1 Samuel chapter 5 and we'll read
from verse 1. And the Philistines took the
ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. When the Philistines took the
ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it
by Dagon. And when they of Ashdod rose
early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face
to the earth before the ark of the Lord. And they took Dagon
and set him in his place again. And when they arose early on
the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the
ground before the ark of the Lord. and the head of Dagon and
both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold, only
the stump of Dagon was left to him. Therefore neither the priests
of Dagon nor any that come into Dagon's house tread on the threshold
of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day." That is the day when Samuel
was writing these accounts. But the hand of the Lord was
heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them and smote them
with emeralds, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof. And when
the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of
the God of Israel shall not abide with us, for his hand is sore
upon us and upon Dagon our God. They sent, therefore, and gathered
all the lords of the Philistines unto them, 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 about unto Gath. And
they carried the ark of the Lord of Israel about thither. And
it was so, that after they had carried it about, the hand of
the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction.
And he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they
had emeralds in their secret parts. Therefore they sent the
Ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the Ark
of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying,
They have brought about the Ark of the Lord, they have brought
about the Ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay 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 again to his own place, that
it slay us not, and our people. For there was a deadly destruction
throughout all the city, and the hand of God was very heavy
there. And the men that died not were
smitten with emeralds, and the cry of the city went up to heaven. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. This is an interesting account
of what happened when the Philistines, you'll perhaps remember that
the Philistines had been in a battle with the children of Israel and
the children of Israel had been defeated on the first day. and
when they had been defeated, they brought the Ark of the Lord
out from Shiloh and they brought it to the battlefield and they
were defeated even more severely the next day in the battle and
as Israel fled before the Philistines, the Ark of God was captured by
them. And this is the account of what
happens when the Ark of God, sometimes it's called the Ark
of the Covenant, sometimes it's called the Ark of the Testimony. It's the same Ark that was built
when the children of Israel were in the wilderness and God gave
instructions to Moses to build the tabernacle and the Ark. of the covenant or the Ark of
God and this was the same Ark, it was a box in which a variety
of things were held including the Ten Commandments, the two
tablets of stone. So it was a very important emblem
of the presence of God and it had been at Shiloh for several
centuries. by this time. But now it was
gone and now it was gone into the hands of the Philistines
and the Philistines took it into the temple of their god called
Dagon. Now Dagon was a fish god and
It appears from representations that half of the body of Dagon
was a fish and the other half was in the form of a man with
a head and arms and hands. and here the Philistines had
a temple to this god Dagon that they worshipped and they took
the Ark of the Covenant back to his temple in the city of
Ashdod and they likely thought that this Ark was a trophy of
war and they brought it to shame the children of Israel, to mock
the children of Israel that they had, as it were, their God because
they would imagine that this was the emblem or even the idol
of the God of Israel. And the Ark seems, in that sense,
to have been an emblem to them of their own God's superiority
over the God of Israel. And by taking the Ark of the
Covenant in and placing it before Dagon, the God of the Philistines,
they probably imagined that this was how the the God of Israel
would serve their God and it would show their God's superiority
over the true God. And it shows really in a sense
how blind and ignorant people are to the truth of God and the
ways of God. And Usually, I was thinking about
this as I was thinking about this passage, usually we discover
that men and women interpret spiritual things completely wrongly. Here's what I mean by that. I
mean that they interpret things completely opposite to the ways
that they are. It's not even that they're nearly
right. They get it wholly wrong. For example, here, look at this.
The Philistines assumed that defeat of Israel in battle, the
Philistines assumed that having defeated Israel in battle was
an indication that their god Dagon, the half-fish, half-man
god, was stronger than Israel's god. That was just their perception
of things. And therefore they brought the
God of Israel into Dagon's temple that the God of Israel might
be subservient, might be a servant to Dagon, their God. The truth was that God, the one
true God, was disciplining the children of Israel for their
disobedience and sin. Dagon wasn't above God at all. Dagon was a piece of stone, probably,
and the Philistines were merely a tool in the hand of God to
humble and correct Israel. This wasn't about the Philistines
and it wasn't about their superiority or their military ability. It was about God disciplining
his people for their sin. and that's a principle of God's
dealings with and for his church in this world. The Lord does
not yield or concede or surrender any glory to this world because
all he is doing is using the men and women or the nations
of this world to accomplish his purpose for the sake of his church. If nations rise and nations fall,
if nations appear to prosper for a little while, it is not
because God is pleased with them. It is because he is fulfilling
his purpose for his church, for his elect people whom he loves. and afterwards he will judge
and destroy all the wicked who troubled his little flock." We've
seen that actually in our studies in Isaiah, how nations were raised
in order to discipline Israel and afterwards those nations
were destroyed. so it would be with the Philistines. But when they returned to their
land with the Ark, they promptly placed it into the temple of
Dagon in the city of Ashdod. Ashdod was one of five major
cities that the Philistines had. There's another two of them mentioned
in the narrative today. The act was likely symbolic of
the God of Israel being made to serve Dagon in his temple,
or Dagon being elevated over and higher than the God of Israel. implying Dagon's power and dominion. However, as we read the narrative,
as we read the passage, we discovered that the smugness, the vanity
of the Philistines was short-lived. Let us never forget that while
men are opposing while men are opposed to honouring God, he
is jealous of his own glory and this was a lesson that the Philistines
were about to learn. Their pride and their foolishness
would cost them dearly and God's judgment came upon the Philistines
in three distinct ways. He mocked their assumption that
Dagon was powerful by toppling the statue and smashing their
idol on the floor before the Ark of the Covenant. That was
one way that he chastened the Philistines. Another way was
that he caused a painful disease called hemorrhoids. People think
that that might be hemorrhoids, a word that we have nowadays
for for an ailment and a disease. But whether they were the same
or not, it really doesn't matter. But these hemorrhoids or hemorrhoids,
this was a very painful disease which was both in the outside
of the body and in the inside of the body, in the private parts
of these people. and he caused this painful disease
to come upon the people and he also caused a great number of
people to die with what appears to be another completely separate
disease and for seven months the Ark of God was with the Philistines
and it was a very costly period in terms of death and suffering
and national shame. The Ark of God had only been
in Dagon's temple overnight when the Philistines found their idol
God fallen to the floor. But rather than interpret this
as a sign of God's power and displeasure, the Philistines
just pushed their statue back up again and put it back in its
place. And we find that about the men
and women of this world. Idol worshippers, they're always
ready to help out their God. They make religious worship a
symbionic relationship. As if to say, we will help you,
God, if you will help us. And they want to trade with God. Let us never think that the God
who created the universe needs our help to do anything. Far
less needs to get lifted back up onto his little table. Omnipotence
means all-powerful and the Lord our God is omnipotent. Psalmist David says in Psalm
21, be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength, so will we
sing and praise thy power. We don't need to help our God
do what he wants to do. We simply need to sing and praise
the omnipotence of our glorious God and his own strength. So the Philistines lifted the
statue of Dagon back up into its place. The very next night,
Dagon had not only fallen over again, but now he was broken. His head had snapped off and
his hands were broken. And perhaps God was showing the
Philistines by doing that, that Dagon had neither ability to
think nor act for himself. Either way, the Philistine people
in Ashdod realised that the Ark of God had to go. And there's
something else to notice here, I think. Rather than acknowledge
in any way that the God of Israel was mightier than our God, they
instead chose to get rid of the Ark of God. Not only that, but
they began stepping over the threshold of the door where Dagon
had been shattered on the ground. They didn't think to inquire
about which God was more glorious here, Dagon or the God of Israel. What they did do was that they
began to honour the part of the floor that broke their idol and
they never stepped on it again. The idol fell, it hit the threshold
of the door and instead of worshipping God who caused the idol to fall,
they worshipped the threshold of the door that had broken the
head of their idol. Do you see the foolishness? Do
you see the inherent rebellious nature of man against God? God
gives all these warnings. And men dug deeper and deeper
and deeper into their own stupidity and foolishness. The men of Ashdod
had had enough of the Ark of God. Their idol was in pieces,
their bodies were sore, there were dead people all around them.
We're told that the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod,
and he destroyed them and smote them with emeralds, even Ashdod
and the coasts thereof. Not only the city, but all the
land around about the city. What to do? What were these people
to do? Well, they thought about it and
they came up with a good idea. They would give the problem to
another city and that's what they did. And what we discover
is that they gave the Ark of God to the people of Gath. And what happened but a similar
judgement followed upon the Gathites and upon that city. And perhaps
it was an even worse disease because we're told that while
the Emirates had been on the outside of the bodies apparently
of the people of Ashdod, they were internal in the Gathites
and probably that meant that they were even more difficult
to treat. So now what were the people going
to do? They had moved it out of Ashdod, they had moved it
to Gath, the people in Gath said we don't want it, let's send
it to Ekron, another city. So they passed the Ark around
these cities and the judgement of God followed wherever the
Ark of God went. And finally the people said,
send the ark of God, send the ark of the God of Israel away
and let it go again to his own place that it slay us not and
our people. Here are a couple of lessons
that I just want to leave with you. God's honour will not be
compromised. If this incident of the Philistines
and the coming of the Ark of God amongst them teaches us anything,
it is that God will not be mocked and judgement will always follow
upon man's self-pride and idolatry. Paul tells us in Galatians, be
not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. Sin against God cannot go unpunished. Justice and the holiness of God
demands retribution, demands punishment. Israel found this
out for its sin. when it lost so many of its soldiers
in the battle and the Ark was lost to the shame of the nation. And the Philistines found this
out when the judgment of God fell on the people in their idolatry. These Old Testament stories,
these Old Testament accounts, the narratives, the histories
They're for our teaching and for our direction. Your sin and
mine is really no different to the sins of others, whether it's
past, present or future. It's sin against God. It's disobedience
against God. And some in the past have paid
dearly with their lives and today are in hell. And that is a warning
to this present generation. It's what we deserve too. So
let us be warned and not merely set these messages, these stories,
these accounts down as historical incidents and peculiarities. God is sending us a warning of
pending judgment before it's too late. But there's another message here
too. And it's a message of grace and
it's a message of mercy. And you don't see it on the surface
of this account. You don't see it as it were in
the words of this chapter. But when we think about it, it
becomes really clear. Old Testament Israel was still
where the Lord's remnant people dwelt. And the eye of the mercy
of God rested upon his people. It was out of this people, the
Old Testament people, Israel, that the Messiah would come. Israel, here, hardly knew its
own need and predicament at this time. It was without an army
because its army lay dead on the fields surrounding Ebenezer. The Philistines had destroyed
the army of Israel. And the nation of Israel lay
at the mercy of the Philistines. Had the Philistines simply mobilised
their troops and marched through the whole country, they could
have destroyed the whole country of Israel at that time, having
had that victory and taken the Ark of God. However, when God's elect were
in danger from these idolaters, The Lord secretly, completely
unbeknown to the children of Israel, the Lord secretly destroyed
their enemies from inside without his people having to lift a hand
in their own defence. Such is the love of the Lord
for his people that he will save and protect his own dear ones
when they are without strength to deliver themselves. Paul writes
in Romans chapter five, for when we were yet without strength,
in due time Christ died for the ungodly. God commendeth his love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Our Lord, in his sacrifice, to
reconcile us to God, has overcome our enemy of sin, death and Satan,
that we all, by the grace of God, be aware of his holiness
and power. and in awe and amazement at his
love and his mercy. May it be so, for his name's
sake. Amen.