1 Samuel 5:1-7:2
“Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God?” 1 Samuel 6:20
Since the Philistines had soundly beaten the Israelites in battle and had captured the ark, people on both sides could easily doubt God's power. God wanted to make it perfectly plain that the problem was not a lack of power on His part. The Israelites had been unfaithful by worshiping other gods. God displayed His power so there would be no mistaking the cause of the Israelites' defeat.
The Philistines took the ark to Ashdod and put it into the temple of their god, Dagon. Their idea was to demonstrate Dagon's superiority over the God of Israel. This backfired when it was discovered the next morning that Dagon had fallen on his face on the ground in front of the ark as though he were worshiping Israel's God. Some men in Ashdod stood Dagon back up, but the next morning he was again on his face before the ark. However, this time his head and hands had been broken off.
Have you ever played a game called Hot Potato where you pass an object around a circle of people as music plays? When the music stops, whoever is holding the object is out. The ark of God became like a hot potato with the Philistines as they passed it from city to city.
While the ark was in Ashdod, the people of Ashdod broke out with tumors. They thought the ark might be the cause of this outbreak. One way to find out was to move the ark to another city and see what would happen. The people of Ashdod sent the ark to Gath, and the people of Gath had an epidemic of tumors, so they sent the ark to Ekron. Not surprisingly, the people of Ekron didn't want it. People broke out with tumors there, and many people died. The Philistines decided to send the ark back to the Israelites lest it wipe them all out.
The Philistines decided to test God's power one more time with the way they returned the ark. It was similar to putting out a fleece. They took two cows who were nursing calves and penned the calves up. They hitched these two cows, which had never pulled anything before, to a new cart carrying the ark. If the cows pulled the cart straight to Beth Shemesh, the nearest Israelite town, they would believe that God was responsible for the plagues. That would be quite unlikely. The natural thing would be for the cows to go right back to the calves or, since they had never pulled anything before, they might buck and kick at the cart. But, against the odds, the cows pulled the cart straight to Beth Shemesh.
God had demonstrated His power over and over. Our God is almighty, omnipotent, sovereign. What an amazing God we worship!
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