Fire consumed their young men, and their young women had no wedding songs; their priests were put to the sword, and their widows could not weep. - Psalm 78:63

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 2, 2019): Psalm 78

Once upon a time, Israel went to war with their Philistine neighbors. This story actually happened a few times over the history of the nations. Apparently, this battle was not going well, because the sons of the High Priest decided to send back to Shiloh and the Tabernacle for the Ark of the Covenant. The idea was that if they carried the Ark into battle, then God would physically be with them and they would win. The battle plan arose from the somewhat mistaken idea that the Ark of the Covenant was the place where God lived. If God was going to be involved in the Battle, then maybe the Ark was the magic box that could make that happen.

But, for whatever reason, this was a battle that God was refusing to fight. And whether or not the Ark was at the forefront of the battlefield was not going to change that fact. This fight would be fought without God. What that meant for Israel was two things. First, they were about to lose the battle. In fact, according to Samuel, Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers, including the sons of the High Priest. But maybe more importantly, they were about to lose the Ark of the Covenant.

Samuel is a little sparse on details, but the Psalmist here seems to fill in some of the blanks. We are not sure if the Philistines continued the battle all the way to Shiloh, but that seems like that might be a possibility. But whether or not the fight was brought to Shiloh, the campaign had a definite impact on the Holy City. The Ark was gone and would no longer reside in the Tabernacle and the Holy of Holies, the place set aside to house it. The Ark would never return to the Tabernacle. When David would finally bring the Ark back into the center of Israelite society, it would be housed in a special tent in Jerusalem and not at the Tabernacle. The mistakes of the past would not be repeated. But more than that, some priests would lose their lives in the process. There is a possibility that these priests were at the site of the battle, or that the Philistines invaded at least as far as Shiloh and killed the priests there. The psalmist writes that fire also consumed the young men who went into battle. Was it a literal fire, or just the symbolic fire of war, we are not sure. But the Psalmist does confirm that their young women did not celebrate with wedding songs, because their men would not be coming back from the war. 

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 80