Dagon and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

(This article was originally published in the November 2016 issue of Anglican Life.)

We have seen the disastrous results of the Israelites taking the ark of the covenant into battle: not only was their army defeated, but the ark was captured and taken away by the

Philistines.

People in those days did not necessarily believe that there was only one god. Instead, at that point the Israelites believed that their God was the strongest god on the block: that’s why they

worshipped him. Battles in those days had religious stakes as well as political ones. If Israel’s army was victorious, this was further proof that their God could beat up the gods of their enemies. If Israel was defeated, this raised uncomfortable questions like ‘Why can’t our God beat up these other gods and defend us?’

In chapter 5 of 1 Samuel, the Philistines bring the captive ark back to the city of Ashdod to put in the temple of Dagon as the spoils of war. They give credit for their victory to their god Dagon. Putting the ark of the covenant in his temple signifies Dagon’s victory over the God of Israel. Symbolically, the Lord has been made Dagon’s slave.

But each morning, the Philistines find that the statue of Dagon keeps toppling over, falling on its face as if to worship the God of Israel! There’s something uncanny and supernatural about this story. Without trying to rationalize what’s happening at night in the temple, we can be satisfied to know that in this story, the Lord will not come along quietly and be subject to a Philistine god.

Twice the statue falls on its face, and the second time, its hands are broken off in the fall. The Philistine raiders realize that in capturing the ark, they have bitten off a lot more than they can chew. All the people in the city of Ashdod start to develop tumours, which they attribute to the angry God of Israel whose ark they have taken captive.

The Philistines start to play a game of ‘hot potato’ with the ark: no one wants the tumours and plagues that come with having this angry god in their city, and they decide to send it back to Israel, hoping that the plagues will follow it. They package it up with gold offerings to appease the Lord, and set it on a driverless wagon, trusting that if the wagon goes back to Israel on its own, then it was Israel’s God who was responsible for the plagues. Either way, they’re only too glad to be rid of the ark!

The ark does find its way back into Israel, but its arrival is not without incident. Not everyone comes out to celebrate its return, and seventy of those who don’t are struck dead by the Lord. The Israelites begin to realize what a serious and dangerous artifact the ark is, and many of them are reluctant to have it in their own city.

Eventually the ark will find a permanent home at Jerusalem. But that’s another story, for another time.