The Significance of Seven Months

# 77 – Today's Du-votional comes from 1Sa 6:1-3”Now the ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines seven months. 2 And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, "What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how we should send it to its place." 3 So they said, "If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty; but by all means return it to Him with a trespass offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why His hand is not removed from you." (1 Sam 6:1-3) The ark of the covenant and its message of death, destruction, and judgment upon the godless would be with the Philistines for seven months. The number seven is significant here because it represents God acting on the world. (The number of God (3) plus the number of the world (4). It is God's holy dealing with men. The significance of this number is one of the major features of the Book of Revelation and the Holy Spirit wants us to make the connection between this judgment upon the Philistines and the Last Days. We are living in the Last Days. Jesus could return at any time. And this incident with the Philistines should remind us all of the death and destruction and suffering that awaits the godless in eternity. Faith in Christ is our only hope to escape God's final judgment. The Philistines were still not sure that God was the source of these judgments upon the land. (Note the phrase “if you send away the ark”) So true even today, we are so slow to see the warning signs, so slow to attribute our woes to God trying to get our attention. Even now we are experiencing God's judgment in our land, but is anyone saying, “Forgive us Lord, have mercy, for we have brought this on ourselves.” One quick example: We lament the proliferation of sexual sin in our world today, but read Rom 1:18-32, and see why God “gave them up to vile passions.” He gives us up because we chase after the creature rather than the Creator. We seek to serve our flesh rather than God.