The
Book of First Samuel
Chapter 5
[1] And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought
it from Eben-ezer unto
[2] When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of
Dagon, and set it by Dagon.
1) Captured (V 1,2)
The ark of the covenant
had been taken by the enemy in battle
The Philistines will take this ark to their
city of
The ark is placed in the house of Dagon,
their god, and set beside him
Dagon is a half fish, half man image who is
believed to be the father of Baal
A. Maybe they see this ark as a
trophy of great victory
They think Dagon has
given victory over
B. Maybe they see this ark as a
sacred religious thing
Pay respect to religious
things yet inferior to their god, Dagon
Maybe they make it an
offering to Dagon
But the Lord God is one Lord
If He is not worshipped ALONE then He is not
worshipped at ALL
Will the ark, as a symbol of the presence of
God, be a prisoner to Dagon ?
[3] And when they of
[4] And when they arose 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.
[5] Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon's
house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in
2)
Contention (V 3-5)
If man will not glorify God, God will get His
own glory
The next day the men of
The image is bowed down before the ark (The UNSEEN hand
of God is at work)
The Philistines think this is an accident, an
earthquake or something
The Philistines rush to pick Dagon up and
labor to put set him back up
** How can they give Dagon praise for victory
when he can’t even stand up his own ?
The next day Dagon is again bowed down, but
this time his hands and palms are cut off
Head (wisdom gone) & Hands (Power and
strength gone)
One day all will bow at the feet of Jesus (Phil
2:9-11)
The Philistines have a CHOICE and they are
CONFRONTED with it (Is
8:9b)
Will they turn away from Dagon and serve the
Lord or turn this event into a religious tradition
Even though they are confronted with the
truth they reject God despite the evidence II Tim 3:13
They will now honor the threshold of Dagon as
sacred for this is what he fell on or fell to
[6] But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of
[7] And when the men of
[8] 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
[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.
[10] 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 the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.
[11] So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and
said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his 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.
[12] And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods:
and the cry of the city went up to heaven.
3)
Calamity (V 6-12)
Had the Philistines chose to repent they
could have avoided this measure
** If conviction conquer
not, then destruction shall
Let’s see God hand is heavy upon them (Is
26:11)
A. Destruction- sudden death came to many
B.
Disease - emerods
(bleeding piles, tumors, hemorrhoids) Painful & shameful
V 12 those that died
not had emerods
The Philistines think
Many think they can just get rid of God (Mt 8:34)
(V7 they ack Him)
They move the ark from
Still great destruction on small & great
and disease is even in the secret (hinder or conceal) parts
This is sent to humble their pride and teach
them of judgment of a mighty God
They move the ark from
The city of
The city cries loudly for relief.............
a living Hell on earth
II Cor
2:14-16.......... there is only one way to Heaven,
Jesus (No other way)