Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 5
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.
Opening Prayer
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.
Introduction
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.
The Ark in Dagon's Temple (vv. 1–5)
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.
Homage and Helplessness 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.
Destruction of Dagon
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,
The Folly of Idolatry Mocked
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.
The Hand of Yahweh Against the Philistines (vv. 6–12)
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.
Philistine Response: Pass the Ark Along
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?
Idolatry Brings the Heavy Hand of God
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.
Application
Well, in conclusion, I have a couple of lessons.
The Sovereignty of God
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.
The Folly of Idolatry
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.
Closing 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.