FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL CHAPTER 5 – 6

Continued

CHAPTER 5

The spiritual and temporal message of Chapter 4 continues. God alone is acting in this chapter. Essentially He does not NEED people to accomplish what He must do. In Him alone is all power, strength and trust.

Verse 2

What is Dagon? This is the pagan god of the Philistines. The word translates as ‘fish’. They believed that god was a great fish and was depicted as a man with the head of a fish. Perhaps this was their tie to the sea.

Verse 3

During the night Dagon falls on his face to the Ark. This not only exhibited the power of God to ‘push’ the false god to the ground but it is significant that Dagon fell flat on his face before God. The statue of the false god loses his arms ( thus symbolized that he has no power ) and then loses his head ( he has no thought or bearing ) The Philistines see and are fearful. Again God alone is doing this.

Verse 6

God then afflicts the Philistines with ‘emerods’. This can be translated as ‘tumours’ or ‘haemorrhoids’.  I must admit that I like the translation ‘haemorrhoids’ because within the Ark of the Covenant is also the Seat of Mercy ( of God ) I smile when I compare the Seat of Mercy to the seat of the Philistines now inflicted with haemorrhoids. Seriously though these proved deadly to the people. They also thought that mice were the means that God made the emerods spread.

Verse 8 – 12

The people decide what must be done. God is so powerful that the Ark must leave their midst. The Philistines army was even afflicted with the emerods and so could not go into battle. Thus they knew they had to pass on the Ark to the other towns. Note on my web site the movement of the Ark through the five towns of the five lords of the Philistines. Each became afflicted.

Verse 11

They knew it was the Hand of God. This image will return time and time again in the Bible.

CHAPTER 6

Verse 1

The Ark was in Philista for seven months. In the Bible seven is an important number. It is an image of fullness or completeness ( as in seven days of creation )  With the seven months God’s glory is now complete. He will now fulfill His Will.

Verse 4

The story of the return of the Ark. Do not take this story at ‘face value’. See what is really happening. The Philistine priests put God to a great test. They took two cows who had just given birth to calves and were still milking. Surely these new mothers would seek their new borns and not go to the region of the Hebrew People. The Philistine priests load it up with gold and if the cows went to the Hebrew People they would know it was of God – but if they did not then they, the Philistine priests would get the gold. At face value it was good odds that the cows would not leave. BUT they did ! To the surprise of the Philistines priests who followed them all the way. They could not manipulate God.  The cows did not even hunger or wish to eat of the fields. God prevails and the cows and cart take the Ark of the Covenant back to the People of Israel.

Note the bountiful scene of the harvest. Indeed God had not abandoned the Israel People for the blessings continued even without the Ark being among them.

Upon the cows were laid golden images of emerods ( tumours or haemorrhoids ) and mice ( who the Philistines thought were spreading the illness )  The Hebrew people of Beth-Shemesh ( see my other notes on town names ) sacrificed the cows and the golden images. But on that day God slew 70 of the town people – or in other translations 70,000. These were the ones who touched the Ark, which was against the law and who offered the golden pagan images.

Verse 20

With all of this NOW the Hebrew People truly understand.

Verse 21

They took the Ark to Kiriath – Jearim where it remained until the time of King David who took it to Jerusalem.  Why did they not take it back to Shiloh? Perhaps in battle the Philistines destroyed Shiloh or perhaps the People of Israel began to understand that God , not the Ark would save them.

QUESTIONS

1. The Ark was lost but God showed in chapters 4 – 7 that HE would return it to the People of Israel. How did He do this? Are you at times lost ? Do you know someone who is lost ? How do you trust that God will return them back ?
2. The Philistines tested God although they had heard of His power in the exodus, seen how He dealt with Dagon; how He dealt the blow of illness upon them. Why did they continue to test God ? What life shaping events in your life helped to establish God as Saviour ? Do you continue to test ? Do you forget sometimes the foundation events in your spiritual life? How can we strength this reliance and reminder ?