Wednesday, January 9
It’s Dangerous to Play Games
With God
EVIDENCE
Key Text: 1 Sam. 7:3
The Philistines placed the ark
in the temple of Dagon as a tro-
phy of their god's superior power.
The fact that they had defeated
Israel and captured the sacred ob-
ject indicated to them that Dagon
had triumphed over Yahweh in
the invisible struggle that accom-
panied every military battle.
But events soon indicated that
Israel's God was anything but
defeated. In fact, the elders of His
people had already seen their ear-
lier defeat, not as weakness on
Yahweh's part, but as His doing.
Thus they had taken the ark into
battle as a talisman to force His
hand, only to have Him separate
the ark from the wicked priests of
the Shiloh sanctuary.
First the Philistines found the
statue of Dagon face down,
bowing in submission to Yahweh.
Then it was mutilated. Finally a
plague of “tumors” began striking
the various Philistine cities.
Plague usually accompanied
military activity in the ancient
world. Generally it was a race as
to which would destroy an army
first—disease or enemy soldiers.
The ancients believed that the
gods used plague in their invisible
struggle, and it could be averted
only by appeasing the deities.
Even Yahweh employed it (see
Hab. 3:5; cf. 2 Sam. 24).
Recognizing the power of
Israel’s God, the Philistines re-
turned the ark in a manner that
was both a test to determine
whether Yahweh was behind the
plague and a way to provide a
guilt offering. Possibly a wordplay
was intended, since opel, the He-
brew word for “tumor,” could also
mean “acropolis.” Thus each of
the five golden images of a tumor
would remove the plague devastat-
ing each major Philistine fortified
city, or acropolis.
The Philistines took Yahweh
more seriously than did His own
people. When the Israelites re-
ceived the ark back, they treated
it in a forbidden way. They knew
that only priests should handle it,
but they did not bother to con-
secrate themselves for the task.
Before, they had used it as a talis-
man. Now they regarded it with a
dangerous casualness. To stress
the seriousness of their indiffer-
ence, God slew a number of the
men of Beth-shemesh (see 1 Sam.
6:19).
Eventually a reformation
swept Israel. The people vowed to
worship only Yahweh, and
Samuel offered a sacrifice to
memorialize their repentance. At
that moment the Philistines de-
cided to attack again. But
Yahweh, not being manipulated
this time, rose up in holy war and
defeated them.
by Gerald Wheeler
Gerald Wheeler is trade-book assistant in advertising at the Review and
Herald Publishing Association, Hagerstown, Maryland.