1 Samuel 5 (Philistines Place the Ark in the Temple of Dagon)

This morning we're going to be looking at a short chapter 1st Samuel chapter 5 this is the story of the

Philistines and the ark if you remember from last time the Lord had judged the nation of Israel because of Eli the priest and How he did not restrain his son.

So in preparing for battle with the Philistines Eli's sons

Hathnai and Phinehas they decided to go into the tabernacle take the Ark of the

Covenant from its place and Kind of paraded around thinking that it was some sort of good luck charm that it would

Bring them the victory. And of course, this was strictly forbidden So because of that primarily, of course

God had already determined to judge them But between that and their bad behavior up until that point

The Lord Punished Israel they were routed in battle the two men

Hathnai and Phinehas were killed the Ark of the Covenant was captured And when their father

Eli heard about it all when he heard about the Ark in particular He fell over broke his neck and died at which point the people responded the glory has departed from Israel So now in 1st

Samuel chapter 5 the Philistines have the Ark of the Covenant And what happened

God used a wicked nation Philistia to judge his own people.

So it's not as if God here's the thing to keep in mind It's not as if God just because the

Philistines won the battle. It's not like God is on their side far from it

So God punished his own people for their iniquity and now God is going to punish the

Philistines because really at this point if you look at it Everybody is defiling the

Ark of God and remember the Ark represented God's presence inside was the

Two tablets of stone the Ten Commandments Aaron's rod that budded a pot of manna

God would appear and he spoke with Moses Above the Ark between the cherubim.

This was the most holy item Israel possessed And I said that last time

I said last week that when we studied Exodus Leviticus numbers and all of those studies are on The YouTube channel you can check those out

But very very clear that the Ark and the whole ministry of the tabernacle It was a type or a shadow pointing ahead to the ministry of Christ So the illustration is this those who would tamper with the

Ark? Those who would corrupt the ministry of the tabernacle and just kind of do whatever they want

Not follow the rules not follow the teachings. That's comparable to tampering with the gospel because the

Ark and the tabernacle Represent the ministry of Christ in God. We know this

God takes it very seriously anyone who would Tamper or corrupt the gospel ministry.

So with that as background, let's begin reading This is 1st Samuel chapter 5.

It's a short chapter. So Let's read the whole thing 1st

Samuel 5 verses 1 through 12 Then the

Philistines took the Ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer when the

Philistines took the Ark of God they brought it into the house of David and set it by day and When the people of Ashdod arose early in the morning

There was Dagon Fallen on its face to the earth before the

Ark of the Lord So they took Dagon and set it in its place again and When they arose early the next morning

There was Dagon Fallen on its face to the ground before the

Ark of the Lord The head of Dagon and both the palms of its hands were broken off on the threshold

Only Dagon's torso was left of it Therefore neither the priests of Dagon Nor any who come into Dagon's house tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day but the hand of the

Lord was heavy on the people of Ashdod and he Ravaged them and struck them with tumors both

Ashdod and its territory The Ark of the

God of Israel must not remain with us for his hand is harsh toward us and Dagon our

God Therefore they sent and gathered to themselves all the lords of the

Philistines What shall we do with the Ark of the God of Israel? Let the

Ark of the God of Israel be carried away to Gath So they carried the

Ark of the God of Israel away so it was

After they had carried it away that the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction

And he struck the men of the city both small and great and tumors broke out

Therefore they sent the Ark of God to Akron So it was as the

Ark of God came to Akron that the Akronites cried out They have brought the

Ark of the God of Israel to us to kill us and our people So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the

Philistines Send away the Ark of the God of Israel and let it go back to its own place

So that it does not kill us and our people For there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city the hand of God was very heavy there and The men who did not die were stricken with the tumors and the cry of the city went up to heaven

Okay, so it says that the Philistines they took the Ark of God from Ebenezer to Ashdod Ashdod was one of Five cities of the

Philistines where they obviously had a temple to their primary deity

Which was Dagon now remember the Philistines lived on the coast of the

Mediterranean and because they lived on the coast their God little G Was the god of the sea so Dagon?

He was basically half man half fish So the Philistines were idolaters they worshipped this idol this fish

God But they also worshipped other deities They worshipped Baal and it was believed that Dagon was the father of Baal So they sort of would rank their gods from least to greatest which is a very common thing for pagans to do

Because pagans the heathen have all sorts of deities right you think of Greek mythology

They had a god of love. They had a god of war. They'd have got a god of this a god of that the

Hebrews on the other hand From the time of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. There was only one

God who has to be worshipped and that is the Lord Lord and all capitals if you notice that in your

Bible capital L capital O capital R Capital D. This is the sacred name of God Jehovah or as people speculate that it would be pronounced

Yahweh nobody's really sure But the biblical authors and translators throughout history.

They just rendered this as the Lord So the Lord is the one true

God. He is the creator of all things Bale is no God at all Dagon or any other deity they were false it was a death and dumb idol that the people were bowing down to and They had many gods many idols

But for God's people and in reality, there is only one God that is the

Lord and Now the Lord is going to demonstrate this he's gonna make it very clear that Dagon is no

God at all Verse 2 it says when the Philistines took the ark of God What did they do?

They brought it into the house or the temple of Dagon and they set it right next to Dagon So this is a terrible idea.

And of course their purpose in doing this is for the idol of Dagon to stand

Victorious over Jehovah right that this was the the picture they're trying to set up that.

Hey, look our God is greater That's what they're saying but the true

God because he is the Lord the only God He says about himself.

I am a jealous God. This is what God told Moses that God is Jealous, the

Lord will not give his glory to another so he's not gonna let this fly and By the way,

I hope we can all understand that Because jealousy the word jealousy has negative connotations today, but God is a jealous

God and this is a good thing Here's why because he is the creator of all things

He is not he is not pleased when somebody gives worship or veneration to a hunk of metal or a carved

Image a stone that represents a D. I mean imagine that Here you have this block of wood that's

Carved out and to this grotesque figure of half man half fish and there's and this is

God. This is God Can you imagine how God in heaven is looking at this that is

God? No, no, this is not happening. I will not

Give my glory to another so God is a jealous God because he is worthy of all honor and praise

So what does God do? He is not going to allow this to stand, you know

No pun intended so verse 3 when the people of Ashdod when they woke up early in the morning

They went to the temple and there was Dagon Fallen on its face and the the idol just fell over face down right in front of the

Ark of the Lord What a statement God caused

Dagon to fall over as If Dagon was on his face worshiping the

Lord This is a great picture And of course the Ark again, it's symbolic of God's presence.

So Dagon is face down prostrate Before the God of the Hebrews, so when the

Philistines see this, I mean, they don't know what happened I'm sure it seemed odd.

I'm sure I'm sure they wondered a little bit like this doesn't look too good, but They do what most people would probably do they just assume that I don't know maybe there is a little earthquake

Or something happened. This is just a coincidence. Let's just pick the idol back up and that's what they did

They took Dagon and set it in its place again But verse 4 says the next day when they rose early in the morning

They went to the temple of Dagon and now not only is the idol

Again falling down face down on the ground in front of the Ark of God now its head was broken off and its hands were broken off Only Dagon's torso was left.

Okay, so so now it's clear This is no accident the

God of Israel Knocked him down and cut off his head. So now they're afraid

You see in the ancient world, this is how you made sure an enemy was dead you cut off his head later on when

Israel faces the Philistines and This part often gets left out of the because this is a

Bible story people read to children This part gets left out sometimes but if you read the story of David and Goliath, of course

Goliath was a Philistine What does David do? He uses the slingshot, but once Goliath follows falls over David then runs over He takes

Goliath's sword and he cuts off his head so that Sends a message of course and make sure make sure that the person is dead.

What did God do? He cut off Dagon's head So this

Frightens the Philistines they realized that the Lord God of Israel. He is

The true God not that they worshipped him And and this is true even today.

I think there's a lot of people who realize that God is the true God It doesn't mean they worship him in the end times in the tribulation period people are gonna see miraculous signs from heaven

They're gonna believe that the true God of Israel exists the God and Father of Jesus Christ exists

But what are they gonna do? They're gonna curse him. So just because the Philistines recognize

This it doesn't mean they repent and turn to the Lord. No, they're just interested in getting this arc

Let's get this arc out of here because this is not gonna go well so verse 5 says

Therefore neither the priests of Dagon nor those who come into Dagon's house tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day

And of course the term to this day refers to whenever the author wrote for Samuel But now they're going to regret

All of this that they did verse 6 says the hand was heavy up on the people So not only was there

God little G destroyed now, the people of the city are starting to get sick

They're getting tumors. Okay, so many people they just died Those who survived had these tumors were not exactly sure what it was something like sores

Boils some believe this could have been an outbreak of the bubonic plague Which we know is carried by rats and mice or the fleas that were on the rats

This is how it spreads. So the rats are going to be referred to in the next chapter. So that may be what's going on Either way, it doesn't really matter whether it's the rats to spread it whether it's the plague whether it's something

Something else something supernatural Here's the thing. God is sovereign. This is a plague a judgment from God And we know that the

Lord uses both natural and supernatural The natural and the supernatural to accomplish his will so either way whatever it is the tumors the death

God was involved and it was because of the ark so the

Philistines They they figure it out God struck the people the people of Ashdod were getting sick.

They recognized it's because of the ark As soon as it showed up in town bad things started to happen.

So naturally they want to send it away So they get together with all their leaders and they say in verse 8, what shall we do?

with the ark of the God of Israel Now it's again overlaid with gold they could have

Done all sorts of things to the ark, but they're afraid they say Let the ark of the

God of Israel be carried away to Gath now Gath By the way going back to Goliath Goliath was from the city of Gath.

So Ashdod Gath these are all the cities of the Philistines. So they say, okay, let's get it out of Ashdod and we'll send it away together

It's like oh gee, thanks But the people of Gath are gonna appreciate this

I mean with friends or countrymen like this who needs enemies so you can guess how this

Worked out verse 9 it says so it was after they had carried it away

That the hand of the Lord was against the city That is the city of Gath with a great destruction and he that is the

Lord Struck the men of the city both small and great and tumors broke out on them

Therefore Now the people in Gath, okay What now what do we do with the ark?

So it says they sent the ark of God to Ekron another Philistine city

So it was as the ark of God came to Ekron That the Ekronites they cried out as soon as they saw this because no doubt word had spread as soon as they saw the ark

Coming towards them. They cry out and they say they have brought the ark of the God of Israel to us to kill us and our people

I Mean this makes no sense at all. Oh, let's send it to another

Philistine city People there start dying at the great destruction. Well, let's send it to another one of our cities

So that city can be destroyed. This makes no sense So the people don't learn and what's really curious is that they know the power of the

Lord You remember when God? Laid waste to the kingdom of Egypt and that was a few hundred years ago

But the word of that had spread far and wide It was legendary the

Philistines knew and heard those stories They knew that the God of Israel was far more powerful than their

God and they knew Egypt that was destroyed It was far more powerful than the Philistines So, you know, what are they thinking?

And what do they think they're gonna do if the Lord did that to Egypt? What is he gonna do to us?

So they just keep sending the ark from city to city and it just wreaks havoc and destruction and people are dying and This is their own people that are dying.

So This is insanity But I think the application here and starting to wrap up this study

The application is that when people are in sin remember the Philistines are the enemies

Of not just the Israelites they're the enemies of God's people therefore they're the enemy of God They are rebelling against the

God of heaven So the application is when people are in sin when people are rebelling against God their behavior often is irrational

People who are in sin what they do often doesn't make any sense Resisting God in and of itself is

Nonsensical. Do you really think you're going to win? Do you really think this is going to turn out? Well, it won't it can't

Yet people do it and when people resist

God when people rebel against God, here's the thing They're only harming themselves and Others and that's what we see with the ark

They are harmed they send it to one of their own cities. They are harmed. They send it to another one of their cities

They're only harming themselves and others and that's what sin does So in making application to the gospel

Because remember the Ark of the Covenant it represents the gospel ministry

The mercy seat on top of the ark that's where the blood was applied representing the blood of Christ when people tamper or mess around with the ark, it's a symbol of people messing around and tampering with and corrupting the gospel

I Said last time the Lord has a zero tolerance policy concerning this

God will not be mocked Galatians chapter 1 the

Apostle Paul talks about those who would corrupt the gospel Whether you add something to it, whether you take something away from it

Anyone who preaches any other gospel adds to the gospel tampers with the gospel

Paul says let them be anathema Even if it's an angel from heaven, so God takes this very seriously

Second Thessalonians 1 says when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in Flaming fire.

He will take vengeance on those who do not know God and On those who do not obey the gospel of our

Lord Jesus Christ, that's how serious God takes all of this Now I know there's somebody somewhere thinking

Maybe they don't know any better. Maybe they're misguided, but there's somebody thinking that you know the

Ark The Ark of the Covenant, it's a box Yes, it's important. It's overlaid with gold

I realize it's an important object, but it's still just a physical object Why is

God reacting like this? People are dying. They're getting tumors Why is

God? reacting like this Why does he take it so seriously how the

Ark is treated because in one sense How you view the Ark or how they viewed it and how they treated the

Ark is how they viewed and treated God God must

Be regarded as holy. This is what we see in the Old Testament. God is

Unapproachable the only thing that makes God approachable is His grace through the

Lord Jesus Christ, but God must be regarded as holy in the ministry surrounding the

Ark It must be kept pure God gave his instructions. He expects the people to follow those instructions when they don't

They're punished Today we have the gospel. We have the instructions when people deny it or corrupt it

They're punished So God how he viewed the

Ark is how he views the gospel it must be kept pure and What is the gospel?

It is salvation by grace through faith not of works lest any man should boast

It's all about Jesus, you know the Ark of the Covenant It's pointing to Christ.

The gospel is all about Christ You cannot be saved by going through rites and rituals and doing this and doing that.

No, it's all about Christ Christ the Bible says died for our sins

He was buried and he rose the third day and it was all done according to the scriptures

Nothing can be added to it. Nothing can be taken away From it. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation

Scripture says to all who believe so to corrupt resist or deny

The gospel is to spurn the God who ordained the plan of the gospel from the foundation of the world

So in a very real sense, this is what the Philistines were guilty of Did they understand all the details?

No But here's what they were. They did understand this they showed contempt for the

God of Israel and by doing that By showing contempt for the

God of Israel. They showed contempt for the only God there was their creator

Instead they chose to worship a a grotesque idol half -man half -fish

So they showed contempt for the only true God and when people resist the gospel when people reject

Christ What are they doing? They're rejecting the only God That exists.

This is what the Philistines were guilty of They tried and to make matters worse

They tried to make the God of heaven by taking the ark and bringing it into the temple of Dagon They tried to make the

God of heaven bow down to Dagon and This is what happened as the result first Samuel chapter 5 closes with these words a sober warning to anyone who had tried to corrupt or deny the gospel ministry

It says for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city