Readings for today: 1 Samuel 4-8
I remember the first time I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark. Such a great movie. Action. Adventure. Suspense. Mystery. It remains a favorite to this day. The heart of the movie is the search for a lost talisman. A sacred treasure. The Nazis want to capture the ark and use it to conquer the world. Indiana Jones wants to capture the ark and put it on display in a museum. Both sides miss the point. The ark of the covenant has no power of its own. Looking into the ark isn’t going to cause your face to melt off. There are no ghosts lurking inside. No insidious force waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting. It simply is a box built to carry the most treasured memories of God’s chosen people. The budded rod of Aaron. A jar of manna from heaven. The stone tablets on which were written the Ten Commandments.
Human beings have this tendency to turn ordinary things into magic totems. We are desperate for something concrete that we can touch and hold and see and feel. We are deeply uncomfortable with the unknown and the unfamiliar. So we make idols like golden calves or bronze snakes. We build beautiful spaces like the Tabernacle and adorn it with golden furniture like the ark but promptly forget the point of it all which is to connect to God.
In our passage today, Israel treats the ark like a magic charm. A good luck token. They mistakenly assumed the ark itself contained power when in fact it was useless. It was just a golden box. The Philistines made a similar mistake. They assumed the ark represented a god and they trembled in fear. Both sides missed the point. In the ensuing battle, the Philistines easily overwhelm Israel. They slaughter thirty thousand on the battlefield. They capture the ark. They kill the priests. They return to their cities having won a great victory not only over Israel but seemingly over Israel’s god. So they take the ark and put it in one of their temples as tribute to their own god, Dagon. When they get up the next morning - probably hung over from the celebration the night before - they can’t believe their eyes. Dagon had fallen on his face before the ark. So they set his statue back up again but the following day they find him fallen yet again to the ground this time with his head and hands cut off. A plague sweeps the city. People start getting sick and dying. They take the ark to another city but the same thing happens. They send it to a third city but the people of that city won’t let it in. So they send the ark back to Israel with an offering. Golden tumor and golden mice to represent the plague they had suffered. It’s important to note the lesson they learned. What they did with the ark was of little importance compared with what they did to honor the God of Israel.
What about us? How often do we turn ordinary things in our own lives into sacred talismans. We place our trust in a particular place or particular style of worship or a particular personality in the pulpit, We treat prayer like some magic formula. The Word of God like some magic book. Friends, none of these things contain any power or authority of their own. Sacred space is important not because of the space itself but because of what happens there. The worship of the Living God. Worship style is important not because of the words or melodies or instrumentation but because of how it points us to God. Prayer is important not because we are good at it or know just the right words to say but because it is the primary way we talk to God. The Bible is important not because of the words on the page but because of how the Holy Spirit uses those words to transform us into the image of God. God is gracious to us. He reveals Himself to us through ordinary means of grace. Make sure you don’t ascribe to those “ordinary means” any more credit than they deserve. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus!
Readings for tomorrow: 1 Samuel 9-12