1 Samuel 5:1-5
Ashdod was one of the 5 primary cities of the Philistines. The Philistines were feeling confident in their victory and so they took the Ark of the Covenant to Ashdod and set it before Dagon. Dagon was just one of the several Philistine gods. The image of Dagon was the upper part of a man and lower part of a fish. He was said to be the father of Baal and they related him to fertility. The Philistines felt that Dagon had given them victory over their enemies. They brought the Ark to set before Dagon as if the God of Israel now submitted to Dagon. This couldn't have been further from the Truth.
The next morning after setting the Ark before Dagon they found him face down before the Ark. Fascinating! This god appeared to be more powerful that the God of Israel yet he couldn't keep his image upright. I wonder if it occurred to any of these priests that Dagon was face down before the Ark. We can imagine the horror of these priests who probably hurried up and stood their god back up and put him in place. Then, the next morning they found him face down again; but this time his head and hands were broken off. Why do you suppose his hands and head were broken off? What changed with Dagon? Was he less of a god with no head and hands? No; in fact, he might as well not have a head and hands because he was no god at all. His hands served no purpose because he could no thing or no person; nor could he move himself, let alone move the Ark. His head was a decoration; completely void of choice or thought or a plan.
What do you suppose a priest of Dagon would do at this point? A wise priest might have saw the problem, turned from Dagon and repented before the God of Israel. But, these priests were unwilling to change. They were in bondage to a dead and powerless religion serving a dead and powerless god. But, serving Dagon was easier than change. It was easy to explain this away as an accident or coincidence. Do we not do this all the time in our culture? Its easier to hold onto our own beliefs and call the work of God a coincidence or an accident. Serving a weak and powerless god was comfortable and allowed them to continue on in their ways. Instead of heeding wisdom and repenting, the fixed their god (whatever the superglue or duct tape of the day was) and created a new tradition and superstition. This superstition may have been that stepping on the threshhold somehow toppled their god.
God glorified Him self in this setting with no priests, no believers, no temple and not even a Jew present. God allows us to serve and glorify Him, but we shouldn't mistake this as some need. Contrast this to Dagon who needed someone to stand him up and glue him back together.
1 Samuel 5:6-8a
Life changed for the Philistines when the Ark came to town. They saw the hand of the Lord as as heavy. They seemed to believe in the power of the God of Israel more than the Jews!!! They believed. However, their response to the belief is typical of a society ruled by sin. They acknowledged God's power and authority and instead of finding out what that God requires, they instead decided to get rid of Him. Is this not the same today? Our society doesn't readily admit to the power of God but they work awful hard to kick him out. Why is it so important to them to remove all signs of a God they think doesn't exist? There are many ways to state the answer but I believe it is for the same reason the Philistines wanted rid of the Ark; the had of the Lord was heavy. God's presence reminds of who we are and that we have fallen short. God's presence calls us to repentence and change and a turning away from our other gods we love so well as a society.
The people were ravaged and afflicted with tumors. Commentators and scholars are split over what these tumors are. The simplest and obvious answer seems to be that they were hemmeroids of some kind. Some see this as a disease causing bleeding and ulcerated hemmeroids. Some commentators and scholars seem to want to clean this up and call it the bubonic plague. There is an interesting legend of this in 'legend of the Jews' you can research.
Also worth noting is that there was an additional line in the Septuagint on the end of verse 6: "And the cities and the fields of all that region burst up, and mice were producded and there was the confusion of a great death in the city." Many believe this was in the original text and that this explains why they sent golden images of rats back with the Ark.
1 Samuel 5:8b-12
The folks in Ashdod decided the Ark couldn't stay there and got together and decided to move it to Gath. They either didn't like the people of Gath or they made a great sales pitch to the folks there. Did they offer to share the trophy of their victory but fail to mention all the other stuff happening. The people of Gath were afflicted also - they had an outbreak of tumors/hemmeroids. The good folks at Gath decided to share the Ark with Ekron. It seems like the folks in Ekron heard the rumors about the Ark. They decided to send it back to Israel because everyone was afflicted or dead.
The news of the power of God was traveling fast among these people. All of the Philistines in these 5 cities seemed to believe yet they didn't take advantage of what they learned. The knowledge of God didn't bring about a change in their life. We can learn from these folks. We must humble our self before our God and remain teachable. We should learn our lessons well and allow those lessons to do their work. That work is the sanctification of His children; change wrought by wisdom. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.
©2015 Doug Ford
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