Read 1 Samuel 5:1-5
1 After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2 Then they carried the ark into Dagon’s temple and set it beside Dagon. 3 When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. 4 But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained. 5 That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon’s temple at Ashdod step on the threshold.
In Isaiah 42:8 we read ‘I am the Lord; that is my name!
I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols’.
God himself toppled the Philistine idol in such a way that it appeared it was prostrating itself before the Ark of the Covenant.
Read 1 Samuel 5:6-7.
6 The Lord’s hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity; he brought devastation on them and afflicted them with tumours. 7 When the people of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, ‘The ark of the god of Israel must not stay here with us, because his hand is heavy on us and on Dagon our god.’
The Philistines were quick to recognise that God’s hand was against them; but their response was not to turn towards him in repentance, rather they tried to distance themselves from him.
Is that still how people react?
Read 1 Samuel 5:8-12.
8 So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked them, ‘What shall we do with the ark of the god of Israel?’
They answered, ‘Let the ark of the god of Israel be moved to Gath.’ So they moved the ark of the God of Israel.
9 But after they had moved it, the Lord’s hand was against that city, throwing it into a great panic. He afflicted the people of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumours. 10 So they sent the ark of God to Ekron.
As the ark of God was entering Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, ‘They have brought the ark of the god of Israel round to us to kill us and our people.’ 11 So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, ‘Send the ark of the god of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it will kill us and our people.’ For death had filled the city with panic; God’s hand was very heavy on it. 12 Those who did not die were afflicted with tumours, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.
They kept the Ark for several months to see if it was just coincidence that they were suffering, but it was so painfully obvious that they would not be healed that eventually they decided it had to go.
But they were still not eager to give up their prize so they devised a way to see if it was truly God who was in charge. They would use a cart pulled by cows which had recently had young calves. They would be pointed in the direction of Israelite territory and sent away by themselves. Cows will invariably return to their young, and it would need an act of God to make them keep going.
But they knew in their hearts what the outcome would be so they also gave substantial offerings to atone for their guilt.
Read all of 1 Samuel 6 (This piece of narrative does not need much comment! Let several share this reading)
1 When the ark of the Lord had been in Philistine territory for seven months, 2 the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, ‘What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it back to its place.’
3 They answered, ‘If you return the ark of the god of Israel, do not send it back to him without a gift; by all means send a guilt offering to him. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand has not been lifted from you.’
4 The Philistines asked, ‘What guilt offering should we send to him?’
They replied, ‘Five gold tumours and five gold rats, according to the number of the Philistine rulers, because the same plague has struck both you and your rulers. 5 Make models of the tumours and of the rats that are destroying the country, and give glory to Israel’s god. Perhaps he will lift his hand from you and your gods and your land. 6 Why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When Israel’s god dealt harshly with them, did they not send the Israelites out so that they could go on their way?
7 ‘Now then, get a new cart ready, with two cows that have calved and have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up. 8 Take the ark of the Lord and put it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to him as a guilt offering. Send it on its way, 9 but keep watching it. If it goes up to its own territory, towards Beth Shemesh, then the Lord has brought this great disaster on us. But if it does not, then we shall know that it was not his hand that struck us but that it happened to us by chance.’
10 So they did this. They took two such cows and hitched them to the cart and penned up their calves. 11 They placed the ark of the Lord on the cart and along with it the chest containing the gold rats and the models of the tumours.
12 Then the cows went straight up towards Beth Shemesh, keeping on the road and lowing all the way; they did not turn to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh.
13 Now the people of Beth Shemesh were harvesting their wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they rejoiced at the sight. 14 The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and there it stopped beside a large rock.
The people chopped up the wood of the cart and sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. 15 The Levites took down the ark of the Lord, together with the chest containing the gold objects, and placed them on the large rock. On that day the people of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the Lord. 16 The five rulers of the Philistines saw all this and then returned that same day to Ekron.
17 These are the gold tumours the Philistines sent as a guilt offering to the Lord – one each for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron. 18 And the number of the gold rats was according to the number of Philistine towns belonging to the five rulers – the fortified towns with their country villages. The large rock on which the Levites set the ark of the Lord is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.
19 But God struck down some of the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy of them to death because they looked into the ark of the Lord. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the Lord had dealt them.
What was it that the Israelites at Beth Shemesh had done that deserved the death penalty?
Anyone reading Exodus chapters 25-27 would be left in no doubt about the way the Ark of the Covenant had to be revered as the most holy item within the ‘Holy of Holies’. It was even hidden from the view of the priests behind a shielding curtain, and only the High priest once a year, could enter the Holy of Holies (Leviticus chapter 16) on the Day of Atonement.
Even the Philistines had revered the Ark and had not presumed to look into it. God could not stand by and watch his own people act in such blasphemous disregard for his holiness.
20 And the people of Beth Shemesh asked, ‘Who can stand in the presence of the Lord, this holy God? To whom will the ark go up from here?’
21 Then they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath Jearim, saying, ‘The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up to your town.’
The people of Beth Shemesh ‘feared the Lord’ and wanted to distance themselves.
What is the fear of the Lord that draws people to him?
Awe that leads to repentance and reverent worship: see Deuteronomy 10:12-13
Now read 1 Samuel 7:1
1 So the men of Kiriath Jearim came and took up the ark of the Lord. They brought it to Abinadab’s house on the hill and consecrated Eleazar his son to guard the ark of the Lord.
What happened to the Ark? (Trace the journey from Shiloh on the map)
Map047
From Shiloh (northeast corner) to the battle at Aphek (1 Samuel 4:4,11)
To Dagon’s temple at Asdhdod (5:1-2)
v8 what shall we do?
To Gath.
v10 to Ekron.
v11, and 6:2 send it back.
6:13 at Beth Shemesh.
7:1 at Kiriath Jearim.
Finally David arranged for it to be moved to Jerusalem (The reference in 1 Samuel 14:18 probably refers to the Ephod, not the Ark).
So much for the Ark, but what happened to the Tent of Meeting, the Tabernacle?
For a while it remained at Shiloh but some time in the next fifty years the tabernacle had to be saved from the attacking armies of the Philistines and taken 12 miles south to Nob where it was at the time of Saul. It was still being looked after by Eli’s line; Ahitub had married by then and his son Ahimelech had taken over the role of priest.
Why should his son have already taken over?
Because of the prophecy in 1 Samuel 2:32 ‘in your family line there will never be an old man’ we must assume Ahitub died young.
Later Saul massacred Ahimelech and all the priestly families at Nob – only Ahimelech’s son Abiathar escaped (1 Samuel 22:18-21).
Nothing is mentioned about the fate of Shiloh itself other than a telling verse in Jeremiah 7:12 “ ‘Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel’. And there is Archaeological evidence of a major destruction at about 1050bc.
What happened to Samuel? At some point he also got married and had children. But we meet him again in his early thirties, and by now is accepted as Judge (or leader) of the Israelites.
Read 1 Samuel 7:2-6.
2 The ark remained at Kiriath Jearim a long time – twenty years in all.
Then all the people of Israel turned back to the Lord.
What caused this revival?
People follow their leaders – for good or bad (think of the Victorians and the Edwardians); and obviously Samuel was different to any of the Judges that had gone before. But perhaps they also recognised that the continual oppression of the Philistines may have been the result of their ignoring God and his commands.
3 So Samuel said to all the Israelites, ‘If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.’ 4 So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only.
Knowing the nature of the Israelites the terms ‘rid yourselves’ and ‘put away’ struck me. Samuel was instructing the people to make a clean break with all forms of Idolatry. It seems that their response was to put them away – for now.
5 Then Samuel said, ‘Assemble all Israel at Mizpah, and I will intercede with the Lord for you.’ 6 When they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the Lord. On that day they fasted and there they confessed, ‘We have sinned against the Lord.’ Now Samuel was serving as leader of Israel at Mizpah.
Where was Mizpah (or Mizpeh)? What does Mizpah mean?
We first come across it in Genesis 31:45-49.
45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 He said to his relatives, ‘Gather some stones.’ So they took stones and piled them in a heap, and they ate there by the heap. 47 Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed. (Meaning: ‘witness heap’)
48 Laban said, ‘This heap is a witness between you and me today.’ That is why it was called Galeed. 49 It was also called Mizpah, (Meaning: ‘Watchtower’) because he said, ‘May the Lord keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other.
Several places were called Mizpah, possibly here it was another name for Nob.
It seems to have been a recognised central meeting place for the tribal elders. It was here they had gathered to discuss taking action against the tribe of Benjamin following the abuse of the Levite’s concubine (Judges 20:1).
Now read 1 Samuel 7:7-9
7 When the Philistines heard that Israel had assembled at Mizpah, the rulers of the Philistines came up to attack them. When the Israelites heard of it, they were afraid because of the Philistines. 8 They said to Samuel, ‘Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines.’
Note the panic of the people and the calm response of Samuel (and of God!).
9 Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and sacrificed it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. He cried out to the Lord on Israel’s behalf, and the Lord answered him.
Now read 1 Samuel 7:10-17
10 While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in battle. But that day the Lord thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites. 11 The men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Kar.
12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, ‘Thus far the Lord has helped us.’
13 So the Philistines were subdued and they stopped invading Israel’s territory. Throughout Samuel’s lifetime, the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines.
The Philistines recognised the power of God even if the Israelites didn’t. Sensibly they simply stopped raiding into Israel and remained by the coast.
14 The towns from Ekron to Gath that the Philistines had captured from Israel were restored to Israel, and Israel delivered the neighbouring territory from the hands of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.
15 Samuel continued as Israel’s leader all the days of his life. 16 From year to year he went on a circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah, judging Israel in all those places. 17 But he always went back to Ramah, where his home was, and there he also held court for Israel. And he built an altar there to the Lord.
So Samuel was not only Prophet and Judge, but he was accepted by the people as their leader and here he also assumed the role of Priest (v9).
This is the pattern that the Lord wanted for a leader of his people. We saw it in Moses and now it is repeated in Samuel. A leader among men, but a servant of God.
Before we close this study, I’d like to ask if anyone had a problem with the NIV version of chapter 7 (Hand out any spare bibles). Is there anything you might wish to change? Look at the heading at 1 Sam 7:2: ‘Samuel subdues the Philistines at Mizpah’ It’s so easy to casually take from God the glory that it his. We can look at the Israelites and condemn them for thinking that the Ark was going to save them. We think we know better than to do that. But we often assign success to people rather than give the glory to God.
