1 Sam 6 & 7 are an
absolute hoot. Really, you've got to see
the humor here. Yes, it's deadly serious
but put yourself in the place of the Philistines.
Israel, depending on the
power they believed was inherent in the Ark gets their clock cleaned by the Philistines.
So the Philistines capture
the Ark and set it in the temple of Dagon as a trophy. Yeah, right.
What follows in this part of
the story is, well, hilarious---yes' it's serious too.
THE lesson - false gods can't
stand in the presence of the One True God.
But imagine the scene. They
probably made a really big deal of this with all the attending pomp and
circumstance. "Yay Us - Yay Dagon!!"
So the next day they find
Dagon lying flat on his face.
Mmmmmm? Bet the set guys got
burned for that, bad workmanship surely.
So they set old Dagon back on his feet and all is well. Except the next day not only is Dagon face
down again but his head and arms are "cut" off. Note, in that day it was common to cut off
the head and hands of a defeated enemy to show utter defeat.
Now I'm wondering. Is the English translation good here? Were the head and arms cut or broken? It would make a difference in the impact of
the event. Young's Literal Version says
the head and the palms were cut off and only the "fishy" part was
whole. Illustrations of Dagon depict
kind of a mer-dude, half man, half fish.
Oh well, it appears they didn't get the hint
anyway.
Now they’re plagued with
field mice (a common scourge), death and tunors.
“Tumors." There is some debate about exactly what these
were. Some suppose (because of the later
mention of mice) that it was the bubonic plague. Others just assume boils. My favorite is hemroids. The KJV reads in 1 Sam. 6:9:
9 And it was so, that,
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 the city, both small and
great, and they had emerods in their secret parts.
OK, a little crude but
obviously it got their attention!
If we assume it was hemroids
or perhaps boils/tumors in, "their secret places," it makes
sense. Dagon was a god of fertility -- gottcha!
Well, these guys finally get
it and begin to wonder what to do with the Ark.
I love these guys - the big
wigs get together in Ashdod and decide to send it to Gath. Nice guys!
Of course the Gathites assume the Ashdotites are trying to kill them by
sending the Ark there so they send it to Ekron. No way are they gonna keep it! So they just park it out in a field for
several months. But men are dieing and
there's still the "secret parts problem."
I don't know if God has what
we'd call a sense of humor but He's got irony nailed. “Funny,” may be flippant
a term for all this but I have to chuckle.
But, it gets better.
To be continued. . . .
Note: Even though Israel was unfaithful and even
though the presentation of the Ark did not produce victory God does not forgo
dealing with the Philistines for taking the Ark. Wrong is wrong and God deals with Israel
passively by not coming to their aid (as He said He wouldn't) and He deals with
the Philistines actively.
The point goes back to the
covenant. If Israel is unfaithful (as in
this case they had been for a while) they are on the curses side of the
valley. This does not mean that the
relationship between God and Israel has changed. They are still "His people," they
have simply moved out from under His blessings into the curses that come with
unfaithfulness.
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