All right, 1 Samuel chapter 5,
the whole verse, a chapter. And the Philistines took the
ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. When the Philistines took the
ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it
by Dagon. And when they of Ashdod arose
early on the morrow, Behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face
to the earth before the ark of the Lord. And they took Dagon,
and they set him in his place again. And when they rose 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. Therefore, neither the
priest of Dagon, nor any that came into Dagon's house, tread
on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod until this day." But the
hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed
them and smote them with emrods, even Ashdod and the coast thereof. 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. They sent, therefore,
and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and
said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered that the ark
of God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. And they carried the
ark of God of Israel thither. And it was so that when, after
they had carried it about, The hand of the Lord was against
the city with a very great destruction, and he smote the men of that
city, both small and great, and they had emeralds in their secret
parts. Therefore 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 God of Israel to us to slay us and
our people. So they sent and gathered together
all the lords of the Philistine and they said, send away the
ark of the God of Israel and let it go again into its 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. And the men that died not were
smitten with emeralds, and the cry of the city went up unto
heaven." Now, this event covers more than this chapter. It covers
several chapters which we don't have time to read, but hopefully
be able to draw it all together during the course of our study.
This event belongs to a very sad and very sorrowful, but very
true, happening in the history of Israel. It concerns, on one
hand, the Ark of God, as it is called, and on the other hand,
the heathen god Dagon, who had his own temple. Also, it concerns
two people, as we read the account, the Israelites, on one hand,
and the Philistines on the other. And we see how it was that the
presence of the ark of God affected one and then the other. Then
too, in our text, 1 Samuel chapter 5, the Holy Lord God of heaven
did manifest his great glory and his power in the presence
of the chief God of the Philistine, as Dagon first fell down before
the Ark of God, and then the next night fell down and was
broken in pieces. And God's judgment then fell
upon those who violated the proper use and dwelling place of the
ark of God. And he uses this as an occasion
to manifest the power and the superiority of God over the false
gods of the heathen. And the whole thing is highly
typical. There are lessons that we might
learn. Now, this episode, as I said
with the ark, covers more than one chapter in the inspired volume. And so, to begin with, let us
raise some particular question that it might open our way and
get us on our way. Number one, we must understand,
and so we ask, what is this that is called the Ark of God? what is meant by the Ark of God
that the Philistines had. Second question, how did it come
to be in the possession of the Philistine since it belonged
to Israel and was part of the tabernacle in the wilderness? Thirdly, we raise the question,
why did God visit such severe and awful judgment upon those
who handled the ark such as the Philistine? What is the ark? Well, that's our first question.
The answer is that it was the very heart and core, the very
nerve center, as it were, of the tabernacle in the wilderness. The design and the components
you have in Exodus chapter 25 and verse 10 through verse 22.
This Ark of God that we read about here was a chest. Its measurements were two and
one-half cubit foot long, one and one-half cubit foot deep,
one and one-half cubit high, And it was overlaid with gold
made of sheathed wood by the command of God. And on the top
of this ark was the mercy seat that we read so much about in
the Scripture. The mercy seat with a pure, pure
gold on top of the ark. And on each side of the ark,
the four corners, There were golden loops by which the thing
might be carried around. And on top of it was a two golden
cherubim who spread their wings out over the ark and over the
mercy seat. And inside of the ark there were
the tablets of stone. There were manna that was put
in the ark by the command of Moses. And this ark was to be
put in the most holy place in the tabernacle. when it was finished
and when it was all erected. And it was here that the blood
of atonement was sprinkled. It was here that the priest came
with the blood of sacrifice, and he sprinkled it upon the
mercy seat to make an atonement in that place. It was also the
place described by Moses in Exodus 25 and 22, quote, There I will
meet with thee, I will commune with thee from above the mercy
seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the
testimony, of all that I will give you in commandment under
the children of men of Israel." Moses was to receive directly
in this place. Now, none but the high priest
could approach this place and this place in the ark, before
the ark and the mercy seat. And when the tabernacle was taken
down and moved from one place unto the other, so holy and so
revered was this, that the curtain was put over the ark of the covenant,
that it might not be seen by the people as they moved it about. It was always to dwell in the
holy of holies in the tabernacle, only handled and only moved by
the priest of Israel. It was there that God put His
typical glory. It was there that atonement was
made. It was here that God manifested
His presence. It was here that God communed
with them, and it was a very close and dear type of the Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ." So we know what the ark is, so the
next question is, how did the ark of God come to be in the
possession of Israel in battle and then in the Philistine in
an idol's temple? For the answer, we go back to
1 Samuel chapter 4. And let's make a point here,
if we might, that the prophecies that were made concerning the
ruin of Eli, his sons, and his house in 1 Samuel 3 verse 11
through verse 18, and especially in verse 12 through verse 14,
those prophecies concerning the ruin of the house of Eli were
fulfilled in connection with the transfer of the ark into
the hands of the uncircumcised Philistines, as we shall see
in a bit. In 1 Samuel chapter 4, the Israelites
and the Philistines are squared off in battle, ready to do battle. And when they meet in combat,
it is the Philistines that prevail in the battle. And verse 2, Israel
was smitten before the Philistines, losing very decisively, and 4,000
of their number were slain. Verse 3, they ponder the reason
why their God had smitten them by the Philistines. After all,
they had gone to war by the counsel of the prophet Samuel in verse
1. They were the people of his name. He was their God, and they were
His covenant people. Why were they smitten with such
a great defeat? They decided that they'd do something
to help themselves. They decided that they would
take the Ark of God, which dwelt down at Shiloh, in the hope,
verse 3, the last part, quote, that when it comes among us it
may save us out of the hand of our enemy, 1 Samuel 4 and verse
3. Now what lies behind their reasoning? Why should they think that they
might bring the ark of God and be victorious over that? It's true, as Matthew Henry,
the old-timer, wrote on this place, quote, the ark was, by
institution, a visible token of God's presence, unquote. That is undeniably true. He dwelt between the cherubim. Well, did they reason that God's
presence was so connected to this sacred chest that He would
smite their enemies if they brought it with them? on their side into
battle. It is very clear that they held
high expectation from the presence of the ark being among them,
that they would be victorious and be able to smite their enemy. We see that in verse 5, 1 Samuel
4, when the ark arrived. There was a great shout that
went up in the camp of the Israelites. God's ark was among them, and
the people shouted and rejoiced. Again, we can only wonder whether
they thought that they had a good precedent for such an action,
as this had been successful on other occasions with the Israelites. There is that time in Joshua
chapter 6, verse 6 through verse 16 of the record, when that ark
of God was carried. and Jericho besieged and the
walls of Jericho fell down as Israel marched around with the
Ark of the Covenant. Again, in Numbers 31 and verse
6, when Moses sent the people to war, quote, with the holy
instruments, unquote, and they defeated the Midianites, Now,
the shouting of the Israelites, the presence of the ark among
them, caused the Philistines to fear, 1 Samuel 4, verse 7
and 8. But then again, in verse 9, they
rally themselves, they all rally each other that they might go
and fight mightily for a victory. From here, things really went
downhill for the Israelites. Things went from bad to worse,
for if you consider verse eleven, the ark of God was taken by the
Philistine. Also, in verse eleven, The two
vile sons of Eli, Phinehas and Hophne, were slain by the prophecy
of Israel. God said that they would be.
And in verse 18, when old Eli, old Asiatic Eli, heard the bad
news, he was sitting by the way on a log or a chair or stool,
whatever, his heart trembling, it said, after the ark of the
Lord. And when Eli heard that the ark
of God was taken, his sons were dead. He fell backward off of
his seat. For he was old, blind, fat, and
heavy, and broke his neck, and he died. Not only that, verse
19, when Eli's daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, who was
great with child, heard the news of her husband's death and the
loss of the ark, she went into hard labor, delivered a child,
but died soon thereafter, giving birth, living long enough to
name her son by the name of Ichabod, saying, The glory of God is departed
from Israel, for the ark of God is taken. Now, how deeply was
Israel plagued for their folly in bringing the ark. What a price
they paid. Their most valiant men of war
are dead. A long time spiritual leader,
Eli, is dead. And worse, the ark of God is
now yonder in the hands of Gentile pagans. And with that coming
to chapter 5, and the question, what will the Philistines do
with the ark? What good and use is it to them?
What use do they intend to make of it? We remember once they
feared it, once they feared when it came into the camp, for it
was the ark of the God of Israel. Now they have it in their possession,
and what will they do with it? Will they now carry it into their
battles, hoping that it shall be a magic wand and weapon for
them, being superstitious that it will give them a victory,
that their enemies might flee and be defeated before them by
their new weapon? Or, another thought comes into
our mind, would they be disposed to destroy it? Would it enter
into their mind to destroy it completely, to break it down,
to tear it all apart, to disassemble it, grind it to powder, and then
mock and blaspheme the name of the God of Israel? Well, as it
turns out, the Philistines do neither, owing to the great providence
of our God. Instead of destroying it or taking
it to battle, they carry it into the city, one of their chief
five cities, of Ashdod, where was the temple of Dagon?" And
in the second verse, you notice, it says that they set it by Dagon,
before nearby their chief deity. Now, just imagine, if you can,
this ark of God in an idol's temple. Bishop Joseph Hall wrote
in his large volume, Contemplations, these words, quote, What a spectacle
was this, unquote, the pagan Philistine handling the symbol
of God's presence and the glorious mercy seat in the company of
an idol, and the cherubim spreading their wings now in the presence
of an idol god. Did the Philistines intend that
Dagon triumph over the Ark, or did they intend to have both
the Ark and Dagon in their repertoire of deity? And whether the two
of them they intended, God settled the matter quickly. For we see
in verse 3, the very next morning when some came early to the house
of Dagon, either to worship or to perform their religious vows
or to check on the ark or whatever, when they came to their surprise
and amazement, they found that their old Dagon had fallen down
flat on his face on the ground before the ark of God. They found him there prostrate
before the ark in the dirt, his face buried down in the dirt. Possibly they did not see the
significance of this, though it never had happened before. To what did they attribute this?
What made Dagon fall over? Was it chance? Was it an accident? Was it the earth shifting under?
And so they lift up their fallen pitiful idol, stand him to his
feet, put him in his place there once again. Now, we would marvel
if none of these kept these things and pondered them in their heart. For Dagon is not fallen backward,
nor is he fallen over sideways, but he is fallen upon his face
and toward the ark." Then, verse 4, the next day, Dagon again
is fallen to the ground before the ark, except now his head
and his hands are severed out of his trunk. There lay his hands
over on the threshold at the opening of the door. Dagon lays
in ruins. Whether they sought to repair
him or not, we're not told in the account. But let us look
at verse 6, But the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod,
and he destroyed them and smote them with emrods, even Ashdod
and the coast thereof." Not just the city of Ashdod, but surrounding
territory and city as well. This was a very strong judgment
brought against them. Some perished. Some came down
with a very, very bad case of hemorrhoids. And then in verse
7, they recognize that their troubles were because of the
ark of the God of Israel, and that the hand of God was heavy
against them and against Dagon their God, for Dagon is now destroyed. He lies in pieces, and the ark
must not remain among them because of the judgment. They carry the
ark to the city of Gath, and it seems that the judgments became
more severe in that, in verse 9, the hand of the Lord was against
the city with a very great destruction, and He smote the men of the city,
both small and great, and they had emeralds in their secret
parts. nor yet are they repentant or
converted. They neither yet turn from their
idol nor turn to the God of Israel. Instead, they spread the misery
further. As in verse 10 to verse 12, they
send the ark to the city of Ekron. And I want to read the last part
of verse 11 and verse 12, beginning in verse 11. For there was a
deadly destruction throughout all the city. The hand of God
was very heavy there, and the men that died not were smitten
with emeralds, and the cry of the city went up unto heaven."
Now, to repeat, the Philistines see a twofold judgment because
of the ark of God among them. Number one, Their idol, God,
Dagon, lies broken in pieces and ruined, broken, fallen down. And expositor do say, several
of them, that the top half of Dagon was made in the likeness
of a man, and that the bottom half of Dagon was made in the
likeness of a fish. And when he is fallen, they can
stand him up again. But when he is broken and disjointed,
his frailty is exposed that he is not a great God. Secondly,
we notice something else. Judgment came upon the people,
making them joint-sharers with the judgment of their gods. Remember what the psalmist said
in Psalm 115 and verses 1 through 8, where in verse 4 through 7
he describes the vanity of the idols and of their worshippers,
then saying in verse 8, they that make them are like unto
them So is everyone that trusts in them. Turning to Isaiah chapter
44, to read a passage in verse 9 through verse 11, if you would. Isaiah 44 and verse 9. They that make a graven image
are all of them vanity. Their delectable things shall
not profit. They are their own witnesses. they see not, nor know that they
may be ashamed, who have formed a god, or molten a graven image,
that is profitable for nothing." Behold, all of his fellows shall
be ashamed. The workmen, they are of men. Let them all be gathered together.
Let them stand up. Yea, they shall fear, and they
shall be ashamed together." And the description continues in
verse 12 through verse 20. But let us acknowledge, though
some prefer their idols to be made of silver and of gold, as
if the best materials make the best idol. Psalm 115 and verse
4, their idols are silver and gold. They have spared no expense. They have gathered the most precious
material to make them gods to worship. In Exodus 32, what did
Aaron do? He fashioned a golden cap from
the golden earrings of the women that were in the camp. In Judges
chapter 8, verse 24 through 27, the folly of Gideon on a particular
occasion who asked for the golden earrings, other ornaments that
the women were wearing, and he made an ephod, some sort of a
garment, an upper garment, and he put it in the holy city of
Oprah, likely as a memorial to the recent victory that God had
given them. But here, verse 27, and all Israel went thither a-whoring after
it." He put it up as a memorial, whatever was his intention. But
all Israel went thither a-whoring after it. Which thing became
a snare unto Gideon and his house, we read in the Scripture. And
from these things let us learn a profitable lesson. From these
things let us learn that idols whether they be of gold or of
silver, or whether they be of mud or the same as an idol made
out of dung. They are no more worthy than
one made out of dung, whether they be silver or gold. But let's
go back to the Ark of Dagon. First, Israel made a wrong use
of the Ark. falling into an act of idolatry,
yet into superstition. In fact, Matthew Henry had this
to say about it. Indeed, they did but make an
idol of the ark, unquote. They resorted to human reasoning. For they would rise the ark in
a way that God never had intended. They would use it in a way that
was forbidden and trusted more in the ark than they did in the
God of the ark. They said, It may save us out
of the hands of our enemy, and they may be smitten before us,
and we be victorious. Now, the ark of God is among
the Philistines, not only among the Philistines, but is yonder
in an idol temple. But no matter where they put
it, no matter where they moved it, the plagues came upon the
people. Plagues followed the ark of God. The hand of God was upon them. It gave them no profit, for it
belonged only to Israel. You know, what is a blessing
to one certainly may be a curse unto another. Even as the gospel
is life unto some and death unto others, the same Christ is to
some the wisdom of God and to others is foolishness. But the
Philistines said, we've got to do something here. We'll all
be dead. The Philistines held a council. And they determine what they'll
do, 1 Samuel 5 and verse 11. They said, let's send the ark
back unto its own place that the more of them might not die,
that the judgments of God might be stayed off of them. Now, how
amazing is this for us to read? that Israel need not fight a
battle to regain control of their ark. They need not come in and
slaughter the Philistines and take their ark again by force. It was such a trouble, God made
it such a trouble under the Philistines that they not only sent it back,
but they sent gifts of gold as acts of redemption. Even Pharaoh
said after the plagues in Exodus 10, Go, go take your people and
your little one. And they left with a spoil. The
Lord so plagued the Philistines because of the ark that they
returned it again to those who rightfully had it. And again,
providence carried the matter. And how wonderful is it to follow
out the providence of God that they returned it rather than
destroy it. I think that is an amazing thing. Talk about the divine, sovereign
providence of our great God. In 1 Samuel 6, Verse 7-18, there
is an interesting record of them sending the ark home. How did they send it home? Not
by choice messengers or by their soldiers. We notice here what
is said, they sent the ark home on a new cart pulled by two milk
cows, and get this, two things about these cows that shows the
providence of God. Number one, the cows had never
had a yoke on them in their life. They'd never pulled, they'd never
been trained to be a beast of burden. They had never borne
the yoke, but here they bore it without resistance. Secondly, we notice these two
cows had calves, and they took the calves away from them and
pinned them up. Did you ever see a mother cow
go off and leave her calves willingly? Ball and Beller. Thirdly, they
unguided by any. None directed the cows at all. And they went straight to the
priest's city. Straight to the city where the
priests were in Israel. And they stopped and they turned
not to the right, nor to the left. Nor did it bounce off of
the cart, the ark, while they were transporting it. Evidently,
the Israelites had made neither an attempt to rescue it or an
attempt to ransom it back out of the hands of the Philistine. Unlike Eli, their hearts did
not tremble for the ark of God, though it was missing. But it
comes when they do not expect it. It comes unexpectedly and
by a means that they would never have imagined in their life. And if they had erred in its
loss, so do they err again in its recovery. At first they seemed
to do well, 1 Samuel 6 and verse 14. They tore the cart, all the
pieces, the new cart. They used that for firewood.
They killed the cow and made a sacrifice there of the cart,
using the cart for fire and the cow for the sacrifice, an offering
unto their God. But then they made a fatal mistake. In chapter 6 and verse 19, they
opened the ark. They took the lid off of the
ark. They opened the ark and they
looked inside at its content. This was a thing not even the
Philistines were intended to do. Not even the Philistines
had this come into their mind. And the priests of Israel should
have known better. They knew better than that. The
ark was to dwell behind the veil where only the high priest ever
went there and that once a year, yet never to be opened, and especially
opened by the lower priest. Blood was to be sprinkled there
on the top of that ark in the mercy seat, but they intruded
into those things. that God had concealed from their
eye. That is, no man shall see God
and live, Exodus 33 and 20, so none could see inside the sacred
chest and live. For us to see the significance
of this, consider 2 Samuel 6 and verse 6 and 1 Chronicles 13 and
verse 9 through 11. If you remember an occasion when
Uzzah took hold of the Ark of God, they were transporting it
on a cart, remember? And Uzzah grabbed it all of a
sudden because the oxen shook the cart, and lest it fall off,
Uzzah grabbed it with his hand and fell dead. dead by the side
of the ark. For touching this ark of the
covenant, Uzziah fell dead, making David afraid to bring it into
his house. He said, oh no, we can't bring
it into my house. Now, we must close. Our time
is gone, but let's remember that this ark represented the presence
of God. It represented the presence of
God. It was where blood atonement was applied for the people. Inside of it were the tablets
of the law. It taught the people the immutable
holiness of God and the heinousness of the nature of sin. that God is unapproachable except
in a prescribed way of His appointing, that He has appointed one to
approach Him in behalf of sinners, one and not others. People today
do not have a proper notion one of the holiness of God and two
of the depravity of the human family. These two truths are
lost and buried under religious ceremonies in our day. They just
don't have a proper notion of the holiness the awesome holiness
of our God, that those in heaven who saw him cry, holy, holy,
holy, and fall down before his feet. But today we don't have
a proper view of the depravity of man either. The holiness of
God or the depth of sin's contrariety to God is lost almost in today's
religious world. That ark set behind a separating
veil. A veil separated it. It taught
Israel that sin separates from God and that God will only be
appeased in a proper and a particular way by a proper and particular
one whom he has appointed. They erred in bringing that ark
out to make a magical, mysterious something out of it, and they
erred who looked into the ark of God. The ark caused Dagon
to be displayed as a false, hopeless God, a worthless deity, if you
please. I don't know what he was made
out of, gold, silver, mud, cement, but he was a worthless, worthless
idol and a no good God. And our God manifested His superiority
in that incident. The Ark of God and Dagon. Who is great? Our God is great.