How is the Lord present with Israel?
That’s the major theme of Chapter 7.
This was also King David’s main concern.
In the ancient Middle East, people believed their gods needed buildings to dwell in to stay close to them.
That’s why every nation took great expense to build huge and magnificent temples for their gods.
But what would happen if a country had to fight a war outside of its national boundaries?
Or had to go on a mission that forced them to separate from the temples where their gods lived?
Would their deities travel with them?
This was a real concern in their day.
To solve this problem, they created portable idols they could carry wherever they went.
So people saw their gods as genies in a bottle,
They could be housed in temples or carried as portable idols.
We see this same way of thinking in the Book of Genesis when Jacob escaped from his uncle Laban.
Before their flight, Jacob’s wife Rachel stole her father’s idols.
“Now Lavan had gone to shear his sheep, so Rachel stole the household idols that belonged to her father, and Ya‘akov outwitted Lavan the Arami by not telling him of his intended flight.”-Genesis 31:19
When Laban caught up with the fleeing Jacob and his family, he called him out on this:
“Granted that you had to leave, because you longed so deeply for your father’s house; but why did you steal my gods?”-Genesis 31:30
My point is this was the unquestioned and unconscious worldview in 1000 B.C.
David and the Israelites viewed their God, Yahweh in the same way many centuries later.
We don’t see the Israelites confronting their pagan neighbors about their theological errors, which were rooted in the Mystery Babylon religions.
The question was never about how the gods operated.
That was already understood.
The question was, which God was the strongest?
And what was the right way to worship Him?
Ya feel me?
So what’s the takeaway for today?
It all goes back to this earlier statement:
“We don’t see the Israelites confronting their pagan neighbors about their theological errors.”
I view this as a problem.
God created Israel to be a light unto the nations.
But here, we see the opposite occurring.
Instead of being the influencers…
David and his men ARE influenced by the pagan beliefs of their gentile nations.
This shouldn’t have happened.
I’ll leave you with that today.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“And people don’t hide a light under a bowl.
They put it on a lampstand so the light shines
for all the people in the house.
In the same way,
you should be a light for other people.
Live so that they will see the good things
you do and will praise your Father in heaven.”
-Matthew 5:14-16
I am not sure I agree, but I am not sure I disagree.
The issue I am having is because so often the Israelites carried the Ark of the Covenant before them in war, but was it because they thought they were taking God, literally, along with them, or as a representation of God’s presence in their camp?
In Numbers 10, we are told that when the camp of the Israelites moved, as the Ark was taken, Moses would and say, “Arise, O Lord, may your enemies be scattered and may those who hate you flee from you.”
So, here we see that carrying the Ark was not a means of transporting God, so to speak, from one place to another, but rather as a representation of God’s presence within the camp.
In 1 Samuel, when the Ark is captured (1 Samuel 14:3), the Philistines are stricken with boils and impotency.
I believe that the presence of the Ark wasn’t meant to be transporting God, but to remind the people of God’s presence, and to be properly influenced by it.
In other words, the presence of the Ark acted to remind the people to be fearful and worshipful of God, and if they did not do so, then it was nothing more than a piece of wood with gold around it.
So, I think that men like King David, who knew God was always present, everywhere, saw the Ark as a symbol of God’s presence, but not his actual presence. But, I also believe you are correct in saying that so many of the Israelites had been influenced by their pagan neighbors, they might have seen the Ark, and idols, as literally carrying that god with them.
So, I guess I both agree with you that many of the Israelites thought that the Ark (or their idols) were literally taking their gods from one place to another, but there were still many, like David, who knew the Ark was not God, but was a reminder of the need to obey God and be worshipful of him.
Another story I am reminded of that is related to this is in 2 Kings 5, when Elisha cured Naaman of his leprosy, and Namaan wanted to take some of the earth from Israel back with him to Aram, so he could worship God there. He thought that God was transportable. He had the right heart, but the wrong idea.
Did you know that way back when, people who travelled to Israel used to bring a small bag of Israeli dirt back with them?