Observations and Interpretations:
(1) Repeated phrases:
A. Dagon was lying on the ground before the ark of the LORD v.3,4
B. The LORD attacked the residents of Ashdod...bringing devastation on them...causing a great deal of panic..the people who did not die were struck with sores v.6, 7, 9, 12
C. The ark of the God of Israel should not remain with us...should be moved v.7, 8, 10, 11
Summary: In the eyes of the Philistines, Israel was defeated by them, but the God of Israel was not what they thought. He was powerful and able to strike their idol, Dagon down. He should not be treated with contempt.
Sadly, the downgrading of the ark not only happened in Philistines cities, but also in Israel.
6:19 But the LORD struck down some of the people of Beth Shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the LORD; he struck down 50,070 of the men. The people grieved because the LORD had struck the people with a hard blow. 20 The residents of Beth Shemesh asked, “Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? To whom will the ark go up from here?”
Reflection:
The passage reminds me of the strike of God, the terror of the people when they were judged. Do we remember that God will strike when we do not honor Him or treat Him as holy? We probably would never say that, but do we obey His Word? How do we honor the time to worship Him with His people?
Second, this passage reminds me of not looking down on God even His people failed. That was the mistake of the Philistine. Do we look down on God when the pastor or people in the church may not look very impressive? Or do we only honor God when people in the church are very smart and good looking?
(2) Supplemental information 6:7-9
(NAC) The diviners and priests directed the Philistines to send the ark back to Israel for two purposes: first, to remove the deadly object—and thereby Israel’s deity—from their territory; and second, to determine the true origin of the Philistines’ recent societal upheavals. To accomplish both ends simultaneously, the ark along with a chest containing the Lord’s guilt offering were to be placed on “a new cart” (v. 7) pulled by “two cows” that had calved and had “never been yoked” and who had been forcefully separated from their unweaned calves. If a team of cows that had never been trained or yoked could work together to pull the cart straight for a stretch of several miles, all the while ignoring their maternal instincts to respond to the cries of their unweaned calves, then Yahweh would indeed be accepted as the source of “this great disaster.” However, if the cows failed to pull the cart “as far as the border of Beth Shemesh,” then the whole series of recent Philistine catastrophes would be understood to have happened “by chance” (v. 9).
Audrey
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