When the ark of the LORD had been in Philistine territory seven months … 1 Samuel 6:1

Today's Scripture Reading (May 16, 2025): 1 Samuel 6

I have a fairly extensive record collection. Yes, records. I also have a large CD collection. I rarely listen to any of them. Most of what I listen to now I find on Spotify, both music I have purchased and recordings I don't have but wish I did. My Spotify library has a mixture of old and new music. If I want to listen to something, I can just search for it and listen. It wasn't always that way.

Music has always been essential for me. I have spent many hours listening and playing music in my life. When I was younger, long before Spotify, the only music I could listen to was the radio, which I frequently had dialed into the local rock stations or the music I purchased in the form of records, then cassettes, and finally compact discs. At one point, I started to try to replace my records with CDs, but then Spotify began the digital dominance of the music industry.

At one point in my teens, there was a push that all secular music, but especially the rock that dominated my collection, was of the devil. Some recording artists of that time, including Larry Norman, wrote songs titled "Why Does the Devil Have All the Good Music." The argument about what was right for Christians to listen to began emphasizing throwing out or burning rock records. Crusades created bonfires for the destruction of the "devil music," which was contrasted to the beautiful music of which God approved. 

I have a fairly extensive record collection, and there were times when I considered destroying it because these people seemed to think I should. Even the most innocuous of my records was judged to be decidedly evil. ABBA seemed to rate up on the evil scale with KISS and Alice Cooper. But somehow, the arguments fell short. 

I didn't destroy my record collection. Some would argue that was a mistake. Maybe. But the truth was that music was important to me, and I had invested significantly in it. And that I could find Jesus even in the writings of an asthmatic preacher's kid named Alice Cooper, who seemed to speak to an asthmatic descendant of a Baptist preacher, for some, was unbelievable. 

Some wonder why it took seven months for the Philistines to get rid of the Ark of the Covenant. All that the ark brought to the Philistines was pain and trouble. But the truth was that, at least to the Philistines, the ark was a lot like my record collection. They had invested in the ark and were proud of that investment and that such a valuable artifact was in their possession. They spent seven months trying to see if there was any way that they could keep it until it was finally made clear that they had to return it to Israel. And with a heavy heart, they decided to give their prize back to the people to whom it belonged.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 7