Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then they carried the ark into Dagon’s temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained. That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon’s temple at Ashdod step on the threshold.
The Lord’s hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity; he brought devastation on them and afflicted them with tumors. When the people of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, “The ark of the god of Israel must not stay here with us, because his hand is heavy on us and on Dagon our god.” So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked them, “What shall we do with the ark of the god of Israel?”
They answered, “Have the ark of the god of Israel moved to Gath.” So they moved the ark of the God of Israel.
But after they had moved it, the Lord’s hand was against that city, throwing it into a great panic. He afflicted the people of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumors. So they sent the ark of God to Ekron.
As the ark of God was entering Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They have brought the ark of the god of Israel around to us to kill us and our people.” So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, “Send the ark of the god of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it will kill us and our people.” For death had filled the city with panic; God’s hand was very heavy on it. Those who did not die were afflicted with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.

• 1 Samuel 5:1-12

When the ark of the Lord had been in Philistine territory seven months, the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it back to its place.”
They answered, “If you return the ark of the god of Israel, do not send it back to him without a gift; by all means send a guilt offering to him. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand has not been lifted from you.”
The Philistines asked, “What guilt offering should we send to him?”
They replied, “Five gold tumors and five gold rats, according to the number of the Philistine rulers, because the same plague has struck both you and your rulers. Make models of the tumors and of the rats that are destroying the country, and give glory to Israel’s god. Perhaps he will lift his hand from you and your gods and your land. Why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When Israel’s god dealt harshly with them, did they not send the Israelites out so they could go on their way?
“Now then, get a new cart ready, with two cows that have calved and have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up. Take the ark of the Lord and put it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to him as a guilt offering. Send it on its way, but keep watching it. If it goes up to its own territory, toward Beth Shemesh, then the Lord has brought this great disaster on us. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us but that it happened to us by chance.”
So they did this. They took two such cows and hitched them to the cart and penned up their calves. They placed the ark of the Lord on the cart and along with it the chest containing the gold rats and the models of the tumors. Then the cows went straight up toward Beth Shemesh, keeping on the road and lowing all the way; they did not turn to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh.
Now the people of Beth Shemesh were harvesting their wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they rejoiced at the sight. The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and there it stopped beside a large rock. The people chopped up the wood of the cart and sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. The Levites took down the ark of the Lord, together with the chest containing the gold objects, and placed them on the large rock. On that day the people of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the Lord. The five rulers of the Philistines saw all this and then returned that same day to Ekron.
These are the gold tumors the Philistines sent as a guilt offering to the Lord—one each for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron. And the number of the gold rats was according to the number of Philistine towns belonging to the five rulers—the fortified towns with their country villages. The large rock on which the Levites set the ark of the Lord is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.
But God struck down some of the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy of them to death because they looked into the ark of the Lord. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the Lord had dealt them. And the people of Beth Shemesh asked, “Who can stand in the presence of the Lord, this holy God? To whom will the ark go up from here?”
Then they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up to your town.”

• 1 Samuel 6:1-21

So the men of Kiriath Jearim came and took up the ark of the Lord. They brought it to Abinadab’s house on the hill and consecrated Eleazar his son to guard the ark of the Lord. The ark remained at Kiriath Jearim a long time—twenty years in all.
Then all the people of Israel turned back to the Lord. So Samuel said to all the Israelites, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only.
Then Samuel said, “Assemble all Israel at Mizpah, and I will intercede with the Lord for you.” When they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the Lord. On that day they fasted and there they confessed, “We have sinned against the Lord.” Now Samuel was serving as leader of Israel at Mizpah.
When the Philistines heard that Israel had assembled at Mizpah, the rulers of the Philistines came up to attack them. When the Israelites heard of it, they were afraid because of the Philistines. They said to Samuel, “Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines.” Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and sacrificed it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. He cried out to the Lord on Israel’s behalf, and the Lord answered him.
While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in battle. But that day the Lord thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites. The men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Kar.
Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”
So the Philistines were subdued and they stopped invading Israel’s territory. Throughout Samuel’s lifetime, the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines. The towns from Ekron to Gath that the Philistines had captured from Israel were restored to Israel, and Israel delivered the neighboring territory from the hands of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.
Samuel continued as Israel’s leader all the days of his life. From year to year he went on a circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah, judging Israel in all those places. But he always went back to Ramah, where his home was, and there he also held court for Israel. And he built an altar there to the Lord.

• 1 Samuel 7:1-17

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

1 Samuel 5:2 ‘Dagon’: “Ancient literature identifies this deity as a fish god, whose image had the lower body of a fish and upper body of a man. Dagon seems to have been the leader of the Philistine pantheon (Judg. 16:23) and is noted to be the father of Baal. The placing of the ark of God in the temple of Dagon was supposed to be a sign of Dagon’s power and Yahweh’s inferiority, a visual representation that the god of the Philistines was victorious over the God of the Hebrews. In addition, the textual connection of Dagon reinforces the affinity between the events written here and those in the life of Samson (cf. Judg. 13–16).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Samuel 5:3 ‘The Philistine challenge to God’s honor’: “When the Philistines had beaten the Israelites in battle and captured the sacred chest called the ark, they boasted as though they had defeated God himself. They evidently regarded the golden chest as the choicest part of the spoil, and they placed it as a trophy in the chief temple of their god Dagon to show that he was mightier than the God Jehovah, who was unable, they thought, to protect his people. This challenged Jehovah’s honor, and because he is jealous for his honor, this was good for Israel. When before his ark and the Philistines plagued with tumors, until in their desperate pain and dire disgrace, they set the ark free. Whenever infidelity or superstition prevails so as to discourage our minds, we may take comfort out of this-that God will protect his name.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

1 Samuel 5:4 ‘head … hands were broken off’: “The first display of God’s authority over Dagon was not perceived. God’s second display of authority, the cutting off of Dagon’s head and hands, was a common sign that the enemy was dead (Judg. 7:25; 8:6; 1 Sam. 17:54; 31:9; 2 Sam. 4:12), and was to be understood as God’s divine judgment on the false idol.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Samuel 5:5 ‘tread on the threshold’: ”Because the head and hands of Dagon fell on the threshold, superstition developed that it was cursed; therefore, the Philistines would not tread on it. to this day. This phrase supports the claim that the writer was living at a time removed from the actual event itself (see Introduction: Author and Date). This phrase and phrases equivalent to it are found throughout 1, 2 Samuel (6:18; 26:6; 30:25; 2 Sam. 4:3; 6:8; 18:18).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Samuel 5:6 ‘The hand of the Lord was heavy’: “In contrast to the hands of Dagon being cut off, symbolizing his helplessness against the power of Yahweh, the Lord was pictured to be actively involved in judging the Philistines. The imagery of God’s hand is found throughout the ark narrative (4:8; 5:6, 7, 9, 11; 6:3, 5, 9). tumors. It has been suggested that this word refers to the sores or boils caused by an epidemic of the bubonic plague carried by rats (6:4, 5). The spread of the disease and its deadly effect (5:6, 9, 12; 6:11, 17) make this a likely view.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Samuel 5:10 ‘Ekron’: ”With judgment on Gath, the Philistines sent the ark away to the next main city to see if God was behind their calamity. Located about 6 mi. N of Gath, it was the closest major Philistine city to Israel’s border. the ark … to kill us. The cry of the Ekronites was an admission that the Philistines had gotten the message that God was the source of their troubles. It is curious that the Philistines knew of God’s power to smite the Egyptians (4:8), yet they proudly believed themselves stronger than Egypt. The severity of the plagues grew increasingly worse in vv. 6–12, corresponding with the failure of the Philistines to humble themselves before God. Their actions were very similar to those of the Egyptians (Ex. 5–14).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Samuel 6:2 ‘the priests and the diviners’: ”These men of the Philistines, specifically identified in Scripture as having notable fame (Is. 2:6), were summoned to figure out how to appease God so that He would stop the plague. send it to its place. The Philistines understood that they had offended God. Their diviners decided to rightfully appease His wrath by sending the ark back to Israel.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Samuel 6:3 ‘trespass offering’: “The purpose behind this offering was to both acknowledge and compensate for their trespass of dishonoring the God of Israel. These pagans recognized their sin and the need for manifest repentance, which they did according to their religious tradition by means of votive trespass offerings.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Samuel 6:8-9 ‘The Ark Sent to Beth Shemesh’: “The five rulers of the Philistines, having experienced national devastation from their possession of Israel’s Ark of the Covenant, resolved to placate Israel’s gods with an offering of gold (6:1-7). They placed the ark on a newly constructed cart along with a container holding their offering and hitched two cows to the cart, which would not have a human driver.
“The conclusion of this matter is described in 6:13-7:1. The cows pulled the cart holding the ark directly to the town of Beth-Shemesh, which confirmed the power of God to the watching Philistines. But this did not work out so well for the citizens of Beth-Shemesh, where the Lord struck down 70 men for presumptuously peering into the ark.”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

1 Samuel 6:20 ‘Who is able to stand’: “This question climaxes the narrative of the ark. No one is able to stand against God’s judgment. This applied to the people outside the covenant as well as those under the covenant. Presumption before God is unacceptable. to whom shall it go. The expression was used to denote the desire to take the ark away from them.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Samuel 6:21 ‘Kirjath Jearim’: “A city located approximately 10 mi. NE of Beth Shemesh. It would remain the resting place of the ark until David brought it to Jerusalem (2 Sam. 6:1–19). This location had long been associated with Baal worship (cf. Josh. 15:9, 60; 18:14).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Samuel 7:2 ‘under the hand of false gods’: “The ark resided at Kiriath­Jearim for twenty years, and during all that time Israel was under the hand of the Philistines. But a worse enemy than the Philistines held sway over the land. Though the ark had returned, the people had gone away from their God and had set up the abominable worship of Baal and Astarte, the idols of the Phoenicians and other heathen nations by whom they were surround ed. The Baalim were the male gods and the Ashtoreths the female, and worship of these idols was attended with great lewdness and filthiness. The people were thus in double bondage. The heavy yoke of the Philistines was on them because the heavier burden of a false worship crushed out the life of their hearts. Some may naturally ask, ‘Where was Samuel all that time?’ I have a firm persuasion that he was going from place to place, preaching in quiet spots wherever he could gather an audience warning the people of their sin and stirring them up to seek Jehovah, thus endeavoring to infuse some spirituality into their national life. For twenty years he was warning a people who did not seem to care for his message. But constant dripping wears away stones, and at last the inert mass against which he had battered began to move. That the continual prayers and efforts of Samuel were crowned with success should encourage all those who, in days of unfaithfulness and apostasy, still lift up their voices for the truth of God.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

1 Samuel 7:3-13 ‘The Promise of Deliverance’: “Taking firm grasp of the reins of his judge­ ship, Samuel issued a call for the Israelites to abandon their idolatrous practices and return to the Lord. This would be the only means by which Israel would be delivered from the Philistine oppression. The nation’s repentant response to Samuel’s challenge was immediate (7:1-9). The subsequent passage describes the great military victory that Israel won over the Philistines through the Lord’s meteorological intervention (7:10-13).”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

1 Samuel 7:4 ‘the Baals and the Ashtoreths’: “Most dominant of the Canaanite pantheon, these deities were the fertility gods which plagued Israel. ‘Baal’ and ‘Ashtoreth’ are plurals of majesty, which signify their supreme authority over other Canaanite deities. Ashtoreth represented the female goddess, while Baal represented the male sky god who fertilized the land.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Samuel 7:6 ‘drew water, and poured it out before the Lord’: “The pouring out of water before the Lord was a sign of repentance. This act is repeated in 2 Sam. 23:16. We have sinned against the LORD. The symbol of Samuel pouring out the water and the acknowledgment of the people reveal a situation where true repentance had taken place. The condition of the heart superseded the importance or righteousness of the ritual. Samuel judged. At this point Samuel is introduced as the judge of Israel. His judgeship encompassed both domestic leadership and the conduct of war. The word links the text back to the last comment about Eli who judged 40 years (4:18). Samuel is shown to be the one taking over Eli’s judgeship. He served as the last judge before the first king (cf. 1 Sam. 8:5).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Samuel 7:12 ‘The works of God continue today’: “We do our Lord an injustice when we suppose he worked all his mighty acts in days gone by but does not perform wonders for the saints now on the earth. We should review our own diaries. Surely in these modern pages we may discover some happy incidents, refreshing to ourselves and glorifying to our God. Have we had no deliverances? Have we passed through no rivers, supported by the divine presence? Have we walked through no fires unharmed? The God who spoke to Abraham at Mamre, has he never spoken to us? He who stood in the fiery furnace with the three holy children, has he never stood at our side? Do not forget these manifestations; do not fail to rejoice in them. The God who gave Solomon the desire of his heart, has he never listened to us and answered our requests? Have we never been made to lie down in green pastures? Have we never been led by the still waters? While we think of Samuel piling the stones and saying, ‘The LORD has helped us to this point,’ let us put the emphasis on the word us and say, ‘The LORD has helped us to this point,’ and if we can put it in the singular and say, ‘The LORD has helped me to this point,’ so much the better.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

1 Samuel 7:13 ‘did not come anymore into the territory of Israel’: “The Lord gave Israel the victory over the Philistines, discontinuing their threat for the immediate future during Samuel’s judgeship. all the days of Samuel. As the section opened in 4:1 with Samuel pictured as God’s agent, so here the section closed with the Lord working powerfully through all the days of Samuel.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

My Thoughts

This is one of my favorite stories in the Bible.  God reveals Himself in a very odd way.  There is comedy within the chapters 5 and 6.  But there is a clear message that is repeated many years later in the prophets.  Jeremiah 10 talks of false gods having to be carried.  These gods are made by human hands.  Psalm 115 talks about how false gods cannot hear the prayers of the people.

We see all this unfold in 1 Samuel 5.  Then in 1 Samuel 6, the Philistines will do anything to get rid of the Ark of God.

The Ark is first sent to Ashdod, to the temple of Dagon.  According to Rev. MacArthur, Dagon is a fish god, and due to the Philistines being the “Sea People”, Dagon was a major player in their false religion.  After the first day, Dagon had fallen face down before the Ark of God.  After the second day, the same thing happened, but the head and hands had broken and were found on the threshold entering the temple.

God was forcing Dagon to bow to Him, but since Dagon was a sculpture, made by man, it could not walk, talk, or hear.  But maybe Dagon had fallen due to seismic activity.  The Philistines might have had experience with tremors.  There are faults in the area.  But the head and hands would have a hard time walking across the room.

This fear of touching the threshold is found in other cultures.  While in Thailand, I took a tour of the teakwood palace.  The thresholds were roughly a foot high and a foot wide.  In the time of the kings of Siam, touching the threshold could cause you to be beheaded.  They believe that the spirits of their ancestors were kept in those thresholds and stepping or kicking a threshold was a severe offense with a severe penalty.  I wonder if some Philistines had travelled to Thailand after David had essentially wiped them out.

The people of Ashdod became afraid of the Ark.  They moved the Ark to Gath.  People there became sick, getting large tumors.  When the people of Ekron saw the people of Gath bringing them the Ark, they claimed that the people of Gath were trying to kill them.

Just by a couple of times with Dagon falling and then people getting sick, the Philistines had an irrational fear of God.  Thus, they had more “faith” than did the Chosen People of God.  They had seen God’s power, and it scared them to death.

There were five cities in the Philistine nation, each with a king.  The diviners of the Philistines made a reasonable assessment.  The Ark must be returned to the Israelites, and there must be a guilt offering made.  The rats that were infesting their towns and the tumors on the people served as models and they crafted gold versions of them.  Then two cows pulled the cart to Beth Shemesh.  The people tore the cart apart and killed the cows.  They offered the cows as a burnt offering to God and then asked the people of Kiriath Jearim to come get the Ark.

The people of Kiriath Jearim did so, consecrating Eleazar to take care of the Ark.  The Ark remained there for twenty years.  As Rev. MacArthur points out, until David brought the Ark to Jerusalem.  But this timing is a little strange, since Saul reigned for forty years and Jerusalem was not conquered until after David became king.

But Samuel called for the Israelites to gather at Mizpah.  There they worshipped God.  They confessed their sin and turned away from the worship of the Baals and Asherah false gods.

The Philistines then marshalled an army and were about to attack.  The Israelites were afraid, but they turned to Samuel and to God.  Samuel sacrificed a suckling lamb.  The Israelites attacked the Philistines and routed them.  The Philistines gave back the territories they had captured and were never a threat for the rest of Samuel’s life.  Noting that Saul warred against them and David killed Goliath while Samuel was still alive means that their was little peace between the nations, but not on the scale before Samuel became the judge for Israel.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

1 Samuel 5: 1. What commandments or ‘holy things’ of God do you treat lightly? How might that be affecting the non-Christians around you?
“2. Is God disciplining you right now? How are you responding: Passing the buck? Replacing idols? Submitting to his hand?
“3. What ‘enemy’ or ‘false god’ in your life would you like to have God topple? How will you take steps this week to cooperate?
1 Samuel 6: 1. When in the last year have you felt like God was angry with you? At such times, do you feel like nothing-not even good behavior or guilt offerings­ will please him? What finally turns the tide of his anger?
“2. When do you test God? What do you do to rationalize God’s judgment on you for trifling with that which is holy?
“3. When have you treated God and sacred things with too much familiarity? How do you maintain proper respect for his holiness?
“4. Do you use ‘signs’ to determine if God is for or against a plan of yours? Which signs? How do you know if these are from God or not?
1 Samuel 7: 1. In your receiving God’s promised blessing, what role is played by confession of sin? By forsaking idols? By spiritual sacrifice? How is this principle played out in your church?
“2. When have you experienced a severe test of your faith? Was it soon after an act of spiritual commitment? Why is that? What effect did that trial have on your new resolution?
“3. What spiritual resolutions do you want to make at this point in your life? What obstacles stand in your way? How may the group help?
“4. What ‘memorials’ have you set up to remind you of when God has greatly blessed you? How can you work to keep track of God’s blessings in the future?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

There is one set of questions for each of the chapters, 1 Samuel 5-7.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.