Day 119 – The Ark Is Returned

• Today we read about the exploits of the unfortunate Philistines who stole the Ark in our last readings, and their rather hapless attempts to rid themselves of it again. Did you enjoy reading about it?
• Dagon was a false Canaanite god, the “father” of another god, Baal. Classically he has been considered to be a fish god, and there are many representations of how it must have looked. Just for interest, I’ve added one such picture of him below.
• Why do you think the Ark was placed at the feet of Dagon in 1 Samuel 5:2? What do you think the Philistines were trying to say by putting it there?
• What did God do (twice) to reverse this and show His power and position? What is your reaction to this? What was the reaction of the people who saw it?
• What does it mean that the “Lord’s hand was heavy upon the people”, in 1 Samuel 5:6? What did the people do with the Ark to try and rid themselves of the plagues the Lord sent upon them? What happened wherever the Ark went?
• What verse in chapter 5 shows us that the cause of the plagues was the Ark and God’s power (rather than just random chance)?
• Chapter 6 recounts the way the Philistines decided to send back the Ark to remove their troubles. They tied the Ark to a cart which was pulled by some cows. Read the text, and your study notes if you’d like, to try and work out what the Philistines were trying to do.
• When the cart was set off, which town (in Israel) did the cows pull it to?
• Some of the people in this town died (1 Samuel 6:19). Why was this?
• The linking verses in Psalm 115 are great verses and very clear to us about false idols. Anything made by human hands is blind and worthless in comparison to God. What’s especially interesting is Psalm 115:8, which warns against the people who make these idols putting all their trust in them, and in turn become more and more like the idols (rather than more like Jesus, which is what we are called to be). Based on this, how can we tell whether we are genuine followers of Christ?

The victory of the Philistines in yesterday’s story has turned into defeat today, hasn’t it? As the Ark moved around from city to city bringing destruction to the Philistine people, it was rather like a victory march for the Israelites. Christ’s death and resurrection is similar. It was the greatest reversal in all of human history. It turned what seemed like lowly defeat (Jesus’ death) to a resounding victory in his victory over death in the act of the Resurrection. It shows us that we can’t look at one specific thing to understand God (because humanly speaking there will always be ups and downs) – we have to look at the bigger picture. That, in the end, is found in Jesus and the gospel. False gods – or any idols in our life, whatever they may be – will, in the end, be judged and found to be worthless. Only in Jesus is ultimate authority and salvation found.