Explore the Bible: Worthy!

• The Explore the Bible lesson for June 19 focuses on 1 Samuel 5-6.

The adventures of the ark of the covenant

“The glory has departed from Israel.” This was the judgment of the high priest Phineas’ wife as she reacted to the news of Phineas’ and his brother Hophni’s death in battle with the Philistines, as well as the death of their father, Eli the priest, and the capture of the ark of the covenant by the Philistines. These were also her last words given to name her child as she died in childbirth, rendered in Hebrew as “Ichabod.” “The glory has departed” would commemorate this moment of national disaster (1 Samuel 4:21-22).

Imagine it: The armies of Israel defeated, the high priests of Israel slain, and their most precious symbol of the presence of God, the object that symbolized for them God’s presence bringing them out of Egypt and into the land of promise, captured by an opposing army. It must have seemed like this could only be the precursor to some even greater disaster—the opening salvo of the end of everything the Israelites held dear. In the ancient world, when armies fought, it was presumed their respective gods fought in the heavens as well. The defeat and capture of the ark would have meant the defeat of Yahweh.      

Certainly, the Philistines interpreted their victory in this way. The ark was brought into Ashdod, one of the five fortified city-states of the Philistines, and placed into the temple of Dagon. Dagon was the primary god of Philistines, a god of fertility, grain and fish. All of those roles amounted to Dagon being the giver and sustainer of life for a people who lived in the coastal plains. Placing the ark beside Dagon’s image represented Yahweh’s new role as subservient to Dagon, who was the victor in the battle between the deities. The day must have been filled with ceremony and celebration befitting the victory in battle and the installation new furniture in the temple, especially given the terror the ark inspired when it first appeared on the battlefield (1 Samuel 4:6-9).

The narrator vividly displayed the scene in which the Philistines discovered strange things had been happening in the night. “There was Dagon, fallen on his face … .” The Philistines apparently were not bothered by the irony of having to prop up their god. The next morning, Yahweh provided further symbolic instruction, as Dagon’s head and hands were broken off by another fall. Whatever authority or power the Philistines believed Dagon to have was proved an illusion. Yahweh’s hand proves powerful, or rather “heavy,” as Ashdod suffers a plague of tumors. Dagon had no power over his own image or the ability to preserve the health and life of his people. Had the Philistines been able to open the ark and live, they could have read from the tablets of stone inside “You shall have no other gods before me” (Deuteronomy 10:5). The people of Ashdod then decided to share the ark with the people of Gath, who suffered the same tumors and a collective panic attack before they generously shared the ark with the city of Ekron.

The ark’s “victory” tour of the Philistine territory came to a close after seven months with a conference of Philistine priests and magicians tasked with determining what to do with their “prize.” Their solution was partially a test to determine Yahweh’s ability to get the ark where he wanted it to go by placing it on an unguided cart pulled by newly yoked cows who had just calved new calves, pointed in the general direction of the closest Israelite town, Beth Shemesh. Their solution also was an act of deference, as they sent a guilt offering of golden tumors and rats with the ark. This unusual gift likely was an attempt at “sympathetic magic.” By sending the symbolic tumors and rats to Israel, they hoped to send them out of Philistine territory.

The last act of the Philistines with the ark displayed the same error that they displayed in their first act. The Philistines still assumed Yahweh’s influence and power could be controlled. Dagon’s statue and the plagues they endured proved Yahweh could not be subjugated. Now, they were acting under the belief Yahweh’s power and influence can be gotten rid of. They believed that if they got Yahweh far enough away, he could be safely ignored.    

Homemade homecoming

The people of Beth Shemesh likely always kept a weather eye out to the west, for any sign of a Philistine raiding party coming up into the hill country from the plains. On this day, they saw the glory returning to Israel. The return of the ark sparked rejoicing and a vibrant description of the spontaneous sacrifice of the very cart and cows that brought the ark. (It must also have sparked confusion at the discovery of the golden offerings: “It’s gold! It’s … a lot of rats. And five…uh…tumors?”) The local Levites came out and found the closest available makeshift altar for the ark and the golden offerings—a large rock in the field of a man named Joshua. The scene was part picnic and part worship service, but this time the worship was directed to the one true Lord.

Did the Israelites know anything about the adventures of the ark during its seven-month exile? In one of the darkest periods of the life of Israel, Yahweh had continued to act in astonishing ways, likely just out of sight. Walter Brueggemann notes the remarkable fact that Yahweh never speaks in these chapters: “In our text Yahweh has said nothing, decreed, asserted, required nothing. Yahweh has moved in total, astonishing silence. There is no doubt however, either for Israel or for the Philistines, that the sovereign will of Yahweh dominates the story.”

Most of us will be able to locate ourselves at one or the other place in the story. We easily can find ourselves with the Philistines in assuming Yahweh can be made to serve our idols, whatever things that we assume give us life apart from God. We are wrong, and every idol must finally fall broken in the presence of the only true Lord and only true giver of life.

We can find ourselves with the Israelites, saying, “The glory has departed.” Yet Yahweh remains at work, even in enemy territory. The ark of covenant, then and now, remains an object of fascination. But its entire meaning is summed up in understanding that the LORD Almighty is present with his people, even in the darkest times.