When God Became A Museum Piece

# 85 – Today's Du-votional comes from 1Sa 6:21-7:2, “So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjath Jearim, saying, "The Philistines have brought back the ark of the LORD; come down and take it up with you." 7:1 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. 2 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. (1 Sa 6:21-7:2) Wait a minute! Who brought back the ark of the Lord? How slow to perceive these people of Beth Shimesh are! A driverless cart with the ark of the covenant pulls up by a sacrificial stone and stops, and they give credit to the Philistines! Imagine a car pulling up in your driveway with the same cargo and no driver. Would you give credit to the previous owner or would you acknowledge the miracle and give glory to God? This is a sad part of the history of Israel. The people don't recognize God when He plainly shows up, and they would just as soon have nothing to do with Him. And He is shuttled off to another town. In this new town, the ark is given a house of a private citizen located on top of a hill where a young man is commissioned to watch over it. We would call this man a curator today. Someone taking care of a piece of history. God had become a museum piece in Israel. A piece of powerless quaint history and nothing more. The ark would remain in this museum for a total of forty years. The first 20 were likely very difficult times, because the difficult times finally brought lamentation (groaning) to the Israelites. They began to groan for God and revival came. And after 40 years David would come for the ark and seek to put it in it's rightful place. The question begs to be asked of each of us today. Has God become a museum piece? A quaint piece of historical curiosity? Has he been shuffled off to an obscure room in our heart, or is He an active vibrant force that we eagerly seek to engage in our day to day activity? One leads to groaning the other to joy.