Notes: June 27, 2008 - 1 Samuel 4 & 5
Bob Feather June 27th, 2008
Meditation Points:
- The superstitious parading of religious art was not invented by early Christian heretics (1 Samuel 4:3). Nor did it stop with them.
- At first the Philistines, too, believed some great power was inherent in the gold-covered box; but (at least) they discovered that without God, even members of the right group can do nothing (John 15:5).
- Ichabod-no glory. Yes, the glorious ark of the covenant had been captured by the Philistines; and the glorious protector husband (and his father) had died. But the God of Glory had long since departed and left Israel to its own devices. Like Samson (Judges 16:20), the nation shook itself, but didn’t know that God was nowhere around.
- The Philistines started their own superstitious custom of not stepping on the threshold of Dagon’s temple (1 Samuel 5:4-5).
- If emerods are “hemorrhoids” or another painful, bloody disease, we can understand why the men of Ashdod were quick to move the ark (1 Samuel 5:7) and why the men of Gath wanted to be rid of it, too (1 Samuel 5:10); and why the men of Ekron demanded that it be taken away from their city (1 Samuel 5:11). One might think it was a container of nuclear waste.
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1 Samuel 4:3
3And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the LORD smitten us to day before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies.
John 15:5
5I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Judges 16:20
20And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him.
1 Samuel 5:4-5
4And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.
5Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon's house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day.
1 Samuel 5:7
7And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god.
1 Samuel 5:10
10Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.
1 Samuel 5:11
11So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.
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