I have a great love for irritating Cheyenne by repeating little things that I think are funny and she knows are irritating. Lately, it seems like the Indiana Jones movies are playing all the time, I have no idea why. And it came up that she had never seen Raiders of the Lost Ark, an all time classic. So I got Chey to sit down and watch it with me. As we started to get into the movie I explained to her that when you opened the Ark of the Covenant a monster would come out and kill everybody, actually I didn't tell her it was a monster, I told her it was a shark, and that it was known as The Shark of the Covenant.
Now, Indiana Jones is a silly movie. But the existence of the Shark in the Ark is true history. When the Israelites entered Canaan the Shark tore up like ten different kings and their armies. In the ancient world everybody knew about the Shark. When you got in a fight with Israel there was always a possibility that the Shark would show up, but sometimes He wouldn't.
Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines, and encamped beside Ebenezer; and the Philistines encamped in Aphek. Then the Philistines put themselves in battle array against Israel.
So, this story is from 1 Samuel 4. Just a little backstory, at this time Samuel is a young man and Eli the High Priest is still alive, along with his sons the priests Phinehas and Hophni. Samuel was told by the Lord not long ago how much he hates the way that Eli's sons cheat the people and make them hate to come to the Tabernacle and make offerings to Him. The Lord said that He would take the priesthood from their family, would kill the sons, and would raise up for himself a faithful priest. So, back to the fight, and the Shark.
And when they joined battle, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men of the army in the field. And when the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the (Sh)ark of the covenant of the Lord from Shiloh to us, that when it comes among us it may save us from the hand of our enemies.” So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
And when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly that the earth shook. Now when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, “What does the sound of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” Then they understood that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp. So the Philistines were afraid, for they said, “God has come into the camp!” And they said, “Woe to us! For such a thing has never happened before. Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. Be strong and conduct yourselves like men, you Philistines, that you do not become servants of the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Conduct yourselves like men, and fight!”
The Philistines were terrified. But they bucked up and they decided to fight back anyway. They knew there was a Shark but they weren't just gonna roll over and get bit.
So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and every man fled to his tent. There was a very great slaughter, and there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. Also the ark of God was captured; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.
The Ark was there. But there was no Shark. Hophni and Phinehas died and when their dad got the news he fell down and died too. I can't help but wonder why. Why does God's power sometimes show up and sometimes He leaves His people to get their butts kicked? Let's keep reading and see if we can get some kind of answer. I am gonna start at the top of chapter 5.
Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. And when the people of Ashdod arose early in the morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the earth before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and set it in its place again. And when they arose early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon and both the palms of its hands were broken off on the threshold; only Dagon’s torso was left of it. Therefore neither the priests of Dagon nor any who come into Dagon’s house tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.
So the Philistines took the Ark and, unexpectedly they got the Shark with it. God wouldn't do jack for the Israelites, wouldn't protect them from their enemies but He isn't in the Philistine lands a single full day before He starts going all shark all over them. Again why? They put the Ark next to their idol, they respected the Lord, they feared the Lord, we saw that in the last chapter. I think that they must have thought that the Lord was angry with the Israelites and had abandoned them, that is kinda what it looked like. Well they knew when He wanted to He could take care of business so they were gonna have Him for their god if they could. And so they set Him up, next to their god like a partner, to be worshipped together. And the Lord went apeshit.
But the hand of the Lord was heavy on the people of Ashdod, and He ravaged them and struck them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory. And when the men of Ashdod saw how it was, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for His hand is harsh toward us and Dagon our god.” Therefore they sent and gathered to themselves all the lords of the Philistines, and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?”
And they answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried away to Gath.” So they carried the ark of the God of Israel away. So it was, after they had carried it away, that the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction; and He struck the men of the city, both small and great, and tumors broke out on them.
Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. So it was, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, “They have brought the ark of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and our people!” So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go back to its own place, so that it does not kill us and our people.” For there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there. And the men who did not die were stricken with the tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven.
In the whole story, the Lord really only does one thing. His inaction with the Israelites, and His action with the Philistines are both designed to reveal the same truth about Himself and about the reality that we live in. The Israelites and the Philistines both made the same mistake. It's true that Israel didn't have a statue set up next to the Ark but they had someone that they had made partners with God. Themselves. Their works. The Philistines said, "We will have Dagon and Yahweh tag teaming our enemies." The Israelites said, "We lost when we fought by ourselves but if we fight and The Lord fights on our side then we will win." And that is the way that idolatry always works.
I am not going to go through the rest of the story in detail. The Philistines send the Ark home to Israel and it sits there for twenty years and then listen to what Samuel says in chapter 7.
Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the Lord, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only.
And when Israel fights again the Shark comes and whoops the Philistines. The key word in what Samuel says is "only", serve the Lord "only". You see, both Israel and the Philistines worshipped the Lord as God, but neither one of them served Him ONLY. They both looked to Him for a part of salvation and to other sources to make up the difference. They both supplemented the Lord, either with another god or with their own works. This is what the prophets were always complaining about, not the replacement of God but the supplementation of God, with anything else. This is what Paul was complaining about to the Galatians.
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?
Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.
Grace and works are antithetical. We stand before a divine Either/Or. Either God's grace or our works. Either He has begun our salvation, has justified, has sanctified, and will glorify us, Or we save ourselves from start to finish. But He will no more admit us as His partners then He did Dagon, and when we try and sanctify ourselves by efforts and good behavior and keeping the Law we wind up just like Dagon, flat on our face. This is what Luther and Calvin called "Grace Alone", the emphasis is on the Alone. The Philistines made Dagon the Lord's partner and he lost his head, Dagon I mean lost his head. We add our righteousness to the righteousness of Christ and we become fools, listen to any of the preachers who want us to complete what they admit grace has begun and try and make any sense out of their babbling if you can. The writer of Hebrews says "Our God is a consuming fire.", you can't get any work done when there is a consuming fire around. I say you can't be partners with the Shark of the Covenant.
