The Ark of the Covenant
Psalm 37:1-18 • Psalm 37:19-42
Joshua 3:14-4:7 • Rom. 12:1-8 • Matt. 26:1-16
During this period of quarantine Linda and I have been spending lots of time reading books and watching things on TV that we might have missed or want to see/read again. A few weeks ago, we watched Raiders of the Lost Ark for the first time in many years. For all its thrilling special effects it was even more one-dimensional than we remembered. The good guys (Indiana Jones and his sidekicks) are unambiguously good, and the evil Nazis are, well, evil. Not so with the account of that same ark in today’s reading (the Ark of the Covenant, not the one with animals two by two). The children of Israel, whom God is trying to make into a great nation, can’t seem to follow God’s instructions and consequently are made to spend even more time wandering around in the desert. Even God comes off rather badly, at least in the eyes of modern readers. Nevertheless, this is a foundational text for both Jews and Christians.
If the exodus from Egypt and the covenant that God made with Moses and the Israelites at Mt. Sinai constitute Israel’s primal narrative, then the ark of the covenant, reported to contain the original Ten Commandments, is the physical manifestation of that covenant. The ark, borne by priests, would go in front of them on their journey from Sinai toward what they understood to be their own promised land. (Joshua 3:14-4:7) We can imagine that during those years of wandering in the desert they would begin to construct the story of what the ark meant to them and to their children.
This is a thrilling tale, but it is also a disturbing story of how the land’s former residents were dispossessed and allowed to be killed at God’s direction. And that brings to mind accounts of how, in recent times, Arab residents have been forced by the state of Israel to give up some of that same land, which had been in their families for a long, long time.
What to make of this conundrum? Some American Christians, steeped in a literal reading of the Bible and in a particular interpretation of certain biblical prophesies, say that, yes, God meant to give this land to the ancient Israelites and then to the state of Israel. End of discussion. But others of us have a hard time squaring that interpretation with our understand of God’s love for all people as expressed in the life and death of Jesus. Jesus lived as a Jew; he knew the commandments given to Moses; and in one of his last utterances from the cross Jesus quoted a lament from the Psalms.
Not long before his death, one of the scribes asked Jesus, “which commandment is the first of all?” His answer may help us with our conundrum: “The first is, ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself….’”
Written by Bob McMath
Bob McMath and his wife Linda McMath are happy to be taking part in Community Meals again.