A Consuming Fire and a Terrifying Glory Text: 1 Samuel 6:19-21
Introduction: Casual Christianity's Collision with Holy God
We live in an age that has domesticated God. We have turned the consuming fire of Sinai into a decorative fireplace, a sentimental nightlight. We want a God who is our buddy, our co-pilot, our therapist, but we have no category for a God before whom we must fall on our faces as dead men. We have cultivated a casual, flippant, irreverent approach to the holy things of God, and we have the gall to call it a "personal relationship." We treat worship like a consumer preference, prayer like a cosmic vending machine, and the sacraments like quaint religious rituals. But the God of the Bible will not be domesticated. He is not safe, but He is good.
The story of the Ark of the Covenant's return to Israel is a bucket of ice water thrown on the sleepy face of our therapeutic, deistic, easy-going evangelicalism. The Philistines, pagans who knew nothing of God's law, were tormented by the Ark's presence. They learned, the hard way, that the God of Israel was not like their impotent idols. They sent the Ark back with guilt offerings, trembling. But the men of Beth-shemesh, Israelites, covenant-keepers, men who should have known better, greeted the Ark with a deadly mixture of joy and presumption. They rejoiced at its return, and then they treated it like a museum piece, a curiosity to be inspected. And the result was a great slaughter.
This passage is a stark and brutal reminder that God's holiness is not a metaphor. It is an objective, terrifying reality. Proximity to God is a blessing only when it is accompanied by reverence. Proximity to God without reverence is death. This is not some dusty Old Testament principle that has been retired in the New Covenant. It is amplified. "For our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29). The men of Beth-shemesh learned this lesson in blood. We must learn it in faith, lest we learn it in judgment.
The Text
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. 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?" 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."
(1 Samuel 6:19-21 LSB)
Holy Curiosity and a Great Slaughter (v. 19)
We begin with the shocking judgment in verse 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." (1 Samuel 6:19)
The Ark had returned. The Philistine threat was over. The symbol of God's presence was back in the land. There was joy, sacrifice, and celebration. But somewhere in that celebration, reverence curdled into curiosity. Familiarity bred contempt. The Law was clear: only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, and only once a year. The Kohathites, who were Levites assigned to carry the Ark, were explicitly warned not to look upon the holy things, "lest they die" (Numbers 4:20). The men of Beth-shemesh, a Levitical city no less, should have known this. Their sin was not ignorance; it was presumption. They treated the throne of God as a common thing. They peeked.
And the judgment was swift and devastating. Now, there is some textual debate about the number. Some manuscripts read "seventy men," while others have the larger number. But whether seventy or fifty thousand and seventy, the point is the same: it was "a great slaughter." God does not grade on a curve. He does not overlook high-handed sin, especially among His own people to whom He has given His law. The Philistines were judged with tumors for housing the Ark; the Israelites were judged with death for profaning it. Why the difference? Because to whom much is given, much is required. God holds His own people to a higher standard.
This is a direct assault on our modern sensibilities. We think, "What's the big deal? They were just looking." But this is to think like a man, not like God. Their sin was a sin against God's holiness. Holiness means to be set apart, distinct, other. By looking into the Ark, they were attempting to collapse the Creator/creature distinction. They were treating the unseeable God as something to be seen, the unapproachable God as something to be handled. It was the same sin as Nadab and Abihu offering strange fire (Leviticus 10), and the same sin as Uzzah steadying the Ark (2 Samuel 6). It was the sin of treating God as if He were one of us.
And so the people mourned. Their joy turned to ashes. They learned that the presence of God is a double-edged sword. It brings immense blessing when approached rightly, and immense destruction when approached wrongly. Their mourning was not just grief; it was the beginning of fear.
The Terrifying Question (v. 20)
The slaughter leads the survivors to ask the most important question in the world.
"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?'" (1 Samuel 6:20 LSB)
This is the question that every man, in his heart of hearts, knows he must answer. It is the question that echoed in Adam's ears as he hid in the garden. It is the question Isaiah screamed when he saw the Lord high and lifted up: "Woe is me, for I am undone!" It is the question Peter cried out in the boat: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" The men of Beth-shemesh have just had a direct, unmediated encounter with the holiness of God, and it has shattered them. Their theology has just been set on fire.
Notice the description: "Yahweh, this holy God." The word "holy" here is not just an adjective; it is the explanation for the slaughter. God is not arbitrary or capricious. He is not a tyrant. He is holy. His reaction to sin is not a matter of mood; it is a matter of His unchangeable nature. A holy God cannot abide sin. He cannot treat the profane as sacred. Fire burns because it is fire. God judges sin because He is holy.
Their response, however, is telling. "To whom shall He go up from us?" They want the Ark gone. They have seen the glory, and it is too much for them. They are like a man who has stared at the sun and is now blind. They want distance. They want relief. They want to get God out of their town. This is the natural reaction of sinful man to a holy God. We want Him gone. We want to be left to ourselves. But this is a damnable desire. The problem was not with God's presence; the problem was with their sin.
They ask the right question: "Who is able to stand?" But they come to the wrong conclusion. Instead of asking, "How can we be made able to stand?" they ask, "How can we get Him to leave?" They are more interested in self-preservation than in sanctification. This is the difference between worldly sorrow, which leads to death, and godly sorrow, which leads to repentance (2 Corinthians 7:10).
Passing the Buck (v. 21)
Their solution is not to repent, but to relocate the problem.
"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.'" (1 Samuel 6:21 LSB)
They pass the buck. "We can't handle this. You take it." They treat the Ark of God like a hot potato. Kiriath-jearim was a town about ten miles away, and it is there that the Ark would remain for twenty years, until David brought it to Jerusalem. The men of Beth-shemesh wanted the glory of God, but not the terror of God. They wanted the benefits of His presence, but not the demands of His holiness. And when confronted with the reality of who God is, they wanted nothing to do with Him.
This is a picture of so much of what passes for religion. Men want a God they can manage. They want a religion that makes them feel good, that offers comfort and a sense of community, but that makes no absolute demands. They want a God who will affirm them, not a God who will confront them. They want a God who will overlook their sin, not a God who will consume it. And when the true God of Scripture shows up, the holy God, the consuming fire, they say, "To whom shall He go up from us?" Get Him out of here. He is ruining our lives. He is messing with our comfortable arrangements.
The Gospel Answer
The question of the men of Beth-shemesh, "Who is able to stand before Yahweh, this holy God?" hangs in the air over the rest of the Old Testament. The law, the sacrifices, the priesthood, they were all temporary answers, shadows pointing to the true answer. They were God's gracious provision to allow a sinful people to live in the presence of a holy God without being consumed. But they could never ultimately solve the problem. The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin.
The ultimate answer to that question is found in the New Testament. Who is able to stand? No one. No one in himself. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Left to ourselves, we are all men of Beth-shemesh, peeking where we ought not, touching what is forbidden, and deserving of death.
But God, in His infinite mercy, has provided the answer. The answer is Jesus Christ. He is the one who is able to stand. He is the one who stood in our place. On the cross, the full, unmitigated, holy wrath of God that should have consumed us was poured out upon His Son. Jesus Christ took the great slaughter of Beth-shemesh upon Himself.
Because of Christ, we can now do what the men of Beth-shemesh could not. We can approach the holy God. The writer to the Hebrews says, "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus... let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith" (Hebrews 10:19, 22). The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The way into the Holy of Holies is now open.
But this access does not abolish reverence. It establishes it on a new foundation. We do not approach God casually because of grace; we approach Him with even greater awe. We come boldly, but we come with reverence. We are not afraid of being consumed, because the judgment has already fallen on our substitute. But we are filled with the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. We now understand the true cost of our sin and the infinite value of His grace. The cross does not make God less holy; it reveals the depths of His holiness in a way the slaughter at Beth-shemesh never could. It shows us a God so holy that He would rather kill His own Son than compromise His righteousness.
Therefore, let us not be like the men of Beth-shemesh, who wanted God to depart. Let us instead be those who draw near. Let us not peek into the Ark with profane curiosity, but let us gaze upon the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. For in Him, and in Him alone, we are finally able to stand.