1 Samuel 5-6 tell what
happened to the ark, or rather how the ark happened to the Philistines who
captured it, and how it came back to the Israelites.
If you remember, the
background is that the Philistines captured the ark of the covenant and killed
Eli’s two sons, which caused great distress among Israel and led to the further
deaths of Eli and his daughter-in-law.
So now what happens?
Jehovah Versus Dagon in a Knock-down Fight
1 And the Philistines took the ark of God, and
brought it from Eben-ezer unto Ashdod.
2 When the Philistines took the ark of God, they
brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.
3 ¶And when they of Ashdod arose early on the
morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of
the Lord. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.
4 And when they arose early on the morrow
morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of
the Lord; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off
upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.
5 Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor
any that come into Dagon’s house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod
unto this day. (1 Samuel 5:1-5)
The first thing the Lord
does is knock over the statue of Dagon before the ark. By prostrating the idol, the Lord hoped
to communicate a mild message – “Your god falls/bows before me and thus you
should too.” The Philistines just
stood their god’s statue back up.
What did the Philistines
think when they found Dagon had fallen down? They probably thought some Israelites had snuck in during
the night and pushed over the idol just to cause mischief. The supernatural explanation that God
or an angel had pushed over the idol does not seem to occur to them, or if it
did, it was quickly squelched as unthinkable. So they go with the natural explanation.
The funny thing is, both
explanations invalidate the power of their idol. If it was Israel’s God or an angel, then Dagon didn’t have
power to save itself, and if it was a mortal that pushed Dagon over, Dagon still didn’t have power to save himself
from being tipped over OR to right himself back where he should be. (This is in contrast with Jehovah, who
does have that power. We can see
in the whole account of 1 Samuel 5-6 that God ultimately does have power to take the ark of the covenant back to Israel
where it should be, even to the point of using transportation arranged by His
enemies. Pretty impressive,
huh? But wait, I’m getting ahead
of myself.)
Next the Lord does something
a little more pointed. He knocks
Dagon down again, this time in such a way as to break off Dagon’s head and
hands. What is the message here? “Not only does your god fall before me,
your god is powerless and dead, just as he has no hands or head. You are worshipping the wrong
god.” I read somewhere that
in ancient cultures that conquering nations would break off the heads and hands
of statues of gods in the nations they conquered, so there is dramatic irony in
the Lord breaking hands and head off Dagon in Dagon’s own temple.
I think the fact that Dagon
falls twice is meant to show this wasn’t an accident. It’s supposed to be two witnessing events.
How do the Philistines respond
to this? They totally ignore
that big picture message and focus instead on the fact that Dagon’s head and
hands fell on the temple’s threshold, and they start treating the threshold as if it is sacred by
starting a tradition of not stepping on it! (1 Sam. 5:4-5)
This seems really bizarre, but it may be they thought Dagon’s second
fall meant Dagon wanted to break, and
if so, then the place he fell was special for some reason.
We can see the Philistines
were persistent in their beliefs.
They were not going to let themselves be swayed by signs that seemed to
favor another God over their own, especially since they believed they had
captured the Israelite God in battle.
Further, they wouldn’t allow themselves to be fooled by what they might
have considered cheap tricks masquerading as signs. They probably reasoned that if it could be done by human
hands, then it probably was.
It might be helpful to
consider if there was any better way the Lord could have communicated with the
Philistines the mistake they were making worshipping Dagon instead of God. The signs of having Dagon fall and
having his head and hands cut off was simple and clear, but can we think of any
better way? Just for grins, I
thought up some options.
·
What if the roof
had fallen in on Dagon but not the ark?
It might be hard to see with the roof fallen in.
·
What if Dagon
had just been broken into tiny pieces with the ark? That might just look like Dagon had left, and it wouldn’t do
the job of showing he had no power.
·
What if Dagon had
been broken into larger pieces?
That still doesn’t give anything better than the simplicity of Dagon
losing his head and hands.
·
What if Dagon
had fallen by itself with the ark not there? That wouldn’t communicate anything about the God of Israel
having power over Dagon. The
presence of the ark and Dagon falling before it communicated God’s power had
the ascendency, even though the Philistines thought Dagon had won the battle at
the beginning.
I think those two signs were
adequate for their purpose and couldn’t be improved upon.
But the Philistines didn’t
listen, so now what?
The Plagues Begin
6 But the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them
of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and
the coasts thereof.
7 And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so,
they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand
is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god.
8 They sent therefore and gathered all the lords
of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the
God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried
about unto Gath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither.
9 And it was so, that, after they had carried it
about, the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction:
and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in
their secret parts.
10 ¶Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron.
And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried
out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to
slay us and our people.
11 So they sent and gathered together all the
lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and
let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people: for
there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was
very heavy there.
12 And the men that died not were smitten with
the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to heaven. (1 Samuel 5:6-12)
Next the Lord sends plagues
on the Philistines of emerods. The footnote says emerods could be
hemorrhoids. Also,
according, to 1 Samuel 6:4-5, we might assume that mice were involved as
well. Some believe the mention of
mice suggests that an outbreak of bubonic plague was included.
You’d think the Philistines
would be wise enough to say, “Because the God of Israel’s hand is sore upon us
and upon Dagon our god, and Dagon has not saved us, we must worship the God of
Israel instead, for He has power over us as well as in His own land.” But they don’t. Instead they say, “The ark of the God
of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon
our god.” (2 Sam 5:7) (Does anyone
else think it strange that they want to keep a worthless god and get rid of a
powerful God?)
So they send the ark to Gath
instead. And the same plagues
happen in Gath too. And they try
to send the ark to Ekron.
The plagues of emerods and
mice were difficult to ignore, as disease, death of one’s loved ones, and
destruction of crops usually is. They
seem to observe the plagues began in cities where the ark was, and this led
them to conclude that the ark of the God of Israel was responsible. Thus, Ekron, out of self-preservation
starts to connect the dots and protest to save themselves from having to take
in the ark.
Now, with our modern
understanding of disease theory, we might wonder if the ark was a vector of
disease and had some kind of germ on it that was spread by contact. However, I think the mention of mice
involvement in the plague suggests that mice were the vector, with their fleas
that would bite humans and spread whatever nasty bug they had. The Lord could bring plagues at
will, as He did in Egypt when Pharaoh would not let the Israelites go.
Another thing I notice is
that 1 Sam 6:4, 17 mentions that the trespass offering to appease God would be five golden emerods and five golden mice, one for each
Philistine town and lord because “one plague was
on you all, and on your lords” (1 Sam. 6:4). This suggests that the plagues spread beyond the presence of the ark into all
the other Philistine cities as well.
The text doesn’t put emphasis on this, and it is worth thinking about
why that is.
I think the text wants us to
have in our head the image that where the ark comes, the Philistines are
plagued and die. It’s an image
that communicates if you come into the presence of God, you will die. This suggests that we are to learn the
principle that to have God come when we are not prepared to receive Him would
be a curse to us, not a blessing.
It’s a statement not just about physical death, but spiritual death and
being cast out of God’s presence, which leads us to better understand the need
to be redeemed and purified.
What to do?
1 And the ark of the Lord was in the country of
the Philistines seven months.
2 And the Philistines called for the priests and
the diviners, saying, What shall we do to the ark of the Lord? tell us
wherewith we shall send it to his place.
3 And they said, If ye send away the ark of the
God of Israel, send it not empty; but in any wise return him a trespass
offering: then ye shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is
not removed from you.
4 Then said they, What shall be the trespass
offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden emerods, and
five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for
one plague was on you all, and on your lords.
5 Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods,
and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God
of Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off
your gods, and from off your land.
6 Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as
the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he had wrought
wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed? (1
Samuel 6:1-6)
It is at this stage the
Philistines decided to get rid of the ark, but they want to do it in such a way
as to appease the Lord so the plagues will end. So there is some discussion about how to do this.
Do they consider talking to the
Israelites and asking about the Law of Moses and the rules for trespass
offerings? No. They consult their diviners.
There’s a nice little lesson
here. If you want to know how to repent,
do you ask those who know about God—apostles and prophets and church leaders--or
do you go to leaders of other religions?
The diviners really don’t
know what’s going on either. They
say, “but in any wise return him a trespass offering: then ye shall be healed,
and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you.” (1 Sam.
6:3) If you notice, they promise
healing, but in case that doesn’t happen, they promise the people will know why
they haven’t been healed. They
aren’t committing to a prediction because they are afraid they’ll be wrong, so
they’re hedging their bets.
The diviners give directions
according to the Philistine idol theology. The trespass offering must be images of their plagues made
out of gold. To their mind, the
emerods and mice have power, so that makes them gods, so they should make idol
images and send them with the ark, thinking that the God of Israel will command
those plaguey mini-gods to leave them alone.
The one useful thing the
diviners say is this:
Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the
Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he had wrought wonderfully
among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed? (1 Samuel 6:6)
The diviners remind the
Philistines of the events of Exodus when the God of Israel plagued the
Egyptians to get them to let the Israelites go. The diviners and the people knew the stories, so they
weren’t completely ignorant.
I think the Lord knew the
Philistines knew the story of Exodus, and used that to craft the message to the
Philistines. Just as the
Egyptian magicians eventually had to acknowledge their powers (and the powers
of the Egyptian gods) were inadequate in comparison to Jehovah, the destruction
of the idol god Dagon demonstrated the same thing. And just as the refusal to acknowledge the God of
Israel led to plagues in Egypt, the refusal to acknowledge the God of Israel
led to plagues in Philistine territory.
The Philistines were plagued
far less than the Egyptians, and they could easily liken the Egyptian’s
situation to themselves, which led to a determination of what they should
do. They probably used this
reasoning-- “The Egyptians were plagued by Israel’s God for not letting Israel
go. We are plagued and Israel’s
God’s ark is here. We should let
something go, but we don’t have Israelites here, just the ark. Therefore, we should let the ark go.”
However, they were still in
doubt as to whether the God of Israel was really
behind the plagues, because unlike in Exodus when Moses warned of the plagues
beforehand, these plagues have no prophetic introduction that they can
discern. They just hit. So the Philistines suspect the truth,
but they are in doubt about it.
(They ignored the Dagon idol destruction, remember, and they were
reluctant to accept the implications the story of Exodus had for their
situation. The diviners were right
to ask them why they were hardening their hearts.)
Because they were still in
doubt, the diviners recommend a test.
7 Now therefore make a new cart, and take two
milch kine, on which there hath come no yoke, and tie the kine to the cart, and
bring their calves home from them:
8 And take the ark of the Lord, and lay it upon
the cart; and put the jewels of gold, which ye return him for a trespass
offering, in a coffer by the side thereof; and send it away, that it may go.
9 And see, if it goeth up by the way of his own
coast to Beth-shemesh, then he hath done us this great evil: but if not, then
we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us; it was a chance that
happened to us.
10 ¶And the men did so; and took two milch kine,
and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home:
11 And they laid the ark of the Lord upon the
cart, and the coffer with the mice of gold and the images of their emerods.
12 And the kine took the straight way to the way
of Beth-shemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and turned
not aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines
went after them unto the border of Beth-shemesh.
13 And they of Beth-shemesh were reaping their
wheat harvest in the valley: and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark,
and rejoiced to see it.
14 And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a
Beth-shemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they clave
the wood of the cart, and offered the kine a burnt offering unto the Lord….
16 And
when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it,
they returned to Ekron the same day. (1 Sam. 6:7-14, 16)
The test was a rather
ingenious one because it would fulfill two functions for the Philistines. 1) It was a way to wash their hands of
the ark. 2) It could become a sign
about whether the God of Israel really was behind the plagues they had
suffered.
Their test was
simple—require the God of Israel to drive the cart holding the His ark in a
specific way to a specific place.
And they make it as hard as possible for it to happen naturally. It can’t be a coincidence. It has to have divine intervention to
get there.
Let’s see how they construct
this test.
1. They put the ark on a new
cart. This could be to show honor
to the God of Israel, but it is also an unproven piece of equipment.
2. They yoke two milch cows
to the cart. Milch cows are milk
cows and they are not draft animals, so they aren’t trained to pull
things. They probably wouldn’t
know how to respond to a yoke and they’d probably have a hard time working
together.
3. They take the calves away from the milk cows. The cows aren’t going to want to leave
their calves. They’d also probably
have discomfort if the milk pressure in their udder isn’t relieved when it
should.
4. The cows and the cart were to be let loose to see where it
would go. No one was to drive
it. It could theoretically go anywhere.
5. The Philistines declare that if the cows took the cart
straight to Beth-shemesh in Israel, then they would know that Israel’s God was
behind the plagues they had suffered.
If it went anywhere else, then they’d figure the plague was just by
chance.
Well, the impossible happens;
the Lord takes the ark straight back to Israel on the highway to the very town
the Philistines named, so in all respects the impossible sign was
fulfilled. Five Philistine lords follow
it the whole time, so there are five witnesses that the cart goes straight to
Israel.
Does this have any effect on
the Philistines? Not that we can
tell from the text.
The fallen Dagon idol, the
plagues of emerods and mice, the unmanned cow cart going straight to Israel
could have led to conversion, but it didn’t. The Philistines tried to resist for as long as possible the
thought that Israel’s God was responsible for what was happening, and even when
they were trying to figure out how to appease Israel’s God and stop the plague,
they were still resisting God.
They would not submit. Perhaps
they saw submission as too costly to them personally and to their culture. We see here that all the signs in the
world can’t convince people who are determined to resist the Lord.
The Philistines illustrate
that the Lord can only do a limited amount with people who refuse to listen to
Him.
1)
He can warn
them, to demonstrate His justice and mercy, whether or not they listen.
2)
He can wait,
hoping they will repent.
3)
He can use them
as instruments of wrath to chastise other wicked people with war.
4)
When something
specific needs doing, He can plague them.
5)
He can take them
from the earth.
But there’s a cool thing
here too. What happened among the Philistines shows me that the Lord doesn’t
just want to reveal Himself to Israel; He wants to reveal Himself to the
world. It is human stubbornness,
pride, and incorrect traditions that prevent men from seeing the true meaning
of the miracles and signs the Lord does.
Looking at this story in
another way, in the capture of the ark by the Philistines and its journey back
to Israel, we see a type of Jesus Christ, who allowed himself to be put to
death and then raised Himself from the dead, with none to help Him. “O death, I will be thy plagues: O
grave, I will be thy destruction” (Hosea 13:14).
Now, where do you suppose
the Lord would take the ark when He’s taking it back to Israel? Where is the best place in Beth-shemesh
to leave it? He takes it into a
field belonging to a man named Joshua.
We don’t know much about Joshua and why he was chosen for this
privilege, but note his name means “Jehovah saves.” That’s an excellent final message, confirming Jehovah can
save Israel and Jehovah can save His own holy things. Jehovah certainly saved the ark.
Sadly, the people in that
town didn’t have proper respect for the ark and they ended up plagued too.
Time to Sum Up
1 Samuel 5-6 is hard to
apply to ourselves if we are determined to see it merely as an amusing story of
the Philistines’ rebelliousness.
What we should be doing is looking for ways in our life that we make the
mistakes the Philistines made and figuring out how to avoid those mistakes in
the future.
Some Ways God Guides Us
To look at it in a positive
way, these chapters tell us about a few of the different ways that the Lord
might use to try to guide us back to him when we are way off track. He may use signs that speak clearly and
warn us of the errors we are in. He may destroy our idols so that we see they don’t have power
to save us. He may allow disease
and disaster to bring suffering in our lives in hopes it will motivate us to
change as we search for relief and meaning in the experience. (However, disease and disaster can happen to anybody, so it
can’t be used to judge others.) He creates circumstances in our lives that
recreate what we know of stories in the scriptures so that we can apply those
stories to ourselves and make appropriate changes. These seem to be for times when we are so hardened that
nothing softer works. (We don’t
want to get to that point; it is far better to be quick to obey.)
The Philistines’ reaction
demonstrates how efforts to reclaim us may cause us to react with unbelief and
resentment. Because the
Philistines knew the story of Exodus and could apply that to themselves, they
already knew what their problem was, but they didn’t like the
implications. They didn’t like the
message of change that went with it that would require so much of them. They didn’t want to see that God had a
hand in their lives and they rejected that guidance. So they kept looking for something else and that left them
in doubt. When their pain demanded
an answer, they just wanted to know what caused it without letting that push
them toward change.
What would be a better way
to react?
Just ask yourself--Who is
better at following God’s guidance in this story, the Philistines or the cows that draw the cart
with the ark in it?
Consider that even though
the Philistines would not allow God to guide them and teach them, God could guide a pair of milk cows to 1)
pull a cart with the ark 2) together 3) straight on the highway 4) straight to Beth-shemesh
5) even while every instinct those cows possessed screamed out that they needed
to go find their missing calves.
What happened with those
cows is encouraging because it shows me that if I am humble enough to listen
and obey the Lord, He can guide me even if I am untrained for the task I’m
given. He can guide me to work
with others. His guidance can take
me straight to the precise place He wants me to go, even if everything in me
screams this was never supposed to happen.
Do you ever feel like those
cows—set free in a wide open space with a burden to drag around and you could
go anywhere and do anything, but you feel driven to do something specific and
you don’t quite know why or where it’s going to take you? I do, especially about writing for this
blog.
When we notice these things,
I think we, like the cows, are meant to be a sign to others that God
guides. Maybe the glory of our
lives is the direction we go.
Maybe that direction is obvious to everyone else, even while we
ourselves wonder and struggle.
Maybe seeing us make our way slowly but surely in that direction
strengthens others in their own faith journeys.
Also consider that just like
the Lord guided those cows out of Philistine territory and straight to Israel,
the Lord can guide each of us out of Satan’s territory and straight into the
Lord’s kingdom.
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