{"content":[{"text":"Over the past few weeks we have been learning about the early days of Israel when \n they were ruled by kings. We have heard about Saul being the first king and then David \n succeeding him. We heard the stories of how Saul was jealous of David and tried to \n have him killed.","bbox":{"left":0.092549,"top":0.030821,"width":0.80903,"height":0.082391}},{"text":"Last week we heard that Saul died and David was anointed king over all of Israel and \n Judah and that he would rule for 40 years. This period of a united monarchy under \n David’s rule is considered the high point of Israel’s power in the region. Today we are \n going to read a story from the beginning of David’s rule which is going to combine \n cultural and religious elements.","bbox":{"left":0.092549,"top":0.160215,"width":0.787005,"height":0.10405700000000001}},{"text":"David needed a symbol to unite the people and to show the people that his leadership \n was blessed by God. So David turned to a symbol from Israel’s history which was a very \n important manifestation of God’s presence and blessing. David sent for the Ark of the \n Covenant.","bbox":{"left":0.092549,"top":0.311275,"width":0.80893,"height":0.08254299999999998}},{"text":"To make sure of what we are talking about, the Ark of the Covenant is not Noah’s Ark. \n Noah’s Ark was a big boat described in Genesis. The Ark of the Covenant was a box or a \n chest that it was believed held the two tablets that contained the Ten Commandments.","bbox":{"left":0.092549,"top":0.440821,"width":0.811632,"height":0.06087500000000001}},{"text":"The ark came to represent the presence of God and was an important symbol to the \n Israelite people. Throughout scripture the ark is described as more than a symbol but \n as the actual manifestation of God.","bbox":{"left":0.092549,"top":0.548699,"width":0.793934,"height":0.06087599999999993}},{"text":"Any of you that remember the movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark” know that Harrison \n Ford’s character was an archaeologist who went in search of the Ark. The movie had a \n realistic depiction of a box on two poles that were used to carry the ark from one place \n to the next.","bbox":{"left":0.092549,"top":0.656578,"width":0.805219,"height":0.08239099999999999}},{"text":"The Ark in both the Bible and in the Harrison Ford movie was both a blessing and a \n curse. In the Bible, the Philistines possessed the Ark for a while but discarded it when \n bad things happened to them.","bbox":{"left":0.092549,"top":0.786124,"width":0.7942030000000001,"height":0.06072399999999989}}],"images_bbox":[],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[]}