Just as baptism is a picture, symbol or type of a believer’s union with the death, burial and resurrections of Christ, the Ark of the Covenant was a picture, symbol or type of Israel’s union with Jehovah through Christ. It is called “the Ark of the Covenant” to represent the covenant which the Lord made with that nation. And it is called “the Ark of the Covenant” all the way from Deuteronomy to Chronicles, Jeremiah and ultimately to the Book of Hebrews. God made an agreement with Israel – “Meet me as I demand, and I will bless you.” The demand the Lord put upon Israel was a meeting based upon the blood of the sacrifice. The only authorized person to make that meeting was the priest of God’s choice. And the designated place of meeting was at the Mercy Seat, which sat upon the Ark of the Covenant. That is what made it “the Ark of the Covenant.“ And of course, the New Testament shows us that actually the meeting of the sinner and God is in Christ. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” Everything the Ark was to Israel, Christ is to the New Testament saint – and more. That Ark is a type or symbol of Christ.
But as superstitions grew in Israel and as they were found in other nations already, the Ark grew from being a symbol to a corruption of reality in the minds of the unthinking. As I pointed out last week, it parallels the corrupted ideas of baptism floating around today. Baptism and a wedding ring are both symbols of a reality. But wearing a ring doesn’t mean a marriage; in fact it could be a lie, or a means of deception. And baptism has been corrupted to be the salvation that it was only meant to illustrate. When Israel went into battle at Ebenzer, God was not among them. And He gave them up to defeat because they were using the Ark as a lucky charm, a sign of the cross, a rabbit’s foot. Did you know that an estimated 20 million people in the United States carry a rabbit’s foot? Did know ten times that many use religion in exactly the same way? When the Philistines captured the Ark, they thought that they actually possessed the God of Israel.
Taking our cue from the thinking of the Philistines, let’s examine the relationship of the unbeliever to the Lord. Let’s consider – “the Ark among the unbelievers.”
The unbeliever wants Jehovah to be a slave to the sinner’s will.
Very few people, even among Christians, really want Jehovah to be God. Satan’s lie to Eve is still the theme of religion – “Ye shall be as gods.” There is a story that years ago, the biggest, baddest, boldest of computers was asked “Is there a God?” It spit out the reply, “Well, there is now.” Unsaved mankind wants be superior to the Lord, even if not actually possessing omnipotence. At the least, we want authority to tell God when and where to use His omnipotence on our behalf. And even then, most wicked people would really rather do everything themselves. They want Jehovah, just as the Philistines wanted Him – a trophy.
When the aliens from Caphtor prevailed at Ebenzer and then sacked Shiloh, they returned to Ashdod with the God of the Jews in chains, or so they thought. Did they immediately begin humbly bowing down to the Lord? Did they seek direction from God on how to worship? Did they try to capture any of the relatives of Eli, in hopes of securing proper service? Was there reverent prayer offered to Jehovah? Sacrifices? Honour and respect? They wanted the King of kings, and Lord of lords to do their bidding – to become their slave.
And initially, they would have been satisfied with merely His name and honor. God, you don’t really have to do anything. We have everything under control. We just need to you look pretty on our shelf. Let’s add this god to the gods of the other nations we have subdued. Let’s put it at this side, inferior to our favorite deity, Dagon. Let’s use this Jehovah to honor and glorify our god and the people who worship Dagon.
These people remind me of so many people who out of convenience claim to be Christians but who deny him with their lives. As they go into the bar, buy their Playboy, smoke their pot and tobacco, they say, “Sure I asked Jesus to come into my heart. Look right over there. He is sitting next to Dagon.” As they blaspheme His holy Name, as they cheat their neighbor, as they lie, they make their claim to be “Christians.” As they despise or ignore the house of God, or they sleep through the preaching of the cross, they demand that we prove they are NOT Christians. If these Philistines weren’t heathen we could call them “Christian hypocrites.”
But the truth of the matter is the unbeliever wants no REAL fellowship with God. The operative word is “REAL” – genuine fellowship with Jehovah. Take that new god and put him over there in the corner of the museum with the other foreign deities. We may need him some time in the future, so don’t throw him away or loose him somewhere. Then when they are sick or dying they pull him out, dust him off and claim to be saints. “Me, be like Enoch and walk with the Lord, talking about the joys and responsibilities of being Christians?” That requires a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and I can’t muster those. That requires agreement, “for how can two walk together except they be agreed.” That involves “studying to be approved unto God.” That requires “walking in the light as he is in the light,” and I rather like the darkness, since my deeds are evil. The point is – find someone who has no fellowship with the Lord, and you have found a Philistine.
But why doesn’t the unbeliever want that fellowship with the Lord?
Because the presence of God accentuates the existence of his personal sin. The neighbor’s dog looks white when against the backdrop of the brown grass; but when a little snow covers that grass, that dog looks down right filthy. When Isaiah stood in the throne room of Jehovah, he was chagrined at his wickedness. Even though he had been a prophet and preacher for several years before that. The presence of the Ark of the Covenant pointed a finger at Dagon and said, “You call that a deity?”
Then the Lord went right to the root of the Philistine’s sin. He could have pointed out their immorality, their wicked vocabulary, and their vices. He could have boldly elucidated their crimes of abortion, murder, homosexuality and theft. But the problem of Philistines everywhere begins with their worship of false gods. Sometimes it’s the god of self, but it might be aliens from space, demons, or chunks of granite. No matter who we are, where we live, which church we attend, God hates our wicked worship. The Ten Commandments began with the declaration of God and how He was to be worshiped.
I notice that Lord began with some children’s object lessons, because the Philistines were so childish. Dagon was pushed over by the power of Jehovah onto his face, not once but twice. The Lord said, “Judgment is coming, judgment is coming,” but no one listened. That has been the case in every age since Enoch and Noah, down to this very day. Indeed, “there are no so blind as them what will not see.” But when the lessons and sermons were ignored then the Lord began to afflict and punish. The Philistines were struck with a rodent-carried, fatal disease. The direct hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashod, then Gath and Ekron.
Isn’t this the real reason why people aren’t too fond of the Lord? Isn’t it because they love their sins more than they love the blessings of God? “Preacher I’ll never come to your church, because all you want to do is tell me what not to do.” “God, it is none of your business whether I murder, butcher and rape the land of Israel. “ The Philistines are like the bugs that live under the rock, remove the rock and off they run. Why is the house of God forsaken, while the houses of Dagon are full to over-flowing? Because their sins are exposed in some churches, while they are ignored in others. Sometimes when people say, “I just don’t get anything out of the messages at church,” some of them really mean to say, “I’‘m tired of picking up my Dagon every week.” Why do some switch churches every two years? The same reason.
Philistines want to avoid the rebuke and then the punishment for their sins. The sad thing is they may avoid the rebuke, but the punishment is unavoidable. Send that God of Israel over to Gath. No, no, send it to Ekron. No, back to Israel. We’d rather be atheists than to have the Lord picking at us all the time. But the poor Philistines were in a pickle jar. What could they do with the physical emblem of the Lord?
Unbelievers don’t know where to turn for advice about spiritual problems.
These Philistines turned to other unbelievers for solutions. “And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do to the ark of the LORD? tell us wherewith we shall send it to his place.” Oh, what a business there is in charlatan, fraudulent, deceptive religionists. No matter what kind of answer you are looking for, there is someone preaching it. No matter what your background or how much or little money you have to spend there is some shyster, some religious cheat, some swindler who will tell you what you want to hear. And often there is enough truth in what they say to make it almost plausible. The Philistines got some good information and then some bad. “You have obviously offended the Lord, therefore a trespass offering will be required.” Doesn’t that sound religious and theologically accurate? Actually the idea is correct. But can’t you hear a Roman Catholic priest or a Mormon bishop saying that? A trespass offering was to be given when the specific sin wasn’t known. That theological jargon may have been gobbilygook to the Philistines – but it got their attention.
However, then followed some opinions and guesses which one might expect from the religious unbelievers. They got some bad information, just as do the Mormons and the Catholics. Yes, a trespass offering is required, but you can offer whatever choose. To these heretics, God must still bow to their wishes. I will, with Cain, bring an offering to God, but it will be according to my taste.
We will offer to God what WE think is precious. What is precious to us, must certainly be precious to Him. Hog wash. Nothing precious to the lost man is considered precious to the Lord. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” “They that are in the flesh cannot please God.” The trespass offering of God was to be a ram without blemish or spot. “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.” “Not of corruptible things like silver and gold.” Why is it people think they can buy God’s favor or bribe him into withholding His wrath? God doesn’t want anything that belongs to you until He has been given your heart. And that is missing even among the people who call themselves Christians. “More love to thee O Christ, more love to thee.”
The priests of the Philistines told the five kings of Gaza, Gath, Ashadod, Ekron and Ashekon to send back the Ark on the back of a cart pulled by two milk cows. They knew nothing of and cared nothing about the proper method of Ark transportation. We know that sacred chest was to be carried on the backs of sanctified Levites. The Philistines cared only about getting ride of that offensive God.
But if the cows went lowing back to the Lord, shouldn’t the Philistines as well? These people want to see a miracle, proving Jehovah’s authority over lowly and lowing cows. If He is the God of creation shouldn’t He also be God over the Philistines? Absolutely, but they had a mind set against this Jehovah. I’m sure that in time they might have let God join their assembly of Allah’s. But only if He’d promise to leave them alone in their sins. The Lord won’t make such promises, so they threw Him aside like a sack of potatoes.
Oh, how often have I seen this movie on various screens throughout my ministry. Despite the clearly reveal hand of God, the sinner turns back to his vomit.
The unbeliever really will do anything to put distance between himself and the Lord.
And unfortunately their wish is going to thoroughly granted. There is no separation quite like the separation of the darkness of Hell. How essential it is that we evangelize the Philistines around us while there is still hope. If the Philistines had the right attitude towards the Lord, they could have become a whole nation of Obedeoms.
Who? He was the man whose home became the Tabernacle of the Lord.
That is what we all need to do – to move from Asklelon to Obebedom.