Readers Guide: “The Word for Today” Thursday, October 25, 2012 Read – 1 Samuel 5 & 6 Chapters 5 & 6 continue the story of the capture of the Ark of the Covenant by the Philistines. What the Philistines discover is that the control of the Ark does not bring blessing but curse to them, so they arrange to have the Ark returned. Once again the story is filled with a kind of “magical” telling of the story that may make us feel uncomfortable. Did this story really happen just as it is told? Of course we can’t finally answer that question. When we were talking about the battle against the Egyptian gods centered in Pharaoh who thought of himself as a god we were faced with the same challenge. As we said then I think we need to repeat now – in the end we are probably unable to reconcile the telling of the story with the “scientific” world-view that shapes us. In that “scientific” world-view we take everything “literally” – there is no other way for us to operate within our world-view. Perhaps the people who heard these stories long ago were not as troubled as we are. They did not think of “facts” as being verifiable in only a “scientific” way. Again the point of the stories is clear – God is stronger than all other so-called gods. God’s enemies are helpless before God. God’s people can take comfort in such a great and powerful God. We also should not miss the humor in the story. God’s people poke fun at their, and God’s, adversaries in stories like these. We ought to enjoy the humor too.