Make no mistake, the Ark of the Covenant was not a lucky rabbit’s foot. It was not a ho-hum religious relic. It was not a souvenir. The Ark was all about the God of the covenant. A God who is holy, a God who is unique, a God who is supreme. If the Israelites don’t understand that, if the Philistines don’t understand that… God Himself will make it known.

After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then they carried the ark into Dagon’s temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained. That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon’s temple at Ashdod step on the threshold. I Samuel 5:1-4

The Philistines had captured the Ark and taken it home. Now, why are they putting it in the temple to their god, Dagon? According to John MacArthur’s Bible Commentary, “The placing of the ark of God in the temple of Dagon was supposed to be a sign of Dagon’s power and Yahweh’s inferiority, a visual representation that the god of the Philistines was victorious over the God of the Hebrews.”

God is so awesome. They think He is inferior, that he has been beaten by Dagon, so God knocks their idol on its face, bowing down before His dwelling place. Obviously the Philistines don’t get the message the first time, and they simply pick Dagon up and put him back. (I wonder what their explanation was for this?) Next day, he’s knocked down again – this time with his head and hands cut off, a common sign of victory over a dead enemy. (see 2 Sam. 4:12)

Isaiah 42:8 says, “I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.” God is utterly unique. He is the one and only creator of all. He is the God who is holy, holy, holy. No one is like Him. No one can claim the glory and honor that are due to God alone.

Permit to me quote from one of our posts back in Joshua, “You Can’t Add God to your Pantheon“:

“In their polytheistic mindset, they [the Israelites] wanted to just add God to the pantheon of other gods that they worshipped. He wouldn’t mind, right? They’re still serving Him too, so why would it matter? Maybe He could even be the “chief” God of the pantheon! Serving Him sounds like a great idea, especially in light of the promised blessings. Purging their lives of the other ones… that would be too extreme.

This speaks to me loudly about our postmodern culture today. God, Jesus, salvation, the Bible and it’s ‘inspiration,’ messages of hope and peace; maybe even going to church, doing community service… those all sound like good things! But, if you start making claims about the exclusivity of serving God – that you cannot serve Him and the other gods we worship – then you are being extreme. Unreasonable. Intolerant.”

God is so holy he will not tolerate the other gods we try to squeeze into our lives. Out of His holiness and also out of His love for us and the exclusive relationship He longs to have with us, He will knock the other idols present in our hearts off their pedestals. Over and over again. He alone is worthy.

“There is no one holy like the LORD;
there is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.”
1 Samuel 2:2

*Pictures from wikipedia.org

Some of my favorite recent web discoveries:

Free downloadable Bible charts from Rose Publishing

Laundry stain removal chart

Online parallel Bible

Awesome very creative site with the alphabet… no great way to describe this, you just have to see it for yourself!

Enjoy!!

I love Old Testament narrative. Just looking at this outline in front of me makes me all excited to write! God does some AWESOME things in the Old Testament that reveal so much of who He is – it’s such a pity we don’t spend more time there. (Are you getting tired of me saying things like that??)

Today we’re going to start looking at 1 Samuel chapters 4-6. These stories all revolve around the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant, you may recall, was one of the pieces of furniture that God commanded the Israelites to make when they constructed the tabernacle. Placed inside the Holy of Holies, the Ark contained tangible reminders of their sacred covenant with God – the tablets God gave to Moses, Aaron’s budded rod which showed his priestly authority given by God, a jar of manna as a reminder of God’s provision for them. (Hebrews 9:3-4)

The top of the Ark, between two golden cherubim, was the Mercy Seat – the very dwelling place of God in their midst. (Interestingly, on the Day of Atonement the priest would sprinkle blood on the mercy seat – God would view the articles of the covenant covered with blood. They had broken the covenant and a sacrifice had to cover their sin! But, I shouldn’t get too off topic…)

In 1 Samuel 4, we find the Israelites fighting a losing battle with the Philistines. Notice verse 3:

When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why did the LORD bring defeat upon us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the LORD’s covenant from Shiloh, so that it may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies.”

Isn’t it interesting that they think that the Ark will save them from the Philistines?

Now, they did take the Ark into battle against Jericho, but the emphasis was on the presence of the Lord, not the ark. They took the Ark when God split the Jordan – and again, the emphasis was on the provision of the Lord, not the Ark.

Also, remember what it means that they’re losing this battle to begin with! Back at the end of Deuteronomy, we looked at God’s promise of blessings and curses for the people. If they are obedient to Him and follow the covenant, He will abundantly bless them and protect them from all harm. If they do not, He will curse them and turn them over to their enemies in defeat to drive them back to Himself. So, the fact that they are losing the battle to begin with is pretty telling – but, instead of realizing that there was a spiritual issue behind all of it, they decide to bring the Ark. (As though the Ark of the Covenant was some kind of rabbit’s foot that had worked in the past and they would try it again!)

Now, what really gets me about this story is the response of the Philistines.

When the ark of the LORD’s covenant came into the camp, all Israel raised such a great shout that the ground shook. Hearing the uproar, the Philistines asked, “What’s all this shouting in the Hebrew camp?”
When they learned that the ark of the LORD had come into the camp, the Philistines were afraid. “A god has come into the camp,” they said. “We’re in trouble! Nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? They are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the desert. Be strong, Philistines! Be men, or you will be subject to the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Be men, and fight!” (1 Sam. 4:5-9)

The Philistines seems to have a more appropriate understating of the power of God than the Israelites do! The point was not the presence of the Ark of the Covenant- the point was the presence of the GOD of the Covenant! Indeed, He was the God who delivered them from Egypt! Seek HIM for help! The Ark isn’t going to deliver them – only God can do that, and the only way He would do that is if they were right spiritually. I’ll give you one guess about what will happen…

So the Philistines fought, and the Israelites were defeated and every man fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great; Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died. 1 Sam. 4:10-11

Do you ever find yourself clinging to something that represents God to you in some way, rather than clinging to God Himself? I don’t know what that would be for you – traditions, music or particular styles of music, churches, family… fill in the blank. The Israelites took the Ark of the Covenant, a very powerful reminder of God’s presence and indeed the very location where God would dwell among them, and made it an idol – they trusted in that representation of God rather than in God Himself.

God must be esteemed above all – whatever else that takes the place of prominence in our hearts, no matter how good or virtuous it may seem, is an idol. Many traditions are in place because they are honoring to God, but if we hold to the tradition more tightly than the God they remind us of, it is idolatry. As 21st century Christians, we are blessed with a rich history of a wide variety of music – much is very pleasing to God, but if we love a “style of worship” more than we love to worship God, music is an idol. The Church is the body of Christ, serving as His hands and feet and spreading the Truth of God – if we love our church more than God, it’s an idol. God loves family, and we have a profound calling to share the Truth with our children and love one another deeply and sacrificially – but if I love my husband or my children or my parents more than the God we seek to represent, family has become my idol.

As we discussed during our look at the 10 Commandments, God is a jealous God. He rightly demands an exclusive relationship with us – nothing can take His place. He wants all of you and nothing less – do you want Him and nothing else?

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5

As a follow-up to the prayer list I gave in my Crawling out of the Valley post, I wanted to provide the similar one-a-day monthly prayer list that I use to pray for my husband. It is from the Revive Our Hearts website – you can view it and download your own here.

I hope that everyone likes the new blog background – if you’re reading this from an RSS feed please come visit the site and let me know what you think! I have also added links below each post for stumbleupon.com and digg.com, which are great ways to promote this site and allow other readers to find it! I would be very grateful if you would promote any posts that you find particularly meaningful, helpful, interesting, etc!