1 5:1-7:2 – Fatal Presumption, Pt. 2 The Journey of the Lost Ark Big Idea

The importance of this section in the larger narrative of 1 Samuel is that it demonstrates the spiritual condition of and her enemies. Neither Israel or the treat God with the worship and reverence He is due. This reveals the need for Israel to repent of their sins, which is what Samuel will call them to in the next lesson. Overview of the Passage

Israel had lost the to their enemies, the Philistines, who captured it and took it back with them. But God teaches the Philistines a painful lesson. The LORD is mightier than the false gods of the Philistines, and He plagues the Philistines with tumors. The lords of the Philistines transfer the ark from city to city with the same result. Eventually, they decide to get rid of the ark, to send it back to Israel. Israel rejoices at its return, but still show the same attitude of presumption and irreverence…and pay the price. The ark rests in relative obscurity, and twenty years pass by. Outline of the Passage

• From Ebenezer to (5:1-8a) • From Ashdod to (5:8b-9) • From Gath to Ekron (5:10-6:11) • From Ekron to Beth-shemesh (6:12-21) • From Beth-shemesh to Kiriath-jearim (7:1-2) Read 1 Samuel 5:1-7:2 Commentary

Boy, had Israel screwed up this time. They had been getting pummeled by their archenemies, the Philistines, in battle at Ebenezer. The last battle they fought had cost them 4,000 men (1 Sam. 4:2). What to do? The elders got together and came up with a plan. They would get the ark of the covenant from and bring it to Ebenezer. They figured that having the ark of the covenant of the LORD with them would guarantee victory. Well, their plan worked…sort of. The Philistines were afraid (1 Sam. 4:7) when they saw the ark (which was the symbol of the presence of the LORD). They began to tremble, thinking that “a god had come into the camp” (1 Sam. 4:7). But they soon recovered, encouraging one another, basically telling each other to “man up.” Meanwhile, Israel was confident of victory. They went out boldly…and got defeated soundly. In fact, they got obliterated. 30,000 men were slaughtered. What went wrong? They had presumed upon God’s intervention. They had turned the ark, which was made to be a symbol of His presence, into an idol or a talisman. As if they could control the power of God by controlling where the ark went. Well, God had other plans…

From Ebenezer to Ashdod (5:1-8a)

The ark was captured by the Philistines. The Philistines brought the ark from the battle at Ebenezer to Ashdod, to the house of Dagon. Israel was wrong to think that they could manipulate God by moving the ark, but was wrong to think that the capture of the ark meant that the God of Israel was powerless. Ashdod was one of the five main Philistine cities, the pentapolis, along with Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath, and Gaza. Ashdod was thirty miles from Ebenezer.

DAGON

Dagon was once thought to be a fish deity because of the similarity between the name Dagon and the Hebrew word for fish (dag). It now appears more likely that the name should be associated with the Hebrew word for grain (dagan), making Dagon an agricultural or fertility god. Dagon was the national deity, the head of the Philistine pantheon of gods. The worship of Dagon is attested as late as the Maccabean period (second century B.C.).

The Philistines set the ark up beside Dagon. It was deposited in the temple as a sign of the inferiority and subordination of the God of Israel to Dagon. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Early the next day, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD! The fact that it was face downward shows a position/posture of worship.

They took Dagon and put him back in his place. Any Major Events at “the temple of “god” that needs human help to be propped up is not a god Dagon” at all and should not be worshiped (see Acts 17:24-25). Early the next morning, Dagon had once again fallen face - In this passage, the LORD downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD. But vanquished Dagon in his own this time was worse! “The head of Dagon and both his temple (in Ashdod), which was a premonition of things hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of to come. Dagon was left to him” (5:4). - Earlier, at the temple of The head and hands of Dagon’s statue landed on the Dagon in Gaza, Samson used temple threshold, rendering it sacred (in the minds of his his last breath to worshipers) and therefore untouchable. So, it became a demonstrate the power of God by toppling the support tradition of the priests of Dagon and everybody else who columns and crushing a entered the house of Dagon to not tread on the threshold multitude of Philistines (5:5). They should have bowed to themselves, like (Judges 16). the Dagon statue, and they ought to have sought Yahweh’s - On yet another occasion, favor. Instead of drawing the right conclusion, however, however, the Philistines they instituted a new superstition. Since Dagon’s head and enjoyed a notable victory: hands had broken off at the threshold of the temple, they They hung up the severed decided that the threshold was now especially holy, and that head of Israel’s king Saul in a they should jump over it when going in or out. temple of Dagon, perhaps at Beth Shan (1 Chron. 10:10). While the priests of Dagon were having their rude awakening, the rest of the people of Ashdod were experiencing troubles of their own. “The hand of the LORD was heavy against the people of Ashdod” (5:6). The narrator now introduces a major motif in the account: the hand of the Lord (mentioned eight times in the ark narrative). While Dagon’s hands had been rendered helpless, the hand of the LORD was powerfully at work, bringing judgment. The Lord is not tamed by friend or foe. Refusing to be manipulated by Israel, God departed to the territory of Israel’s enemies. There, He demonstrated His sovereignty, causing the Philistines to feel the weight of His hand in judgment.

“He terrified and afflicted them with tumors” (5:6). These tumors were called a “plague” (6:4) and were associated with mice (or rats) (6:4, 5). This has led commentators to suggest that the tumors might have been symptoms of something akin to the bubonic plague, transmitted by rodents. Both Ashdod and the surrounding area were afflicted (5:6).

The men of Ashdod come to the conclusion that “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is hard against us and against Dagon our god” (5:7). It boggles the mind that a worthless idol would still be reverenced after the one true God has shown Himself mightier. All the lords of the Philistines gathered, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” (5:8). The lords of the Philistines were rulers of the Philistine league, who could cooperate in times of emergency.

From Ashdod to Gath (5:8b-9)

They decide: “Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath” (5:8b). Gath was twelve miles from Ashdod. Possibly the reason for moving the ark was to see if the occurrence of the plague was a coincidence or truly the hand of the God of the ark. Their pride had been hurt, and they wanted to salvage their dignity.

Unfortunately for the people of Gath, these strange events were not a coincidence. “The hand of the LORD was against the city, causing a very great panic” (5:9). New city, same story. “He afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them” (5:9). What to do? The lords of the Philistines decide to test this one more time…

From Gath to Ekron (5:10-6:11)

“So they sent the ark to Ekron” (5:10). Ekron was five miles from Gath, and was the closest Philistine city to the Israelite border. By this point in the story, the reader might be asking themselves what these Philistine lords could possibly have been thinking. Well, we know what the people of Ekron were thinking: They cried out, “They have brought around to us the ark of the God of Israel to kill us and our people” (5:10). “For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there” (5:11b). It seems that many people did die; and those who didn’t still had those pesky tumors to deal with. New city, same story. The people understood what the ark represented – the power of God breaking out against them. Call the lords of the Philistines!

All the Philistine lords gathered, and the Ekronites begged “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place” (5:11). Unable to bear up under the heavy “hand of the LORD,” the Ekronites now plead that the ark be returned to Israel. And “the cry of the city went up to heaven” (5:12b).

Lesson of chapters 4 and 5: Neither nor Philistines—not even Dagon himself—can control or resist the will of the sovereign Lord, whose Presence, though enthroned between the cherubim surmounting the ark of the covenant, is not limited by that location and therefore cannot be manipulated by the whim of whoever happens to be in possession of it at any particular time. And it is fatal to presume otherwise.

This time the Philistine lords get some advice. “The Philistines called for priests and diviners” (6:2). Divination was explicitly condemned in Israel, but the Philistines did not have such restrictions. They say, “Do not send it empty…return him a guilt offering” (6:3). The offering is intended to acknowledge guilt and to compensate for the offense of taking the ark. Five golden tumors and five golden mice are suggested as the guilt offering. Verse 4 links rats, tumors, and plague – this strengthens the theory that the tumors were symptoms of bubonic plague spread by an infestation of rats.

At the end of verse 5, a startling suggestion is made: “Give glory to the God of Israel” (6:5). The Philistine diviners speak of that which Israel failed to do – give glory to God. The irony here is that pagans are trying to do what God’s own people did not do.

Here we see God being compassionate when dealing with human ignorance. The Philistines had no clear notion of how to please Him, and so they did the best they could with the limited knowledge they had. In a primitive (and misguided) way, they were seeking for God to forgive their offense and to stop afflicting them with the plague.

With this announcement, the ark narrative comes almost full circle. It was for Israel’s failure to honor the LORD and handle the ark properly that God had removed it from them. The Philistine diviners ask, “Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts?” (6:6). The Lord’s oppressive treatment of the gods of the Philistines is like His treatment of the gods of Egypt.

The plan: A new cart and two milk cows. The new cart indicated that they took the holiness of God seriously. The two milk cows should never have been yoked. Then, their calves should be taken home. In normal circumstances the mother cows would stay close to their calves. This would make certain that if the cows do head for Israel it will not be from natural causes nor by coincidence, but by the influence of Israel’s God. It says that “they put the ark of the LORD on the cart and the box with the golden mice and the images of their tumors” (6:11). Somehow they got the ark in the cart…without dying for touching the ark! They were to “send it off and let it go its way and watch” (6:8b-9a). It was an elaborate plan, but it worked.

From Ekron to Beth-shemesh (6:12-21)

“The cows went straight in the direction of Beth-shemesh, lowing as they went” (6:12). Beth- shemesh was seven miles from Ekron and was a border city. Obviously not happy to be leaving their calves behind, the cows nevertheless did not deviate from their divinely-directed path. “The lords of the Philistines went as far as the border of Beth-shemesh” (6:12). The Philistine leaders had remained watching at a safe distance to make sure that they had a correct understanding of what had transpired. This journey of the lost ark did not happen in a few days, it was spread out over months of affliction. “The ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines seven months” (6:1).

The people of Beth-shemesh rejoiced to see the ark (6:13). It was a welcome sight, the visible symbol of God’s presence returning to Israel. The cart stopped at the field of of Beth-shemesh (this is a different Joshua than Joshua, son of Nun). The Israelites chopped the cart into firewood and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD. “The took down the ark of the LORD and the box that was beside it, in which were the golden figures, and set them upon the great stone” (6:15). Beth-shemesh was assigned to the Levites, specifically, the descendants of Aaron. Then, more burnt offerings and sacrifices are offered. The five gold tumors and five gold mice were for each of the five major cities of the Philistines: Gaza, Gath, Ashdod, Ekron and Ashkelon.

Now the story takes a tragic and frustrating turn. The LORD struck down some of the men of Beth- shemesh for looking upon (or into) the ark of the LORD (6:19). Presumptuous handling of the ark led to its capture, and a similar offense must now be purged on the occasion of its return. The problem of handling the ark improperly will arise again in 2 Samuel 6. The ark was not to be touched or opened by ordinary people, and the treatment of the ark as a victory trophy could have been part of the problem. It was important that the Israelites see the recovery of the ark not as a transfer of control from Philistia back to Israel, but rather as an expression of God’s sovereignty over both Philistia and Israel.

The men of Beth-Shemesh should have covered the ark, because it wasn’t supposed to be seen by anyone except the high priest, and this mistake was costly. The failure to understand the awesome nature of God’s sovereignty and to respect the ark as a symbol of God’s presence led to further tragedy. Seventy people died because of their irreverent actions (6:19). Joshua had warned the ordinary Israelites to keep as much as a thousand yards away from the ark (Josh. 3:4; cf. Num. 1:51), but these seventy had the temerity to look into the holy ark of God. If the pagan Philistines were judged for the way they treated the ark, how much more responsible were the Jews who knew the law and were living in a !

We know that the Philistines had touched the ark – they moved it from city to city and had placed it on the cart. But when the Israelites looked into the ark, God struck them dead! Why would God take such drastic measures with His people, when He let similar behavior slide with the pagans? The simple answer is that the Israelites should have known better. As God’s people, they are held to a higher standard. We shouldn’t think that pagans will act like anything other than pagans. But God’s people, living with God’s commandments, should act in accordance with those standards. We should not expect God’s people to act like pagans.

“The LORD had struck the people with a great blow” (6:19). The awesome event described here certainly warns us against religious curiosity and lack of reverence for the Lord. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31). The men of Beth-shemesh ask, “Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God?” (6:20). Finally, they are seeing God as holy, not Someone to be manipulated or controlled, but rather, Someone to be reverenced and worshiped. In today’s society, with its informality and lack of respect for the sacred, it’s easy even for believers to get so “chummy” with the Lord that they forget He is “high and lifted up.” Are we guilty of dangerous presumption?

The journey of the ark is almost complete. Messengers to Kiriath-jearim said “The Philistines have returned the ark of the LORD. Come down and take it up to you” (6:21). (Notice how they make no mention the death toll associated with the ark’s presence.) Kiriath-jearim was nine miles from Beth- shemesh.

From Beth-shemesh to Kiraith-jearim (7:1-2)

So, “the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took the ark up and brought it to the house of Abinadab” (7:1). Presumably Abinadab was part of a Levitical family. , son of Abinadab, was consecrated to have charge of the ark. The dedication of Eleazar does not specify that he was a priest, although the name occurs in priestly genealogies (Num. 3:2), but he was set aside for this particular task. In any event, the ark remained safely in the care of his family for many years, until decided to move it (2 Sam. 6). But even that journey was fraught with peril (remember ?).

Perhaps the safety of the ark resulted from a genuine change of attitude on the part of the people (7:2). Twenty years pass with the ark lodged at Kiriath-jearim. It seems that only after these twenty years pass do the Israelites begin to seek the LORD.

What Does This Passage Teach Us About Man?

- Man is stubborn in his unbelief and un-repentance - Man rightly deserves the just wrath of God - Man has a propensity for profane-ness – He does not treat sacred things with reverence, nor does he acknowledge God as holy - Men who have a knowledge of God may be judged more severely if they do not reverence Him

What Does This Passage Teach Us About God?

- God is the only God, the one true God, there is no other - God is not confined to sacred objects - God will not be mocked or manipulated - God is a holy God, and must be treated as such - God is a just God who cannot abide sin - God is a gracious God who tempers justice with mercy - The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom

Gospel Connection

- We must see God as holy - When we see God as holy, we also see how unholy we are - This should lead us to cry out for mercy and forgiveness, because our unholiness and sinfulness demands God’s wrath be poured out upon us - God demonstrated His love in sending His Son to bear our sin in His body on that tree. Christ, who knew no sin, became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. - Thus, God can be both Just and the justifier of wicked men, through Jesus Christ our Lord - When we realize this gospel truth, it should lead us to worship God and to serve Him as God alone - Who can stand before this Holy God? None but Christ, and those clothed with Christ! - When idols creep into our lives, we must smash them before they lead our hearts astray - The bottom line is this: We must never presume upon the grace of God. We can become so accustomed to His grace and favor that we take no thought of our actions. Paul addressed this when he said, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Rom. 6:1-2). - While we rejoice that God is merciful and gracious, we dare not presume upon His grace! He is a holy God! - God forgive us when we take Your grace and our relationship with You for granted. Help us to live thankful lives that demonstrate our love for You by our actions. Help us to be pleasing in Your sight and to submit to Your Lordship. We ask in the name of Jesus Christ, whose blood was shed to cleanse and purify us. Amen.

Discussion Questions

o What does it mean to reverence and fear God? o What are the practical implications in your daily life of the fact that God is a holy God? o How can we turn to the Lord with all our hearts? What specifically can we do? o What are some ways we tend to presume upon the grace of God? How can we take positive steps to fight against this tendency? o How can we enjoy intimate fellowship and friendship with our Lord, while at the same time keeping a proper fear of God?

Resources used in this Lesson:

Anders, Max, ed. Holman Commentary: I & II Samuel. Nashville: B&H Publishing, 2009.

Chapell, Bryan, ed. The ESV Gospel Transformation Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013.

Dennis, Lane T. and Wayne Grudem, eds. The ESV Study Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008.

Evans, Mary J. New International Biblical Commentary: 1&2 Samuel. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2000.

Fields, Wilbur. Old Testament History: An Overview of Sacred History & Truth. Joplin, MO: College Press, 1996.

MacArthur, John. The MacArthur Study Bible, ESV Edition. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010.

Sproul, R.C., ed. The Reformation Study Bible. Lake Mary, FL: Ligonier Ministries, 2005.

Walton, John H., Victor H. Matthews, and Mark W. Chavalas. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000.

Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament History. Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2003.