The Box...

God instructed Moses to build one particular article of furniture for the building of the sanctuary. That article was the Ark and over the top, the covering, was called the Mercy Seat. This article of furniture is where Moses placed the rod of Aaron after it budded, and a pot of manna, also the Ten Commandments. 

This box was then placed in the Most Holy Place of the sanctuary. Here is where God lived, or His presence abided, above the Mercy Seat, the only people who could go before the presence of God was Moses and the High Priest, but the High Priest could only go once a year, on the day of Atonement.

 

Now let's fast forward a little bit...Eli was the High Priest at the time and war broke out between the Philistines and the Israelites. The people had come to think of the Ark as God instead of God. They had put their confidence in a box, and not God. 

So when war broke out things were going bad, so the people decided to bring the Ark of God out onto the battlefield. And when the Ark came into the camp the Israelites shouted with a great shout! They thought that now that they had the Ark that they would win the battle! What they should have done is to pray to God for deliverance and not count on a box for salvation. 

When the Philistines heard the shout and heard that the Ark of God was in the camp, they trembled. Because of what the Israelites believed of the Ark the Philistines also thought that inside that box was the Israelites God! 

Well the battle was fought and the Philistines won, and they got the Ark. When they got back to their land the Philistines put the Ark into their temple with their other gods. Now the Ark was always attended with an angel from heaven.

In the morning when the Philistines woke up they discover that their god was on the ground bowing before the Ark. They put their god right side up again and left. Well this happened again, and so they decided to move the Ark to be on it's own. When they did that the city was infected. So they moved it to another city, and then another. 

They finally realized that they could no longer keep the ark with them and so they decided to send it back. So they got a new cart and put two mother cows, that were nursing, and tied them to it. Then they pointed them in the direction, and God lead those cows back to Israel, and all the while the cows mooed for their babies. 

When the Ark arrived the Israelites had the audacity to uncover the Ark, something in which even the Philistines wouldn't do! And God struck them for it!

We must learn a lesson from those ancient Israelites, that we must never put our confidence in anything else but God! And to not get caught up with things that God might use, but to always put our trust in Him!

I don't want to put my confidence and trust in just a box, do you?