1 Samuel 5,6
Leaders Prep Section
Watch this video, read these notes, and send the pre-written email (below) to your group 2-3 days before you meet.
Notes
There are several times in history where it becomes very clear that God is not a tool that we are allowed to utilize for our own purposes. This is one of those times.
Group Guide Starts Here
Context of scripture
The most valued treasure the Israelites have is now in the possession of their enemy. The Ark of the Covenant (key word) contains three items: the 10 commandments, a jar of manna (food sent from God in Exodus), and Aaron’s rod. These three provide lasting reminders of God’s covenant relationship with Israel as their God (providing direction, sustenance, and protection). The Ark is not an idol.
Read 1 Samuel 5: 1-5
Dagon is the Philistines “grain God,” a significant entity for a culture whose economy is driven largely by grain. Recall that Samson had set foxes on fire and set them loose in the Philistine grain fields.
The Israelites were attempting to use the Ark as a weapon against the Philistines in battle. So logically the Philistines likely believed they had possession of a weapon, using technology to tip the scale of power, much like occurs today with nuclear weapons.
The following countries currently have nuclear weapons: Russia, US, France, China, UK, Pakistan, India, Israel, North Korea. (The only country to use them is the US.)
In your opinion, how much of the US’s standing in the world is related to the fact it was one of the earliest nuclear powers?
Read 1 Samuel 5: 6-12
Notice that the people are “convinced enough” that the Ark (God) is causing the plague that they want to send it away from their city. However, the Philistine lords don’t want it to leave the nation of the Philistines.
If any current nuclear power were to somehow lose their nuclear weapons, what do you think would likely happen to them? (An interesting way to answer is to answer country by country.)
Read 1 Samuel 6: 1-6
This would not be the last plague spread by rats. Between 1346 and 1353, an estimated 75 to 200 million people died in Asia, Africa, and Europe from the Bubonic Plague (aka Black Death), which is believed to have been spread by fleas which traveled on the backs of rats on merchant ships traveling port to port.
Plagues have continued through history. In the 1900’s there were four: three separate flu pandemics (in 1918, 1956, and 1968) killed up to an estimated 50 million people. The HIV/AIDS pandemic, still active today, has killed over 36 million people.
Many people view tragedies as proof that God does not exist. How has your viewpoint on this changed (or been formed) as you’ve gone through the stories in Joshua, Judges, and now Samuel?
Read 1 Samuel 6: 7-13
Even in the end, there was confusion as to whether God was responsible for the plague. Cows with calves were chosen because the natural instinct of the mother would be to stay with, and feed, her offspring. In other words, if God were responsible and wanted the Ark to be back in Israel, God would unnaturally control the cows to walk away carrying the Ark.
Several prevalent Christian leaders publicly stated that HIV/AIDS was God’s judgment on homosexuals.
Outside of this one instance in 1 Samuel, how would you respond to someone who said God was the cause of a pandemic outbreak?