David And His Ark Series

The Aim of This Series

Today, we continue a series designed to show you what happens when God shows up. All of this series is devoted to what theologians call a theophany. A theophany literally means “to show God.” These encounters are called visitations and they are almost always following a crisis of some kind. It is God coming down.

During Week One, we saw that God is beautiful and not just useful for our lives. Last Sunday, we experienced Job nearly demanding God’s presence despite his pain. And today, we witness David enjoying the music of the presence of God.

I want us to development a thirst to experience more of God’s presence. Don’t you want to see God?

I want to tell you a story today about a box, a very important box, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Now, part of our story is in the book called 1 Samuel and part of it is in 2 Samuel. There are several years in between but I think you’ll find this story as interesting as it is helpful.

Today’s Scripture

“When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2 Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. 3 And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. 4 But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. 5 This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.” (1 Samuel 5:1-5)

Back-story

Israel fought a losing battle against the Philistines around 1100 years before the time of Christ. It was a terrible time in Israel – a time of moral and spiritual decay. It was during the battle, the Israelites mistakenly thought they could manipulate God’s power by bringing the Ark to the battle. But the Ark was captured and the battle was lost. The victorious Philistines brought the Ark into their god’s temple, Dagon. Placing it there essentially said, “Our god, Dagon, is bigger than your God, Yahweh.” While there, God’s power overwhelms the Philistines’ god, Dagon so much that Dagon fell face downward and his limbs were severed. Instead of God bowing to Dagon, Dagon bows to God not once, but twice. Eventually, the Philistines get the picture and they want to get rid of the Ark. Now, I’m leaving out so many good parts of the story in interest of time. So they place the Ark as if it were a trophy before Dagon and you can hear the Philistines cheering the defeat of God even now. But their cheering is short-lived for the first night the Ark is placed in Dagon’s temple and Dagon is face down. The second night, Dagon’s arms and legs are severed.

The Philistines are relatively smart and can realize where all this is headed. The whole city of Ashdod (about 35 miles west of Jerusalem) is in a panic. So they begin to pass the Ark around from city to city within Philistia. The people of the city of Ekron see the Ark coming their way and they say, “Don’t bring that thing to our town.” So they come up with a plan that places the Ark on the back of a cart and have cows pull it away. Now, the people of Israel were harvesting their fields when they saw the Ark coming their way. They place some creative sacrifices on the cart and they make a test, in order to see if Yahweh is behind all these unusual attacks. Essentially, these two cows had just given birth to calves and their calves were not weaned. Second, the cows had never been in a yoke before. So they put together a crude test. If the young cows could work together even though they had never been trained and if the cows ignored their maternal instincts and head toward Israel, they’ll know God is behind this. In fact, this is exactly what the cows did and they did not turn left or right but headed straight toward Israel (1 Samuel 6:12). Eventually, the Ark finds its way back home to Israel to the city known as Beth-shemesh, the nearest town of Israel. Interesting note, Beth-shemesh is a city where there was a high concentration of Levites, the tribal family given responsibility of the Ark. This face will become important later in the story.