The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 112

appointed by Goel does not profit those who refuse to stand in a right relation to God himself, but rather serves to increase their condemnation. J udgment also is executed in nrnny ways. 2. Judgment was mingled with mercy. The afflictions which they endnred were" less than their iniqnity deserved" (Job xi. 6), and were" established for the correction" (Hab. i. 12) of their sins and the prevention of their ruin (Ezek. xviii. 30). The God of Israel has supreme dominion over the hertthen, "chastises" them (Pa. xciv. 10) for their good, and never leaves himself" without witness" (Acts xiv. 17). 3. The design of the whole was the furtherance of the purpose for which Israel was called, viz. to bear witness to the living and true God, and to preserve his religion separate and. distinct from the idolatry aud superstition of the heathen. 4. The efect of the display of his power in connection with the presence of the ark among them appears here aml in their subsequent history. Consider these Phili~tines as- I. TRIUMPHING IN, THE CAPTURE 011' THE ARK (vers. 1, 2). "They brought it into the house (or temple) of Dagon, and set it by Dagon," as a trophy or a votive offering, ascribing their victory to him, and magnifying him as superior to Jehovah. The process described by the Apostle Paul (Rom. i. 18-23) had taken place in them. Their worship was a nature-worship, joined with the embodiment of their "foolish" imaginations in an image with which their god was identified. Dagon was "the god -0£ natural power-of all the life-giving forces of which water is the instrument; and his fish-like body, with head and arms of man, would appear a striking embodi- ment of his rule to those who dwelt near the sea." When men have fallen away from the knowledge of the true God they-I. Do honour to a false god; impelled by the religiousness of their nature, which will not let them rest without an object of worship. 2. Dislionour tlte true God, by declaring him inferior and subject to the false, and by" despising his holy things." The Philistines did not deny the existence -0f Jehovah; they were willing to account him. one among "lords many and gods many," and regarded him as having a local and limited dominion. But the funda- mental idea of the religion of Israel was that Jehovah is God alone, and demands the supreme and entire affection of man (Isa. xiii. 8). "Thon shalt have no otli~r g·ods before me," i. e. in my presence. 3. Give glory to tlumsel'IJes; are proud and boastful• of their wisdom, power, and success. Self is really the idol of all w];o forsake the Lol'd. But the triumph of the ungodly is short. 11. SMITTEN DEFORE THE PRESENCE OF THE ARK (vers. 2-4). Almost as soon as they obtained possession of it, the victory which they thought they bad obtained o,·er him whose presence it represented was turned into disastrous defeat.. 1. Their god was cast down nnd broken in pieces. (1) Mysteriously. In the night. (2) Signifi- cantly. "Fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord," as if in subjection, or rendering worship to the Lol'd of all. (3) Irresistibly. Unwilling to la_y the lesson to heart, they" set him in his place again," but only to prove that their efforts on his behalf were abortive (Isa. xiv. 9). ( 4) JIore and more signally. Their very efforts affording occasion for a greater manifestation of Divine power, and one which could not be, as the first may possibly have been, attributed to accident. "The face, as a sign of its worthless glory and vain beauty, struck down to the earth ; the head also, as the seat of the wisdom which is alienated from God and -Opposed to God; the hands, as a symbol of the powers of darkness which work therein, cut off" (Lange). (5) Contemptuously. "Upon the threshhold," us if tit -Only to be trodden under-foot. Such, however, was the blindness of his votaries, that they henceforth accounted the spot as peculiarly sacred (ver. 3). (6) Completely. "Only the fish-stump was left." "Thus the kingdom of Satan will certainly fall before the king·dom of Christ, error before truth, profaneness before godliness, corruption before grace in the hearts of the faithful." 2. Their sustenance ,ms wasted and destroyed (ver. 6; vi. 4, 5). 11 Mice were produced i11 the land, and there arose a great and deadly confusion in the city" (Septuagint). The corn-lields, the chief means of their subsistence and the source of their prosperity, rendered fertile, 11s they deemed, by the power and favour of. Dagon, were wasted by a plague of field-mice (not unknown in the history of other lands) under the special arrange• ment of Divine providence, that they might learn the vanity of their idol and the tmpremacy of Jeho'l"ah. 3. Their persons were 11ffiicted with disease. "The hand of  108 THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. [\'Il. Y. 1-12.