1 Samuel 6:17–19

These are the golden tumors which the Philistines returned as a trespass offering to the LORD: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron; and the golden rats, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both fortified cities and country villages, even as far as the large stone of Abel on which they set the ark of the LORD, which stone remains to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.

Then He struck the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD. He struck fifty thousand and seventy men of the people, and the people lamented because the LORD had struck the people with a great slaughter.

The second paragraph in today’s passage is reminiscent of the climactic sequence of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” where the ark is opened and Indiana Jones tells Marion to not look at it. This saves her life. Everyone else dies.

Opening the ark and looking into it would be way over the top, even for the high priest inside the tabernacle. It’s insane for anyone else. However, the Hebrew word translated as into the ark (בַּאֲרֹ֣ון, ba-ah-rone) is translated as “upon the ark” in some other translations (e.g., ESV).

But it would be impossible to set the ark on the large stone of Abel without looking at it in some sense of the word. So, if “upon” in what is meant, the looking must be something excessive—like staring. In any case, the response is shockingly severe. The LORD struck the people with a great slaughter.

As usual, holiness is more serious than we know.

This is the great challenge for Christians. We take salvation for granted. We’re supposed to take salvation for granted.

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, — 1 John 5:13

But this tends to make us complacent about all things related to God. This is especially true of all things holy. We’ve lost the “awe factor.”

Yet we couldn’t stand in His presence for five seconds without being destroyed. We couldn’t even stand in the presence of one of His angels without freaking out. How did we get this way?

Technology. Technology has become the “wow” in our lives. We see things every day that would have been impossible just a few decades ago. We’ve become used to phones that know where we are and can tell us the fastest route to where we’re going. We are hard to impress.

This has numbed us to everything impressive, especially God.

Even answered prayer is just one of the blessings we’ve come to expect.

These Monday—Friday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. The Weekend DEEPs are written by Matt Richardson. To subscribe to all the DEEPs click here:

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The weekly study guides, which include the Monday–Friday devotionals plus related questions for discussion or meditation, are available for download here:

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV stands for the English Standard Version. © Copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved. NIV stands for The Holy Bible, New International Version®. © Copyright 1973 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved. KJV stands for the King James Version.