The Philistines had the captured Ark of the Covenant. They took it deep into their own territory to a temple in the city of Ashdod. The temple was dedicated to their god Dagon who was half man and half fish.

Early the next morning, the people of Ashdod found that the statue of Dagon had fallen on its face before the Ark. They set it back up. The next morning they found it fallen again, this time with the hands and head broken off. So, the Philistines were afraid, and moved the Ark to another city and then another. Each time the people in and around the cities were struck down by “tumors.” A more accurate translation is that they suffered severe hemorrhoids. These were so serious that many people died.

Swedenborg writes that these hemorrhoids represent earthly loves, “which are unclean when they are separated from spiritual loves.” 1 Samuel 6 describes how these cities were also suddenly infested with rodents, and this represents the “destruction of the church by distortions of the truth.” (See Divine Providence 326 [11, 12])

Both afflictions represent a separation of faith and charity, two important parts of spiritual life. Swedenborg talks about how the Philistines represent people with whom faith has been separated from charity. (See Arcana Coelestia 1197 and Doctrine of Faith 49.) Note here, as elsewhere, that we should not directly connect any group of people to the positive or negative things that they represent spiritually. This means that we should not assume that the Philistines were any more guilty of separating faith from charity than any other group of people. We should instead think about how in this particular story, they represent the challenge we all face to not separate faith and charity. We need to live our faith for it to be real.

The statue of Dagon, representing faith without charity, fell on its face and was destroyed in front of the Ark of the Covenant, which held the Ten Commandments. This is an illustration of the power of the Lord’s Divine Word when we live by it. Our faith can’t only be a belief in the Lord’s Word, or just an intellectual acknowledgement of His Commandments. It is a function of a life led based on these commandments. Belief without a good life, faith without charity, is destructive - on an individual level and on a collective level. We see this symbolically represented in the destruction of the statue of Dagon.

The way the statue was destroyed is symbolic of faith separate from charity, too. For example, hands generally symbolize power, and the ability to put things into action, whether they be good or bad. (See Arcana Coelestia 878.) The hands were cut off of the statue of Dagon just as faith without action, or charity has no power.

This further drives home the message that faith and charity must go together, if we are to keep our covenant with the Lord.

285. Since this law is the means of linking the Lord with man and man with the Lord, it is called a covenant and a testimony. It is called a covenant because it serves as a link, and a testimony because it establishes the terms of the covenant. For covenant in the Word means linking, testimony the establishment and witnessing of its terms. That is why there were two tablets, one for God and the other for man. The link is provided by the Lord, but only when man does what is written in his tablet. For the Lord is continually present, and wishes to enter; but man must open the door by the free will which the Lord gives him. For He says:

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me, Revelation 3:20.

The stone tablets on which the law was written are called the tablets of the covenant, and the Ark is called from them the Ark of the covenant; the law itself is called the covenant: see Numbers 10:33; Deuteronomy 4:13, 23; 5:2-3; 9:9; Joshua 3:11; 1 Kings 8:21; Revelation 11:19; and elsewhere.

Since a covenant means being joined, it is said of the Lord that He will be a covenant for the people (Isaiah 42:6; 49:8); He is called the messenger of the covenant (Malachi 3:1); and His blood is called the blood of the covenant (Matthew 26:28; Zechariah 9:11; Exodus 24:4-10). That is why the Word is called the Old and the New Covenants ¹ , for covenants are made on account of love, friendship, association and linking.

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