1 Samuel 5:1-5 -- Dagon is the chief god of the Philistines. He was adopted from ancient Syria, and was envisioned as a fish-man: body of a fish, hands and head of a man. He was generally a god of grain; for the Philistines to raid the standing grain of Israel at harvest time is in part an assertion of that belief. Since all grain is given by Dagon, it is only natural that his true worshipers go forth to take it from those who failed to recognize him. Putting the Ark of the Covenant in his temple was a natural extension of tribute.
However, Jehovah made it quite clear He was no captive of the Dagon or of the Philistines. If making Dagon's image bow to the Ark was not enough, breaking the symbols of his power (hands and head) on the threshold could not be ignored. It is noted a new custom developed among the Philistines from this.
5:6-12 -- Furthermore, Jehovah struck the area of Ashdod with a plague. The Hebrew term for this disease is difficult to translate, but a good guess is that mice or rats swarmed the cities, carrying bubonic plague. They would have devoured the grain crop, further discrediting Dagon, and their fleas would pass the disease to humans. Bubonic plague gets its name from the swollen lymph nodes ("buboes") it leaves in the groin and armpits.
Determined to keep their trophy, the Lords of Philistia convened and sent the Ark to Gath, another of the chief cities. Things only got worse there than in Ashdod. The next city they tried was Ekron, but the residents had already heard of the disasters attached to the Ark's presence and wailed that it was brought there to kill them.
6:1-9 -- This business lasted a total of seven months. If we consider the Ark was captured at the beginning of the fighting season (March, so named in English because it is the first month when armies march to battle), we are now approaching harvest. The Lords of Philistia gather again with their scholars of religion to see what can be done.
The advice first was to make sure a peace offering was made. Since food was out of the question, it was made in the form of gold formed to represent the mice and buboes from the plague, one of each from each of the five lords. Then send it back by the most unlikely means: two milk cows that had never been trained to pull in a yoke. They would not normally be able to pull in unison, but instead would likely turn back to their calves. These two were hitched to a cart loaded with both the Ark and a box containing the offering. If indeed all this was from the God of Israel, the cows would immediately head for the border with Judah nearby, at Beth-shemesh. With this advice the scholars warned the lords not to delay, for the known acts of Jehovah had devastated Egypt.
6:10-18 -- As soon as they had this all ready to go, the cows immediately began mooing loudly and headed straight up the road to Beth-shemesh. As this was indeed the grain harvest, the entire town was out in the fields. As the cows and cart came near, the men of the place immediately began cheering and praising God out loud. The cows could never again be used for a mundane purpose, nor the cart, so the whole thing became a burnt offering to God. The contents of the cart were placed on a huge stone out-cropping. Having witnessed all this, the Philistines knew they were fortunate to have survived as well as they did.
6:19-21 -- Of course, the level of understanding about holiness and the Ark was completely lacking in Israel. The men of Beth-shemesh foolishly touched the Ark and a plague broke out on the city. It is truly difficult to be sure of the numbers here, because there is such a vast difference between the various manuscripts available today. At any rate, the loss of just 70 men in this small town would be a major disaster. If it were numbered in the thousands, we are surely referring to men from the whole region, as Beth-shemesh was not that large. They called for the leaders of the largest city nearby, Kiriath-jearim, to come fetch the Ark. This had been the southern-most city of the Gibeon alliance during the conquest, and quite large and powerful.
7:1-2 -- Probably it was a Levite family that took in the Ark. Abinidab had his son, Eleazer, consecrated to handle the Ark, and it apparently worked out. The Ark rested there for the next 20 years. That it sat there, with no tabernacle or temple to host it, was the source of great sorrow for Israel. Its loss, the disasters associated with it, and the lack of a proper center of worship, brought about godly sorrow. Along with this was the continued oppression from Philistia.
7:3-6 -- By now, Samuel had been fully established as the Judge of Israel. He advised the leaders of Israel that if they were truly ready to return to Jehovah, there was a proper way to do it. First, they must commit to faithfulness, completely breaking the habit of the old Canaanite gods. The worship of Baal was very similar to that of Jehovah, so early on a blending set in with Israel. Also, the word here for Baal's consort, Ashtoreth, is a Hebrew pun. Most likely the proper pronunciation approached "ash-tart" but the Hebrews often combined the names for pagan gods with variations of bosheth, the word for "(something) shameful." As the goddess of sex, among other things, her worship would include some fairly depraved behavior. In solemn convocation, the leaders met to repudiate all this.
7:7-12 -- The nation met at Mizpeh, or Mizpah. Depending on the exact location of this meeting area, it may have been a large flat space on top of a ridge, not far from Jerusalem. This all happened soon after the Ark had returned to Israel, and during or just after harvest. This was the usual time for Philistine raids, and having the leadership gathered at this prominent open place could easily be taken as preparation for war. So the Philistines made ready to attack this place first. In response to the leadership's cry for Samuel to pray seriously for God's protection, he made a simple whole burnt offering, then told them to watch for Jehovah's deliverance. His promise indicated the Philistine power was about to be broken for good.
Sure enough, by some miracle of God's hand alone, the Philistines were put to flight. It would appear their camp was struck repeatedly by lightening, because they were described as badly broken. The fleeing invaders were pursued and cut down for quite some distance. We cannot currently identify the location, but Samuel raised up a memorial stone and called it Eben-ezer -- "The Stone of (God's) Help." Such monuments usually took the form of a large flat section of rock, stood on end and braced by smaller stones. Such markers would have been universally recognized as a monument to some great event.
7:13-17 -- From that time on, the Philistines did not recover enough power to invade Israel again. While not completely driven out just yet, some of their cities were taken by Israel, and their acknowledged border collapsed inward a great deal. To add some confusion about the location of places named Mizpeh, it would appear the Samuel's annual circuit, in the absence of a temple or other central gathering place for worship, would included a path across the middle of Israel ending in Mizpeh of Gilead. Gilgal returned to prominence, and Bethel rose to it. Samuel's altar back home in Ramah was accepted by God, though technically a violation of Moses' Law (Deuteronomy 12:5, 13). This is clearly a case of accepting the man for his holiness, and the frank inability to keep the Law on that point.
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Ed Hurst
13 March 2004
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