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The kine drew the ark in the cart
to Bethshemesh. The people there were very busy reaping: for
it was harvest time. They heard something coming, and looked up, to
see what it was. What did they see? The cart drawn by the kine,
without a driver, coming to them along the road; and when they looked into
the cart, there they saw the holy ark of God, which they had lost so
long. Then the people in Bethshemesh rejoiced very much. The
cart came close to them, and the kine stood still; and the Levites took
out the ark, and put it upon a large stone. Then they cut up the
cart for wood, and offered the kine in joyful sacrifice to God who had
sent them His holy ark again. The lords of the Philistines, who
followed the cart, saw all this, and wondered, and returned to their own
country. But a sad thing
happened to Bethshemesh that day. The people were very pleased to
have the ark again; but some of them forgot what a holy thing it was, and
they went to it, and looked into it, very irreverently, without
remembering that God had commanded them to honor it, and only allowed the
Levites to touch it. The men of Bethshemesh made God angry; and he
smote them; and 50,070 people died. The
people were very much frightened when they saw so many of their friends
dead, and said, "Who can stand before this holy Lord God?"
Then they sent to Kirjath-jearim, and asked the people there to come and
take the ark away. The men of Kirjath-jearim were glad to have it;
and they brought it to the house of a man named Abinadab, and he
consecrated his son to keep it; and it stayed there many years. The
Israelites now began to be sorry for their sins, and they cried to the
Lord. God had punished them very much, and taken away the ark from
them; but now they wanted to have God's blessing again, because they felt
they could not be happy without it. None
can be happy without God's love and blessing. We have not the ark
now to be with us, as it used to be with Israel, and we do not want
it. We have Jesus Christ, and He is always with us, to bless us, if
we are His people. When the
Israelites began to cry about their sins, they had a kind friend to teach
them what to do. Who was that friend? Samuel; he was now a
man, and God's love and blessing were still upon him. God taught him
to speak to His people Israel. Samuel said, "Do you wish to
serve God in truth, and to have his blessing again? If you do, you
must put away your idols, and turn to God, and serve Him
alone." Then the Israelites attended to Samuel, and put away
their idols, and began to serve the Lord. Samuel called them to
Mizpeh, and there he prayed for them: and they prayed too, and asked
for forgiveness, and cried, "We have sinned against the Lord."
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