The Ark Returns

I. God Defends His Honor from The Trophy Hunters

Dagon - what we know about this pagan God.

It was usual for pagans to capture foreign gods and place the idol in their own temple. The idea was that this showed that their god was stronger than the foreign god. Also, they weren’t trying to insult the foreign god by putting it in their temple - it was the holiest place they could put it. But God is not like other gods. He will have no rival, and he will make it clear that his power is without parallel.

Little is known about Dagon. Best explanation is that the word is nearly identical to the Hebrew word for grain, so he was some kind of grain or fertility god.

Symbolism was very important to Pagans. the statue falling would have been very disturbing to them; even more when the head/hands broke off, that was a common gristly military execution of foreign leaders.

The permanent impact of this event is seen by the continuing superstition of not treading on the threshold.

Location - see map

Tumors

Not necessarily cancer, Heb. word merely indicates they had lumps or bumps of some kind. Does not distinguish between causes of the lumps.

Best guess is that this is the Bubonic plague. [from Wikipedia]

is a bacterial infection spread from the fleas from infected rats, and we know that rats were involved (6:4)

Was the cause of the Black Death in the 14th Century that killed 50 million people in Europe. Modern sanitation methods have virtually eliminated it in developed countries, though it still exists in small numbers in developing nations like the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Symptoms include painful swelling and lumps, high fever and associated stuff, vomiting blood, difficulty breathing and extreme pain caused by the decay of the skin while the person is still alive. It is fatal in 30%-90% of cases without treatment. Death usually occurs within 10 days of infection; but in some cases, people could be relatively OK in the morning, but drop dead by nightfall.

Musical Ark - see map

The Return of the Ark

Return with Guilt Offering - not necessarily an admission of sin - for sin was a foreign concept to pagans; rather, they knew Yahweh was angry, and this was a pagan attempt to make him happy.

Apparently used imitative magic, where they thought that by creating images of the things that hurt them would remove them from their land by carrying them away symbolically. However, this was certainly not any kind of authorized procedure to worship God. hand-crafted images of disgusting and unclean items wouldn’t please God who didn’t want images, and called his people away from imitative magic.

Still learning lessons from the Exodus - they aim to give in sooner.

A scientific test before science is a thing. Cows that were untrained would not know how to pull together and therefore wouldn’t go in a straight line under the best of circumstances; being just separated from their calves, they would normally return to them.

Application -

I imagine not too many people anymore still go to church to be “respectable.”

However, there is the danger of using God and religious things to “dress up” our real desires in Christian language. That is we really worship something else besides God, but we use the trappings and appearance of religion to make it seem ethical. We bring God into the temple of our idols, hoping his presence will sanctify our false worship.

These things are often good things in themselves. Maybe you’re here to feel loved, or comfortable. Maybe you’re here to meet friends. These are not bad things, but they can sometimes be a replacement for the worship of God.

How do you know if you are making otherwise good things into an idol? ask yourself, what would make me stop going to church, or to find another one? if the answer has to do with bringing more glory to God, or serving him better, then you are putting God first. If the answer is not that, then that is your real God.

II. God defends His honor from the careless worshippers

Bethshemesh [see map] was a priestly city (Josh 21:16 ), so the people should have known about proper worship procedure. Furthermore, we are told (v.15) that Levites were there, and who took charge of the worship.

Cows were not proper objects of sacrifice, the box of weird magic items was repulsive and should not have been shown with the ark, and most importantly, they should have known been then to look into the Ark. It was the job of the Levites to cover the Ark when it was being moved so that people wouldn’t look at it. The people understandably rejoiced, but they were careless in their worship - they worshipped by what felt good, not by what God had commanded.

Results - if you have the NIV, ESV, or NLT, it will say 70 men. Some manuscripts say 50070, others just 70. That’s lit. “seventy men, fifty thousand men”, which is not the normal way of describing that number. Anyway, Beth Shemesh certainly wouldn’t have 50000 people in it. It’s a technical problem, but here’s the bottom line - a significant number of men, most likely 70, died as a result of their careless worship.

The question they asked at the end is the one they should have asked at the beginning. “Who can stand before the Lord this holy God?” Ps 15 Thus, the people should have first prepared their hearts to follow the Lord; had they approached God with respect, they would not have made the worst mistakes; more importantly, with right hearts God might have overlooked some of the wacky procedures, and they definitely wouldn’t have looked inside the box.

Out of fear, they send the ark away. But they can’t send it back to Shiloh, because Shiloh was leveled when the Philistines won. Jer 7:12-15

Jeremiah 7:12–15 NKJV

“But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. And now, because you have done all these works,” says the Lord, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren—the whole posterity of Ephraim.

III. God defends His Honor by Supporting the Truly Repentant

A Revival takes place here, that is directly connected to the victory over the Philistines. But notice that it does not begin because of Samuel’s faithful ministry. The Ark remained there for twenty years, and Samuel continued to minister faithfully with no measurable national success despite national fame (4:1).

It begins with a deep hunger for people to return to the worship of the Lord (v.2). this was the main reason God had abandoned his people - their external worship was hollow and meaningless, so he took it away. When they lost their formal rituals, they began to realize what was really missing.

However, the return to God would have been impossible without Samuel. They did not know how to come back to God without him (v.3-4), though it’s pretty obvious.

Samuel also called a massive revival meeting. the ritual of pouring out water is not found elsewhere, but They were clearly involved in symbolizing the return of the people to truly worship God alone. The meeting and the prayers were important, but just holding a meeting wasn’t enough. The meeting only worked because the people were ready, and they were reading only because (1) they hungered for righteousness and (2) Samuel had already been guiding them on how to obtain it.

The Philistines draw near again, and this time, the people are far more sensitive. Though the Ark is back, they don’t go get it this time. Instead, Samuel offers a burnt offering as a way of symbolizing their need for forgiveness. This time, the ritual works because they have right hearts. God suddenly creates thunder, and the heavenly noise frightens the superstitious Philistines. It’s a complete victory. [see map]

The Memorial Stone is called “Ebenezer” which means “Stone of Help.” That can meant “up to this point” God has helped us, or “until the present time” The song “come Thou Fount” second verse- Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I’ve come. And I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger wand’ring from the fold of God; he to rescue me from danger interposed his precious blood.”

True revivals cannot be manufactured. God has many means at his disposal to initiate one in his perfect time. But the essence of it is people truly wanting to return to a vibrant relationship with God. But desire alone is also not enough. To be realized, there must be godly leaders willing to direct them. The godly leader is not enough, either. But when a willing people is led by godly leadership, genuine revival is possible.

I wish I could provide you a secret key to the revival of our nation. There simply isn’t one. However, prayer works. Pray for revival. But whether or not the country returns to God, you are in complete control of your own personal revival. Is God’s Honor first in your life? Is everything you do part of serving him faithfully? or have you let other, less important, things take God’s place? I can preach till I’m blue in the face, but until you want to put God first, nothing much is going to happen.

If you already are serving the Lord whole-heartedly, then thank you. Continue to faithfully serve, and to spread his word to those you know. Your faithful service matters. You can’t make people believe, but you can faithfully serve God. God will reward you for your faithful service. If God sends revival, you are perfectly placed to help many people find the Lord.