Day 8 - Ark of the Covenant Brings Death and Calamity (Spooky/Scary/Weird stories from the Bible)

Day 8 - Ark of the Covenant Brings Death and Calamity (Spooky/Scary/Weird stories from the Bible)

Biblical stories that could make good horror/paranormal movies

I saw the first Indiana Jones movie in the theater when I was 15 years old. I’m not sure why my older sister and her boyfriend decided to bring me along when they saw it, but in their good graces they probably realized that the movie was more my kind of movie than it was theirs. Whatever the reason, I’m very grateful they did. It was awesome! The scene in which the Nazis open the ark of the covenant and get melted, blown up, and otherwise killed in many nasty and ugly ways was pretty cool. I find it impossible to feel bad for Nazis. It was a very cool movie. 

Now, before seeing the movie I had never heard of the Ark of the Covenant. So I was curious - is it a real thing? Is it really mentioned in the Bible? So I did some research. I don’t remember what kind of research - there was no Internet then - but maybe I just pulled open a Bible and started looking. Or maybe I called my pastor. Anyway, whatever the method, I found that by golly it was a real thing! And not just mentioned in a one-off in scripture: it was a very important item that gets mentioned in numerous books and plays a role in the long history of Israel. The two tablets of Moses are said to be in it, as well as Aaron’s rod and a jar of manna.

Also, I found out in seminary, the Ark can be destructive of its enemies like it was against the Nazis in the movie. Not with melting faces, but with plagues and tumors and death. The Philistines discovered that when they captured the Ark, sometime after they had entered the Promised Land, but before they had a king. Here is that story:

1 Samuel 4:10 So the Philistines fought; Israel was defeated, and they fled, everyone to his home. There was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. 11 The ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

(then skip the part about Eli dying from shock upon hearing the news the ark had been captured; and the part about Eli’s daughter giving birth because of her shock at the news)

1 Samuel 5:1 When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod; 2 then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon [one of the Philistine gods] and placed it beside [a statue of] Dagon. 3 When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. 4 But when they rose early on the next morning, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off upon the threshold; only the trunk of[a] Dagon was left to him. 5 This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not step on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.

6 The hand of the Lord was heavy upon the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and struck them with tumors, both in Ashdod and in its territory. 7 And when the inhabitants of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is heavy on us and on our god Dagon.” 8 So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” The inhabitants of Gath replied, “Let the ark of God be moved on to us.”[b] So they moved the ark of the God of Israel to Gath.[c] 9 But after they had brought it to Gath,[d] the hand of the Lord was against the city, causing a very great panic; he struck the inhabitants of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them. 10 So they sent the ark of the God of Israel[e] to Ekron. But when the ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “Why[f] have they brought around to us[g] the ark of the God of Israel to kill us and our[h] people?” 11 They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our[i] people.” For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there; 12 those who did not die were stricken with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

The Philistines kept the Ark for seven months and then sent it back to the Israelites because they realized they were playing with something very dangerous. They also included some gifts as a guilt offering: five gold tumors and five gold mice.

Probably a good idea.

All text is from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. 

You can read about the death of Eli and his daughter giving birth 

You can read about HOW the Philistines sent the Ark back to the Israelites