Heavyweight

We don't like knowing that personally. We don't like that part of the doctor's office physical visit because we view our weight always as something negative. We want to be lighter and leaner and more nimble, faster and unburdened.

But in the ancient world weight meant something entirely different. Weight meant value. If you were trading in the marketplace, I'll put this picture up—this is what the scale would look like that they used to determine weight. You'd put the object to be weighed on one side and little known quantity weights on the other, and that's how they determined how much something weighed. You didn't count paper money. You weighed silver and gold. The heavier the coin, the greater its worth. So if a person had, quote, weight in the community, they had substance, significance. They were not a person to be trifled with. Weight meant value.

Now as we turn to this passage today, in English this seems to be a passage about a lot of things, but if you read it in Hebrew it's all about weight. Eight times in this passage there are word plays on this one little word kavod—three letters in Hebrew: k, b, and d. They all are variations on the word weight, and some of them mean glory, some of them mean substance, some of them mean value, and some of them mean heavy or weight.

This whole passage is asking this question: How much does God weigh? How do we evaluate God? Does he weigh a lot in our minds, or does he weigh a little bit? That was the question for them. That's the question for us this morning.

If you take notes, I have several points, and they're found right inside the front cover of your bulletin. The three of them here are: the ark of glory, a weight problem, and writing the scale.

The Ark of Glory

Now there are two arks mentioned in the Bible. And just to make sure we're talking about the same one—one's a boat, one's a box. We're talking about the box. Let's put up a picture of the box. This is the ark of the covenant. If you've watched Indiana Jones, his was too big. This is actually four feet long, two and a half feet wide, two and a half feet tall.

God gave them instructions to build this box, and it was not meant to be a box to contain God—that's really important. Rather, I could say the ark had three purposes that correspond to three words that begin with R.

One is God's reign. The box, the ark of the covenant, was meant to be the footstool of God's throne. God's throne is in heaven, and the footstool of his throne is carried around and to be put on earth, symbolizing this is where God's feet are resting. The cherubim—they're carved on top of that, those two angelic beings—their wings spread over his feet. That's how they were to envision this.

Second, it's meant to symbolize his revelation. The box, like for a lot of ancient Near Eastern kings, contained his law. Two tablets of stone given to Moses with the Ten Commandments. God kept his law at his feet in his box. He rules on the basis of his revelation of his character in his law.

And finally, it represented his reconciliation because on the top of it—the top of the box was called the mercy seat—and the high priest would go in regularly and sprinkle blood on the mercy seat to symbolize this is how God relates to us: by means of sacrifice. By means of this, he forgives his people, but blood has to be shed for us to be reconciled with God.

Now the main thing I want you to understand is that this ark is the ark of God's glory. And that's reflected in this passage over and over again. God in all his holiness, in all his glory was to be brought into the middle of the camp. Earlier in the book of Judges, they actually carry this ark as they go around the city of Jericho. The priests are told to carry this ark around, symbolizing God's glory in the midst of his people.

Now if you're tracking with this, you might detect a problem. Because if you've got a box and it's a God box, then there's something here that's a danger. You could begin to assume our God is in the box. Our God is manageable. Our God is handleable. Our God is controllable. And you can see this in this passage.

A Weight Problem

We can just get God and carry him around. This is the weight problem that we see at the beginning of this passage. There's a weight problem. Israel has a weight problem, and they have a lightweight God, and they are too heavy.

And I'll show you this in this passage. First, they have a lightweight god. So Israel is surrounded by nations that all have a pantheon of gods—paganism. All of them have a whole bunch of gods that do a whole bunch of things. Paganism was incredibly practical.

You did the things to make the god happy and you get the outcome you want. You do the sacrifices and the god delivers for you. In this passage we read about one of the gods of the Philistines' nation right southwest of Israel named Dagon. Dagon was a god of the harvest, specifically the corn harvest. The Philistine area that they encamped in, that they lived in, was really a breadbasket. I mean, huge grain production to this day. And so the god of the harvest, Dagon, you would make sacrifices to Dagon in his temple. You can go to his temple still today. I'll show you this. This is on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea looking out at the sea. You go into this temple and sacrifice to him, and you get good crops. Multiple gods controlled all kinds of things. You needed kids to carry on the family name, to work the crops, so you make a little sacrifice to the fertility god. You need rain. You sacrifice to the rain god. This is how you lived life and controlled your circumstances in that time period. Paganism is ultimately practical.

Let me show you a picture of how paganism works. That's exactly it. It's like a vending machine. You put in something, you get out what you want. It's the ancient version of maxing. Do you know that phrase? Maxing optimization. This is really popular right now from the gaming world. Came into gym maxing, sleep maxing, looks maxing, skin maxing. And you do the things and you optimize your life and you get what you want. This is an ancient version of this. You're maxing. And this is what the Philistines did and this is what Hophni and Phinehas did but with God's Ark of the Covenant. If I master the right techniques, I will get what I want from God. God is manageable and holdable and portable and we could do with him what we want. Israel's doing the same thing.

So notice the first story here. Israel goes into battle and they're defeated by the Philistines. And they're like, what happened? Why did the Lord allow us to be defeated today? Great question. Great theological question. Bad answer. They're like, oh yeah, we forgot to bring the God in the box. Go get the God box. And they send to Shiloh, bring God in a box back. And God in a box comes into the camp and they shout, yay, we have God in our box. Great shout goes up in the Israelite camp. People are really excited, but they have terrible theology.

Listen to verse five.

When the ark of the covenant, the Lord entered the camp, all the Israelites raised such a loud shout that the ground shook.

But here's the problem. They have the symbol of God. They don't want the presence of the real God. The Philistines here actually understand more than the Israelites. They hear the shouting. They're like, what is that sound of shouting in the camp? A god has entered the camp? And then they're like, wait, the same god who did all those wonders in Egypt? We are in trouble boys. You better summon your courage and fight as hard as you can.

See, Israel is treating God casually. God like a lightweight. God has no glory. He has no substance or worth and value. Ironically here the pagans are taking God seriously. Israel says, essentially, let's use God to win our battle. They wanted the presence of God without submitting to the person of God. They had the symbol but they didn't want the substance. The Ark had become like a good luck charm, a rabbit's foot, a box full of God who can be controlled.

And so once again they go out into battle and this time disaster. Thirty thousand soldiers die including the sons of the high priests, Hophni and Phinehas. Why? Because God will not be reduced to a mascot or a magic box or a means. They had not a wrong view of God's power—that's why they brought the God box. They had a wrong view of God's weight. God's glory, God's substance, God's value. They treat God lightly.

Do we do the same thing? Do we want the vending machine God? Truth be told, yeah, I do. I bet you do too. We want a God who is going to give us what we want, not a God who's got a first place to weigh in. Hear me playing on words here. Weigh in on our decisions. Who's got that kind of person in the room? You better go first, God. You get to tell me what to do. Rather than, I'm kind of telling you what I want. You're supposed to deliver for me.

They wanted God's benefits without himself. And man, if I am honest, heck yeah. I'd rather have God's benefits. God's benefits are good. Blessings. Who doesn't want blessings? We want forgiveness without repentance and blessings without obedience and heaven without holiness and Jesus as savior without Jesus as Lord. Does that sound familiar to anybody else? We want a Bible that agrees with us when it winds up with us. We don't want to hear the rest of it. We want God to help us get what we want.

So a lightweight god always comes with heavyweight us.

Let me show you this in this passage. They have a weight problem in Israel. They weigh too much. They are too significant, and God is too light. This is what they're doing. Notice this is personified in Eli. Eli the high priest is described in this passage and he's waiting to hear news from the front, tell me what's going on with the battle, the second round of battle. And he gets the news. This messenger comes back and says, your sons, 30,000 men have been killed, your sons are dead and the ark of God has been captured.

And there's this funny little detail. I don't know if you notice this in this passage. Eli fell backward off the chair by the city gate and since he was old and heavy. That is not accidental. He is cavod. He weighs too much. Since he was old and heavy his neck broke and he died. It's a plan of words. He's too heavy. He's too full of himself. He was heavy about what he should have been light about and God should have been heavy in his mind and God's light. You see he's a spiritual lightweight. That's the Bible. The Bible's kind of making fun of him. The Bible's full of jokes like this. He's a lightweight, y'all. Eli's physical weight could not hold him up when God's glory fell. So he falls because of this.

You know these always go together. God too insignificant, I'm too significant. God too light, I'm too heavy. I wonder if you realize how often Christians do this. It's funny how Christians can be like God has to work in these certain ways and God can't work outside of those. I need a certain kind of preaching. I need a certain kind of denomination or a church to hear from God. I need certain kinds of books, certain authors. God can only work in those ways. I've got my God in a little box. God can't possibly work through people who I know who are Christians who are from different kinds of parts of the Christian family. Oh, no. Reformed Christians are terrible at this. I've got to go to God in a box. And when God is like I'm not staying in your box, it's challenging to us.

God is bigger and heavier than we imagine. How much does God weigh in your life? How much space does he take up? How much does he weigh in on things in your life? Are there ways that you and me want to take God lightly? We don't want the serious God. We don't want this big God, kind of like a little bit of God. When you're when everyone around you thinks differently, how much does God weigh? When your political tribe thinks differently, how much does God weigh? When God Christ calls you to forgive someone who's wounded you, how much does God weigh? When obeying him costs you money or reputation, how much does God weigh?

Righting the Scales

So third, righting the scales. Remember my scales from the beginning. In this passage and in this world God will right the scales. We see this in this passage when God's people and God's priests are too heavy and the ark of God is captured, God rights the scales and it's kind of humorous. He lets the ark be captured and he helps the people understand what is exactly going on.

So in verse 21, it's fascinating, Eli's daughter is giving birth to a child and she's dying, overcome by the news that the ark has been lost. She's in such a state and she names her child Ichabod. Yes, like the headless horseman. Ichabod and like Native American names, Bible names mean something. And it maybe is weird. You named your kid no glory? Yeah that's a play on words again. No kavod. The glory of God has departed Israel. She is rendering a verdict on what happened. God's people treated him lightly. God has left the building. And it's this incredible moment of sadness for the people of Israel. No weight, no substance, the glory has departed.

He does the same in the Israelite camp. It's hilarious. So this is what happens. They take the ark, the Philistines when they win the battle, this is how pagan ancient logic went, our God beat up your God. So we take the God box from the Israelites, let's put him in Dagon's temple, the one I showed you in Ashdod right on the Mediterranean Sea. Beautiful view for Yahweh. So they take the little God box and they stick in their temple and what happens? God fights a battle for himself. Israel thought oh we will carry our God out to battle. God doesn't need anybody to carry him around. God knows exactly what he's doing. I don't need you to bring me anywhere. I certainly don't need your help to win.

So the ark is carried into Dagon's temple as a trophy and this is like straight out of Steven Spielberg. He should have filmed this one. Because they come in the next morning and there's Dagon, corn god, and he's fallen over, bowed down to the ark of the covenant. They're like oh, let's prop up our god again. It's very funny, again in Hebrew. Prop up God and then they come in the next morning and there's Dagon again falling over and this time his hands and his head have been broken off. Now why?

Why would God want the hands and the head gone? It shows what idols really are. Dagon has lost the ability to speak, see, hear, and do anything with his hands. The Bible tells us that when we worship other things—success, a job, a relationship, family life, all the goodies of this life that we want from God in the divine vending machine—we become a caricature of our own idols.

It's like God drawing a little smiley face on the statue. God's like, "I'm just flexing here. Let me just show off how I can break off his hands and his head too." Because the gods of this world are nothing, and those who worship them become like them—handless and headless.

The living God needs no hands to defend himself. Dagon needs hands and God cuts them off. The living God needs no one to carry him. Dagon can't even stand up for himself. The Philistines discovered their God can't stay standing up. Dagon needs his worshipers to carry him around. Yahweh never asked his people to carry him around or stand him up.

If God is—I just want you to understand this passage is not like, "Hey, you better take God seriously." Now that's certainly part of this. Certainly we should take God seriously. He is a holy, holy, holy God above all else in this whole universe. But how can people like me and I think like you who have been taking God lightly stand before a holy God? That's actually our bigger problem, because it's not just like, "Oh, I need to start improving." No, we've spent our lives regularly shrinking God down, making him a lightweight. It's a regular thing.

But listen to these hopeful words.

If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness. Therefore, you are to be feared. — Psalm 130

Dagon could not stand before God. We cannot stand before God. But with you there is forgiveness, therefore you might be feared.

Remember what I said about the three R's of the ark of the covenant? The third one: reconciliation. The priest would go into the temple and put blood of the sacrifice on the ark—between the people who had taken God lightly and the glory of God. And that blood would mediate a reconciliation. The same is true for us. God doesn't give us a box. He gives us a person—Jesus.

We find in Jesus' life the low point of his life is his personal sacrifice for sin, him becoming the sacrifice whose own blood was shed to mediate between a holy and glorious God and people who take God lightly.

When I was younger I was a youth pastor and had all these terrible witness wear t-shirts. I had one that was Jesus doing a push-up with a cross on his back and it said, "His pain, your gain." It's awesome. I had a closet full of these. Terrible t-shirt, not bad theology. Really not bad theology.

You can walk in modern-day old city Jerusalem down a street called the Via Dolorosa, and it follows from Pilate's chambers all the way to where Jesus was buried. It's a literal street. And there are 14 little stops up on the wall as you walk down the street. One of those stops is where Jesus carrying the cross falls, staggers under the weight. It's not just, "Well, God lost a lot of blood and that was kind of a heavy wooden thing." No, friends. Jesus is bearing the weight. His pain, your gain. He's bearing the weight of those who have taken God lightly, of those who have treated God as insignificant, as if he's just sort of being carried around like God in a box.

It is a deep idolatry problem that we have where we regularly shrink God down, we regularly alter the scales, we forget who God is, we pretend like he's light, like he doesn't see, like he doesn't care. "I've gotten away with stuff before."

If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, therefore you are to be feared. — Psalm 130

It's my call to you this morning, on the basis of the incredible goodness of God and his graciousness to sinners, to turn to him.

Some of you are here and you're not a Christian, you've never been a Christian, and you're so welcome. We regularly expect people here who aren't Christians. My call to you would be to agree with God. Agree with God on his diagnosis of you. You've spent your whole life pretending like he's nothing when he's enormous and he is weighty and his glory fills the whole earth. It's time to take him seriously.

For many of you, you've been Christians a long time and you've gotten used to God. You're like the Israelites—like, "We got God in a box," and you got one too. This morning I call you to repent, which is just to agree with God and say, "Lord, I need you to change me."

Is there an area in your life this morning, and I want you to be really thoughtful about this, where you are taking God lightly. Just one thing. So here's what I want to say in conclusion. Here's my challenge to you. Be astronauts this morning.

So astronauts regularly experience this. You take off in a rocket ship from Cape Canaveral. You are pressed back into your seat leaving the earth's atmosphere. Three to four G's. Three or four times gravity is what astronauts experience. Your face pressed back. You're feeling three or four times of what your normal weight would be. This is what it's like actually to be a sinner who doesn't acknowledge God. We're too heavy.

And yet what happens to the astronaut when they break free from earth's atmosphere? Weightlessness. Things are restored to the right way because the one who has all the gravity is God himself, and we're weightless. This is my call to you this morning. Can you have a holy imagination of what it would be like to lay aside you being too much, too many G's, and let God be God and you weigh less.

In the name of the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit amen.

Prayer

Father we thank you for your word. There's nothing like your word. We are people who are so used to taking you lightly. Lord we agree with you this morning. Take our too heavy hearts, too heavy lives, too important selves. We give them to you. Lord, we pray that we would experience what it's like to really, for you to be the center of our universe and for us to be weightless around you. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.