← Back to sermon library

Turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel 
5. We will return to the book of 
Proverbs, but a few weeks ago we looked at the subject of idolatry 
based on our studies in Acts 7 in the morning. We looked at 
Romans 1, and then last week we looked at 1 Samuel 4 to see 
how Israel had, in fact, turned the Ark of the Covenant of the 
Lord into an idol. They thought by its mere presence 
in battle, it would assure victory for them. but they ended up being 
defeated by the Philistines, and the Ark of the Covenant of 
God was captured by the Philistines. So, chapter 5 shows us more idolatry. On the one hand, you have it 
in chapter 4 with reference to Israel, and more of a covert 
sort of an approach to idolatry, whereas in chapter 5, you see 
it being more overt in terms of their worship of Dagon. So, 
I'll read beginning in 1 Samuel 5 at verse 1. Then the Philistines 
took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. When 
the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into 
the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. And when the people 
of Ashdod arose early in the morning, there was Dagon, fallen 
on its face to the earth before the ark of the Lord. So they 
took Dagon and set it in its place again. And when they arose 
early the next morning, there was Dagon fallen on its face 
to the ground before the ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon 
and both the palms of its hands were broken off on the threshold. 
Only Dagon's torso was left of it. Therefore, neither the priests 
of Dagon nor any who come into Dagon's house tread on the threshold 
of Dagon in Ashdod to this day. But the hand of the Lord was 
heavy on the people of Ashdod, and He ravaged them and struck 
them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory. And when the 
men of Ashdod saw how it was, they said, The ark of the God 
of Israel must not remain with us, for His hand is harsh toward 
us, and Dagon our God. Therefore they sent and gathered 
to themselves all the lords of the Philistines and said, What 
shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, 
Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried away to Gath. So they 
carried the ark of the God of Israel away. So it was, after 
they had carried it away, that the hand of the Lord was against 
the city with a very great destruction. And He struck the men of the 
city, both small and great, and tumors broke out on them. Therefore, 
they sent the ark of God to Ekron. So it was, as the ark of God 
came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have 
brought the ark of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and 
our people. So they sent and gathered together 
all the lords of the Philistines and said, Send away the ark of 
the God of Israel, and let it go back to its own place, so 
that it does not kill us and our people. For there was a deadly 
destruction throughout all the city. The hand of God was very 
heavy there, and the men who did not die were stricken with 
the tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven." Amen. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank 
You for the written Word. We thank You for the Old Testament, 
the New Testament. We thank You and acknowledge 
that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it's 
profitable for us. And I pray that by the power 
of the Spirit, this passage would be profitable for us. That we 
would, by Your grace, do what John the Apostle tells us, to 
keep ourselves from idols. We know that there's subtlety 
in idolatry, as we see in 1 Samuel 4. We know that there's just 
an overt blatantness in idolatry, as we see here in chapter 5. 
And either way, Lord God, we pray that You would guard us, 
that You would keep us, that You would cause us to worship 
You in spirit and in truth. Again, forgive us for our sins, 
forgive us for all unrighteousness, cleanse us in that precious blood 
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we pray in His most blessed name. 
Amen. As I said, chapter 4, we see 
the Ark of the Covenant of God captured by the Philistines. 
It is then taken back to Philistia in chapter 5. It spends about 
seven months there, and God brings heavy judgment to bear upon the 
Philistines. In chapter 6, they simply want 
to get rid of it, so they send it back to Israel. And as we 
look at this particular chapter, we'll notice first the ark in 
Dagon's temple in verses 1 to 5. And then secondly, the hand 
of the Lord against the Philistines in verses 6 to 12. Now, just 
by way of review, we see the victory of the Philistines. Go 
back to chapter 4. We note that the Philistines 
bested Israel on the field of battle. And then according to 
chapter 4, verse 3, the elders, the people of Israel had this 
consultation. It says, when the people had 
come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, why has the Lord 
defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the 
Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from Shiloh to us, that when 
it comes among us, it may save us from the hand of our enemies. 
falling prey to the very thing that Stephen is condemning in 
Acts chapter 7. They've identified the Ark of 
the Covenant of the Lord with the Lord. They believe that it 
is what contains God, and that is absolutely incorrect. They 
believe by trotting this out, by using it as if it's a lucky 
charm, they're going to gain victory on the battlefield. Well, 
the Lord God does not have truck with that approach to his particular 
worship. And so they are bested again 
by the Philistines. The Philistines now capture the 
Ark. This is a severe crisis in Israel's history. The first 
time that such a thing like this had ever occurred. John Gill 
says, they foolishly placed their confidence in an external symbol, 
not in the Lord himself, ascribing salvation to that which only 
belongs to him, whether of a temporal or a spiritual kind. Again, I 
think it's very subtle what they do there. In verse 3, the Ark 
of the Covenant was that sort of main piece of furniture within 
the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle and then ultimately in the temple. 
It was the visible representation that God was among His people. 
But as we learned this morning from the prophet Isaiah, as we 
learned from Solomon's prayer of dedication of the temple, 
there is no dwelling place that can contain God. He is immense. He is majestic. He is all-powerful. Heaven is His throne and earth 
is His footstool. There is no way that you can 
put this God in a box. Now, the Philistines take this 
Ark of the Covenant back to Philistia and notice where they place it. 
Verse 1 of chapter 5, the Philistines took the Ark of God and brought 
it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. When the Philistines took the 
Ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it 
by Dagon. Now, Dagon worship had been around 
since about the third millennium BC. He was sort of a predecessor 
or a precursor to Baal. In fact, there are Ugaritic inscriptions 
that say that Baal was the son of Dagon. Essentially, Dagon 
was a fertility god. And Dagon, the actual idol himself, 
had a fish lower half and a man's upper half. So he was that kind 
of a monstrosity. He had the body of a fish at 
the bottom of his torso, and the top was the body of a man. 
He had a head, and he had hands. Obviously, those things fall 
off when he falls before the presence of the Ark of the Covenant 
of God. Go back for just a moment to 
Judges chapter 16, where you can see Dagon in the life and 
the ministry of the Judge Samson. It was ultimately the temple 
of Dagon that Samson was in when he brought down those pillars 
on all the worshippers of Dagon to rid the earth of Philistines. 
That was Samson's task, that was Samson's calling, and he 
executed it most faithfully under God. Four times in the Samson 
narratives, we're told that the Spirit of the Lord came upon 
him. Everything that Samson did was for the glory of God. He 
is simply not the kind of guy that I think the church often 
portrays him as, as a sexually lustful, driven man. He was a 
principled man, filled with the Spirit, and ultimately, in his 
death, he killed more Philistines than even when he lived. Notice 
in chapter 16, specifically at verse 20, she said, the Philistines 
are upon you, Samson. Remember the story? She asks 
the secret of the source of his power and his strength. He relates 
that it's his hair. She cuts off the hair. And now 
the Philistines are here to seize him. So he awoke from his sleep 
and said, I will go out as before at other times and shake myself 
free. But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. 
Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes and brought 
him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters 
and he became a grinder in the prison. However, the hair of 
his head began to grow again after it had been shaven. Now 
the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a 
great sacrifice to Dagon, their god, and to rejoice. And they 
said, our god has delivered into our hands Samson, our enemy. 
You see what idolatry does? It causes you to misinterpret 
reality. The text is conspicuous. The 
truth is clear. It wasn't Dagon that preserved 
them from their enemy, Samson. It was rather Yahweh who had 
departed from Samson at this particular time, this particular 
juncture in Samson's life. And then notice in verse 24, 
For when the people saw him, they praised their God, for they 
said, Our God has delivered into our hands our enemy, the destroyer 
of our land, and the one who multiplied our debt. Now, for 
the most part, Samson's people didn't support him. In fact, 
it's embarrassing the way the tribe of Judah deals with Samson 
in the Samson narratives. So when they make this statement, 
our God, Dagon, has delivered into our hand our enemy, the 
destroyer of our land and the one who multiplied our dead, 
you need to understand the destroyer of the land and the multiplier 
of the dead of the Philistines was one man. It was Samson. When the Spirit of the Lord came 
upon him, he killed Philistines. That was his calling. That was 
his job. That was his vocation. And he 
did it very well. Thank you. And now he continues 
in this particular situation. He calls upon God as he's been 
trotted into the temple of Dagon to basically entertain them. 
And then in verse 28, Samson called to the Lord saying, O 
Lord God, remember me, I pray. Strengthen me, I pray, just this 
once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the 
Philistines for my two eyes. And Samson took hold of the two 
middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself 
against them, one on his right and the other on his left. Then 
Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he pushed 
with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the 
people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at 
his death were more than he had killed in his life. You see, 
Samson dealt with the Philistines. Samson came face to face with 
Dagon worship. And the same sort of thing is 
happening here in 1 Samuel chapter 5. They take the ark and they 
place the ark in the house of Dagon. Now, this was symbolic. This spoke multitudes to the 
ancient Near Eastern peoples. This was the ultimate sign of 
victory on the part of the Philistines. They had captured in their mind 
the God of Israel. They had captured Yahweh. And 
now Yahweh was being locked up with Dagon as a sign of his subservience 
to Dagon. It was something that these peoples 
did. David Samura says, the practice 
of capturing an enemy's gods was common in warfare in the 
ancient Near East. It was understood that a people 
whose gods were in enemy hands was completely conquered. You 
get that symbolism, right? If they have now the Ark of the 
Covenant of the God of Israel, and they put it in the house 
with Dagon, they're making this declaration to everybody that 
we have now captured the God of Israel. He is now subservient 
to Dagon. Now notice in verses 3 to 5, 
we see what really happens when the Ark of the Covenant is there 
in the presence of Dagon. Note first the homage given to 
Dagon. I think verse 3 ought to be a 
reproof to any of us who don't get up in the morning and read 
our Bibles and pray. Look at what they do. I mean, 
Dagon worshipers get up early in the morning to go worship 
Dagon. That's pretty much a rebuke, isn't it? I'm not saying if you 
don't read your Bible at 5 a.m., you've got big problems. I'm 
not even saying if you don't read your Bible at 6 a.m., you've 
got big problems. The point is, read your Bible 
and pray. Notice what these idolatrous Dagon worshipers do. Verse 3, 
when the people of Ashdod arose early in the morning, there was 
Dagon fallen on its face to the earth before the ark of the Lord. 
They go there early in the morning to give homage and praise and 
worship to Dagon. But we see and observe the helplessness 
of Dagon in 3B. It says that he had fallen on 
its face to the earth before the ark of the Lord. And that 
language, I think, is conspicuous. I think the author chooses it 
very particularly to say that Dagon fell on its face before 
the presence of the Lord. What does that typically indicate 
in Scripture? when one falls on his or her 
face before the presence of a deity. So they bring the ark of the 
covenant of the God of Israel into the house of Dagon to show 
Yahweh's subservience to Dagon. Well, Dagon has fallen on his 
face now in the presence of the Lord God of Israel. Again, Samorah 
says the phrase on his face implies that Dagon was in a position 
of adoration of Yahweh. Now, notice what it goes on to 
say. Verse 4 or verse 3, So they took Dagon and set it in its 
place again. You have heard me say it, and 
I'll probably say it until the day I die. I hate to break this 
to you, but you're still going to get the same me for the next 
10 or 12 or 13 or 15 years. I don't have a lot of fresh new 
material. But one thing that we need to appreciate is that 
if you have to pick your God up, you've got the wrong God. 
Isn't the glory of the Christian gospel, the glory of God Most 
High, is that He picks us up, that He receives us unto Himself. 
He forgives us of our sins. He clothes us with the righteousness 
of His Son. He takes charge. He has the initiative. He picks us up. He sees us through 
those waters of affliction. Yea, though I walk through the 
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, because 
thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. We 
will never be called upon to pick up our God. We will never 
be called upon to provide therapy for our God. We'll never be called 
on to superglue our God's head and hand back on to his body. That will never be the case for 
the people of the true and living God. He picks us up. He sees 
us through hardships. He is the one that carries us. 
Remember that beautiful image that God uses with reference 
to Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 1. I think it's in about verse 
31. God is rehearsing the wilderness years. The people of Israel complained 
when they were in the wilderness. The people of Israel grumbled 
when they were in the wilderness. The people of Israel didn't realize 
the blessing of God upon them when they were in the wilderness. 
God says to them, I carried you like a son in the wilderness. See, that's the kind of God that 
you and I need, not the kind of God that we have to pick back 
up, brush off, and put back into its place. Dagon falls before 
the Ark of the Covenant of God. Notice as well the destruction 
of Dagon in verses 4 and 5. And when they arose early the 
next morning, and you got to give these guys an A for effort, 
You gotta give them an A for their investment into Dagonism. They get up early, they seek 
their God. The people of the true and living 
God ought to, if not get up early, stay up late, do something, but 
seek your God, give homage to him. But notice in verse four, 
and when they arose early the next morning, there was Dagon 
fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. You 
know what this demonstrates? That it wasn't a fluke. This 
demonstrates that this wasn't an accident. This demonstrates 
that in the first instance, when Dagon falls before the Ark of 
the Covenant of the Lord, it wasn't just a gust of wind, because 
this happens again. This is precisely Yahweh's point 
to show them the supremacy of God in this particular pagan 
temple. That's what's happening in verses 
4 and 5. So, when they arose early, The 
next morning, there was Dagon fallen on its face to the ground 
before the Ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon and both the 
palms of its hands were broken off on the threshold. Only Dagon's 
torso was left of it." Now, that Dagon worship persisted after 
this, I think, really illustrates the effort and the commitment 
of these fellow states. I mean, if your god falls, and 
its head snaps off, and its palms break off, I would suggest that's 
the time to exchange it for a different god. You know, that's an old 
piece of junk car that has fallen apart. It comes time for you 
to exchange it and get something new that works. That Dagonism 
persisted after this is a sign and indicator not of, in a good 
way, but of the commitment of these people to their false god. And I've often thought if the 
people of the true and living God were half as committed as 
idolaters are to their God, we would be amazing as the people 
of God. If we showed the same sort of 
amit, the same sort of commitment, the same sort of interest and 
investment into our true and living God. So imagine how this 
looks. He's headless and he's palmless. And it is intriguing because 
notice in verse 4, the head of Dagon and both the palms of its 
hands were broken off. Do you know that in verses 6, 
7, 9, and 11, it is the hand of Yahweh that comes heavily 
against the Philistines. So while Dagon's hands are broken, 
Yahweh's hand of judgment is supreme and superior and does 
execute judgment upon the people there in Philistia. Now notice, 
the people respond to this with more superstition. Verse 5 says, 
therefore neither the priests of Dagon nor any who come into 
Dagon's house tread on the threshold of Dagon to this day. Now, basically what's happening 
here, the threshold was believed to separate the common from the 
sacred. It was treated with reverence, 
the threshold from the common to the sacred, and it was treated 
with respect. So, this shows us in verse 5. 
They don't repent and bow to the true and living God and confess 
their idolatry. They double down on their dagonism. They double down on their idolatry. As the Geneva Bible says, thus 
instead of acknowledging the true God by the miracle, they 
fall to a further superstition. That's an unfortunate reality 
that happens to people. They are shown the truth, the 
validity, the obvious blessedness of Christianity, but instead 
of coming unto Jesus, they double down in their idolatry. They 
argue with more zeal and earnestness that the God of the Bible can't 
be true, that the Word of God can't be true. It really is a 
sad and pathetic view with reference to the depravity of man, and 
it should provoke or evoke in us pity, compassion, and a desire 
to pray for the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit. 
The only one that can free men of that kind of commitment to 
idolatry is the Holy Spirit. Now, I believe that verses 3 
and 4 and 5 specifically are designed to demonstrate the folly 
of idolatry. Remember, the author is writing 
history. This really happened. The Philistines 
took the Ark of the Covenant of God into the temple of Dagon. Dagon fell. Dagon fell again. His head fell off and his hands 
fell off. All of that is true. The author 
is doing something here. The author has shown us the wickedness 
of the idolatry in chapter 4, but he's also showing us the 
wickedness of the idolatry here in chapter 5. He is, in many 
respects, mocking it. Because again, the concept of 
one having to pick his God up and set him back in his place, 
going in the next morning to see that his God had fallen again, 
and now the God's head is off, and now the God's hands are off. 
Davis, I think, makes an appropriate observation. He says, what kind 
of God is that? How would a godly Israelite respond 
upon hearing this story? With the only pious response, 
uproarious laughter. Yahweh, however, intends for 
his people to think, not merely to laugh, to realize that unlike 
a battered Dagon, Yahweh doesn't have to have someone come and 
set him up again. He can fight Philistines by himself. He doesn't need his people to 
cheer him on. He will bring back his art all by himself. Humor, 
yes. but didactic humor, teaching 
the self-sufficiency and supremacy of Yahweh, and solemn humor. Don't begin to think, Israel, 
that you can manipulate the living God like a lucky charm for your 
own convenience. And don't begin to think that 
He needs you to support and carry Him. If any carrying is to be 
done, He will carry you. See why you should read 1 Samuel 
5? Because it tells you that. You don't have to pick up your 
God. You don't have to glue your God's 
head and hands back on. Your God is in the business of 
picking you up. Your God is in the business of 
cleaning you off. Your God is in the business of 
plunging you into that fountain which is open for sin and uncleanness. Your God is God and He has your 
back. And that is precisely the opposite 
of Dagonism. Now, notice the hand of Yahweh 
against the Philistines in verses 6 to 12, the means of judgment. 
Verse 6, the hand of the Lord was heavy on the people of Ashdod, 
and He ravaged them and struck them with tumors, both Ashdod 
and its territory. Now, the word heavy here is the 
same word glory. Heavy and glory, same word. When we say that God is glorious, 
there's a sense where we're saying that he's heavy. Not that he 
has a great mass or he weighs a lot, but we notice that. Something can be very heavy. 
That means it's very intense, it's very serious. You can see 
where glory and heavy interlap. parallel one another in usage. But the glory may have departed 
from Israel according to 422, but the glory will never depart 
from God himself and it's manifested here in Philistia. Now notice 
these tumors. There's some question as to what 
it was God did to these Philistines. It is the reality that God promised 
Israel that he would strike them with the boils of Egypt, with 
tumors, with the scab, with the itch, from which you cannot be 
healed. That was a curse of the covenant 
in Deuteronomy 28-27. So God does do that in terms 
of judgment. What's happening specifically 
here? There's one of two possibilities. One was the disease of dysentery 
or hemorrhoids. Dysentery or hemorrhoids. Now, 
I know that this isn't probably pleasant evening time thought 
contemplation, but this was a reality. The hand of the Lord was heavy 
against these people. In the King James and the Geneva 
Bible, it's translated emrods. John Gill explains, he smote 
them with emrods, more properly hemorrhoids, which, as Kim Chi 
says, was the name of a disease. But he says not what. Ben Gershom, 
these are Jewish rabbis, calls it a very painful disease from 
whence comes a great quantity of blood. Josephus takes it to 
be the dysentery or bloody flux. It seems to be what we commonly 
call the piles and its name in Hebrew from the height of them 
rising up sometimes into high large tumors. That's a particularly 
terrible judgment from God. Now, if you look at the marginal 
reading in verse 6 in the New King James, it suggests, based 
on the Latin Vulgate and the Greek Septuagint, that it may 
have been bubonic plague. Later on in 1 Samuel chapter 
6, when they design this plan to send the Ark back to Israel, 
they make these images of tumors and of rats. And so some have 
seen rats in this particular context and have believed that 
it's bubonic plague, that that is what the Lord used in terms 
of His judgment upon these Philistines. Davis says, since we hear of 
rats that are ruining the land in 6-5, some scholars think the 
tumors may have been the swelling in the armpits, groin, and sides 
of the neck that are symptomatic of bubonic plague, of which rats 
are carriers. Now, whether it's dysentery or 
hemorrhoids, or whether it is the bubonic plague, this much 
is true. Idolatry never pains. It is never 
a good thing to reject the true and living God. It is never wise, 
it is never good, it is never profitable to bow before Dagon. Brethren, we see it fleshed out 
in all of its glory detail here in 1 Samuel chapter 5. But the 
idolatry that obtains in Romans chapter 1 has as its end death, 
destruction, and pain. There is no remedial benefit 
to being an idolater. There is nothing that is good 
about idolatry. There's no benefit to be had. 
There's no health to be gained. If you are thinking that there 
is benefit in Dagon, I would encourage you to think again. 
There is not. There is judgment. The heavy 
hand of God Almighty responds to these people and inflicts 
them with some sort of miserable punishment. Now, before you say, 
well, that doesn't seem fair or that doesn't seem right, it 
most certainly is. It is just with God and it is 
righteous with God to punish idolaters. It is just with God 
and righteous with God to punish those who reject Him, who rebel 
against Him, and who bow down to a half-fish, half-man, headless, 
handless torso. It is legitimate, and that is 
what God's Word says. Now notice the response of the 
Philistines in verses 7 to 9. I think, again, that this illustrates 
for us the continued folly with reference to idolatry. Verse 
7. When the men of Ashdod saw how 
it was, they said, The ark of the God of Israel must not remain 
with us, for His hand is harsh against us and Dagon our God. Go back for just a moment to 
chapter 4. Remember, we saw that the Philistines 
thought precisely like Israel did, which is a bad sign. When 
Israel is thinking like pagan Philistines, that is a bad indicator 
that religion is not at a good ebb in Israel. When we see in 
1 Samuel 4, 3, they think they'll trot the ark out and it will 
gain victory for them. That's precisely how the Philistines 
interpret this as well. Verse 6 of chapter 4. Now, when 
the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, what 
is the sound of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews mean? 
Then they understood that the ark of the Lord had come into 
the camp. So the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God 
has come into the camp. And they said, woe to us, for 
such a thing has never happened before. Woe to us, who will deliver 
us from the hand of these mighty gods. These are the gods who 
struck the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. 
You see, here's an interesting thing. People can even know that 
the God of Israel did something to the Egyptians, but delude 
themselves into thinking, well, it will never happen to us. What 
do you mean it will never happen to you? If you act like an Egyptian, 
you may be judged like an Egyptian. How did it ever come into their 
heads in Philistia that whatever happened over there with Egypt 
and the God of Israel, we're immune. We are covered. Dagon is going to protect us. 
Well, here the grim reality is, as they've got either bloody 
piles or as they've got bubonic plague, is that the hand of Yahweh 
of Israel is heavy against us. What shall we do? They identify 
the problem, they understand the issue, and now the solution. Verse 8, Therefore they sent 
and gathered to themselves all the lords of the Philistines, 
and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? 
Don't you love their answer? Get rid of it! We don't want 
it here! It's causing problems. It's causing 
heartache. It's causing hardship. We're 
having to bury people. We're having to deal with our 
own fever. We're having to deal with our own issues. Let's drive 
the Ark of the Covenant of the God of Israel away from us. Now, this really indicates that 
the religion of Dagon didn't have a second great commandment. 
What is the second great commandment in the true religion? It is to 
love your neighbor as yourself. Is that how these Ashdodians 
behave? Oh, absolutely not. Let's send 
it to Gath. Let's send it to Ekron. Let's 
pass the proverbial buck. Let's get it out of our backyard 
so that we don't suffer the problems, the blood, the gore, and all 
of the heavy hand of Yahweh. Let's send it to our neighbors, 
our fellow Philistines. As Chilliwackians, we'll send 
it to Abbotsford. Abbotsfordians will send it to 
Langley. Pass the bot. As long as it's not afflicting 
us, we don't care what happens or what becomes of all of our 
brothers and sisters here in Philistia. That is precisely 
what they do. Notice in verse 9. I'm sorry 
in verse 8 they answered let the ark of the God of Israel 
be carried away to geth Now, I don't think it is untoward 
for Davis to suggest that this whole account would have resulted 
in uproarious laughter on the part of later Israelites, because 
it is funny. I mean, it's horrific, the judgment 
of God, the heavy hand of God coming upon people is horrific, 
but it's demonstrating the folly of idolatry. And so this judgment is legit, 
this judgment is just, but the way that they respond is somewhat 
humorous. Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried away 
to Gath. So they carried the ark of the God of Israel away. 
So it was, after they had carried it away, that the hand of the 
Lord was against the city and with a very great destruction. 
And he struck the men of the city, both small and great, and 
tumors broke out on them. So what do the men of Gath do? 
Let's get rid of it. We can't keep it here. You get 
the point? When you reject the true and 
living God and you embrace idolatry, your life is not a good life. Verse 10, therefore they sent 
the ark of God to Ekron. So it was as the ark of God came 
to Ekron that the Ekronites cried out saying, they have brought 
the ark of the God of Israel to us to kill us and our people. So they meet him at the city, 
you know, welcome to the city of Ekron sign. And they say, 
we don't want it either. You get it? The heavy hand of 
God came against the Philistines in judgment, because the Philistines 
exchanged the truth of God for the lie. They took the creature 
and worshiped and served it and rejected the Creator. And that's 
the underlying principle in 1 Samuel 5. When you do that, you open 
yourself up to the heavy hand of God's judgment. Paul speaks 
of it in Romans chapter 1 in verse 32. They know the righteous 
judgment of God. They not only practice those 
things, but they entice others to participate in it with that. 
As I mentioned, John Murray says, sinners are never content to 
simply damn themselves. They want others to join with 
them in damning themselves also. So these persons are trying to 
get rid of this Ark of the Covenant of God because it is bringing 
judgment to bear upon them. Again, it's not it. It's God 
from heaven doing these things. They have brought the ark of 
the God of Israel to us to kill us and our people. Verse 11, 
so they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines 
and said, send away the ark of the God of Israel and let it 
go back to its own place so that it does not kill us and our people. 
For there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city. The 
hand of God was very heavy there. And the men who did not die were 
stricken with tumors. And the cry of the city went 
up to heaven. So the next time somebody says, 
you know, I've taken up with this false religion, or I've 
taken up with this particular God, I've taken up with this 
particular approach to life, direct them to 1 Samuel chapter 
5. It may be that the Holy Spirit will use this to show them the 
folly involved in idolatry and the judgment that is always consistent 
with the idolater. And maybe God, in His mercy, 
will turn man back from worshiping these idols and worship the true 
and living God. Again, Samorah says in this way, 
the God of Israel marches through the enemy territories victoriously. This is certainly a triumphant 
march of the Ark of Yahweh through enemy territory from one city 
to another. You've got to wonder if these 
lords of the Philistines, after this seven-month period, mused 
on and reflected upon their error. Next time we go and next time 
we best the Israelites, leave the Ark of the Covenant of God 
there. Do not bring it into our territory 
ever again. They learn their lesson after 
much blood, after much pain, after much death and much destruction. Well, in conclusion, I have a 
couple of lessons. First, the sovereignty of God. 
the sovereignty of God. Again, he's not confined to the 
Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. It's a visible, symbolic representation 
of the presence of God. He's not there in the box. He's 
in heaven. He does whatever he pleases. 
But he uses this particular time to demonstrate his judgment, 
his power over Israel. When they engage in idolatry, 
instead of them being victorious, they're going to lose on the 
battlefield so that they won't turn the Ark of the Covenant 
of God into a superstitious thing, into an idol of their own making. 
You see the sovereignty of God and the judgment against these 
Philistines, the judgment upon the Philistines for thinking 
that they could actually capture God. that they could confine 
him, that they could make him subservient to their god Dagon. Well, God demonstrates how that 
was a fool's errand. And then as well, the judgment 
upon all who exchanged the glory of God for incorruptible things 
or corruptible things. Secondly, when it comes to the 
folly of idolatry, turn for just a moment to the prophet Isaiah. 
Just so you can see that it's not just the author here in 1 
Samuel that's sort of mocking idolatry, but Jeremiah, or rather 
Isaiah, does a pretty good job at this as well. Isaiah 44. Beginning in verse 9, those who 
make an image, all of them are useless, and their precious things 
shall not profit. They are their own witnesses. 
They neither see nor know that they may be ashamed. Who would 
form a god or mold an image that profits him nothing? Surely all 
his companions would be ashamed. And the workmen, they are mere 
men. Let them all be gathered together. Let them stand up. 
Yet they shall fear. They shall be ashamed together. 
The blacksmith with the tongs works one in the coals, fashions 
it with hammers, and works it with the strength of his arms. 
Even so, he is hungry and his strength fails. He drinks no 
water and is faint. The craftsman stretches out his 
rule. He marks out one with chalk. He fashions it with a plane. 
He marks it out with a compass and makes it like the figure 
of a man, according to the beauty of a man. that it may remain 
in the house. He cuts down cedars for himself and takes the cypress 
and the oak. He secures it for himself among the trees of the 
forest. He plants a pine and the rain nourishes it. Then it 
shall be for a man to burn, for he will take some of it and warm 
himself. Yes, he kindles it and bakes bread. Indeed, he makes 
a god and worships it. He makes it a carved image and 
falls down to it. He burns half of it in the fire, 
with this half he eats meat, he roasts a roast and is satisfied. 
He even warms himself and says, ah, I am warm, I have seen the 
fire. And the rest of it he makes into 
a god, his carved image. He falls down before it and worships 
it, prays to it and says, deliver me, for you are my god. You see 
the falling, he's mocking. He is demonstrating the idiocy 
and the foolishness involved in all of this. Verse 18, they 
do not know nor understand, for He has shut their eyes so that 
they cannot see, and their hearts so that they cannot understand. 
This is that He gave them over thing. You reject God, God gives 
you over. In this context, you reject God, 
God gives you over, and you start engaging in idol-making. No one 
considers in his heart, verse 19, nor is there knowledge nor 
understanding to say, I have burned half of it in the fire. 
Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted 
meat and eaten it. And shall I make the rest of 
it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block 
of wood? He feeds on ashes. A deceived 
heart has turned him aside, and he cannot deliver his soul, nor 
say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? You see, the prophets 
mocked the concept of idolatry, or the practice, rather, of idolatry. I'm not saying we should go out 
and mock in a way that will cause an undue offense, but brethren, 
don't be afraid to mock idolatry. Don't be afraid to say what you're 
worshiping is not God. What you're worshiping is akin 
to Dagon. It can fall down. It has to be propped up again. 
Its head falls off, its palms fall off, or the palms of its 
hands fall off. You see, brethren, perhaps we 
need to take a more active approach in condemning false religion 
that is rife and rampant in society today. I mean, when you read 
Isaiah 44, do you just think how, man, it's just so much nicer 
to be a Christian. It's just so much better to be 
a believer. It's just so much more glorious to be in Christ, 
to not have to try and satisfy the religiosity that is hardwired 
in us because God satisfies it for us. to not have to construct 
for ourselves that which we're gonna worship because God has 
already presented himself as that which we will worship. It 
seems like a lot of hassle to be an idolater. I'm not suggesting 
we woo sinners to Jesus because it's an easier life, but boy, 
there's some hardship involved in idolatry. Proverbs say the 
way of the transgressor is hard. Have you ever seen that? The 
way of the transgressor is hard. Kids, you may learn this lesson 
if you don't listen to your parents. If you depart from the instruction 
that has been given to you in this church and in your home, 
well, in your home and then in this church, if you depart from 
that, you will learn that very pertinent lesson that the way 
of the transgressor is hard. It's never easy. It's never good. There's never fruit and blessing 
and benefit that comes through a life or pattern of transgression. And I would suggest that the 
same is to be found with reference to idolatry. When we go back 
to 1 Samuel chapter 4 and chapter 5, I would suggest the bigger 
danger in terms of idolatry facing the church today is that which 
is contained in 1 Samuel 4. 1 Samuel chapter 4. Not that there isn't Dagon worshipers, 
not that there aren't idolaters, not that there aren't those who 
construct false gods and try to capture people and have them 
worship those false gods, but the subtlety of a 1 Samuel chapter 
4 verse 3 seems to me to be the more dangerous idolatry in the 
church of Jesus Christ today. Our attempt to manipulate God, 
our attempt to coerce God, our attempt to try and get from God 
the things that we are after. That's precisely the problem 
in 1 Samuel chapter 4. They're not bowing to Dagon, 
they are at least theoretically bowing to Yahweh, but with conditions 
attached. As long as he brings us victory, 
as long as he defeats our enemies, as long as he does thus and thus, 
I would suggest, brothers and sisters, when John the Apostle 
signs off, 1 John, with my little children, keep yourselves from 
idols, you and I need to take heed to what is written in 1 
Samuel 4, verse 3. I don't think the tendency presenting 
itself to the people of God, the professing people of God, 
is to say, I don't want Jesus anymore. I'm going to construct 
a Dagon temple in my home and bow to him. Now, I'm not saying 
that would never happen, but I think the subtleties involved 
in 1 Samuel 4, verse 3, are a lot more pertinent and a lot more 
for us to take heed to and be on guard against. We all want 
comfort. We all want ease. We all want 
our best life now. We all want everything to go 
just so, and we want to use God to secure that particular life. That's subtle, but it's idolatry. I want to quote a man in the 
commentary on the book of Acts. He says, all idolatry, whether 
ancient or modern, primitive or sophisticated, is inexcusable, 
whether the images are metal or mental, material objects of 
worship or unworthy concepts in the mind. For idolatry is 
the attempt either to localize God, confining him within the 
limits which we impose, whereas he is the creator of the universe, 
or to domesticate God, making him dependent on us, taming Him, 
whereas He is the sustainer of human life, or to alienate God, 
blaming Him for His distance and silence, whereas He is the 
ruler of nations and not far from any of us, or to dethrone 
God, demoting Him to some image of our own contrivance or craft, 
whereas He is our Father from whom we derive our being. In 
brief, all idolatry tries to minimize the gulf between the 
Creator and His creatures in order to bring Him under our 
control. More than that, it actually reverses 
the respective positions of God and us, so that instead of our 
humbly acknowledging that God has created and rules us, we 
presume to imagine that we can create and rule God. There is 
no logic in idolatry. It is a perverse, topsy-turvy 
expression of our human rebellion against God. That says it all. But I want to end on a happy 
note. I think this is typical, this section in 1 Samuel 5, of 
what Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15. Paul tells us that Jesus 
Christ must reign till all of his enemies are made his footstool. 
The way that Dagon fell before the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh 
is the way that Islam is going to fall. The way that Dagon fell 
before the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh is the way that Romanism 
is going to fall. It's the way that Jehovah's Witnesses 
are going to fall. It's the way that Mormonism is 
going to fall. It's the way that all false religion 
is going to fall. Because Jesus Christ must reign 
till all of His enemies are made His footstool. And there is no 
Dagon that can stand up to the Lord of Glory Himself. Well, 
let us close in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for this 
section of Scripture. We thank you for the very pertinent 
lessons for the church in the 21st century. I pray that we 
would receive these things and that, as John says, we would 
keep ourselves from idols. As this man says, whether metal 
or mental, whatever it may be, that captivates our hearts and 
our minds and our energy and our attention. May we reject 
and resist those things, and may we be consumed with the one 
who is altogether lovely and chief among 10,000. Go with us 
now, protect us and watch over us, and grant us grace to commune 
with you each and every day, and we pray through Jesus Christ 
our Lord. Amen.