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Equipping Men with Biblical Knowledge and Leadership Skills
Category: Personal Study
Thread: Crazy Stories of the Bible
Post Topic: Raiders of the Lost Ark – Three-day Study
Post in Thread: #1
Next: Did a donkey just talk?
Scripture: I Samuel 4:1-22
Background
While the Hebrews were slaves in Egypt, a group of strong, warrior Greeks left the Aegean island of Crete. They settled in Canaan on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. (Today-the Gaza Strip). Five leaders ruled from five city-states: Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, Gath, Gaza.
Jump forward in time to the book of Judges. It was a terrible 400+ years. Israel sinned. God sent an oppressor. Israel repented. God sent a judge—a military leader–to rescue. The ungodly character of these judges worsened as the cycle repeated. The book of Judges ends with haunting words: “Every man did what was right in his own eyes.”
Part I – Harnessing the Power of God
Note – this is part I of a three-part study on the crazy story of the enemy Philistines capturing the holy Ark of the Covenant. What do you suppose happens when the holy Ark of the Covenant falls into the wrong hands?
We suggest reading each part as a single day’s Bible study.
Scripture:
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. 11The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died.
I Samuel 4:10-11
Observations
Context
- The time of the judges was nearing its end.
- Eli, a righteous man, served as the high priest.
- Eli is known for mentoring the great prophet and last judge, Samuel.
- Eli’s two sons, however, were known for their wickedness (I Samuel 2:12-24).
Events – Aftermath of Defeat
- The Israelites had lost 4000 men battling their perpetual enemies, the Philistines.
- The desperate elders brainstormed an idea to harness the power of God
- They proposed removing the Ark of the Covenant from the tabernacle and carrying it into battle.
- Yes, this is the same ark that Indiana Jones battled the Nazis over centuries later. It’s now hidden in some random warehouse in Washington 🙄.
- The two sons of Eli the high priest, Hophni and Phinehas, agree, and carry the ark into battle.
Events – Epic Fail
- They march confidently to the battlefield for a rematch with the ark held high.
- The Israeli camp cheered lustily when the ark entered the camp.
- The cheer was so loud, the enemy heard it.
- The Philistines quaked in fear at first. They had heard stories of how Jehovah had led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the Red Sea.
- Refusing to be subjugated, the Philistines decided to man up and fight to the death.
- The battle ensues, and it goes shockingly bad.
- This time, 30,000 Israelites are slaughtered.
- Worse yet, the ark is captured by the Philistines.
- Among the dead – Hophni and Phinehas.
- When news of the disaster reaches Eli, he keels over and dies too.
- Phinehas’ shocked wife goes into labor. Her son survives, but she does not.
Interpretation
Author/Genre
Samuel wrote the history of Israel’s monarchies in his books.
Setting
The Philistines shared a nebulous border with Judah. God had told Israel to conquer Philistia, but they didn’t. This created a setting of constant tension in the plains of Canaan.
Imagine
How distraught must the elderly, righteous high priest Eli have been, watching his two sons carry the Ark of the Covenant out of the tabernacle? In I Samuel 2:22-36, God told him this would happen. Eli knew how his evil sons had been acting. He probably begged his sons not to desecrate the holy ark like this. As they marched out anyway, he’d have prayed for them, begging God to spare them. But it was not to be.
Takeaways
- After the initial defeat, the elders asked the wrong question:
- “Why did the Lord bring defeat on us today before the Philistines?”
- They blamed God, rather than asking what he would have them do.
- The Philistines were well-aware of the exploits of Israel’s God. It seemed like they believed more than God’s chosen people!
- The elders decided to take matters into their own hands. They treated the precious Ark of the Covenant like a good-luck symbol.
- Eli’s two sons were the worst people to be deciding what to do with the ark. I Samuel 2:22-25 describes their wickedness.
- They really do bring to mind the Nazis in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, who wanted to harness the power of the ark against their enemies.
- Eli’s sons knew the power of God, but didn’t want to submit to his will.
Correlation
Exodus 11:1 – God tells Moses that there is one more terrible plague to be cast upon Egypt, after which, Pharaoh will let the Hebrew slaves leave.
- Pharaoh had already seen God’s power demonstrated in the first nine plagues, but still hardened his heart.
- Even after the Israelites left Egypt, Pharaoh again took on God, pursuing the Israelites into the Red Sea.
- Why do men, knowing God’s power, still refuse to bend a knee?
Application
Generic Applications
- The elders blamed God for the initial defeat. Rather than self-reflection, and determining why they had lost God’s favor, they took things into their own hands.
- They decided to carry the ark into battle without consulting Eli or God’s prophets.
- We always want to be the ones to fix a problem. We need to consider whether our fix falls within the will of God.
Personalize it
- Is there an area of my life where I’m choosing my way, without first considering whether it aligns with God’s way?
Bible study methodology adapted from Searching the Scriptures with permission from Tyndale House:
Swindoll, Charles, Searching the Scriptures. Tyndale House Publishers, 2016.
Part II – The Curse of the Ark
Note – this is part II of a three-part study on the crazy story of the enemy Philistines capturing the holy Ark of the Covenant. What do you suppose happens when the holy Ark of the Covenant falls into the wrong hands?
Scripture
Passage: I Samuel 5:1-12
Key Verses:
11So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, “Send the ark of the god of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it will kill us and our people.” For death had filled the city with panic; God’s hand was very heavy on it. 12 Those who did not die were afflicted with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.
I Samuel 5:11-12
Observations
Events – Ashdod and the Philistine “god”
- Victorious Philistines proudly displayed the captured Ark of the Covenant in their temple to their god Dagon.
- Dagon stood 20 feet tall inside the temple.
- The next morning, they discovered Dagon had fallen on his face, worshipful before the ark.
- The Philistines helped their stricken god to stand.
- The day after that, they woke to find Dagon had fallen again.
- His head and hands were severed and lying on the threshold.
- His torso lay prone, again worshipful before the ark.
- The Lord brought devastation on the people of Ashdod, inflicting them with tumors and worse.
Events – Let’s move it away from Ashdod to Gath (the future home of the giant Goliath)
- Admitting the hand of the Hebrews’ God was heavy upon their people and Dagon, they elders of Ashdod conspired to move the ark to Gath.
- The Philistine’s misery was transferred. The poor folks in Gath, young and old, suffered an outbreak of tumors.
Events – Get rid of this thing! (see map below, in Part III)
- The panicked citizens of Gath sent the ark on to Ekron.
- Ekron’s citizens saw it coming and went into a frenzy.
- Tumors and even death afflicted them as well.
- Some sources mention an invasion of rats.
- The Philistines had had enough. They wanted the Ark of the Covenant gone. So much for the spoils of war.
God’s sense of humor?
- What were these painful tumors, actually?
- Translated from Hebrew into the Greek word “emrods,” translated into English as “hemorrhoids.”
- Can you imagine a plague of hemorrhoids sent from God? Normal hemorrhoids are bad enough. Yeah, I’d want the ark out of there too.
Interpretation
Imagine
Imagine being a powerful Philistine warrior who’d just slain too many pesky Hebrews to count. You’d reveled in the victory, mocking their ark as it was hoisted to the stand beneath the towering figure of Dagon. But now, your inflamed rear end stings like you’ve been stung by a wasp from hell. You can’t sit down. You can’t sleep. Every step rubs the wrong way. And now the rats are swarming.
You wonder: How could the Israelites have ever lost a battle with this god behind them? What might they have done to anger their god so?
Takeaways
- God made it clear to the Philistines that Dagon was powerless in His omnipotent presence.
- They’d thought of Yahweh as just one more god in their pantheon.
- God inflicted agony of body and even death–to show His infinite holiness.
Correlation
- Exodus 20:4-5 – Commandment number 2 from the 10 commandments – no idol worship.
- Isaiah 44:19-20 – Shall I bow down to a block of wood? A deluded heart misleads such a person.
- It’s absurd to worship something you’ve created with your own hands.
- But that’s what the Philistines did with Dagon.
- You might even say the Israelites were treating the Ark of the Covenant like that – a tool or a god created with their own hands that they were able to control.
- Worship of idols is both absolutely forbidden and absolutely foolish.
Application
Generic Applications
- At the end of the letter of I John, the apostle warns believers about idols (I John 5:21).
- Of course, we don’t worship some little statue of Dagon or his ilk. But we need to seriously think about what an idol is. Anything we trust or worship besides our Lord Jesus is an idol.
Personalize it
- What might we be trusting or worshiping, obviously not for salvation, but for a source of comfort and pleasure?
- Careers, hobbies, wife, even mission?
- These are good things in themselves, if we don’t regard them before God. Where is God in our list of priorities?
Bible study methodology adapted from Searching the Scriptures with permission from Tyndale House:
Swindoll, Charles, Searching the Scriptures. Tyndale House Publishers, 2016.
Part III – The Ark Returns
Note – this is part III of a three-part study on the crazy story of the enemy Philistines capturing the holy Ark of the Covenant.
Scripture
Passage: I Samuel 6:1-18
Key Verses:
When the ark of the Lord had been in Philistine territory seven months, 2 the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it back to its place.”
I Samuel 6:1-2
Observations
Events
- The elders of Ekron ask for input from their pagan priests. How to get the Ark back to Israel!
- They advise a guilt offering of five golden tumors/hemorrhoids and five golden mice.
- Hitch two newly-calved milk cows to a wooden cart.
- Place the ark and the chest with the golden offerings on the cart.
- Take the calves away from their mamas.
- Escort the cows to the road leading to Beth Shemesh in Judah.
- The diviners’ prophecies:
- If the cows leave their babies and proceed on their own to Israel, it shows that Yahweh accepts the offering.
- The cows “low” unhappily the seven miles into Israel.
- No man directs their movements.
- They walk directly to Israel.
- When the cows arrive upon the land of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, the Israelites rejoice.
- The Levite priest Joshua of Beth Shemesh performs the sacrifice of thanksgiving.
Interpretation
Imagine
The Philistines had an interesting relationship with the Israelites. They were enemies, but they seemed to know everything about each others’ gods. After seeing and experiencing the consequences of capturing the ark, would you have turned to the Hebrews’ one true God?
Takeaways
- The Philistines didn’t know what to do. They just wanted to be rid of the ark and the havoc it had created.
- They decided to offer a guilt offering – five gold tumors and five gold rats, symbolizing the plagues that had infected their five main towns: Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron.
- They even discussed the mistakes Egypt’s Pharaoh had made generations ago when he refused to let God’s people go.
- The priests and diviners warned against hardening their hearts like Pharaoh had done.
- Unlike the Israelites, they seemed to respect some lessons from history.
- God used previously unyoked cows to bring the ark back to Israel.
- These cows hadn’t ever been yoked. Would they walk together or become bucking broncos?
- Milk cows never willingly leave their new babies. Would they rush back to the barns?
- Finally, would they travel on their own for seven miles to the nearest Israeli town–Beth Shemesh?
- Those milk cows must have been ridden by angels.
Correlation
- Where’s the Ark now? Lost? Hidden away in a warehouse in DC? Destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar? Buried deep under the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem? Theories abound.
- I Samuel 7:1-2 – The ark was initially taken to a house on a hill in the little town of Keriork.
- The town is 10 miles away.
- It remained there, guarded by the sons of the owner of the house, until King David took it to Jerusalem.
- Revelation 11:19 – In the apostle John’s vision, heaven opens up, and he sees the Ark of the Covenant.
- Is that symbolic of the presence of God in heaven?
- Or did God whisk the real ark away to the heavenly realm after Jesus completed his mission on earth?
Application
Generic Applications
- God provided everything needed for the thanksgiving sacrifice.
- The cows walked right onto the land of a Levite priest, Joshua of Beth Shemesh.
- They stopped directly in front of a rock never cut by human hands. Altars were required to be of uncut stones.
- The cart carried a guilt offering.
- Joshua chopped up the cart for firewood.
- The poor cows? They became the sacrifices
Personalize it
- When we study Old Testament stories, we should be considering how they point us to Christ.
- Above, we discussed how God provided everything to satisfy His requirements for a sacrifice.
- This provision paints a beautiful picture of God’s provision for us on the cross of Calvary.
- What in my life needs reconciliation to God? As he restored the Ark of the Covenant to Israel, God will provide everything we need.
Bible study methodology adapted from Searching the Scriptures with permission from Tyndale House:
Swindoll, Charles, Searching the Scriptures. Tyndale House Publishers, 2016.
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