Sunday Sermons
Arkeological Discoveries
Arkeological Discoveries
Rabbit Foot Theology
1 Samuel 4:3-5 Israel failed to distinguish between the Ark as the symbol of God’s presence, and the actual presence of God. Even the people of God can become just as superstitious as their unbelieving neighbors. It was the custom of ancient warriors to take their idols into battle so that their gods would deliver them. They failed to remember that God is Omnipresent and is not subject to the limitations of space and time (Psalm 139:7-10). Israel viewed the Ark as a good-luck charm and forgot that the real power was in God and not the Ark. Note that people will place their faith in something. Rather than placing their faith in the ark, they needed to place their faith in God. Israel was also seeking to force God’s hand or twist His arm. “When we, whether Israelites or Christians, operate this way our concern is not to seek God but to control him, not to submit to God but to use Him. So we prefer religious magic to spiritual holiness; we are interested in success, not repentance” (Dale Ralph Davis pp. 52-53). “There seemed no inclination to take the loss as a judgment sent from God. This story reminds us that the temptation to exploit the paraphernalia of worship is very old. No mistake is older and more attractive than the desire to control and manipulate God into doing our bidding” [1]
The glory has departed
4:19-22 “Probably she taught more theology in her death than Phinehas had done in his whole life” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 55). By the report of Eli’s death and the words of Phinehas’ wife the writer clearly shows that the real tragedy is the loss of the ark, not the deaths of Eli or of his sons. “Not until the glory departed from the temple in the days of Ezekiel would an event of similar magnitude occur again (Ezekiel 10:18)” (Bergen p. 94). The good news is that while God might be despised among the Philistines (for a while), He will not be despised in Shiloh any longer! In the next chapter, the abomination of the Philistines will fall down before the Ark. But in this chapter, God first needed to remove an abomination among His own people, that is, Eli and his sons. “The text forces two important implications upon us: Yahweh will suffer shame (unbelievers would get the idea that God couldn’t deliver Israel, that the gods of the Philistines were actually stronger than Yahweh), rather than allow one to carry on a false relationship with Him; and Yahweh will allow one to be disappointed with Him if it will awaken one to the sort of God He really is” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 53).
Chapter 5
“In this section the Lord continues His fearful judgments against both non-Israelites and Israelites who display a lack of respect for Him (2:30). The Lord acts without regard to geographical boundaries, with equal competence on foreign soil and in Israel’s heartland. His actions confirm the Torah’s teachings that He is indeed “the Judge of the whole earth” (Genesis 18:25; 1 Samuel 2:10)” (Bergen p. 95).
5:1-2 The Philistine city of Ashdod was located some 50 miles SW of Shiloh, and about 19 miles South of Ebenezer. “Though Dagon was a well-known Semitic deity worshipped for centuries throughout western Asia as a meteorological and military deity, the non-Semitic Philistines had incorporated this god into their pantheon as well, assigning it a central role in their cult” (Bergen p. 97). In Ugaritic literature, the Canaanite Baal is sometimes referred to as the “son of Dagon”. “Placing the ark in their temple may have involved several motives. The ark was a trophy of war and could stand there as a reminder of the defeat of the Israelites. They may have thought that, by putting the ark in their temple, they could accumulate for themselves whatever power it might have” (Chafin p. 59).
5:3-5 If the ark seemed powerless to assist the Israelites on the battlefield, things were altogether different when it was left in the temple of Dagon, rather than joining their “god” in worship, they first simply set the idol upright again, but after seeing their god reduced to a mere stump, they completely abandoned the temple. It is interesting that the Philistines never considered worshipping the God of the Hebrews. “It doesn’t sound like a punch-line. But imagine: a god---and they have to stand him back up! What kind of god is that? Next morning Dagon’s head and hands came off. A regular Humpty-Dumpty situation with no Elmer’s glue. Dagon is simply getting the godness knocked out of him. Yahweh, however, intends for His people to think, not merely to laugh---to realize that, unlike a battered Dagon, Yahweh doesn’t have to have someone come and set Him up again. He can fight the Philistines by Himself. He doesn’t need His people to cheer Him on; He will bring back His ark all by Himself. The danger is that contemporary Christians may think that they are not dim-witted pagans and so, naturally, such matters of humorous and historical interest have nothing to do with them. But the church has its own paganizing mind. What are we to say of songs that croon, ‘Somehow, He needed me?’ What about God’s having ‘no hands but our hands’ to do His will? I know there’s an element of truth in such sentiments but it’s largely buried” (Dale Ralph Davis pp. 58-59). 5:5 “To this day”: Apparently, this temple was completely abandoned.
5:6-7 While the hands of Dagon were cut off—there was nothing wrong with the hand of God. “This was no tame God the Philistines had ‘conquered’. Since we hear of ‘rats that are ruining the land’ in 6:5, some scholars think the tumors may have been the swellings in the armpits, groin and sides of the neck that are symptomatic of bubonic plague, of which rats are carriers”(Dale Ralph Davis pp. 59-60). 5:8 Hurriedly, the ark was shipped off to the city of Gath, which was about 12 miles SE of Ashdod. Here is real neighbor-love! 5:9 But the same curses hit the city of Gath. 5:10 “Gath sent the ark to Ekron but the Ekron Jaycees met the transport party at the city limits with their ‘Oh no, you don’t!’” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 60).
5:11-12 What had happened in Ashdod, happened everywhere the Ark was sent. It should have been clear to them that this was nothing but the hand of God striking the Philistines, and this hand was very, very heavy! Yet most of them still wondered if all of this was simply nothing more than bad luck (6:9).
“How do we get rid of this thing”?
6:1-2 After seven months the Philistines had had enough! It is amazing to me how much suffering people are willing to endure so they can remain independent of the true God. The theologians among the Philistines are brought in to give advice concerning “how to get rid of this thing”. 6:3 Notice the word “if” (were there still people who wanted to keep the ark?). As confused as the men are in their theology, they did understand one thing: a guilt offering needed to accompany the Ark. 6:4-6 The Exodus experience had not been lost on the Philistines. They were not going to have their land, livestock, and firstborn destroyed. They did not need another 10 plagues to get the point. Compare these comments to 1 Samuel 4:4-9. The events of the Exodus had taken place 400 years earlier yet it is still fresh in the memories of the nations that surrounded Israel.
6:7-12 A guilt offering of five golden tumors and five golden mice was prepared—one of each for the five Philistine cities. The cart was to be pulled by two “milch cows”—cows still nursing their young. “For nursing cows to leave their young and make a beeline for the Israelite city of Beth-shemesh would be quite unusual” (Laney p. 29). “In their view, they have provided the opportunity for Yahweh to write His signature across their circumstances. And they made it as difficult as possible for Him to do so! Even city boys know that any cows in their right maternal minds would naturally go back to their suckling calves that had been penned up at home. One certainly wouldn’t expect them, contrary to nature, to go walking off toward Israel as if in the grip of an invisible hand” (Dale Ralph Davis pp. 61-62). 6:12 God stooped down and showed them, in terms the Philistines could understand, that it had been He who had destroyed their god, their land and their bodies. “Now what will they do with that revelation? Should they not turn and at least begin to serve or fear this obviously real and living God? Or will they go back to Ashdod and take Dagon to the local image shop for repairs? Some of the elite may slap ‘Survivor of the Plague of 1070’ bumper stickers on their chariots. Perhaps the majority simply sighed, ‘Glad that’s over!’ It is so easy for us sinners---Philistine or otherwise---to respond only to the pain and not to the truth of a situation. Our immediate fears are alleviated but our heads are no wiser, our hearts no softer. Perhaps the Egyptians (6:6) have no corner on denseness” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 62).
Curiosity killed the Cat
6:12 The city of Beth-shemesh (beth SHEH mesh), was located in the valley of Sorek, about 15 miles west of Jerusalem and nine miles E-SE of Ekron, just inside Israelite territory. 6:13 The ark arrived at Beth Shemesh in June, during the wheat harvest.
6:15 Beth Shemesh was one of the cities which belonged to the tribe of Levi, hence there were Levites present to carry and handle the ark. 6:18 The stone on which the ark was placed, was still standing when Samuel was written.
6:19 In their exuberance over the return of the ark, the men of this city made a serious mistake. They looked into the ark, which had been strictly forbidden in the law (Numbers 4:20). “The number of people affected by the plague at Beth-Shemesh is in dispute. Actually the Hebrew text contains two numbers side by side, seventy and fifty thousand. NIV chooses the smaller figure, apparently regarding the fifty thousand as a gloss. NASB follows the Septuagint in combining these numbers into one figure, 50,070” (Smith p. 258).
While it seems unlikely to many that 50,000 people ever lived in ancient Beth Shemesh at one time…”Accepting the larger number results in a theological truth consonant with the teachings of the book retained: Israel must respect the Lord more thanthe might of the Philistines. Although the Philistines with their military prowess could kill thirty thousand Israelites (4:10), God in His holiness could kill more than fifty thousand” (Bergen p. 103). “God’s people today no longer have the ark of the covenant, but we can fall into the same Beth-Shemesh mode of thinking. We can forget that Yahweh is holy. Our culture does not help us to smash our graven image of the casual God. Our culture proclaims that God must be the essence of tolerance; He is chummy rather than holy, the ‘man upstairs’ rather than my Father for Jesus’ sake. We must regard His presence as our supreme joy and our supreme peril. This does not mean we cannot be intimate with God; it means we cannot be casual with Him. Intimacy is able to call Him ‘Father’ and tremble at the same time—and as it trembles it knows that it is loved!” (Dale Ralph Davis pp. 65-66).
Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net/mdunagan@easystreet.com
