“Next they sent the ark of God to ‘Ekron; but when the ark of God arrived in ‘Ekron the ‘Ekronim shouted, ‘Now they’ve brought the ark of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and our people!’“-1 Samuel 5:10
Ever wonder why some folks who suffer greatly for their sins do NOT repent?
I’m not talking about a situation where they’re in a state of ignorance and have no idea God is punishing them for their behavior.
No, quite the opposite.
They know they’re being punished because of their sins…
Yet they still don’t repent.
Why?
What’s the psychology behind such stubbornness?
Well, all we have to do is look at how the Philistines handled Israel’s Ark of the covenant to know why.
When the Philistines first brought the Ark to Ashdod (one of the 5 cities in their occupied territory), the Lord struck the people there with painful tumors.
They next brought the Ark to another one of their cities called GAT.
And the same thing happened.
The Lord also inflicted those people with painful tumors.
Finally, the Philistine authorities decided to send the Ark to the unsuspecting folks at EKRON.
And people of Ekron almost lost their freakin’ minds.
They summoned all the leaders and said…
“Send the ark of the God of Israel away!
Let it go back to its own place,
so that it won’t kill us and our people!”
So the question that arises is why were the Philistines playing this ridiculous game of hot potato with the Ark?
Why didn’t they just take the obvious solution and return the Ark back to Israel?
I can give you the answer in one word:
PRIDE
Or to be more accurate:
UNGODLY PRIDE
To the Philistines, it would have been the worst sort of humiliation to have to return the Ark to their arch enemy Israel.
That’s why they tried to do everything but the one thing they should have done…
But the Lord wasn’t having any of it.
The Philistine leaders were beginning to realize that while they might have defeated the Israelite army at Even-Ezer…
They had in no way defeated the God of Israel.
Thus they had no choice but to find a way to make peace with this powerful God who was doing to them what He had done to the Egyptians nearly 400 years ago.
And that’s the takeaway for today.
We are living in a world of unrepentant gentile nations who refuse to surrender to the God of Israel.
Why?
Because of stubborn and fleshly pride…
Nothing less and nothing more.
Just like the Philistines did…
They use every excuse imaginable to avoid the inevitable…
That eventually…
“under the authority of Yeshua,
every knee will bow —
in heaven, on earth and under the earth —
and every tongue will acknowledge
that Yeshua the Messiah is Adonai —
to the glory of God the Father.”
Ya feel me?
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“The rest of mankind who were
not killed by these plagues still
did not repent of the work of
their hands; they did not stop
worshiping demons, and idols
of gold, silver, bronze, stone
and wood—idols that cannot
see or hear or walk.”
-Revelation 9:20
Richo,
Re your statement “and every tongue will acknowledge that Yeshua the Messiah is Adonai”. This title “ADONAI” should never be applied to the Mashiach please. The scriptures clearly show that this is the unique personal title of YHWH, used as in “ADONAI YHWH” or standalone “ADONAI”.
The title of the Mashiach is addressed as “the Adon” or “Adoni” (my Adon).
The Messianic Psalm 110:1 –
“YHWH says to my Adon…”, and not “YHWH says to ADONAI…”.
Shalom
Gim