The Ark Is Captured

A runner stumbles into the town of Shiloh, his clothes torn and dust on his head. Everyone knows what that means. An old man is sitting by the road, waiting, trembling. Not for his sons. For the ark of God.

Israel is at war with the Philistines again. The armies meet near a place called Ebenezer, and Israel loses. About four thousand Israelite soldiers fall. Back in camp, the elders ask the right question. “Why did the Lord let us be defeated today?” But they come up with the wrong answer. “Let's bring the ark of the covenant from Shiloh. If it's with us, it will save us from our enemies.” The ark was the sign that God was with his people. But they are treating it like a lucky charm. So the ark is brought, and with it come Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas.

When the ark arrives in the camp, Israel gives such a great shout that the ground shakes. Across the valley, the Philistines hear it and are afraid. “A god has come into their camp! Who can save us from these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with plagues in the wilderness.” “Be strong, Philistines! Fight like men, or you'll become slaves to the Hebrews.” And they fight. Israel is defeated again, worse than before. The ark of God is captured. And Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, both die.

That same day, a runner from the battle reaches Shiloh. Eli is ninety-eight years old and blind, sitting on his seat by the road, watching, because his heart trembles for the ark of God. The messenger tells him. Israel has fled. Many have died. Your two sons are dead. “And the ark of God has been captured.” When he mentions the ark, Eli falls backward off his seat beside the gate. His neck is broken, and he dies, for he was old and heavy. His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, is about to have a baby. When she hears the news, she goes into labour, and as she is dying, she names her son Ichabod, a name that means something like, no glory. “The glory has departed from Israel,” she says, “because the ark of God has been captured.”

But the story is not over, because the God of Israel is nobody's prisoner. The Philistines carry the ark to their city of Ashdod and set it in the temple of their god Dagon, right beside his statue, like a trophy. Next morning, the people of Ashdod come in, and there is Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord. They set him back up. The next morning, there he is again, face down before the ark. This time his head and hands have broken off and are lying on the threshold. Then the Lord's hand is heavy on the people of Ashdod. They are struck with painful swellings, tumours, all through the city. “The ark of the God of Israel must not stay here with us!” So they send it on to Gath. The same thing happens there. Then to Ekron, where the people cry out, “They've brought the ark to kill us!”

After seven months, the Philistines ask their priests and diviners what to do. Send it back, they say. Send a guilt offering: five gold models of the tumours and five gold mice, one for each Philistine ruler. Put the ark on a new cart pulled by two cows that have just had calves and have never been yoked. Shut their calves up at home. Then watch. If the cows head straight up the road to the Israelite town of Beth-shemesh, leaving their own calves behind, then this disaster came from Israel's God. The cows set off, lowing as they go, and they turn neither to the right nor to the left. Straight up the road to Beth-shemesh.

The people of Beth-shemesh are out reaping the wheat harvest in the valley. They look up and see the ark coming, and they are overjoyed. The Levites lift down the ark, and the people offer the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. But some of the men of Beth-shemesh look into the ark, and many of them die. The town is shaken. “Who can stand before the Lord, this holy God?” So they send word to the town of Kiriath-jearim, and the ark is carried there, to wait.

Who was Dagon? He wasn't a Philistine invention. Ancient tablets from cities in Syria, such as Mari and Ugarit, show that a god called Dagan was worshipped there long before the Philistines arrived on the coast. The Philistines seem to have adopted him as one of their own gods. And his temple at Ashdod lasted a very long time. The book of First Maccabees says it was finally burned down by the Jewish leader Jonathan, many centuries after this story.

The ark is captured. You'll find it in First Samuel, chapters 4 to 6. Israel tried to use God like a good-luck charm, and lost. The Philistines tried to keep God as a trophy, and found they couldn't. So here's something to think about. Do you ever treat God like a lucky charm, instead of someone to know, trust and obey?