THE SANCTUARY by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 27, 1876

THE SANCTUARY.

By Uriah Smith

Seventeenth Paper.—Points of History.

How long the tabernacle remained in Shiloh, after the capture of the ark, we are not informed. But it does not appear that God’s glory or the ark of his covenant, ever returned to that building. The tabernacle next appears in the sacred record, about seventy-nine years later, in the days of Saul, when we find it at Nob, 1 Sam. 21; Matt. 12:3, 4, a place about twelve miles west by north from Jerusalem. We again find it, twenty years later still, in the days of David and Solomon at Gibeon. 1 Chron. 16:39; 2 Chron. 1:3. This was about eight miles north from Jerusalem. Here it remained thirty-eight years till the building of the temple.

But where, during all this time was the ark of the covenant of the Lord? We left it at the battle of Ebenezer, where it was captured by the Philistines, and the lament went up that the glory had departed from Israel, for the ark of God was taken. Being essential to the tabernacle we must follow it till we find them together again.

The ark was retained in the land of the Philistines seven months. At Ashdod their god, Dagon, fell on two successive days before it, the second time his head and hands being severed, and nothing being left but the stump or fishy part of the old idol. The priests of Dagon hurried it off to Gath; and from thence it was taken to Ekron; and both these cities were sorely smitten on account of its presence. “So,” says the record, “they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his place, that it slay us not and our people.” 1 Sam. 5.

The providence of God was equally conspicuous in its return to the Israelitish people. To test the matter whether their calamities had been inflicted upon them by the hand of the God of Israel on account of the presence of the ark among them or not, the Philistines proposed that the ark with the golden trespass offerings should be put on a new cart, and that two cows, their calves being shut up at home, should be attached to the cart, and left to take their own course. If they went up toward the coasts of Israel, to Beth-shemesh, they would know that God had inflicted their evils upon them. But if the cows according to their nature should only seek their own home, they would know that it was only chance that had happened unto them.

It was done as they proposed; “and the kine took the straight way to the way of Beth-shemesh and went along the highway, lowing as they went.” Then the Philistines knew that something more than chance was seen in the events that had befallen them; and, filled with astonishment, they followed on behind it even unto the border of Beth-shemesh.

“And they of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley; and they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.” 1 Sam. 6:13. But for presuming to look into the ark, without any occasion, and contrary to God’s order that not only no one was to look into it, and only the Levites were to touch it, the men of Beth-shemesh were smitten. How many? Our common version reads, “fifty thousand and three score and ten men.” But it is not probable that a small place like Beth-shemesh would have so many inhabitants, and by no means probable that so many would be engaged in wheat harvest even if we take into the account all the region round about. Josephus omits the fifty thousand altogether, retaining only the seventy. He says (Antiq Jud. lib. vi., cap. i., sec. 4.), “But the displeasure and wrath of God pursued them so that seventy men of the village of Beth-shemesh, approaching the ark, which they were not worthy to touch (not being priests), were struck with lightning.” Dr. Clarke argues that the whole difficulty may be explained by supposing that in transcribing, a single letter was accidentally omitted, “the particle of comparison כ ke, like, as, or equal to, before the word חמשים chamish-shim: thus כחמשים kechamishshim. The passage would then read: ‘And he smote of the people seventy men, equal to fifty thousand

men;’ that is, ‘they were elders or governors of the people.’” And this, Dr. C. argues, would account for the reading of Josephus “who in his recital would naturally leave out such an explanation of the worth of the seventy men, as his Roman readers could not easily comprehend such comparisons.”

From Beth-shemesh the ark was removed to Kirjath-jearim, to the house of Abinadab, where it abode twenty years. It was during this period that all Israel lamented after the Lord, 1 Sam. 7:2. Then David gathered together all the chosen men of Israel and went to bring up the ark from Kirjath-jearim to Jerusalem, the city of David, to the tent which he had there pitched for it. 2 Sam. 5:1, 2; 1 Chron. Chaps. 15 and 16. But on account of Uzzah’s putting forth his hand to steady it, and being slain for his rashness, he not being a priest, and hence having no right to touch it, David was afraid, and would not remove the ark of the Lord unto him into the city of David, but carried it aside into the house of Obed-edom, the Gittite. There the ark continued three months; and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household. And it was told king David saying, The Lord hath blessed the house of Obed-edom and all that pertaineth unto him, because of the ark of God. So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom into the city of David with gladness. 2 Sam. 6:9–12. Here it remained in the tent which David had pitched for it, till the erection of the temple, where we are soon to find the ark and the sanctuary together again, and the worship of God resumed in greater impressiveness and glory. U. S.