Plagues Again

1 Samuel 5:1-12

Welcome! Today we continue our series on I Samuel, going into Chapter 5. Last week, we read of the terrible battle with the Philistines that led to the total defeat of the Israelites and to the Ark being captured and hauled off by the Philistines. Past chapters have made it clear that the Israelites at this time were mostly far from God; there was severe corruption even at the priestly level with Eli’s sons doing whatever they wanted. Then in Chapter 4, after suffering an initial defeat to the Philistines, the Israelites decided to move the Ark from Shiloh, where it had probably rested unmoved for hundreds of years, to the scene of the battle.

Now from a secular point of view, this probably looked like a brilliant plan. Morale is always critical on the battlefield. After suffering a loss, how do you get the troops back into a positive can-do mood? How do you motivate them to fight again, despite knowing that the outcome is uncertain? Throughout the history of war, leaders have known that you need to get the troops fired up, excited, and confident. Most often this was done by the commander himself going to just behind the battlefront. He would give a rousing speech, and the troops would all shout, and the enemies would hear their intensity, and their confidence would begin to fail, leading to a complete change of momentum in the conflict.

This still happens today – in football. In the fabled plains of Death Valley, where many epic battles have been fought – and mostly won, when things have begun to look bleak, a great leader has come forth – a mythical beast with the body of a tiger but the voice of a man, and he thrusts his fists into the air, all while his servants, a few men but mostly women dressed in bold orange and white clothing, shake fluffy balls and get the multitudes assembled around the battlefield to shout. As they do this, the enemy quickly realizes that, even if they are leading the battle at that moment, they have no real hope of ultimate victory. But I digress.

Back to our account: The Israelites moved the Ark to the site of the battle. When it came, the Israelites were indeed buoyed up and re-motivated. They shouted so loudly it says the ground shook, and the Philistines were indeed afraid. But it appears one of their coaches, I mean leaders, gave a rousing speech in return, telling them, “Be strong, Philistines! Be men, or you will be subject to the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Be men, and fight!”

Let me say a little more about the Philistines. They were an ancient people, mentioned even in Genesis. When God promised the Israelites land in Exodus, it included land held by the Philistines, and so the Israelites were expected to displace the Philistines. When Joshua was old, in a final speech he mentioned that the lands of the Philistines still needed to be conquered. But after Joshua passed away, that never happened. In the book of Judges, multiple times the Israelites, led by judges, battled them. The account of Samson is perhaps the most well-known of these conflicts. And so, here we are in I Samuel, after the times of the Judges, and the Philistines are still here. They actually remain a foe long past the events of this series on Samuel and Saul.

The David and Goliath battle took place as part of a conflict with the Philistines. Although the Philistines did not cause much trouble during the days of Solomon, characterized as largely a time of peace, later prophets describe renewed conflicts between the Philistines and Israel. When the Assyrians defeated Israel, they also defeated the Philistines, and when later the Assyrians were overtaken by the Babylonians and then the Persians, while Israel remained in exile, yet still together as a remnant of God’s people, the Philistines were utterly destroyed, never to return to power.

But here, in this time of I Samuel 4 and 5, the Philistines were victorious. Although the presence of the Ark rallied and encouraged the Israelites, they were nevertheless severely defeated, losing 30,000 men. It was a rout. The Israelites fled, and the Philistines came in and captured the Ark!

I’ve described everything that happened using secular terms. Interestingly, the Bible more or less does this as well; as John pointed out last week, God isn’t even mentioned in I Samuel 4. But let’s look at these events from a God-centered perspective for a moment.

I think that when people to distance themselves from God, when they choose to make Him not a part of their lives, God often chooses to, in a sense, give them what they want. When people insist on living a secular life, God often causes their world, and especially the consequences of their actions, to be secular as well. I’m sure if we had video of this battle between the Israelites and Philistines, expert commentators would point out that the Israelites were outmanned, out-strategized, or both – that it is no surprise that the Philistines won.

By bringing the Ark to the scene of the battle, you might think the Israelites were trying to break out of the secular world they had created by distancing themselves from God, but I don’t think so. They knew they were supposed to love the Lord their God with all their heart, with all their mind, with all their soul, and with all their strength, but they didn’t want to do that. They knew they needed to repent for all their sins, but they didn’t want to do that either. They knew about the blessings and the curses pronounced from the two mountains – the blessings that would occur if they remained faithful and devoted to God, keeping His commandments, and the curses that would occur, including the removal of God’s protection, if they did not. But despite these warnings they wanted above all to live life their own way, apart from God. This was just the latest chapter in the story of mankind that goes all the way back to Genesis Chapter 2.

So they brought the Ark instead. They were, quite literally, putting God in a box. “We’ll bring Him here,” they thought, “and when He sees our trouble, He will deliver us.” Well, that was wrong on so many levels! First, God didn’t need to be “brought anywhere” to see their trouble. He knew everything – every action, every thought, of every Israelite and every Philistine. And the Ark itself was not God, it was a tool given to the Israelites to help them to remember to love Him and keep His commandments. It was also a powerful symbol of things to come, but they didn’t know that. You have probably heard the saying, “You can’t put God in a box.” Often what people mean by this is something very different – they think that we shouldn’t be so close-minded, taking the Bible literally. But that very kind of thinking is exactly putting God in a box! We don’t get to choose what we think God cares about or says is right. God has already made Himself plenty clear in His Word. Our real choice is whether we take Him at His Word, and do what it says, or we go our own way and leave Him behind. If we take a trinket with us, a cross necklace or keep our car radio tuned to a Christian music station, that doesn’t mean He is with us any more than God was with the Israelites when they brought His “box.” I’m not saying the necklace or radio station is bad, I’m just saying they are no substitute for God Himself.

I have heard messages where people pick on students who pray right before final exams; it’s possible I’ve even given one myself. But such a prayer can be good, if it is something like this: “Dear God, I’m in trouble. I haven’t studied, and I don’t know the material. More importantly, I’ve been distant from You this semester. I repent, and ask for forgiveness. I know that Jesus forgives all sin, and so I thank you for Jesus, who died for me. I know I have no grounds to ask, but could you help me to pass this test so that I don’t have to take the course again? I completely understand if choose to have me fail, as it might be better for me to do so, but I ask because I want to be more open to You, and this is the burden that is pressing down on me right now. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”   

This is a good prayer if it is true, if the person really does reconnect with God and go back to seeking and following Him. But there is no sign the Israelites did this at all, not even a little. They put their trust in God’s box all the while despising God! It is no surprise therefore that God did not honor their plans and allowed them to utterly fail. “Surely God wouldn’t let His box be captured by the heathen Philistines,” they thought. How wrong they were!

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. – I Sam. 5:1-3

Isn’t there an old saying that two gods are better than one? Wait, that’s two heads. In any case, I’m sure that’s what the Philistines thought when they added God’s box to Dagon’s temple. Now who was Dagon?

Dagon was an important god of the Mesopotamians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Canaanites for many centuries. If you have heard of the Code of Hammurabi, the preface describes King Hammurabi as “the subduer of the settlements beyond the Euphrates with the help of Dagon, his creator.” Many of the ancient peoples believed that Dagon was the “father” of Baal, whose worshipers are mentioned frequently in the Old Testament. Because Dagon was worshiped by so many peoples over so long a time, it is quite possible that the depictions of Dagon changed over time, but it is strongly suspected that at least the Phoenicians worshiped Dagon in an image that looked like a merman, with the head, arms, and torso of a man, but the lower body of a fish. We are not certain that this is what the image of Dagon looked like at the time of the Philistines, but it is a reasonable assumption as we have no other images of Dagon.

In any case, the Philistines put the ark into Dagon’s temple, next to their idol, and found the next morning that their idol had fallen “on his face” “before the Lord.” It looked exactly like Dagon was worshiping God!

Well, the Philistines probably thought that was an embarrassing accident, as things fall down sometimes, you know, all by themselves, so they put their idol back up.

 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. – I Sam. 5:4-5

So they come back the next morning, and any thought that this was just another random event was probably hard to swallow. If Dagon was in fact a half-man, half-fish idol, then when his head and hands were broken off pretty much all you had left was his fishy body! What was going on here was indeed very fishy! (Sorry! I couldn’t resist.) We aren’t told what the priests of Dagon did next, if they used some ancient glue of some kind to stick the pieces back on, or if they had extra idols lying around, but in any case this was a severe embarrassment. No doubt at least some of the priests got what I think was the intended message, that God was infinitely more powerful than their Dagon.

Because Dagon’s idol body broke on the threshold, the priests decided that people should never step on the threshold while entering the temple, and this became a tradition or superstition that continued on up to the point that this book of the Bible was written. Interestingly, even today, most Asian cultures consider it both bad luck and impolite to step on the threshold of an entrance to a home. The reasoning is that the threshold is a kind of protection against evil spirits; to step on the threshold is potentially to weaken that protection and also to disrespect the owner of the home who is responsible for maintaining this protection.

This tradition seems to be mentioned again in Zeph 1:9, where it says, in a prophecy, “On that day I will punish all who avoid stepping on the threshold, who fill the temple of their gods with violence and deceit.”

There is a great irony in their adopting this practice in that basically served as a continual reminder of the powerlessness of Dagon. Rather than covering up this embarrassing “showdown,” their new superstition proclaimed it to future generations!

 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.”- I Sam. 5:6-7

There are two things mentioned here, the “devastation” and the tumors. We are given little details at this point in the text about either. What were these “tumors”? The Hebrew word is not particularly specific – it literally means “mounds.” The word also has a connotation with burning. It could have meant boils, tumors, or severe hemorrhoids. There are some additional possibilities – it may have even been something like bubonic plague, for reasons we see in the next chapter, which we won’t get to today.

The people of Ashdod correctly surmised that God was the cause of their affliction. It’s ironic that the Israelites, after they suffered their first defeat before bringing the Ark, did not put this together. And although they didn’t go so far as to acknowledge that Dagon was not a god at all, but just a superstition and an idol of their own making, they did acknowledge that Dagon was no match for the God of Israel.

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. – I Sam. 5:8

How classic a response to a problem you can’t really deal with! Make it someone else’s problem! Send it somewhere else! Push God away! Send Him somewhere else! As you may guess, that doesn’t usually work out so well.

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. – I Sam. 5:9-10a

When at first you don’t succeed, try, try again, I suppose.

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. – I Sam. 5:10b-12

The people of Ekron had heard what has happened in the first two cities, and they wanted nothing to do with it. The way this is worded, I think the people of Ekron were not themselves Philistines, but instead they were another people group that the Philistines had conquered. The same may be true for the people in the second city, Gath, as well. In any case, however, the Ark was brought there to Ekron, and not only were people in pain, but many were dying. Now, I don’t want to get ahead of the story, but the next chapter shows that part of the plague (for that is what this is) involved rats or mice. It is for this reason some people think this may have been bubonic plague, which produced many sores like boils on the sick and which was carried by rats. Again, we don’t know exactly what this pestilence was, but we know its effects were devastating, in Ashdod, Gath, and now Ekron.

I want to point out that at this point the Israelites were likely completely oblivious to what was going on. I want to briefly turn our attention to them, even though they are not brought up in this passage. They probably felt completely and totally defeated, thinking that all hope was lost. How could they go into the heart of Philistine territory to get back the Ark? There was no way to possibly do this. In their minds, the God who had led Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who had brought their ancestors out of Egypt, who had led them for centuries with judges, was forever gone from them. In their minds, God had forsaken them forever. Now those who knew scripture knew there were times, such as with Gideon, when God did great things through very small numbers of His followers. But here, God was “alone.” How could God be rescued without any rescuers?

But what was the reality? God was doing just fine, thank you very much! He was in the process of teaching both the Philistines and the Israelites important lessons about who He was. The Philistines, who were going through all this, did not seem to be heeding the lesson. If they had truly repented, then based on the example of Jonah and Nineveh, I think God might have eased up on the curse, but their approach so far was simply to pass on the “problem” of God to someone else. This was not the lesson they needed to learn.

At the same time, in some ways, the Philistines showed more faith in God than the Israelites! They had feared when they heard the shout go up from the Israelites before the battle, because they had heard that the Israelite god was powerful. If this God was now with them, they were in trouble, they thought. And the Philistines in the midst of the plague attributed the problem correctly, to the Israelite God. They saw what He could do, and they feared Him. At last they wanted to send it back to the Israelites! They knew that they could not control this God.

The Israelites, on the other hand, had tried to do exactly that. They thought they could “force” God to work to save them. They were reckless the Ark, trusting in the power of their “God-in-the-box,” rather than repenting and truly seeking God.   

In a minute we are going to circle up the chairs for a discussion and prayer time, but first I wanted to give you three applications of this passage.

1.  Do we mostly seek God when we want Him to bail us out of our own trouble? Do we ignore Him when we think things are going well?

2.  When confronted with the reality of God, and with an area of our lives in which we need to change, do we worship God, giving Him access to these areas of our lives, or do we instead glue back together our broken lives in the way that Philistines likely glued back together their idol?

3.  Do you truly believe that God can “fix” things even if you or anyone else is not directly involved? Do you believe that God can singlehandedly change hearts? Do you pray for this?