Greetings from Bethlehem House

“According to the Old Testament, the ark of the Lord was a sacred, movable chest that contained the two stone tablets of the commandments God gave to Moses. It traveled with the Israelites during their time of wilderness wandering. Following the Israelites’ entry into the Promised Land, the ark received a semi-permanent resting place in a tent, first in Shiloh then in Jerusalem; it received a lasting home in the Jerusalem temple.

This liturgical year, we first heard of the ark in the first week in Ordinary Time, during a battle scene between Israel and the Philistines (1 Sam 4:1–11). In a last-ditch effort to defeat the Philistines, the Israelites took the ark from Shiloh out to the battlefield, thinking that perhaps God would battle with them and save them (1 Sam 4:3). The effort failed, and the Philistines captured the ark. The ark’s imprisonment in Philistine territory was momentary, however, for God caused so much damage in the enemy encampment that the Philistines soon returned the ark to Israel in fear.

This week, the ark reappears Tuesday after David secures his kingship in Jerusalem. He relocates the ark to the holy city, to the rejoicing of all the people. David’s desire is to build the ark a permanent home or resting place in the city, but this is not God’s will. Wednesday we hear the exchange between God and Nathan regarding David’s desire. The exchange plays on the multi-dimensional meaning of the word “house,” contrasting God’s “house” or temple to David’s “house” or dynasty. God asks David rhetorically, “Should you build me a house to dwell in?” (2 Sam 7:5). The answer is “no,” for God has never needed a permanent home, not since leading the people out of Egypt. Instead, God will establish a “house” for David (2 Sam 7:11), meaning a dynasty in Jerusalem. Only once that house is firm through David’s son Solomon will God allow for a permanent home for the ark.

It may seem that God is denying David’s wish, but David will actually receive his wish twofold. First, God promises that David’s own lineage or dynastic house will never end, for God will not withdraw divine favor from Solomon and his line. Second, David will build a permanent house for God through the hands of his own child, Solomon. We will hear this promise come to fruition during the fifth week in Ordinary Time, when Solomon builds the Jerusalem temple and transfers the ark to its permanent resting place (1 Kings 8).

The ark was believed to contain the real presence of God, similar to the Catholic belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. There is something awe-inspiring about the notion that the Divine, the uncontainable, can find a home in something small and finite. As Catholics, we believe that this Real Presence finds a home in our own fragile bodies. Simultaneously, God’s words to David remind us that the divine presence extends far beyond human containers. We can build God houses to dwell in, and these houses are meaningful and comforting for us. Yet the divine presence ultimately moves as an uncontainable, unstoppable force, with us wherever we go. This is surely the greatest comfort and promise of all.”

—Mahri Leonard-Fleckman

Mahri Leonard-Fleckman is associate professor of Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. She is author of Little Rock Scripture Study’s three-volume Ponder series and coauthor of Ruth in the Wisdom Commentary series.

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