What do you do with the stolen Ark of the Covenant?
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” (1 Sam. 5:7-12). Although the Philistines of Ashdod remain mired in their pagan devotion to Dagon, they gradually see at least part of the truth. They come to understand that “ ‘[Yahweh’s] hand is harsh toward us and Dagon our god.’ ”They are quite correct that God is causing their afflictions. But the solution, as they see it, is not to abandon worship of Dagon and turn to God. Rather, they want to get rid of the ark so that they can settle back into their “blessed” life under Dagon. “They were constrained to acknowledge [God’s] power and dominion, and confess themselves within His jurisdiction, and yet they would not renounce Dagon and submit to [God],” Matthew Henry writes. Of course, the ark is a Philistine national trophy, and the residents of Ashdod are not free to disp