“And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, ‘What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how we shall send it to its place.’ They said, ‘If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty; but you shall surely return to Him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed and it will be known to you why His hand is not removed from you.’ Then they said, ‘What shall be the guilt offering which we shall return to Him?’ And they said, ‘Five golden tumors and five golden mice according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for one plague was on all of you and on your lords. So you shall make likenesses of your tumors and likenesses of your mice that ravage the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps He will ease His hand from you, your gods, and your land. Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He had severely dealt with them, did they not allow the people to go, and they departed?'” (1 Sam 6:2-6).
The parallels to the Exodus story are both implicit and explicit. He Philistine leaders’ call to the Philistine diviners for help parallels Pharaoh’s call to the Egyptian diviners for help (Exod 7:11, 22; 8:3, 14-15; 9:11). The ten golden guilt offerings parallels the number of plagues which fell upon the Egyptians. But there is also a notable difference between these stories. The Philistine priests and diviners had in fact learned an invaluable lesson from the tragedy which befell the Egyptians. They had learned to give the God of Israel glory rather than harden their hearts toward him. And as a result, they chose life instead of more death.
But those who refuse to learn this lesson from BIBLICAL history are doomed to learn the hard way. Herod should have learned from Pharaoh, for example, that murdering those Hebrew babies would not end well for him (compare Matt 2:16 with Exod 1:22). He should have learned from the Egyptian midwives to fear God (Exod 1:17-21) and from the Gentile magi to worship the true King of the Jews (Matt 2:10-11). But he didn’t. And like Pharaoh before him, all that’s left of his legacy in the Middle East are piles of really impressive stones visited by tourists.
What are the essential lessons to be learned from Pharaoh and the midwives, the Philistines and their diviners, Herod and the magi? First, life, blessing, and prosperity can only be found by glorifying the God of Israel. Second, fighting against God’s promised plan of blessing is foolish business. There will always be disastrous consequences whenever a person or a nation determines to curse the physical seed of Abraham (the Jewish people), the spiritual seed of Abraham (the church), and most especially the Royal Seed of Abraham (Yeshua the Messiah).
Glorifying God means blessing what he has blessed. Period. And those who choose cursing over blessing will find themselves on the wrong side of history. And like Pharaoh and the ancient Egyptians, the only positive contribution they will bequeath to future generations is the opportunity to learn from their stupid mistake.
“How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how can I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced?… Behold, I have received a command to bless; When He has blessed, then I cannot revoke it” (Num 23:8, 20).
