Today’s Scripture Reading (January
16, 2016): 1 Samuel 7
There is a
saying in sports that good players always want the ball – they always want the
game in their hands when it comes down to crunch time. But sometimes you just
don’t want the ball. The worst college football defeat ever took place between
Cumberland and Georgia Tech on October 7, 1916. Cumberland had recently
cancelled its football team. Georgia Tech on the other hand was one of the
favorites to win the National Title. Even though Cumberland had cancelled its
football program, Georgia Tech insisted that Cumberland either play or pay a
$3,000 fine (a significant amount of money in 1916) to make up for lost gate
receipts that the loss of the game off of the schedule would have caused. Cumberland
decided to play. Many of the players didn’t really even understand the game.
The game would never have taken place today. In today’s standards it would have
been like the Clemson Tigers taking on your local High School Gym class. The
final score – Georgia Tech 222, Cumberland 0.
Many stories
have grown up around the game, but one of my favorites involves the running
back of the Cumberland team – purported to be also the coach George Allen.
According to the story, the quarterback took the ball from center and then promptly
fumbled it. The ball bounced away in the direction of Allen and the quarterback
screamed “Pick it up.” Allen apparently looked at the oncoming rush of the Georgia
Tech defensive line and shouted back, “You pick it up, you dropped it.”
Sometimes you just don’t want the ball.
The story of
the return of the Ark of the Covenant hits a snag in Beth Shemesh. And so the
men of Beth Shemesh send a messenger and instruct the men of Kiriath Jearim to
come and get the Ark. What is somewhat surprising is that the men of Kiraith-Jearim
obeyed the summons. Because sometimes you just don’t want the ball.
But they
came and took the ark. One of the theories as to why they came centers around
the relationship between Kiriath-Jearim and Gibeon. The two cities were related
and the men of Gibeon had been made bond servants of Israel during the time of
Joshua. So it is possible that the men of Kiriath-Jearim were also bond
servants of Israel – and maybe the summons was exactly that, a command that the
men of Kiriath-Jearim had no option but to obey.
And so they
came, and they took the Ark to the house of Abinadab, a local Levite. The
thought process was probably that as a Levite, Abinadab would understand what
to do with the Ark, so that the disaster of Beth Shemesh would not be revisited
within the cluster of towns that existed around Kiriath-Jearim and Gibeon. And
in the end they were right, and Abinidab and his family experienced the
blessings of God.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1
Samuel 8
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