At this point in Israel's history, their enemies, the Philistines, had captured the Ark of God, and then decided to return it, after seven months of discovering that their disrespect for God was causing them all kinds of problems. Now, the Ark of the Covenant represented the presence of God in the midst of His people, and so there was much rejoicing in the town of Beth Shemesh when the people saw two cows coming towards them, pulling a cart that brought the Ark back to Israel. The Ark had brought disaster to the Philistines, but would be a source of certain blessing to God's own people, as they respected it and honoured the Lord.
But the simple fact of belonging to God's people is not enough to protect us from the consequences of our own disobedience or presumption. Some men of Beth Shemesh decided to look into the Ark (something that was totally forbidden in their Law) and they paid for their disobedience with their lives. Sadly, although these men had brought this consequence upon themselves, it struck fear in the hearts of the people and they no longer wanted the Ark in their midst. They contacted the people of Kiriath Jearim and asked them to take the Ark away to their town instead.
It's an old story, with concepts that are not readily familiar to us in our modern world. And yet in their own way, many people in the 21st century respond in exactly the same way as the people of Beth Shemesh.
It's a fact of life that our own sinful behaviour brings negative consequences into our lives. If we live in certain ways or are addicted to particular substances, it can have a devastating effect on our health and wellbeing. If we are often motivated mainly by our own pride and self-interest, it will inevitably lead us into conflicts and have a negative effect on our relationships. If we make business decisions that are not based on integrity, we may find ourselves in trouble with the law or even end up in prison. It's the simple principle of sowing and reaping.
What sometimes happens, however, is that people look at the negative fruit in their own lives or in the lives of a family member, and they allow themselves to begin blaming God for what has happened. Instead of recognising that an individual is responsible for the negative consequences in his or her own life, we start to say, "Why did God do this?" or "Why isn't God answering my prayers about this situation?" And ultimately, like the people of Beth Shemesh, we allow our wrong understanding to make us move away from the presence of God. Just like they did, we start to keep Him at a distance.
How sad! Living in God's presence is a key to such blessing and strength. How tragic to miss out on that blessing because we are mistakenly blaming God for natural consequences that we or others have brought upon themselves. Back when we were schoolchildren, we learned about the law of cause and effect. We can see it in action in our universe - in science, in philosophy, in computing, in relationships and in the moral realm. It's part of our world. It's crazy to blame God for results that we as humans are responsible for. Misconceptions about God's character can rob us of the presence and the blessings that He wants to be ours.
So when we pray for family members who aren't walking in obedience to God… let's not focus our prayers on asking God to cancel out the negative consequences of their behaviour. Let's pray instead that they'll be open to God's grace and wisdom about how to sow good seed and start to reap good results instead.
