1 Samuel 5:1 – 12 “After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod, carried it into the temple of Dagon, and set it beside his statue.
When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.
But when they got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD, with his head and his hands broken off and lying on the threshold. Only the torso remained. That is why, to this day, the priests of Dagon and all who enter the temple of Dagon in Ashdod do not step on the threshold. Now the hand of the LORD was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity, ravaging them and afflicting them with tumors. (Some sources add “And rats appeared in their land, and death and destruction were throughout the city.”) And when the men of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not stay here with us, because His hand is heavy upon us and upon our god Dagon.”
So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?”
“It must be moved to Gath,” they replied. So they carried away the ark of the God of Israel. But after they had moved the ark to Gath, the LORD’s hand was also against that city, throwing it into great confusion and afflicting the men of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumors.
So they sent the ark of God to Ekron, but as it arrived, the Ekronites cried out, “They have brought us the ark of the God of Israel in order to kill us and our people!”
Then the Ekronites assembled all the rulers of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel. It must return to its place, so that it (He) will not kill us and our people!”
For a deadly confusion had pervaded the city; the hand of God was heavy upon it. Those who did not die were afflicted with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.”
This account is most likely one of the earliest descriptions of an outbreak of bubonic plague. (J R Soc Med. 2005 Sep; 98(9): 436. doi: 10.1258/jrsm.98.9.436) While some people have argued that there could have been an outbreak of dysentery with accompanying hemorrhoids, such an outbreak would hardly account for the large number of deaths and the mass terror that gripped the Philistine cities as the Lord “ravaged” them. As a physician, I have seen a number of cases with dysentery but practically none with hemorrhoids. Plague can kill very quickly, sometimes almost overnight. What might have happened? Ashdod was a seaport, and rats from a visiting ship could have easily come to shore, bearing the fleas that carried bubonic plague. Plague was known in Egypt before these events took place. The swellings or tumors that were described are typical of the buboes from which bubonic plague got its name. Buboes typically affect the lymph nodes in the neck, the groin, and the armpit; however, bubonic plague can progress at an alarming rate, causing parts of the body to literally turn black.
This photo is a picture of the hand of a man who contracted bubonic plague when he came into contact with a rat his cat had brought in. The hand has turned black because the blood supply to that tissue has been cut off by his body forming blood clots in small blood vessels. In medieval times, bubonic plague was known as “the black death;” this photo graphically demonstrates the origin of that description.
While the plague outbreaks might have been terrifying, what equally shocked the Philistines was the fate of the statue of the God Dagon. Dagon, or Dagan, was an Assyrian god of crop fertility and the legendary inventor of the plow. The Philistines adopted Dagon as their main god, and Dagon was generally represented by a figure that was half man/half fish. Some worshipers believed Dagon was the father of the god Baal. About 1500 Baal began to be worshiped as a god of vegetation and rain. When confronted with the Ark of the Covenant, the Dagon statue fell on its face. When the Dagon statue was replaced, it fell again, shattering its head and its hands as a symbol that Dagon was powerless before the One True Living God.
APPLICATION: Don’t mess with the Living God! That was the lesson the Philistines learned the hard way. While the Israelites were neglecting the worship of the God who had delivered them from slavery and who had saved them so many times, the Philistines had no doubt about God’s mighty power. Plague outbreaks and shattered statues of Dagon were enough to convince the Philistines that bringing the Ark of the Covenant back to Ashdod had been a terrible mistake.
Sometimes we read Bible stories and assume that the gods of the Assyrians, the Philistines, the Egyptians, etc., have no relevance to our lives today. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are still people who are fascinated with ancient religions and who can become ensnared by them. Romans 1:21 – 23 tells us, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became foolsand exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.”
1 Thessalonians 5:5 advises us, “For you are all sons of the light and sons of the day; we do not belong to the night or to the darkness.” Many times, the lure of hidden ancient knowledge entices us. There is something exhilarating about being one of the inner circle, privy to secret spells, rituals, etc. But you pursue such things at the peril of your immortal soul!
The game “Dungeons and Dragons” describes Dagon as an “obyrith demon lord, Prince of the Depths, possessing vast and forbidden knowledge.” Dungeons and Dragons is a very dangerous game and not something to be played with, period. Nothing good can come of being involved with the demonic at any level! You might think that you are controlling demons; meanwhile, the demons are controlling you.)
One practitioner of Transcendental Meditation told me he had been taught that if he saw demons when he meditated, he was to “wish the demons well” and they would then go away. Demons pay no attention to wishes. To quote Ron Kenoly, the Christian musician, “The church today is engaged in spiritual war, and there is no demilitarized zone!”
The Philistines knew just how powerful the God of Israel was. Sadly, that knowledge did not cause the Philistines to renounce worshiping Dagon and to worship Yahweh instead, even though God loved the Philistines just as much as He did the Israelites. God’s plan for Israel was that Israel would be so holy and so blessed those other nations would see His power and worship him rather than Dagon, Baal, Ishtar, Molech, or any of the other pagan deities.
The question for us today is this: How carefully are we serving the One True Living God? How grateful are we for His mercy and His grace? Are people attracted to God because of us, or are we bad advertising?
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for Your mercy and Your grace. Lord, help us to follow hard after You all the days of our lives! Help us not to get sucked off into demon worship, games based on the occult, or anything else having to do with the occult. Thank You for delivering us from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Your glorious light. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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