Friday,
June 8, 2018
After the
Philistines captured the Ark of God, they took it from the battleground at
Ebenezer to the town of Ashdod. They
carried the Ark of God into the temple of Dagon and placed it beside an idol of
Dagon. But when
the citizens of Ashdod went to see it the next morning, Dagon had fallen with
his face to the ground in front of the Ark of the Lord! So they took Dagon and put him in his place
again. But the
next morning the same thing happened—Dagon had fallen face down before the Ark
of the Lord again. This time his head
and hands had broken off and were lying in the doorway. Only the trunk of his body was left intact. That is why to this day
neither the priests of Dagon nor anyone who enters the temple of Dagon in
Ashdod will step on its threshold. Then
the Lord’s heavy hand struck the people of Ashdod and the nearby villages with
a plague of tumors. When
the people realized what was happening, they cried out, “We can’t keep the Ark
of the God of Israel here any longer! He is against us! We will all be
destroyed along with Dagon, our god.” So they called together the rulers of the Philistine
towns and asked, “What should we do with the Ark of the God of Israel?” The rulers discussed it and replied, “Move it
to the town of Gath.” So they moved the
Ark of the God of Israel to Gath. But
when the Ark arrived at Gath, the Lord’s heavy hand fell on its men, young and
old; he struck them with a plague of tumors, and there was a great panic. So they sent the Ark of God to the town of
Ekron, but when the people of Ekron saw it coming they cried out, “They are
bringing the Ark of the God of Israel here to kill us, too!” The people summoned the
Philistine rulers again and begged them, “Please send the Ark of the God of
Israel back to its own country, or it will kill us all.” For the deadly plague from God had already
begun, and great fear was sweeping across the town. Those
who didn’t die were afflicted with tumors; and the cry from the town rose to
heaven. 1 Samuel 5:1-12(NLT)
Because of Israel’s
unrepentant sinfulness God allowed them to be defeated by the
Philistines…badly! In this defeat was
the loss of the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of God’s presence among the
nation. It was a big mistake for Israel
to ignore God; it was just as costly for the people of Philistia to think they
could capture God.
The Ark was placed in the Philistine
temple of Dagon, the fish god. In the
morning Dagon was on his face before Yahweh’s ark. They set poor Dagon up on his feet again, but
the next night the same thing happened; only this time Humpty Dumpty was broken
to pieces. It’s a questionable thing to
serve a god that can’t even stand up straight.
So, you have two nations with impotent,
incompetent gods? Israel’s nation gets
clobbered and their God is taken prisoner; Philistia’s victory turns out to be
a nemesis of tumors, humiliation, and death; so, is it better to be an atheist?
That’s what many think in America
today, except we have our own version of Dagon; we worship our gods: money, sex, and national prowess of military
might to set the world straight. Our 21st
century vanity is the resurrected self-importance of Philistia, the world
bowing at the feet of our manufactured nationalistic pride. We are not much better than Israel carrying
the Ark into battle, like a lucky charm, thinking God must be on our side. God will not be carried with unclean hands,
and Yahweh will not be captured without consequence. If a carved, two-ton stone idol cannot stand
before the presence of the Almighty, what makes any of us think sinful flesh
and blood would fare better?
But, like the Philistines, we hardly
ever learn. This same temple where God
was captured
is the very place where the Philistines tried to humiliate Samson. But Judges 16 recounts how that all worked
out; Samson’s strength (taken by Delilah’s haircut) returned for one last
battle, and he pulled down Dagon’s temple, killing many thousands who thought
to capture God’s man.[2] Many in the current generation have
chosen to have done with the church, and the Lord of that church. This is an unfortunate choice of eternal consequence
based wrongly on present, temporary circumstances. It’s similar to the argument for suicide –
and just as deadly. Like the Philistines
figured the Israelite God had been captured, tamed, and neutralized, today’s
culture has put aside any notion of fearing an Almighty Creator. The consequence for that choice was
monumental in Dagon’s temple; I fear for America if she doesn’t return to
Christ.
For You Today
If you share this
foreboding, but despair that you have no clue as to how to start the revival,
remember that you cannot start a revival in a single other person’s heart. But if YOU live revival, God can use
it to move mountains.
Go to VIDEO
[1] Title Image: Public domain via Wikimedia
Commons
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