1S6-8: Today Scripture Has Taken A Backseat To Emotions And Political Correctness

“…for [Adonai] struck the people of Beit-Shemesh for looking at the ark of Adonai. He killed 50,070 of the people; the people mourned because Adonai had struck them with such a terrible slaughter.”-1 Samuel 6:19

Okay, we’ve got another translation error we gotta contend with…

So we’re told the Lord struck down 50,070 people at Beit-Shemesh.

Well, I gotta tell ya…

There’s no way that number can be correct.

Why?

Because Beit-Shemesh was a tiny little village.

The entire population wouldn’t even have exceeded 50,000…

Let alone the number of people killed.

Here’s the thing.

Hebrew doesn’t use numbers to express numerical values…

Instead, the letters of the alphabet are used.

And according to the historian Josephus, there are manuscripts that say the total amount of people killed was 70.

That number is so much more plausible than the ridiculous 50,070 number most translations use.

So I’m certain this part of Scripture was corrupted.

Which leads to a more important question:

Why in the world did God summarily execute 70 Hebrew villagers in the first place?

He only made the Philistines sick with tumors and temporarily attacked their food supply for rough-handling his Ark…

But He executed 70 Israelites at Beit-Shemesh at the drop of a hat.

What gives?

Well, the first thing you need to know is that the Hebrew inhabitants of Beit-Shemesh were not just your average Hebrew citizens.

They were actually Levites.

So to answer the question “why did God kill them?”…

I’ve actually addressed this before…

But it bears repeating…

God held the Israelites to a different standard than He held the Philistines to…

And among the Israelites, He held the Levites to an even STRICTER standard.

The Levites weren’t even supposed to look at the Ark unless it was covered in a protective cloth.

On top of that, only the priests were allowed to cover or uncover the Ark…

Or handle it in any way.

Plus, the Torah says there was only one clan authorized to carry the Ark of God…

And that clan was the clan of Kohath.

So since these Levites at Beit-Shemesh were apparently in total ignorance of all this divine protocol…

The Lord instantly killed 70 of them.

Now notice the question they asked themselves:

“Who can stand before Adonai, this holy God?
To whom can we send it, to get it away from us?”

In this context, to “stand before” means to oversee in an official manner.

See, here’s the tragic thing.

If these Levites possessed even a basic understanding of Torah…

They wouldn’t have been asking such questions.

They would’ve known they were forbidden from even staring at the Ark…

And they would’ve known only the Priests can directly handle the Ark.

But they didn’t.

One has to wonder if the people even consulted God’s Torah any more.

The fact that even these set-apart Levites had no idea what to do is just mind-blowing beyond the par.

And that’s your takeaway for today.

We’re living in an age where Scripture has taken a backseat to doctrines, doctrines and even more doctrines.

Instead of being guided by what the Word of God says…

We’re more controlled by our own emotions…

And the political correctness of the day.

When you have congregations that say Messiah has done away with the Law of Moses…

Or who don’t hesitate to conduct gay marriages in the “name of Christ”…

You know we’ve gotta problem in Houston homie.

The Levites at Beit-Shemesh had lost any true knowledge of God’s laws and commands.

But the sad truth is they weren’t any different than many congregations today.

The one big lesson we can learn from the 70 Levites who were killed at Beit-Shemesh is that God does NOT overlook casual disregard of His commands and laws.

Saying we didn’t know any better ain’t gonna cut it.

The Lord keeps a record of everything…

He knows whether we’ve been naughty or nice…

And on judgement day, we’re going to have to account for our behavior.

Thank God we have a Savior who has paid for our sins…

But does that mean we have escaped accountability?

NEXT TIME WE BEGIN 1 SAMUEL CHAPTER SEVEN