The Other Ark... (not the boat)

The Israelites and the Philistines seemed to always be battling in First Samuel. Chapter four through seven depicts one of those battles.

When the highly-respected Ark of the Covenant was carried into the Israelites' camp, the Israelites started yelling and singing praises and making this huge uproar, so much that the very ground they stood on began shaking and the Philistines heard and wondered what had gotten into them. The Philistines figured out that the ark had done this and stole the ark. Eli (you know him... he's the guy who took care of Samuel in my last overview) had two sons who were in charge of the ark. They both died when the ark was stolen. When news of this reached Eli, he fell in shock, broke his neck, and died as well. Also, his daughter-in-law who was pregnant at the time, went into labor and died.

Now, I know you're thinking "What in the world? These people are going crazy!" But really, the Ark was an extremely important possession. It held important artifacts of the Hebrews' faith and was structured by God himself, just like the temple was.

The Philistines, however, had no respect for the ark, and placed it in the temple of their pagan god, Dagon. When the Philistines awakened the next morning, Dagon had fallen on its face before the ark. The Philistines set it upright again, but when they saw Dagon later, it had fallen down on its face and his head and hands had busted off and lay on the threshold. From that day, no one stepped on the threshold of Dagon's temple.

Each time the Philistine's relocated the ark, destruction came to that city. Eventually, the Philistines surrendered the Ark of the Covenant back to Israel.


I wonder where our passion and urgency is.... our respect and awe.