Author: George Hulett

This week we are following up with the narrative of the ark of God being captured by the Philistines. If this were the first time we read about this particular we would find it peculiar. If we had previously read the books of Moses, we would find it rather odd. And if we had read the book of Samuel, (It was originally written as one book and divided into First and Second Samuel for ease of reading.), we’d wag our heads in a little bit of confusion at the events recorded here.
The questions that mount up in my mind always begin with Uzzah. Later, we will read of King David having the ark returned back to Jerusalem. But on the way back, if you will remember, Uzzah saw the ark starting to become off balance and reached up to steady it. When he touched the ark, the Lord struck him dead. We’ll discuss this event in much more detail later, but for now, that much of the story is sufficient to add confusion to today’s blog.
Here are some of the questions that come to my mind when I read this narrative: How could the Philistines move the ark after they captured it? If Uzzah was struck dead for touching it, how did they handle it and live? How did they get the ark into the temple of Dagon, their god? And why would they place it in Dagon’s temple in the first place? How were they able to load it on the cart to send it back to Israel and why did they send the golden tumors and rats back with it? How were the people of Beth Shemesh able to handle the ark and why did those folks look into it? Yes, this narrative raises a few questions for me, but they pretty much boil down to the same question. It has to do with people handling the ark inappropriately and not getting “zapped” instantly, like Uzzah.
The answer, I believe, is that God was trying to teach them a lesson. The Israelites had begun treating the ark as an idol — see last week’s blog on idolatry. And God wanted to teach them a lesson. So He allowed the Philistines to capture the ark and He allowed them to handle it without being struck dead so that His power might be displayed. If He had struck the first and second and so on Philistine who touched the ark dead, there would have been a few, maybe more than a few, of them killed. At some point, they would have quit trying to carry it. But by allowing them to carry it off, God demonstrated His great power over their god and over all people. In fact, the narrative suggests that many of the Philistines began to honor and fear God — perhaps even more than some of the Israelites did.
I write that because, when the ark is returned to Beth Shemesh the people there did not treat the ark as they should have. Instead they set it up on a pedestal and although scriptures record they sacrificed and made offerings to God, the book also records that God struck fifty thousand and seven men of Beth Shemesh dead because they had looked into the ark. God was teaching them a lesson. The lesson was to worship God alone and trust that His ways are always right. It’s still a valid lesson for us today.

Idolatry, it’s an ugly word. It brings to mind all sorts of things from witch doctors and voodoo to all kinds of ancient rites including human sacrifice. Scripture warns us against idolatry. But, seriously now, in this age of enlightenment, who actually worships idols or icons any more? The answer might surprise you. There are many religious groups today who are actively involved in idol worship; from the obvious ones like Krishna and Buddha, to the less obvious ones like the cross or the flag of a nation. And don’t misunderstand me here, I’m a Patriot who proudly flies the flag every day that reminds me of the price that was paid for my freedom and I have a little cross on a necklace that I sometimes wear to remind me of the price that was paid for my freedom from sin. I’m not saying that flag waving or cross wearing is idolatry. I’m reminding us that even seemingly innocuous things can turn into idols if we allow them too.
In First Samuel, chapter four we see just such an incident. The Israelites are at war with the Philistines and they have been defeated in battle, losing about 4,000 men. The leaders of the Israelite army come to Shiloh to get the Ark of the Covenant and carry it into battle with them so that the Lord can fight their battles for them. Do you see the problem here? God can fight their battles from wherever He must, but they thought they needed to bring God’s power onto the battlefield. Yet we know, as they should have, that God is not actually and physically enthroned between the cherubim on the ark — that was symbolic. At any rate, the elders of the people somehow thought that by bringing the ark into play, it would get God involved. And it did.
When the Israelites saw the ark, they rejoiced loud enough to shake the ground and shake up the Philistines as well. They were terrified that there were mighty gods within the Israelite camp. But eventually battle was joined, the Philistines won, and they captured the ark. Why? Scripture isn’t specific, but I believe it was because the Israelites had made an idol out of the ark of God. Instead of praying to God or praising God, they brought the ark and praised it. You see it’s possible to take something that has inherent religious value and turn it into an actual idol. And many people still do this today. There are those who worship a bone — supposedly from John the Apostle or a splinter of wood — supposedly taken from the cross of Christ, or a shroud from Turin. There are people who venerate supposed saints and even worship Mary, the mother of our Lord. And the list goes on.
Whew, that’s a relief for most of us. You thought I was going to talk about the idols of identity, money, material things, status, physical appearance, alcohol, etc. But I’m not going to go there at all. Let us just be careful to recognize that many times the New Testament warns of being seduced by the things of this world to the point where they become the most important thing in our life — which is, by definition, idolatry.

Listening to my radio on the way back from Atkins today, I heard the voice of Diana Ross singing, “I started school in a worn, torn dress that somebody threw out. I knew the way it felt to always live in doubt, To be without the simple things, So afraid my friends would see the guilt in me…” And it started me thinking… Back in 1968 when the Supremes came out with this song about teenage pregnancy, it was a taboo subject. Not that it never happened, but nobody ever talked about it. And certainly nobody ever sang about it. This was in the midst of Vietnam and all the hyper freedom movements in our society. The very thoughts expressed in the song seem to fly in the face of the entire liberation movement with these girls appearing on Ed Sullivan and actively standing in opposition to the entire ideal.
When I got back to the office, the song was stuck in my head, so I did a little research. It was originally written as a blues piece about a poor teenage girl who was pregnant and lamenting her future. But Barry Gordy of Motown wanted a top hit and that wasn’t it. So, he rewrote and rearranged the lyrics to the point where it ended up as the story of a young girl explaining to her boyfriend that they would have to wait until marriage; because she, having been born out of wedlock, did not want that stigma for her own child. Imagine that. Here in the middle of the revolutionary movements of the 1960’s was a positive message for caution.
But apparently nobody listened. As I write today, history shows that in 1968, the number of children born to single mothers was 7% in the US. By 1978 the number had risen slightly to 11%. By 2017 the number had risen steadily and was at 25% of all births. Last year in the US, a whopping 42% of all babies born in the US were born to unwed mothers. And unlike 1968 when it was socially unacceptable to have children out of wedlock, that is no longer the case today. Today, the idea of a “Love Child” even seems to be a positive thing.
But that’s not the way God intended for children to brought into the world. God’s plan has always included the father being not only present in the life of the child, but responsible for the raising and instruction of his children. Maybe it’s time we spent a little more effort encouraging young people to wait. I know it’s an old fashioned notion, but the ramifications are immense. Our youth are under constant bombardment and those, like Rod, who work with them are doing their best to encourage and support them. But they need our support and encouragement as well. Tell them you love them and show them you care.
In 1968, Diana Ross sang that, “No child of mine will be bearing the name of shame I’ve been wearing.” And in 2022, we need to hear that message all over again.

As my wife and I were doing our Bible Reading the other night, we got to the part of Genesis where Jacob blesses his sons, near the end of his life. As we were reading through the text, I looked over at her and said, “Some of these don’t really sound like blessings at all, do they?” Her response was that most of them sounded more like curses than blessings. Then we looked again at the text. The Bible we were reading from had a heading for chapter 49 that said, “Jacob blesses his sons”. That’s why we were expecting blessings. But the text actually says: “Then Jacob called his sons and said, ‘ Gather yourselves together: that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come.’” Aha, did you catch that? These were never intended as blessings, but rather were a prophecy of the future generations of Israel. The sector heading was misleading. So what difference does it make?
Quite often we have a tendency to forget that in our Bibles there are necessarily some opinions of man interspersed with the word of God. Among these are simple things required for translation purposes such as inserting a definitive object (a, an, or the) before a word to make it easier to read in English. Other times, it might involve translating an idiom into a more correct understanding rather than a literal rendition which might have a completely different meaning. (I always use the example that if you asked me for a million dollars and I responded, “Go jump in the lake.”, I wouldn’t actually be commanding you to cast yourself into a body of water. You’d immediately understand that I meant “No” in an emphatic way. Occasionally, there are even words that have taken on different meanings and the translators have had to decide which meaning to use. A classic is the term Holy Ghost. In the 1600’s when the KJV was being written, “ghost” meant “guest” and the idea was that the Spirit of God was a welcome guest in our lives. Through the years, the word “ghost” evolved into an entirely different and somewhat disreputable meaning. So, by the time the ASV came out, the term “Holy Spirit” had replaced the term “Holy Ghost” in our Bibles and remains that way in modern translations. One of the biggest manmade additions to our Bibles has been the chapters and verses which were assigned that way with no apparent reasoning or rationale. It’s quite obvious that the last part of Romans 5 and the beginning of Romans 6 are expressing the same thought and sometimes a verse cuts a sentence in two. And don’t even get me started on study Bibles where someone writes a commentary to tell you what the Bible actually means.
So, back to our dilemma. We quickly realized that these words from Jacob to his sons were not blessings. But they were prophetic. And then we continued reading the word of God, warned afresh to focus on His words and not opinions.