1Sa 5:12 | KingComments | STEP | After God has dealt with their idols, He will occupy Himself with the idolaters. He makes them feel His judgment. He smites them with tumors, for which we can thinks of hemorrhoids or ostentatious tumors. Smiting with tumors means the outbreak of folly. It makes it clear that God stands up for the honor of His Son. There has also broken out a plague of mice, through which God also ravages the land and its proceeds ( ). The lords of the cities of the Philistines deliberate what to do with this God. They want to get rid of Him and send the plagues to someone else. Their rejection of the ark is reminiscent of the rejection of the Lord Jesus by the Gerasenes. These people beg the Lord Jesus to leave their territory, because they have lost their swine through Him. That there is an insane man healed, leave them utterly indifferent. They prefer the company of an insane man, and therefore of demons, and the swine, to that of the Savior ( ). The lords of the cities are still unwilling to give up their victory. In their short-sighted superstition they assume that it must have been local bad luck for Ashdod. The ark must go to Gath. The result of their deliberations is that the disasters come all over the Philistine community. It is like in Egypt again. God wants to show through plagues that He is there and He wants to force them to bring His ark – which here is always called “the ark of God”, also by the Philistines! – from the Philistine country back to His land. The plagues are not just coercive. They are also warnings, calls to repent. Yet the plagued man does not repent (cf. ). In the judgment there is no regard for the person. Small or great, rich or poor, young or old, woman or man, God strikes them all. So will also the great and small sinners stand before the great white throne and be judged ( ). After Gath they want to send the ark of God to a third city, to Ekron. Man always wants to put up others with problems he cannot solve himself. At the same time God uses this as a means for the ark to make a triumphal march (cf. ). We see that plagues do not change the heart of man. The people want the ark to return to its own place. They point to the calamity that the ark brought them. Here we can learn the lesson that those who in superstition think they can lay a claim on Christ, as the roman-catholic church does, will be afflicted by plagues ( ).

‏ 1 Samuel 5:12

God and the Idolaters

After God has dealt with their idols, He will occupy Himself with the idolaters. He makes them feel His judgment. He smites them with tumors, for which we can thinks of hemorrhoids or ostentatious tumors. Smiting with tumors means the outbreak of folly. It makes it clear that God stands up for the honor of His Son. There has also broken out a plague of mice, through which God also ravages the land and its proceeds (1Sam 6:5).

The lords of the cities of the Philistines deliberate what to do with this God. They want to get rid of Him and send the plagues to someone else. Their rejection of the ark is reminiscent of the rejection of the Lord Jesus by the Gerasenes. These people beg the Lord Jesus to leave their territory, because they have lost their swine through Him. That there is an insane man healed, leave them utterly indifferent. They prefer the company of an insane man, and therefore of demons, and the swine, to that of the Savior (Mk 5:13-17).

The lords of the cities are still unwilling to give up their victory. In their short-sighted superstition they assume that it must have been local bad luck for Ashdod. The ark must go to Gath. The result of their deliberations is that the disasters come all over the Philistine community. It is like in Egypt again. God wants to show through plagues that He is there and He wants to force them to bring His ark – which here is always called “the ark of God”, also by the Philistines! – from the Philistine country back to His land.

The plagues are not just coercive. They are also warnings, calls to repent. Yet the plagued man does not repent (cf. Rev 16:8-11). In the judgment there is no regard for the person. Small or great, rich or poor, young or old, woman or man, God strikes them all. So will also the great and small sinners stand before the great white throne and be judged (Rev 20:12).

After Gath they want to send the ark of God to a third city, to Ekron. Man always wants to put up others with problems he cannot solve himself. At the same time God uses this as a means for the ark to make a triumphal march (cf. 2Cor 2:14).

We see that plagues do not change the heart of man. The people want the ark to return to its own place. They point to the calamity that the ark brought them. Here we can learn the lesson that those who in superstition think they can lay a claim on Christ, as the roman-catholic church does, will be afflicted by plagues (Rev 18:4-8).