In the chapters of 1 Samuel 4 to 7, we read that while the Philistines were frightened of the loud outroar of the Israelites, the Israelites were fighting a lost battle, because the Lord God was not with them. Hophni and Phinehas, Eli’s wayward sons, had conducted themselves dishonourably before the Lord God. In 1 Samuel 2: 12 -14, we are given insight to their deplorable ways:
“Now the sons of Eli were wicked; they had respect neither for the LORD nor for the priests’ duties toward the people. When someone offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged fork, while the meat was still boiling and would thrust it into the basin, kettle, caldron, or pot. Whatever the fork brought up, the priest would take for himself. They treated all the Israelites who came to the sanctuary at Shiloh in this way.”
They had treated the offerings meant for the Lord God with contempt, and they had treated the people who had brought the offerings with even greater disdain. In addition, despite being priests, they behaved in a promiscuous fashion with the women who served at the entrance of the meeting tent (cf. 1 Samuel 2: 22).
At that time, Israel was occupying the inland hills and the Israelites faced military threat from the Philistines who occupied the coastal areas of Palestine and who had intention of overthrowing them from their territory. In an initial confrontation, the Philistines attacked, and Israel lost 4,000 men. The Israelites decided to battle again, and the following time, brought the Ark of the Covenant with them, hoping to score an easy win with the presence of the Ark of the Covenant. Unfortunately, God was there, but God was not with the Israelites and this time around saw the devastating blow and loss of 30,000 foot soldiers from the Israelite camp. To make matters worse, the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the enemy troops, and Hophni and Phinehas, who were accompanying the Ark of the Covenant for their own glory and convenience, died at the hands of the enemy’s swords (cf. 1 Samuel 4). In an ironic twist of events, Hophni and Phinehas who were used to delegating others to pierce the meat meant for the Lord God with pitchforks, were themselves impaled by a sharp object.
Eli who had stiffened his neck against the Lord and permitted his sons to carry out their atrocities, as 1 Samuel 2:29 says, “Why do you stare greedily at my sacrifices and at the offerings that I have prescribed? Why do you honour your sons more than you honour me, fattening yourselves with the choicest part of every offering of my people Israel?” – eventually fell backward in his chair upon hearing the mention of the capture of the Ark of the Covenant, and died from a broken neck (cf. 1 Samuel 4:18).
The Philistines were polytheists and upon capturing the Ark of the Covenant, took the sacred vessel and transferred it to a place called Ashdod, into a temple of an idol, Dagon, and placed the Ark of the Covenant beside an effigy of Dagon. The next morning, the idol was seen face down before the Lord God’s Ark. The people picked up the idol and replaced it to its original position. When the next morning came by, the people came by to find the idol once again lying face down before the Lord God’s Ark, and this time with its head and arms broken off and separated from the torso (cf. 1 Samuel 5).
Subsequently, the people of Ashdod became afflicted with tumours. In some translations such as the Douay-Rheims, the word tumours, is translated as “emerods” in archaic English, with its equivalent term in modern English today being Haemorrhoids. It is interesting that the Ark of the Covenant remained in the territories of the Philistines for 7 months despite the afflictions, and as the Philistines prepared to send the Ark of Covenant back, their own sages discerned that they would need to send it back with amends through a reparative offering. In this case,
‘When asked further, “What reparation offering should be our amends to God?” they replied: “Five golden tumours and five golden mice to correspond to the number of Philistine leaders, since the same plague has struck all of you and your leaders.
Therefore, make images of the tumours and of the mice that are devastating your land and so give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps then God will lift his hand from you, your gods, and your land.’
Some scholars such as George Haydock (2016) and Shrewsbury (1949) have postulated that the people were afflicted with the Bubonic Plague, which causes the swelling of lymph nodes, and thus the use of the word, “emerods”, also referring to “swellings”, and hence the reparation offering of golden mice together with the gold haemorrhoid shapes.
According to 1 Samuel 6: 17 – 18,
“The golden tumours the Philistines sent back as a reparation offering to the LORD were as follows: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, and one for Ekron.
The golden mice, however, corresponded to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five leaders, including fortified cities and open villages. The large stone on which the ark of the LORD was placed is still in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite at the present time.”
In another part of Scripture, we read in Numbers 21, that the Israelites had complained against God and Moses, and the Lord God sent serpents which bit the Israelites and caused many deaths. Interestingly, the remedy and the act of reparation was to be found in the making of a bronze serpent and mounting it on to a pole. To which if anyone were bitten by a serpent, the person looking at the bronze serpent would be healed.
There are some common threads between the story of the Philistines brush with the Ark of the Covenant, and with the story of the Israelites being bitten by venomous serpents:
- Both featured sins and blasphemies directly against God.
- Both featured the placing of idols as God or as equal status with God – Dagon was placed on the same level beside the Ark of the Covenant, while the Israelites were more concerned about their own comforts rather than God.
- Both showed the uselessness, powerlessness, and sterility of the idols.
- The persons were punished by the very things with which they sinned, and the way out was to make reparation by gazing upon their sin, or the image of their sin, renounce that sin, return completely to the Lord God, and to enthrone God in his rightful place as Maker of all.
- God can use that sin for his purposes and for good, by turning what was intended for evil to good.
As Wisdom 12: 23-27 puts it eloquently:
“Hence those unrighteous who lived a life of folly,
you tormented through their own abominations.
For they went far astray in the paths of error, taking for gods the worthless and disgusting among beasts, being deceived like senseless infants.
Therefore as though upon unreasoning children, you sent your judgment on them as a mockery; But they who took no heed of a punishment which was but child’s play were to experience a condemnation worthy of God.
For by the things through which they suffered distress, being tortured by the very things they deemed gods, They saw and recognized the true God whom formerly they had refused to know; with this, their final condemnation came upon them.”
The Lord God is all powerful and all-seeing. Yet He has restrained his power and allowed himself to be contained in a box. The call therefore is a call of reparation and repentance. The weight of reckoning which unleashes God’s divine wrath and impartial justice falls upon those who know God but deliberately defy God’s authority and might in ways that are filled with pride and who are an abomination in his sight.
The stories of 1 Samuel and Numbers 21, remind us of God’s sovereignty and warn us today to take heed lest we fall prey to the false gods around us, or worse think that we who are the created creatures are on par and of equal standing with God. The danger is discernible today in how with the advancement of medical science, and with developments in technology we have the means to play God and be God. Scientists for example have cloned functioning human replacement organs from spinach leaves and pigs. Catholics think it is okay to pursue in-vitro Fertilisation to get children.
We are building our own versions of the Tower of Babel and with these actions, come hubris, for we think that we are self-sufficient and can do without God. The reality however, is that all that we have and are come from God.
Let us pay attention and make reparation for the times when we rebelled against God, chose the created rather than the Maker, and thought that we were greater than God. Before it is too late and we come face to face with God’s justice.
By the Grace of God,
Brian Bartholomew Tan
References
Haydock, G. (2016). Catholic Commentary on Samuel I. (Paperback edition). CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Shrewsbury, J. F. D. (1949). The Plague of the Philistines. The Journal of Hygiene, 47(3), 244–252. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3860102
