1 Samuel 4:1b-7:1: Hockey Card

Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps on June 22, 2008
By Captain Michael Ramsay

Do you know what this is? A hockey card: a Paul Coffee rookie card from his debut with the Edmonton Oilers. Some Edmonton Oilers rookie cards are evidently worth more than $2000.00 - if they are in good condition[1] – but this one is not in good condition at all.

Who’d have thought that Hockey cards would become the big business investment that they have in recent years with people keeping them in special cases and only touching them with white gloves and the works.

When I was a kid, we used to actually play with these cards: close –ies, knocksies (I don’t remember what the games were really called) - we would play all these different games with these cards and they would all involve throwing them against a wall – so much for keeping their investment value – we thought these toys were – uh - toys. Who knew we were squandering our retirement funds by throwing Wayne Gretzky, Billy Smith, and Guy Lafleur against the wall.

Did anyone in these parts ever ‘play’ hockey cards growing up? Or was it just a west coast thing? I remember some games that we would have: you would each line three all-star cards up against the wall and then take turns trying to knock down your opponents cards by flicking one of your cards at it. The first person to knock down each of their opponent’s cards would win and got to keep all of the cards – including every one that had been thrown.

The longer these games went on the more that was at stake. You could see cards piling up and kids would really have their entire collection at stake and then, of course, the more exciting it gets the more people who come to watch. Some of the big matches could have almost the entire school watching. This was a lot of fun if you were competing except for one thing - the grade threes. You see the grade threes loved to collect hockey cards but they didn’t win them. They would steel them. They would sneak closer and closer to any game they could find and as soon as they could get close enough the bold ones would scoop up a handful of cards and run for their lives as a couple of grade sixes always took up the pursuit; and then there were the cautious grade threes, they would step on the cards they want one at a time and then bend down to tie up their shoes over each time picking up a new card and putting it in their pocket, footprint and all.

Now, like many kids, I did collect quite a few cards in my time growing up but like I said none of mine are worth much because – well – because most of them have footprints on them – or are severely bent from my running away from the grade sixes. Oh well. “Who’d ‘a thunk?” If I’d known they would be worth so much I might have invested the $0.10 for gum and a pack of cards in those days. Who knew that hockey cards would become so valuable?

This is the same sort of thing that is facing the Philistines in our story today. They are in this big hockey card competition with the Israelites as it were: the Israelites re getting desperate. Most of their cards, most of their soldiers are falling on the field so they feel that they have to risk their most valuable card. They throw in their ‘Ark’ card, as it were. Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, without first getting permission from their dad, Hophni and Phinehas take dad’s favourite card (1 Samuel 4:4,5), this ‘Ark Card,’ Israel’s most precious symbol of the power of YHWH into the match and guess what? They lose it (1 Samuel 4:11) and the ark is captured

The ark is captured. Now this ark for the record isn’t that big boat of Genesis 6 that God used to deliver the builder, Noah, and his family from the flood. Though interestingly enough it is made out of the same material (acacia wood or gopher bark; cf. Exod. 25:10, Gen 6:14). But this particular ark though it is a wooden container it is not a boat. It is a lot smaller and it is all covered in gold. It is commissioned by God – just like Noah’s ark – but it is contracted out by Moses to the partners Oholiab and Bezalel to build it and Bezalel does (Exod 36:1,2; 37:1-3). This ark is a container whose purpose is to hold the Ten Commandments (cf. Exod 25:21, 22; Deut 10:3; Josh 3:6; 2 Sam 15:14) among other things and it is carried on polls by at least four Levites (Exod 25:15). It is an important symbol of the presence and power of God.

The top of the ark has two cherubim, which are like four-headed sphinxes[2] and is called the atonement cover – or the mercy seat – which is where we get our idea in our services of coming forward to meet God at the mercy seat (cf. Exod 25:17-22; Lev 16:2, 13; Num 7:89). This bench up here today is symbolic of this same seat of God on the Ark of the Covenant and that is an important symbol for us now and a very powerful symbol of the presence of God for them then. It signifies the real presence and the power of YHWH. It is a holy place and now it is captured by the enemy. The Israelites brought it into the game and they lost it to the Philistines who took it home with the rest of their spoils and now the Philistines realise here (1 Sam 4:7,8) that they have captured something quite special.

It is neat what people do when they come upon special things. My daughters when they acquire some new treasure or something really interesting, they each have what they call a ‘special drawer’ in their dresser – this is where they keep everything that they really don’t want to lose or break or have their sister take without asking them first. They have a place where they keep their important things and we accord them the privacy and security necessary. They have their special drawers.

The Philistines, much like this, when they realise that they have captured something even more precious than a Paul Coffee rookie card. When they realise that they have won something really quite special so they put it in their special drawer:[3] they put it with all their treasures in the temple of their so-called god, Dagon.

So then it appears now to some that YHWH had left Israel. The Lord, it seems, has taken His ark and gone away. So this is interesting then isn’t it if we think about it for a moment? The ark, the symbol of God has left Israel and He has removed it for one of two reasons 1) either the Philistines and/or their gods were too powerful for the LORD to defeat in battle and so He had no choice but to be taken captive by them or 2) YHWH voluntarily chose to have His ark, the symbol of His power, leave Israel. Either God was overpowered by His enemies or YHWH took His ark from Israel of His own accord. Either way it is distressing news and this kind of distress is not entirely foreign to us today.

This is something that in my life and experience comes up all the time. I hear it phrased as, “How could a loving God allow such a tragedy to happen?” “Where was God when I needed Him to face life’s battles for me?” Again, the implication of these questions is either that God is so weak that He is unable to prevent tragedies from befalling His people or that He chooses not to save His people.

Last week I went to my cousin’s burial. Yesterday, while I was conducting a memorial service in Tobin Lake for a young man who died, my mother was delivering the eulogy for my cousin, Helene, who died leaving her husband (George) and two small behind. It has been asked, “Where is your God when that happens? Can’t He stop it?”

When I was in university one Christian friend of committed suicide. I was asked, “Where is your God when that happens? Can’t He stop it?” When I was in my early twenties a friend of mine was flying home to marry his fiancée. He died in a plane crash, “Where is my God when that happens? Can’t He stop it?” My cousin’s children are without their mother. George is without his wife: “Where is my God when that happens? Can’t He stop it?” Can’t He?

The Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of God’s power was taken as was the lives of thousands of Hebrews on the field of battle that day in Palestine. Where was God when that happened? Couldn’t he stop it? The Israelites must wonder if indeed their God has lost His power. If indeed He was powerless to stop their enemies from taking His ark captive and placing the ark in the temple of another. The Israelites must have questioned the power of God.

The Philistines, interestingly enough, never did seem to forget the power of the God of Jacob. When the ark first shows up in the field of battle, they are afraid (4:7). They know, 4:8, what YHWH has done to the Egyptians. They know His strength but they persevere (4:9) and they overcome the Israelites who have taken the ark into battle (without it being recorded anywhere that they bothered to ask God whether they should do this or not, by the way). In this way the Philistines seem to have more fear/deference of the Lord than the Israelites and it seems that God leaves the battlefield with them – the Philistines - rather than with the soundly defeated Hebrews. But lest the Philistines fall prey to the idea that Dagon or they themselves have defeated the Lord, God teaches them, like He taught Pharaoh before them (Exodus), that they should fear the Lord.

Reading from 5:1-6: After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then they carried the ark into Dagon's temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained. That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon's temple at Ashdod step on the threshold. The LORD's hand was heavy upon the people of Ashdod and its vicinity; he brought devastation upon them and afflicted them with tumours…

And look at verses 11, 12: So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, "Send the ark of the god of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it will kill us and our people." For death had filled the city with panic; God's hand was very heavy upon it. Those who did not die were afflicted with tumours, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.

And 6:3, They answered, "If you return the ark of the god of Israel, do not send it away empty, but by all means send a guilt offering to him. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand has not been lifted from you."

And verses 5 and 6, “…pay honour to Israel's god. Perhaps he will lift his hand from you and your gods and your land. Why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When he treated them harshly, did they not send the Israelites out so they could go on their way?”

The Philistines get it. Sort of Ironic isn’t it? The High Priest of Israel and his sons die because of the their wickedness and a lack of respect for God but the Philistines as they repent (turn) and send the ark on its way are saved the death and disease that they had brought into their homes. Well, maybe its not actually ironic in this case because those who do repent are saved and those who don’t are not, regardless of race or history. So that is just like today.

But how does this relate to the questions we asked earlier, “Where is God when calamity strikes? Is He powerless to stop it? Is there someone more powerful than He?” The answer to that question from our story is a resounding “No.” No there is none as powerful as the Lord. There is only one God our saviour and if we think that someone else has overpowered Him and that He is powerless to stop the Dagons and the Philistines in our lives then we are sadly mistaken. The Lord is all-powerful and He loves us. He is not a force for us to conjure up to do our own personal bidding like some genie in a bottle, like the Israelites may have supposed before the ark was captured. YHWH is the all-knowing and all-powerful God as indeed the Philistines discovered.

After my cousin was promoted to glory, I had the privilege of going for a run with George her husband. He is a man of faith. He misses his wife a lot. At times he speaks as if she is still there beside him but he knows that the next thing she will know, she will be raised with our Lord Jesus Christ. Why did Helene go on ahead of us? I don’t know but along with George I trust that God does and thank the Lord for His power, His grace and His strength at times like this when we really need Him.

Where is God in the midst of life’s struggles? Right where He has always been (whether it seems like it or not) and that is where we are always invited to be – with Him, by his side - in His arms because indeed, the Lord Himself is a treasure much more valuable than a rookie card and much more deserving of a spot in the ‘special drawer’ of our heart.

Let us pray.


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[1] Apparently this one is worth about $130. Wayne Gretzky is the $2000+ card (ebay.ca).
[2] cf. Ralph W. Klein, WBC 10: 1 Samuel, p. 41
[3] cf. Walter Brueggemann, Interpretation: 1&2 Samuel, p. 35.