A Journey Through The Old Testament - Elmer Towns

territory, to Beth Shemesh, then He has done us this great evil. But if not, then we shall know
that it is not His hand that struck us; it was by chance that it happened to us” (v. 9).
But there was no question in the minds of the lords of the Philistines as to the cause of the
plague by the time the sun set that evening. The cows pulled their wagon and cargo directly to
the city of Beth Shemesh, never going off course the least. The men of the city were in the fields
harvesting wheat when they saw the ark appear on the horizon. Seven months earlier, the ark had
been lost in battle. Now it was returned. Though it was important to get the harvest in, it was
more important to thank God for the return of the ark. The cows carried the ark right to a large
rock in the field of a man from Beth Shemesh named Joshua. Then they stopped as though they
knew what was to follow. Wood was split and the cows themselves became “a burnt offering
unto the Lord” (v. 14).
The men of Beth Shemesh could not help noticing the ark as it arrived uncovered in their
city, but they should have known better than to place it on public display or inspect its interior.
Because they “looked into the ark,” God judged the men of the city, “and the people lamented,
because the Lord had struck the people with a great slaughter” (v. 19). As a result of the deaths
of so many of their people, the men of Beth Shemesh appealed to the inhabitants of Kirjath
Jearim to come and get the ark. They agreed, and the ark was moved to the house of Abinadab
where it remained for the next twenty years.
THE REVIVAL AT MIZPAH
(1 Sam. 7:1-17)
Though God had demonstrated His power to the Philistines in a most unusual way, it was
two decades later that Israel saw that power effective against the Philistines in battle. But Samuel
the prophet, the last of the judges, understood the glory of God would never return to Israel, nor
would Israel experience the power of God in its warfare against the enemy until the nation
repented and came back to God. And so it was that Samuel traveled through the land, calling on
Israel to repent and demonstrate that repentance by putting away the foreign gods that had
become a part of their religious experience. His message was simple. “If you return to the Lord
with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, and
prepare your hearts for the Lord, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of
the Philistines” (1 Sam. 7:3).
The message was consistent with what Samuel had always believed and taught, but this
time it was different. After two decades of drifting from the Lord, Israel was now ready to hear
what God wanted them to do. “So the Children of Israel put away Baals and the Ashtaroth, and
served the Lord only” (v. 4). It was a time of revival in Israel, and Samuel recognized it was the
right time to call for a national assembly to seal the revival and prepare for the anticipated
victories from God. He called the nation to meet with him at Mizpah, and the nation responded.
Several things happened at Mizpah, which illustrated the unusual character of this Old Testament
revival.
The first of these was the unusual custom of pouring out water to the Lord (v. 6). This is
the only occurrence of this ritual in Scripture. The ancient Targum paraphrases this statement,
claiming “they poured out their hearts in repentance.” This was probably the spiritual
significance of this symbolic act of pouring out water. Second, there was a national day of
fasting at Mizpah. This was accompanied by a third feature of the revival, the confession of sin.
Fourth, “Samuel judged the Children of Israel in Mizpah,” no doubt settling and resolving many
long-standing disputes which existed among the people. Fifth, the assembly at Mizpah was