“Glory to the Precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ”

Psalms 6: 1

O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger, nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen

Hallelujah 

Our soul, the bride, the church should be made as the body of Christ, the church.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the portion of the Bible that we meditated upon in the past days, we meditated that we, the bride, the church should never walk in a double path and should safeguard our soul so that it is not spoiled.

Next, what we are meditating is that 1 Samuel 7: 1 – 6 Then the men of Kirjath Jearim came and took the ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill, and consecrated Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the Lord.

So it was that the ark remained in Kirjath Jearim a long time; it was there twenty years. And all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.

Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the Lord, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” 

So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only.

And Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you.” 

So they gathered together at Mizpah, drew water, and poured it out before the Lord. And they fasted that day, and said there, “We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah.

In the above-mentioned verses, the men of Kirjath Jearim came and took the ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill, and consecrated Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the Lord. So it was that the ark remained in Kirjath Jearim a long time; it was there twenty years. And all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the Lord, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only. And Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you.” So they gathered together at Mizpah, drew water, and poured it out before the Lord. And they fasted that day, and said there, “We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah.

My dear people, from this what we come to know is that the ark of the Lord should not be kept without holiness and regarding this and without holiness we cannot see God and the explanation of that is that when the men of Beth Shemesh looked into the ark, the Lord struck them and due to that they could not keep the ark of the Lord and they called the men of Kirjath Jearim and we see that they are sending it there. But there they brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill, and consecrated Eleazar his son and they are safeguarding it there in his house. So it was that because the ark remained in Kirjath for twenty years all the house of Israel could not see it and they thought about the Lord and lamented after the Lord. Also, the reason why God did not give the ark of the Lord to the sons of Israel and stopped it is because they did not search God with their whole heart but because they followed foreign gods and Ashtoreths God stopped and kept it.

Then Samuel told them to worship only God and when he told them that he will deliver you from the hands of the Philistines then they left all their evil way and worshipped only the Lord. The explanation of this is that the wicked characters of the Philistines in us if we will leave them then only we are worshipping only God. Those who are worshipping God in this manner the place where are gathering is called Mizpah. In this manner the Israelites gathered at Mizpah drew water, and poured it out before the Lord. And they fasted that day, and said there, “We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah. Mizpah was a place where the church gathered and there was the spring of living water and also the place where they fasted and also where judgement took place and all these are shown as a pattern as the body of Christ. Therefore, let us submit ourselves to change into a Mizpah.

Let us pray. May the Lord bless you all abundantly. 

- To be continued