At the House of Salvation

Is it any surprise that when the Philistines sent the captured Ark back to Israel that it stopped at the house of Joshua the Bethshemite? Joshua means "The Lord is salvation," and here came a key piece of that salvation up the road on the back of a cart. It's as if the Lord is reminding the Israelites that salvation comes through him.

Joshua starts out well. He immediately breaks up the cart for wood and then offers up one of the cattle as a burnt offering. The men of Bethshemesh do not end so well. Some of them look into the Ark and a number (the text says 70 and 50,000 which seems improbable and we know that the book of Samuel is the worst preserved of any book in the Scriptures, so there is a good possibility that this is an error in passing down the text) are struck down and die, thus demonstrating that God is holy and his instructions should be followed.

One of the things that strikes me about this whole episode is that God does all of the work himself. The Israelites TOTALLY blow this episode, but the Ark is returned by God's work and initiative. Grace and mercy in action here.