1 Samuel 5:1 - Meaning and Application

Here we see, first, the Philistines’ victory over the ark, which made them even more pleased because they had once feared it so much before the battle (1 Samuel 4:7). Yet when they had the ark in their hands, God restrained them. They did not break it apart, as Israel was told to destroy the idols of the nations, but treated it with some respect and carried it safely away. We are not told whether their curiosity led them to open it and look inside, where the tablets of stone written by God’s own hand were kept. Perhaps they looked no farther than the gold-covered outside and the cherubim on top, like children who admire the cover of their Bible more than its precious words.

They brought the ark to Ashdod, one of the five Philistine cities, and the city where Dagon’s temple stood. There they set the ark beside Dagon (1 Samuel 5:2). They may have meant this as a kind of honor to both gods, since the gods of the nations were often treated as partners. But they misunderstood the God of Israel. He is not honored at all if he is not honored alone. “The Lord our God is one Lord.”

More likely, though, they placed the ark there as a trophy of war, to honor Dagon their god. They would then boast that, just as they had once triumphed over Samson, Israel’s champion, they had now triumphed over Israel’s God as well (Judges 16:23-24). What a shame this was to God’s great name, and what an insult to his glorious throne. Could the ark, the sign of God’s presence, be a captive to Dagon, a worthless idol? In one sense, yes, because God was showing how little the ark matters when the covenant itself is broken and ignored. Sacred signs are not things God is tied to, and they are not things we can trust in by themselves.

In another sense, it was only for a time. God allowed it so he could gain even more glory by judging those who insulted him. After punishing Israel for handing over the ark, he would now deal with the Philistines for misusing it. He would bring it out of their hands again. Even human anger serves his praise, and he is working out his own glory even when it seems hidden (Psalm 76:10). “Out of the eater came something to eat.”

Second, the ark triumphed over Dagon. More than once, Dagon was made to fall before it. If the Philistines meant to honor the ark, God showed that he did not need their honor, nor would he accept it in such a way. He will be worshiped above all other gods, not alongside them. As Bishop Hall says, God owes shame to those who try to make a match between him and Belial, or evil.

But the Philistines really meant to insult the ark. For a few hours Dagon stood by it, and likely above it, as if the ark were his footstool. Yet the next morning, when Dagon’s worshipers came to their shrine, their triumph did not last long (Job 20:5). Dagon, meaning the idol itself, had fallen facedown to the ground before the ark (1 Samuel 5:3). God had seemed to forget the ark for a while, but now he showed himself in power again. When he had let his strength go into captivity and all seemed lost, then the Lord awoke as one from sleep, like a strong man shouting because of wine (Psalm 78:59-65). He had also held back full destruction from Israel because he feared the enemy’s rage would go too far (Deuteronomy 32:26-27).

The idols of the nations were often made to stand firm. The prophet notes that men fastened them so they would not move (Isaiah 41:7; 46:7). Yet all those fastenings did Dagon no good. The ark of God triumphed over him right on his own ground, in his own temple. Dagon fell forward, directly toward the ark, as if pointing to the Conqueror and being forced to do homage. So the kingdom of Satan will surely fall before the kingdom of Christ, error before truth, ungodliness before holiness, and corruption before grace in the hearts of believers. When religion seems pushed down and ready to sink, we can still be sure that its day of triumph will come. Great is truth, and it will prevail.

By falling face down before the ark, Dagon looked as if he were worshiping. In that sense, he seemed to point his followers toward the God of Israel as greater than all gods (Exodus 18:11). Yet the priests, when they found their idol on the floor, hurried to set him back in place before anyone saw it. What a poor and foolish god they had made, one that needed help to stand up. And what blind people they were, asking help from an idol that needed their help in return. How could they say Dagon gave them victory when Dagon himself could not stand before the ark? Still, they were determined to keep Dagon as their god, so they put him back where he had been.

As Bishop Hall says, it is just with God that people who lack grace should also lack good sense. Superstition has a way of turning people into the very stocks and stones they worship. Those who make idols become like them. In the same way, the leaders who support the antichristian kingdom are only trying to lift up their own Dagon again, repairing the deadly wound given to the beast. But if the Reformation is truly God’s work, and it has already begun to make Dagon fall, then it will not fail. Dagon will surely fall before it. The next night, Dagon fell a second time (1 Samuel 5:4).

Dagon made a sad sight after his fall. The broken pieces showed that his human and fishlike parts had been put together by human skill, and not by any miracle, as some foolish worshipers may have imagined. He proved helpless and useless as a god, because losing his head and hands showed that he had neither wisdom to guide nor power to act for his people.

The Philistines set Dagon back in his place, but that only made the matter worse. They would have done better to leave him on the floor. Those who fight against God always lose, and those who try to restore what he is tearing down will not succeed (Malachi 1:4). By this event, God honored his ark when the Philistines had tried to disgrace it, and he showed what will happen to all who stand against him. They may arm themselves, but they will be broken to pieces (Isaiah 8:9).

The threshold of Dagon’s temple was treated as holy ground, and people would not step on it (1 Samuel 5:5). Some think this is the custom behind the warning in Zephaniah 1:9, where God speaks against those who, like these idolaters, leap over the threshold. One might expect that such clear proof of Dagon’s defeat would turn the Philistines away from idol worship. But instead of changing, they became more stubborn in their false religion, and wicked people often grow worse, not better (2 Timothy 3:13).

Rather than despise Dagon, they almost came to honor the very threshold where he had been shamed. They would not put their feet on the place where Dagon lost his head. In doing so, they shame those who trample on what is truly holy and treat the blood of the covenant with contempt. Yet even this superstitious custom kept Dagon’s disgrace alive in memory, because later generations would ask why the threshold was avoided, and they would be told that Dagon fell before the ark of the Lord. In that way, God still gained honor from their superstition.

We are not told that they repaired the broken image right away. It is likely that they first sent the ark of God away and then patched Dagon up and set him back in place. They could not save themselves from their own lie, or admit that they were trusting in a false god (Isaiah 44:20).