KJV 1 Samuel 5:6 But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and He destroyed them…”
NASB 1 Samuel 5:6 Now the hand of the LORD was heavy on the Ashdodites, and He ravaged them…”
KJV 1 Samuel 6:19 And He smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD…”
NASB 1 Samuel 6:19 He struck down some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the LORD…”
KJV 2 Samuel 6:6,7 Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God …and God smote him there for his error.”
NASB 2 Samuel 6:6,7 Uzzah reached out toward the ark of God … God struck him down there for his irreverence.”
The ark of God was the place where God was able to dwell with His people. He took up His majestic and glorious residence on the mercy seat, between the cherubim (Ps 80:1). Sadly, the symbol of God’s presence had become the reality to the nation. It was their talisman, something that ensured them victory. They had come to depend on the ark and not the God of the ark. To us who benefit from the New Testament, we can view the ark as a picture or type of the Lord Jesus Christ, the ultimate expression of gold and acacia wood – Deity and humanity in one blessed person.
In the Scriptures cited above, God forcibly taught the Philistines the solemnity of His presence and reminded Israel of the holiness of His ways. All of this stands in stark contrast to the silence of heaven when men took the antitype of the ark, our Lord Jesus Christ, and mistreated Him.
Uzzah’s mere handling of the ark led to his death. Yet, in the Garden, we read that men bound Him (John 18:12) and led Him away. No stroke of divine judgment intervened. The coarse and rough hands of men dared to bind the Son, yet in meekness and submission to the divine will, He allows men to treat Him so. In like manner, the Father does not commission a legion of angels to execute judgment against the soldiers. Heaven is silent.
And it was so as well when they carried Him away as their captive. When men carried the ark captive, God again rose up in judgment such that the Philistine lords consulted how to rid themselves of the ark. Death and destruction followed the ark’s journeys through the five cities of the Philistines, resulting in the same desire to be rid of it. In contrast, with impunity, the Saviour was sent back and forth between separate groups – the Jewish council, Pilate, his soldiers, and Herod and his men of war. Heaven was silent again.
Finally, think of the tragic events at Bethshemesh. Was it curiosity? A concern that the Law was still within the ark? We are not told. We are told, however, why Herod wanted to see Christ. He desired to see Him that He might entertain him. He was curious to see this Man of Whom he had heard so much. Curiosity, perhaps, as well as to mitigate his fears concerning John Baptist may have played a part. But Herod and his men of war had a day of sport and mockery; they “set Him at nought” or treated Him as though He were nothing! Yet again, heaven is silent, with no intervention, no thunderbolt, and no angelic rescue.
The reproach, shame, and dishonour the Lord endured, coupled with the physical abuse from the hands of men, evoked no immediate response from heaven. Yet God looked on at a Man Who so loved Him that He was willing to endure the worst that men could do to Him out of devotion and love to His Father. The “silent” God would speak – three days later, and it was with a resounding voice, the declaration of His pleasure attested to by resurrection.
Consider
Can you find other comparisons and contrasts? For example, Uzzah had good intentions yet was slain while men had evil purposes and lived.