Bird's-eye view
This startling passage serves as a blunt and bloody reminder that the God of the Bible is not safe. After a season of humiliation among the Philistines, the Ark of the Covenant returns to Israel. The initial response is joy, sacrifice, and worship. But this holy joy quickly turns to impudent curiosity, and the result is a catastrophic judgment. The men of Beth-shemesh, Levites who should have known better, treated the immediate presence of God with a profane and casual familiarity. They looked into the ark, violating the explicit commands of God, and were struck down in a great slaughter. This event is not an arbitrary display of divine temper; it is a foundational lesson in the terror of God's holiness. It establishes, in no uncertain terms, that nearness to God is a dangerous blessing. The passage climaxes with the terrified but accurate theological conclusion of the survivors: "Who is able to stand before Yahweh, this holy God?" The answer, of course, is no one, not in his own righteousness. This incident drives home the absolute necessity of a mediator, a high priest who can stand in the gap for us, a reality ultimately and perfectly fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The story functions as a severe mercy. Israel had begun to treat the ark like a good-luck charm, a talisman to be manipulated for their own ends on the battlefield. The Philistines treated it as a trophy to be displayed in the temple of their fish-god. Now, as it returns, God Himself teaches His own people that He is not to be trifled with. He is not a mascot. He is the sovereign, holy, and terrifying Lord of heaven and earth. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the men of Beth-shemesh, along with all of Israel, are given a brutal but necessary lesson to start them on that path.
Outline
- 1. The Holy God and Profane Men (1 Sam 6:19-21)
- a. The Sin of Irreverent Curiosity (1 Sam 6:19a)
- b. The Severity of Divine Judgment (1 Sam 6:19b)
- c. The Sobering Theological Question (1 Sam 6:20)
- d. The Solution of Prudent Fear (1 Sam 6:21)
Context In 1 Samuel
This passage comes at the tail end of the "Ark Narrative" (1 Samuel 4-6). In chapter 4, Israel, in a fit of superstitious pragmatism, brought the ark into battle against the Philistines, treating it like a weaponized idol. God allowed them to be soundly defeated and the ark to be captured, demonstrating that His presence cannot be manipulated. Chapters 5 and 6 detail the ark's disastrous "tour" through the Philistine cities of Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron. In each city, the presence of Yahweh's throne brings plagues of tumors and panic, toppling their idol Dagon and humbling the pagan lords. The Philistines, terrified, finally send the ark back to Israel on a new cart, guided by two milk cows. The cart miraculously arrives at Beth-shemesh, a Levitical city. Our text picks up right after the initial celebration of the ark's return. The judgment at Beth-shemesh, therefore, is not directed at pagans but at God's own covenant people, specifically the Levites, who were charged with handling the holy things. It shows that God's holiness is impartial; it is a consuming fire for Philistine and Israelite alike when approached with irreverence.
Key Issues
- The Holiness of God
- The Nature of Covenantal Judgment
- The Sin of Irreverence and Presumption
- The Meaning of the Number "50,070"
- The Fear of the Lord
- The Need for a Mediator
A God Who Is Not Tame
We live in an age that wants a domesticated God. We want a God who is manageable, predictable, and, above all, affirming. We want a cosmic therapist, a divine butler, a celestial teddy bear. The God of the Bible, however, refuses to be stuffed and put on a shelf. The incident at Beth-shemesh is a bucket of ice water in the face of all sentimental and trivializing views of the Almighty. Here, God is revealed as utterly holy, which means He is utterly "other." His presence is not a gentle, ambient glow; it is a high-voltage reality, a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29). The men of Beth-shemesh made the fatal error of confusing familiarity with entitlement. They were Levites, men set apart for service, and they were in their home town. The ark was back where it belonged. The Philistines were routed. Joy was in the air. In this atmosphere of celebration, they let their guard down and treated the throne of God like a museum piece to be inspected. They forgot who they were, and more importantly, they forgot who He was.
The judgment that falls is shocking in its scale, but it is entirely consistent with God's revealed character. He had given explicit instructions about the ark. It was to be veiled, and it was not to be touched or looked upon by unauthorized personnel on pain of death (Num. 4:15, 20). God is serious about His commands, especially those that guard His holiness. This is not the peevishness of a tyrant, but the necessary self-guarding of absolute purity. For God to overlook this sin would be for Him to deny Himself, to treat His own glory as a trivial thing. The slaughter at Beth-shemesh teaches all subsequent generations that the only proper approach to this holy God is one of trembling, reverent fear.
Verse by Verse Commentary
19 Then He struck down some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of Yahweh. He struck down of all the people, 50,070 men, and the people mourned because Yahweh had struck the people with a great slaughter.
The joy of the previous verses evaporates in an instant. The reason for the judgment is stated plainly: they had looked into the ark of Yahweh. This was not an accidental glimpse. The verb implies a deliberate, curious gazing. They pried. They wanted to see what was inside the box that had wreaked such havoc on the Philistines. This was the sin of presumption, a violation of God's manifest holiness. The ark was the footstool of God's throne on earth; to peer into it was to try and peer into the unseeable mysteries of God Himself. It was an act of high-handed irreverence.
The number of the slain, 50,070, has caused much discussion. Some ancient manuscripts and Josephus record the number as simply seventy. It is possible that the larger number is a later scribal gloss. But whether seventy or fifty thousand and seventy, the point is the same: the slaughter was great. God's response was not token. It was severe, public, and unforgettable. This was a covenantal judgment meant to instruct the entire nation. The people's mourning was not just for the loss of life, but was mixed with the terror of realizing the kind of God they served. He was not just "their" God in a cozy sense; He was Yahweh, the Holy One.
20 And the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before Yahweh, this holy God? And to whom shall He go up from us?”
Out of the midst of their grief and terror comes a moment of profound theological insight. They ask exactly the right question: "Who is able to stand before Yahweh, this holy God?" This is the question that echoes down through the Scriptures. Isaiah asks it when he sees the Lord high and lifted up: "Woe is me, for I am undone!" (Isa. 6:5). Peter asks it when he witnesses Christ's power: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" (Luke 5:8). The answer, on our own terms, is nobody. No sinful man can stand in the presence of this holy God and live. Their question is not one of abstract theology; it is a cry of existential dread. They have seen the fire of God's holiness up close, and they are undone.
Their second question, "And to whom shall He go up from us?" reveals their immediate, practical problem. They are terrified. They don't want this holy object anywhere near them. It is too hot to handle. They have learned the hard way that the presence of God is not a thing to be managed or domesticated. Their desire is not to banish God, but to find a proper and safe place for His manifest presence to dwell. They recognize their own unfitness.
21 So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have brought back the ark of Yahweh; come down and take it up to you.”
Their solution is to pass the responsibility to someone else. They send for the men of Kiriath-jearim. This was not simply buck-passing. Kiriath-jearim was a Gibeonite city, but it was also a prominent town on the border of Judah and Benjamin, a high place suitable for housing the ark. It seems the men of Beth-shemesh, having been so recently and thoroughly chastened, understood that a more sober and prepared group was needed to care for the ark. Their message is simple and stark. They don't embellish the story. The Philistines sent it back, and now it's here. The unspoken message is clear: "We are not worthy to keep it; perhaps you are." The ark would remain at Kiriath-jearim for twenty years, a silent, potent reminder of both the blessing and the danger of the presence of God, until David would finally bring it up to Jerusalem.
Application
The modern evangelical church is in desperate need of the lesson of Beth-shemesh. We have, in many quarters, cultivated a chummy, casual, buddy-buddy relationship with the Almighty. Our worship songs can be trivial, our prayers presumptuous, and our attitude toward the holy things of God is often flippant. We have forgotten that our God is a consuming fire. We have forgotten that we are commanded to worship God with reverence and awe (Heb. 12:28).
This passage forces us to ask the same question: "Who is able to stand before this holy God?" If we are honest, the answer is still "no one." Our hearts are just as curious, our hands just as unclean, and our pride just as audacious as that of the men of Beth-shemesh. Our only hope is that God has provided the answer to the question. Who can stand? The one who is clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ can stand. Who can draw near to the fire? The one who has been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. Jesus is our great High Priest, the one who went into the true holy of holies for us. He did not peek into the ark; He is the one to whom the entire ark pointed. He is the mercy seat, the law fulfilled, the bread from heaven. Because of His finished work, we are invited to "draw near with confidence to the throne of grace" (Heb. 4:16). But notice it is still a throne. We draw near with confidence, yes, but not with swagger. We come with boldness, but it is the boldness of a pardoned sinner, not an entitled peer. The fear of the Lord that fell on Beth-shemesh is not abolished by the gospel; it is transformed by it into filial, loving, reverential awe. We must never forget that the grace that saves us is grace from a holy and terrifying God.