"And they of Bethshemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley: and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark and rejoiced to see it." -- 1 Samuel 6:13.
With this beautiful and descriptive passage, the Bible narrates the return of theArk of the Covenant to Israel after its kidnapping by Philistines.
But those happy wheat farmers might not have been so eager to get the thing back had they known what was coming:
"And [God] smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men and the people lamented, because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter."
50,070 people? Did they die all at once, in some explosive burst of divine wrath? Get zapped one by one like ants being squished by an invisible hand? Or go home and have dinner and go to bed, never to awaken in the morning? And that is sure a lot of people for one little city in that day and age, seems to me.
Other cultures have had their holy relics, even protected them with taboos and such, but none have had such an odd treasure, with such deadly and delicate sensibilities.
And then, after being so potent for so many years, the ark just mysteriously vanished, never to be seen again, except in the mind of a Hollywood filmmaker.
Monday, August 13, 2007
An angry ark
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6 comments:
You might as well know now :-) for it is apparent in postings scattered, sprinkling, seasoning my blog....that I hold more with the likes of Joseph Campbell ....that the religions of all the world throughout the ages are the voices of Man and not god.... Man seeking to inform himself of the answers for that which we cannot know... that societies through the ages, through stories with cultural inflections, fables amassing into great tomes weave an intricate tapestry purported as Truth....
It is not in me to believe their truths and I do not feel the poorer for it... I do not believe that spirtuality/reverence exists only through religion's offerings nor that it is Man's only way to a just moral civilized society
My rapture is over and for Existence itself and Life, one of its many splendors ....and I need no justification, explanation beyond that and welcome the scientific illuminations which dazzle all the more these revelations!
Upon looking into the arc, the rays from heaven went through their eyes and then melted their brains.
so where are all the skeletons too? :dramatic eye roll:
thanks for visiting my dream blog. I shall be back.
Kat: My religious feelings go back and forth but I just can't shake the feeling that there must be something to it.
Melanie: Thanks for dropping in and please do come back! Your blog is fascinating and creative.
I wouldn't mind there being higher powers and purposes :-)
I just think that Man's egocentric ideas on this miss the mark completely as we think that all revolves around us and is for us.... much as the world of an infant is all about "me"
I hope that everyone's own spiritual or religious journey begins in the heart and embraces all the different aspects of life and culture and species... a celebration of the diversity and every individual journey
But Kat, those who seem to immerse themselves most deeply in their faith are the very ones who give up their egos as completely as it possible for a human to do -- the Mother Theresas of the world.
if we were put on this earth... it is not to give up ours egos
Mother Theresa celebrated her ego through how she most wanted to express it, with her good works
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