “Temple Prostitutes” in the temple of Baal; and taking by force and violence the gifts that were to be offered to God.  Because of Hophni and Phinehas the people abhorred the offerings to the Lord.

     This shows that in the best of homes, foolishness still abounds in the heart of a child.  Although their father Eli was angry with them, his chastisement was far too mild and gentle, as he did not scripturally discipline them with the rod, but believed that God would do it.  Another prophet tells Eli that he is partially responsible, because he honored his sons more than God.  Eli is now classed with his sons as an accomplice to their sins.  Eventually it cost all three of them their lives.  It didn’t stop there; Eli’s  tender spirited “daughter in law” upon hearing about the loss of the Ark, the death of her father in law and her husband; dies in childbirth naming her child “Ichabod” which means; there is  No Glory”.[1]

     The Ark of the Covenant is interwoven with the story of Hophni and Phinehas and their blasphemous wickedness; we would be well advised to DISCIPLINE OUR CHILDREN; it could literally save their lives and perhaps ours too.   It’s in the Book

1 Samuel 2:17 – They had no respect for God

17 This sin of the young men was VERY GREAT in the LORD's sight, for they were TREATING THE LORD'S OFFERING WITH CONTEMPT.  NIV

 

The Ark background

     In a nutshell, The Ark of the Covenant was constructed to hold the “Ten Commandments” along with Aaron’s rod that budded and a golden jar of Manna.   The top of it was called THE MERCY SEAT which had two angels facing each other and was said to be where God would abide.  There above the Mercy Seat, God would meet with Moses and talk with him.

     No one could look inside the Ark, nor touch it, or even approach it; or for that matter even LOOK on it; and it had to be carried ONLY on poles and ONLY on the shoulders of specific Priests and covered ONLY by the High Priest before it was transported in public view.[2]

 

THIS ARK IS HOLY !

 

Second Theme - The Creator; not the Creation

     The movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark” pictures the Ark of the Covenant as a BOX with miraculous powers that whoever had it could rule the world.  When the Israelites were on the move, the Ark went before them symbolizing God leading the way.  The Ark would be hard to miss with a Cloud of Smoke leading it by day and a Pillar of Fire by night.   When they marched around Jericho with the Ark, the walls came “a tumblin’ down”.  All eyes were on the Ark and fear was stricken in the hearts of men and the stories abounded that the Israelites had a GOD IN A BOX.  Whenever the enemy saw the Ark; the Hebrew’s GOD IN A BOX they lost heart and became paralyzed with fear.  At some point even the Israelites begin to put their confidence in the Ark, the creation instead of in God the Creator; thus making the Ark an idol.

     Here is where we pick up the meat of the story.  The norm was to inquire of the Lord as to what they should do concerning upcoming battles, but the Israelites put their trust in the rituals and external observance of their GOD IN THE BOX instead of inquiring of Jehovah.   The Ark had become an idol.  One day, reasoning that the mere presence of the Ark would guarantee victory over the Philistines, they decided to take it into the battlefield accompanied by Eli’s two wicked sons, whose very presence insured that God was LEFT BEHIND.

     Sin was in the Camp and Israel was defeated and the Ark of the Covenant was captured.

GOD HAD DEPARTED FROM THEM.   The physical presence of the Ark could not COMPEL God to give Israel the victory.   God will not be manipulated even by His own people.  The Ark was treated as an amulet or good luck charm.  They took the creation into battle, not the CREATOR.   Eli died when he heard that the Ark had been taken and his sons; the two Fake Priest Hophni and Phinehas also died.[3]

     I pray for our Nation, there is sin in our Camp.   Has God departed from our Ark?  How can we possibly rest easy when our ARK is not safe !

 

Third Theme - Don’t mess around with God’s anointed.

     God has said not to touch his anointed and the Ark of the Covenant was certainly anointed.  The FUN PART starts with the defeat of Israel by the Philistines and now they have captured Israel’s GOD IN A BOX.

     This means that their god DAGON was supreme and more powerful than Israel’s JEHOVAH.  They placed the Ark in their temple at the feet of Dagon.  The pagan god Dagon was represented as one-half man and the other half with the belly and tail of a fish.

     God laughs at the Philistines and starts messing with their god Dagon, the statue of their national deity, by making him TWICE fall down, even though he had been NAILED back up.  He fell prostrate from off his pedestal before the Ark in a posture of worship and then God literally broke off his head, arms and HANDS. The practice in war was to bring back in triumph, trophies of HANDS; and the heads for a body count.  This SYMBOLISM was a SCARY premonition of things to come for the Philistines. Their god Dagon was now WITHOUT A HEAD; no wisdom and WITHOUT HANDS; no power, he was “helpless”.

     At that point God cuts loose a great multitude of MICE which destroyed their fruits as well as the fruit plants itself and brought disease among the Philistines.  Then it gets really SERIOUS.  God’s “Heavy Hand” sends a very destructive disease of Emerods; Tumors, bleeding piles, Hemorrhoids with dysentery and acute pain and they vomited up their entrails; and many died.   It was painful and shameful.   Those that did not die still had the pain of the Hemorrhoids.  No one escaped this plague; they had ALL fallen into the “HANDS of YAHWEH. 

     Plagues and sickness were considered as the effects of the HAND of God.  The Hebrew word “outbreak” here is interpreted as “groin” in the SECRET PARTS of man.  Tumors in the groins, is a common symptom of the bubonic plague.  Today we know that rats carry the bubonic plague.  The Philistines did not want to relinquish such a prize as the Hebrew’s Ark and held out for seven months and tried every peaceful and safe means they could to retain it by moving it around in their FIVE providences.[4]

     NOTE:  Josephus says the Ark was only in Philistia for four months, not seven.  Seven is the “symbolic” number for completeness.   The Ark was there long enough to complete God’s plan whether it was four months or seven; Just saying.   The Philistines determined that this entire calamity was brought about by the sinister force of the Hebrew’s Ark that they had brought into their city; so they sent it to Gath, a city of GIANTS, but the plagues followed the Ark affecting those GREAT and small.  In all, the Ark was sent to five different cities filling all of them with cries of panic.  The Philistines remembered that Israel’s God had struck the Egyptians with TEN terrible plagues before they finally released the Hebrews; so they cried out to the Philistine leaders to get rid of the Hebrew’s GOD IN A BOX and to not offend Him any further and to make a GUILT OFFERING to Him. Maybe He will relent and stop the plagues.  (Josephus was the Jewish Historian; a contemporary of Jesus)

     Josephus 6:1.3 – Hemorrhoids and Mice:   At length God sent a very destructive disease upon the city and country of Ashdod, for they died of the dysentery or flux, a very sore distemper, that brought death upon them very suddenly; for before they could, as usual in easy deaths, be loosed from the body, they brought up their entrails, and vomited up what they had eaten, and what was entirely corrupted by the disease.  And as to the fruits of their country; a great multitude of mice arose out of the earth and hurt them, and spared neither the plants nor the fruits.

 

Send a Peace Offering

     So send that puppy away with a Guilt offering or a Peace Offering to their God with models of Five Golden Rats and Five Golden Hemorrhoids representing the Lords of the FIVE cities.  Maybe He will relent.  In pagan religious protocol you could not approach your god empty handed.

     TEST:  Make a new cart and hitch up two cows that have never been yoked.  Two Untrained cows, wanton and vagrant that would pursue no certain or regular path.  Take them to a road with “three forks in the road” with the middle one leading to Israel.  Turn them loose and see if they go to the Hebrews.  Then we will know if it was the HAND of their God on us, or just by happenstance; thereby meaning that the Ark would have had no force or power in it at all.

     By the way. Get two cows that have just had calves and have the desire to go to their baying calves and not to the Hebrews… that should make it even more interesting.

     So here’s what we have; Cows that want to go to their new born calves; that have never been trained with a yoke to pull a cart and are to be led to unfamiliar territory to a road with three forks with only one of them going to the Hebrews. – Yeah, that should do it.[5]

    

     Josephus 6:1.3.11 – A place where THREE ROADS met:   Then to drive these milch kine (cows) that carried the Ark, and leave it at a place where three ways met, and to leave it to the kine to go along which of those ways they pleased.  That in case they went the way of the Hebrews, and ascended to their country, they should suppose that the Ark was the cause of their misfortunes; but if they turned into another road, they said, “We will pursue after it, and conclude that it has no such force in it.”

 

Let’s take a look inside

     The cows took the Ark some eight or ten miles into the Hebrew territory, never wandering off in the fields to eat, going directly to the Priest’s city of Beth-shemesh and the Hebrews excitedly received it.  The Cart and Cows having been used for a “sacred purpose” could no longer be used for any secular purpose; so with the wood from the cart they sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering to God; then they feasted with great joy.  The Lords from Philista observed from a distance and returned home confirming THE POWER of the Hebrew’s God. YAHWEH.

     Open up that puppy:  Remember; no one was to approach the Ark, let alone look inside except the High Priest and that was with grave danger.  Seventy Israelite men of Beth Shemesh decided to take a look inside the Ark and with Devine retribution, God struck them ALL down dead, scaring the snot out of everybody else.  The Hebrews were now afraid to be in the presence of the Ark because of their own unworthiness, so the Ark was taken by the Priest to Abinadab’s house; there they set apart and sanctified Abinadab and his son Eleazar to be the ”keeper of the place”.  The Ark stayed there for twenty years and the people mourned for the Ark,[6]and that’s another story.

 

1 Samuel 6:19-20 – Seventy men looked inside the ark and died

19 But God struck down some of the men of Beth Shemesh,

PUTTING SEVENTY OF THEM TO DEATH because they had LOOKED INTO THE ARK of the LORD. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the LORD had dealt them,

20 The men of Beth Shemesh asked, "Who can stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God? To whom will the ark go up from here?" NIV

 

The Take Away

     Today we do not discipline our children because our culture says it will WARP their lives, that they should have a FREE SPIRIT.  We have forgotten that the Bible instructs us to use the rod of correction with Love.   One of the problems with us as Christians is that we do not teach the scriptures to our children, “Generation to Generation”.  People do foolish things because they lack knowledge.  Scripture says “My people perish for lack of knowledge”.   We put our trust in objects and systems and people who lack a spiritual compass.    We have lost our “Spiritual Compass” and have hung our own light on the mast of our boat to follow and guide us.[7] (Now ponder that.)

     We don’t have the reverence and awe of Almighty God because we don’t spend any time with Him. When we move ahead with our plans and leave God behind, disaster looms on the horizon. - When things go wrong we wonder why we have Hemorrhoids and mice.  Go figure.

 

Deuteronomy 11:19 – Teach God’s precepts to your children

19 TEACH THEM to your children, talking about them

WHEN YOU SIT at home and WHEN YOU WALK along the road, WHEN YOU LIE DOWN and WHEN YOU GET UP.

Write them on the doorframes of your houses. NIV

 

- It’s in the Book -



[1] 1 Sam 2:12-14 – Eli’s Two sons were wicked men. -- 1 Samuel 2:17 – They had no respect for God -- 1 Samuel 2:22 – Fake Priest raped the women who served -- Proverbs 22:15 – The Rod of Correction drives out foolishness -- Proverbs 23:13-14 – Don’t withhold the rod -- Proverbs 29:15 – A child left to himself will bring shame -- 1 Samuel 2:34 – Eli’s two sons died -- 1 Samuel 4:18 – Eli died

[2] Numbers 7:89 – God appeared above the Mercy Seat between the two angels -- Exodus 25:22 – I will meet with you above the mercy seat -- Hebrews 9:4 – Inside the Ark was a jar of Manna and Aaron’s rod -- Deuteronomy 31:26 – Beside the Ark was the Book of the Law -- Numbers 4:5-6 – The Ark was covered with the shielding curtain -- Exodus 25:12-15 – The Ark was transported on poles carried on shoulders

[3] Exodus 13:21 – The Lord went ahead with a pillar of cloud & a pillar of fire -- Judges 20:27 – They inquired of the Lord what they should do -- Numbers 10:33 – The Ark of the Covenant went before the Israelites -- Deuteronomy 10:8 – Tribe of Levi to carry the Ark -- Joshua 6:6-7 – The Ark went before the army around the city -- Joshua 6:20 – The walls of Jericho fell down before the Ark -- 1 Samuel 4:1-11 - Let’s get the “God in a Box” and scare them -- 1 Samuel 4:18 – The High Priest Eli died -- 1 Samuel 4:1-11 - Eli’s two sons died

[4] 1 Chronicles 16:22 – Warning - Don’t touch my anointed -- Psalms 105:15 – Touch not my anointed -- Psalms 2:2-5 – God just laughs at the Philistines -- 1 Samuel 5:1-4 – They put the Ark in the temple of Dagon -- Isaiah 41:7 – They NAILED down the idol Dagon so it will not fall over -- Josephus 6:1.3 – Yahweh struck them with Hemorrhoids and Mice -- 1 Samuel 5:9 – God struck them with Hemorrhoids in their SECRET PARTS -- 1 Samuel 6:17 – The Five Philistine Cities- Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron -- 1 Samuel 5:6-7 –Ark in Ashdod – They were afflicted with Hemorrhoids.  -- 1 Samuel 5:8 –Ark in Gath – afflicted with Hemorrhoids -- 1 Samuel 5:9-10 –Ark in Ekron – afflicted with Hemorrhoids -- 1 Samuel 5:10-11 – Sent that Ark back to Israel now  - GOD IS NOT OUR ENEMY; BUT IS THE ENEMY OF OUR SIN

 

[5] 1 Samuel 6:3-5 – Hey, let’s make some Gold Rats and Hemorrhoids. -- 1 Samuel 6:7-9 – Lets make a TEST with a new CART and some cows that have never been yoked -- 1 Samuel 6:12 – The cows went straight to the territory of Israel

[6] 1 Samuel 6:19-20 – Seventy men looked inside the ark and died -- 1 Samuel 7:1-2 – The Ark was transported to Abinadab’s house

 

[7] Hosea 4:6 – We perish for lack of Knowledge -- ­ Deuteronomy 11:19 – Teach God’s precepts to your children generation to generation

 

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