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Appeasement is No Substitute for
Worship Part II
Eli was a direct
descendant of Aaron, and on the basis of
ancestry, he became the high priest in Israel
around 1080 B.C. Unfortunately, Eli was unfit for
his high calling. He was an indulgent father and
a gluttonous high priest who regularly stole
choice portions of meat that belonged on the
Altar of Burnt Offering. (1 Samuel 2:29)
Elis sons, Hophni and Phineas, also became
priests and judges on the basis of their ancestry
and they distinguished themselves with acts of
sexual immorality, accepting bribes and gluttony.
(1 Samuel 2:12-17) During Elis tenure, the
nation of Israel was in rebellion against God,
and as you might expect, God was angry with
Israel and its leadership.
One day the Lord sent a
message to Eli through a prophet. (God would not
speak directly to Eli, even though he was the
high priest because of his sins.) The prophet
told Eli,
the Lord, the God of
Israel, declares: I promised that your
house and your fathers house [the line of
Aaron] would minister before me forever.
But now the Lord declares: Far be it from
me! Thos who honor me I will honor, but those who
despise me will be distained. The time is coming
when I will cut short your strength and the
strength of your fathers house, so that
there will not be an old man in your family line
and you will see distress in my dwelling
[temple]. Although good will be done to Israel,
in your family line there will never be an
old man. Every one of you that I don not cut off
from my altar will be spared only to blind your
eyes with tears and to grieve your heart, and all
your descendants will die in the prime of life.
And what happens to your two sons, Hophni and
Phinehas will be a sign to you they will
both die on the same day. I will raise up for
myself a faithful priest, who will do according
to what is in my heart and mind. I will firmly
establish his house, and he will minister before
my anointed one always. (1 Samuel
2:30-35, insertions and emphasis mine)
Some time after the
prophet spoke to Eli, a Levite women who could
not conceive miraculously had a baby. She had
earnestly prayed for a son for many years, and
she had promised to give up her son to Gods
service if He would hear her prayer. Eventually,
Hannah became pregnant and Samuel was born. When
Samuel was weaned, Hannah kept her vow to God and
gave her child to Eli for training. Early on, God
began to speak to the baby priest and
it soon became evident to all that little Samuel
was the Lords anointed. The Lord was
with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his
words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan
to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested
as a prophet of the Lord. (1 Samuel 3:19,20)
One night, God told young
Samuel that he was about to fulfill the prophecy
that had been given to Eli. (1 Samuel 3) When the
time had come, the Philistines attacked Israel
and killed 4,000 men. When the soldiers
returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked,
Why did the Lord bring defeat upon us today
before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of
the Lords covenant from [the temple in]
Shiloh, so that it may go with us and save us
from the hand of our enemies. (1
Samuel 4:3, insertion mine)
So the people sent
men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of
the covenant of the Lord Almighty, who is
enthroned between the cherubim.
And Elis two sons,
Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of
the covenant of God. When the ark of the
Lords covenant came into the camp, all
Israel raised such a great shout that the ground
shook. Hearing the uproar, the Philistines asked,
What all this shouting in the Hebrew
camp? When they learned that the ark of the
Lord had come into the camp, the Philistines were
afraid. A god has come into the camp,
they said. Were in trouble! Nothing like
this has happened before. Woe to us! Who will
deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods?
They are the gods who struck the Egyptians with
all kinds of plagues in the desert. [A warrior
silenced the Philistines saying,] Be strong,
Philistines! Be men, or you will be subject to
the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Be men,
and fight! So the Philistines fought, and
the Israelites were defeated and every man fled
to his tent. The slaughter was very great; Israel
lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. The ark was
captured, and Elis two sons, Hophni and
Phinehas, died. (1 Samuel 4:4-11, insertion
mine)
When the second battle
took place, Eli was 98 years old and blind. When
the news reached Eli that his two sons had died
in battle and that the Ark of the Covenant had
been captured, he fell backwards out of his
chair, broke his neck and died. After the
Philistines had captured the ark of God, they
took it from [the battlefield at] Ebenezer to
[their temple city] Ashdod. Then they carried the
ark into Dagons temple and set it beside
Dagon. When the people of Ashdod rose early the
next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on
the ground before the ark of the Lord! They took
Dagon and put him back in his place. But the
following morning when they rose, there was
Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before
the ark of the Lord! His head and hands had been
broken off and were lying on the threshold; only
his body remained. (1 Samuel 5:1-4,
insertion mine)
The Philistines were
distressed. The chief god of the Philistines had
twice fallen before the ark of the God of Israel
and now, Dagons head and hands were broken
off. The Philistines did not realize that even
though they had defeated Israel and captured the
Ark of the Covenant, they had not conquered the
God of Israel. Then, things got much worse.
The Lords hand was heavy upon the
people of Ashdod and its vicinity; he brought
devastation [a plague of infectious rats] upon
them and afflicted them with tumors [possibly,
the bubonic plague]. 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 Dagon
our god. So they called together all the
rulers of the Philistines and asked them,
What shall we do with the ark of the god of
Israel? They answered, [this is just a
coincidence,] Have the ark of god of Israel
moved to Gath. So they moved the ark of the
God of Israel. But after they moved it, the
Lords hand was against the city, throwing
it into a great panic. He afflicted the people of
the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of
[rats and bubonic] tumors. So they sent the ark
of God to Ekron. As the ark of God was entering
Ekron, the people cried out, They have
brought the ark of the god of Israel around to us
to kill us and our people. So they called
together all the rulers of the Philistines and
said, Send the ark of the god of Israel
away; let it go back to its own place, or it will
kill us and our people. For death had filled the
city with panic, Gods hand was very heavy
upon it. Those who did not die were afflicted
with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up
to heaven. (1 Samuel 5:6-12)
When the ark of the
Lord had been in Philistine territory seven
months, the Philistines called for the priests
and the diviners and said, What shall we do
with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should
send it back to its place. They answered,
If you return the ark of the god of Israel,
do not send it away empty, but by all means send
a guilt offering to him. Then you will be healed,
and you will know why his hand has not been
lifted from you. The Philistines asked,
What guilt offering should we send to
him? They replied, Five golden tumors
and five golden rats, according to the number of
the Philistine rulers, because the same plague
has struck both you and your rulers. Make models
of the tumors and of the rats that are destroying
the country, and pay honor to Israels god.
Perhaps he will lift his hand from you and your
gods and your land. Why do you harden your hearts
as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When he treated
them harshly, did they not send the Israelites
out so they could go on their way? (1
Samuel 6:1-6)
There are five
interesting points in this short study that
should be thoughtfully considered.
- God
terminated the ancestry of Eli from the
priesthood of Israel because he and his
sons became evil beyond recovery. The
moral of the story here is that God will
terminate His covenant with rebellious
people and destroy them. When this
happens (as it did when Israel wandered
in the wilderness), He raises up another
group of people to enter into His
covenant. Again, after the Jews rejected
Jesus as the Messiah, God redefined
Abrahams offspring. Paul wrote,
If you belong to Christ, then you
are Abrahams seed, and heirs
according to the promise.
(Galatians 3:29)
- The
second lesson that needs to be learned
from this study is that Israel foolishly
rejoiced when the Ark of the Covenant was
brought onto the battlefield. They
thought Jehovah would give them the
victory over their enemy because no one
can defeat Jehovah. The problem here is
that they did not realize that Jehovah
was their enemy! (More about this in a
moment.)
- Then,
the Philistines were elated with the
victory over Israel. They had killed
34,000 of their enemies because (they
foolishly though) their god, Dagon, was
more powerful than the God of Israel. In
the pagan world, military superiority
affirms which god is the most high god.
However, the outcome of the war was not
the victory the Philistines sought. God
had stirred up the Philistines to destroy
and humble a rebellious Israel. He
empowered the Philistines to kill 34,000
of His chosen people because Israel was
in rebellion against Him. There is no
strength outside of Gods will. He
is sovereign over the kingdoms of Earth
and he sets up kings and takes them down
according to His divine purposes. (Daniel
4:17)
- When
the Philistines went to the temple of
Dagon and saw their chief god lying on
the ground with his head and hands broken
off, they should have realized that the
God of Israel was more powerful than
Dagon. Then, when rats, infectious tumors
and death filled the cities of Ashdod and
Gath, they should have realized that the
God of Israel was angry with them. During
the seven months, the Philistines had
possession of the ark; five cities were
decimated by rats, tumors (probably
bubonic plague) and death. Ironically,
the war trophy (the Ark of the Covenant)
proved to be a destroyer of the
Philistines. The Philistines did not know
that besides Jehovah, there is no other
God, and second, He is no respecter of
persons. God used the Philistines to
destroy Israel, and then He used their
possession of His ark to destroy
thousands of Philistines. The point here
is that God punished both Israel and the
Philistines for the same reason! Yes, the
level of accountability between the
Philistines and Israel were different
because Israel knew more about Gods
will, but God considers mans
knowledge base and then judges and
inflicts destruction fairly. (This is an
eternal policy that God follows.)
- After
seven months (notice the perfect number)
of rats, relentless tumors and death, the
Philistines were humbled. The ark, once
thought to be a trophy of victory, had to
be returned to Israel. They called their
priests together to see what should be
done. They answered, If you
return the ark of the god of Israel, do
not send it away empty, but by all means
send a guilt offering to him
.
Paganism is a religion based on fear of
offense and acts of appeasement. The
priests insisted that the Philistines
send a guilt offering of five
gold rats and five gold tumors with the
ark as a way of saying, Jehovah,
please accept our gifts of gold and
dont hurt us any more.
Consider this future parallel: When
Gods judgments begin (the first
four trumpets of Revelation 8), the
religious leaders of the nations will
convince their respective legislators
that Gods wrath will only be
appeased if sin less laws are
imposed upon the people. In other words,
when Gods wrath against evil is
revealed, a religious reformation will
sweep over the whole world like a global
tsunami and its purpose will be the
appeasement of Gods wrath! Nevertheless,
appeasement is no substitute for worship!
True worship is wholehearted submission
to Gods will appeasement is
an offering of something other than total
submission. (Remember
Cains offering?) After seven months
of divine destruction, why didnt
the Philistines bow down and submit to
the God of Israel who broke off
Dagons head? Why will the religious
leaders of the world insist that God can
be appeased through the enforcement of
sin less laws? In both cases,
the answer is the same: The clergy of
false religions do not know the Most High
God, His will or His ways. Isnt it
amazing that a 3,000-year-old story can
be so relevant?
Teach
me, O Lord, to follow your decrees; then I will
keep them to the end. Give me understanding, and
I will keep your law and obey it with all my
heart. (Psalms 119:33,34)
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