evening to 1 Samuel and tonight
chapter 5. We saw last week that when the
Philistines took the Ark of the Covenant, as we read here in
verse one, and the Philistines took the Ark of God and brought
it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod, that when they took the Ark of
the Covenant, it was announced the glory is departed from Israel. The Ark of the Covenant, of course,
was a visible manifestation of the presence of Jehovah. In the most holy place, the Ark
of the Covenant, with the mercy seat, and above the mercy seat,
the Shekinah, the glory of God. The glory of Israel has departed. Now tonight, we're going to go
through the chapter, and I pray the Lord will bless these thoughts
as we go verse by verse, beginning with verse two. When the Philistines
took the Ark of God, They brought it into the house of Dagon and
said it by Dagon. They placed the Ark of the Covenant
in their god, their false god, by the name of Dagon. It's possible
that they may have planned a celebration when they took the Ark of the
Covenant and placed it there beside their god, Dagon. They
may have well planned a celebration, giving credit to their God for
their victory over Israel. If you turn back, keep your places
here, but if you look back into the book of Judges, we know that
this is what they did when they captured Samson. In Judges chapter
16, and verse 23 and 24, We read, then the lords of the
Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice
unto Dagon, their god, and to rejoice. They did have a big time, for
they said, our god, that is Dagon, our god hath delivered Samson,
our enemy, into our hand. They gave credit to their god. for delivering Samson into their
hand. And when the people saw him,
they praised their God. When they saw Samson blinded
and they were making fun of him, the lords of the Philistines
were, our God hath delivered into our hands our enemy and
the destroyer. of our country, which slew many
of us. So I think they may well have
been planning another celebration, this time giving credit to their
God, having captured the Ark of the Covenant, having defeated
the nation of Israel in battle. Now you and I know, there's no
doubt, you and I both know that In the case of Samson, and again
here in the case of the nation of Israel, it wasn't their God
which gave them the victory, their false God. It was the sin,
the sin of Samson, first of all, in allowing himself to be deceived
by the woman that he loved and breaking the Nazarite vow. You
know, she cut his hair. And that was something that a
Nazirite had vowed not to do. A razor would never come upon
a Nazirite. And it was sin. It wasn't the
power of their so-called God who had allowed them to conquer
this man Samson they called their enemy. And again, it was sin
that allowed them at this time to take the Ark of the Covenant,
the sin of the nation of Israel. the sin of their idolatry had
allowed them to be defeated, had caused them, I should say,
to be defeated. Now, in verse three, we read,
and when they of Ashtod, the men of Ashtod, arose 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. I noticed several things here. First of all, these men were
early. The scripture points that out.
When they have asked out of rows early, they were anxious. They
were anxious to go and worship their false God. They were up
early in the morning. And they were anxious to go to
his house But they were surprised, no doubt, when they got there
to find that their false god was fallen upon his face to the
earth. He'd fallen upon his face to
the earth as though bowing before the Ark of the Covenant, submitting
unto the true God, the living God that was represented by that
Ark. And you know the closing words
of this verse, verse three. and set him in his place again."
That's comical, isn't it? Set this God in his place again. They had made him, some one of
them had manufactured this God. They had made him and they had
made him a place. And he was to stay in that place.
He was to keep himself in that place where they put him. and
they set him back in his place again. I want you to keep your
place here, but look with me in Jeremiah. Now it was common
with these false idols, gods as they're called, these false
idols, they couldn't keep themselves. They couldn't keep themselves.
So when an idol was made, manufactured, and put into a temple, into its
place, then they would attach some way that idol to keep him
in his place. It wasn't though he could run
off. It wasn't though he could leave, but he could fall over. The wind could blow, and he could
be overturned. And so they would attach this
idol. Maybe it was top-heavy. Maybe
the idol they built was top-heavy. But anyway, as we see here in
Jeremiah chapter 10, verses 3 and 4, it was common. Now this is,
of course, speaking of the nation of Israel, years later, when
they were guilty of idolatry. But here in chapter 10, verse
3, for the customs of the people are vain. For one cutteth a tree
out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workmen with
the axe. They deck it with silver and
with gold. They fasten it with nails and
with hammers. Notice that it move not. They secured it in its place
so that it would not move. And that's what the people, the
men of Ashdod did here. They set their idol because they
came in and he's fallen down before the Ark of the Covenant,
the symbol of the only true and living God. And so they pick
him up and set him back in his place. No matter how they had
fastened him, God, the living God, the true God, had power
to overturn him. There was no way they could fasten
their God, secure him into his place, that God did not have
the power to overturn, to overthrow. So they set him in his place
again. Well, the next day, let's read
verse four. And when they arose early on
the morning, you have to hand it to these false worshipers,
worshipers of a false God. They were sincere. And that's
what sometimes you hear people say, well, as long as a person
is sincere, everything's going to be all right. Well, these
people were sincere. There's no question about that.
They're up early the next day as well. They go to their devotions
early in the morning to worship their God. When they rose early
on the 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. This god, Dagon, was made, if
you think of a mermaid, we've all seen pictures of mermaids,
we know there's no such thing. But this god, Dagon, was fashioned
like what we would think of as a mermaid. He was like a fish
from his belly down, but from his belly upward he had the resemblance
of a man. If you notice, if you have a
Bible that has a marginal reading, you notice where it says only
the stump. You have a little number there
before the stump. My Bible does, it has a marginal
reading. You look in the margin and you
see the fishy part. The fishy part. That was all
that was left standing, the fishy part of their God. He had fallen
over and when he fell over this time, or when God overthrew him
this time, his head and his hands, I don't know how they had him
made, but he hit the threshold of the door. And when he hit
the threshold of the door, his head was severed and his hands
were severed. And both of those were symbolic,
of course. His head, that's where the intelligence
is. The intelligence, our minds are
in our heads. Well, he had no intelligence. This God had no wisdom. This
God had no knowledge. And his head was falling off.
And then the hands, of course, picture power. We work with our
hands. This God could not work. It had
no power. And so they find their God in
this condition. That's an awful condition to
find your God in, isn't it? Tumbled over, head severed, hands
apart from the body, and the only thing left is the stump,
the fishy part of their God. Now notice the next verse. Here,
we have an illustration here in verse five. I say we have
an illustration of what we read in Psalm 115. Let's read verse
five and then we'll go to Psalm 115. Therefore, neither the priest
of Dagon nor any that come in Dagon's house tread on the threshold
of Dagon in Ashdod under this day. They recognized, they somehow
knew that it was the threshold that the idol had fallen on that
caused him to lose his head. And so they don't, from now on,
they're never going to step on the threshold again. Now, what
do I mean when I say we have an illustration here of what
we read about idols in Psalm 115? Let's look over here to
Psalm 115. Psalm 115, beginning with verse
four. The psalmist said, their idols
are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths,
but they speak not. Eyes have they, but they see
not. They have ears, but they hear not. Noses have they, but
they smell not. They have hands, but they handle
not. Feet have they, but they walk
not. Neither speak they through their
throat. Now here's the part. They that
make them, these men who make gods, these idols, they that
make them are like unto them. Like unto them, dead. The idol is dead, lifeless, has
eyes but it cannot see, and ears but it cannot hear. lifeless,
so those who make idols and worship idols, and so is everyone that
trusteth in them, spiritually dead, just like the idols that
they worship. But lo and behold, these people
here at Ashdod, when they see that it was the threshold that
their idol had hit, what do they do? Well, they just incorporate
that into their worship. Instead of, if they had spiritual
understanding, spiritual life, they would say, this, this is
my God. He can't help himself. It cannot
help himself. How in the world is it going
to help me? How's it going to save me? How's
it going to deliver me? It has no power, but instead
of Thinking along those lines, reasoning upon those lines, and
turning from their idol, what do they do? They just incorporate
this part about the threshold into their worship of their false
god. They'll no longer step, when
they enter to his house, they're very careful they don't step
on the threshold. They jump over. They jump over
the threshold. And one of the minor prophets
makes reference to this years later. So evidently, it was something
they started and they continued to do for years and years. What a contrast, right? If you
look here in Psalm 115, what a contrast between an idol god,
a false god, lifeless God, and the living God. What a contrast
we see here in verse three. But our God, and I've often thought as I read
this Psalm, Psalm 115, where the psalmist begins, not unto
us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for
thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. Wherefore, should the heathens say, where is now their God? I think sometimes believers have
been taunted. You love the Lord, you serve
the Lord. You go to church every week,
every Sunday, every Wednesday night. And now look what's happened
to you. Where's your God now that you
talk about, you trust in? Where's he now that this has
come upon you? This hard providence, this circumstance
in which you're suffering now. Where's your God now? Well, David
answered, didn't he? Our God is in the heavens. he
hath done whatsoever he hath pleased." This is something he
has done. It didn't happen by accident.
This tribulation, this affliction, whatever it might be, it didn't
just spring out of the ground. There's no such thing as bad
luck or bad fortune. No. God Almighty works all things
after the counsel of His own will. No. My God, my Father,
where is he? He's still in heaven. He's still
on the throne. He's still ruling, still reigning,
and he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. All right, let's go back now
to 1 Samuel 5. Next thing we see is the Lord's
heavy hand is upon this town of Ashdod, verses six and seven. 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 coast 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 thy God, our God. God's hand, his heavy hand,
the scripture here says, had been upon their God, turned him
over, split him apart, but his heavy hand is not only on our
God, but it's upon us. It says that many, were destroyed. What does that mean? Many were
killed. Many suffered death. And not
only that, but God sent a disease among them. They were stricken
with this disease. And the thing that I point out
to us tonight, they recognized this was a hand of God. They recognize, isn't that what
it says? Verse seven, when the men of Ashton saw that it was
so, they said, the ark of the God of Israel shall not abide
with us for his hand, his hand is so upon us and upon Dagon,
our God. Well, Next thing we see in verse
8, they sent for some help. They sent therefore and gathered
all the lords of the Philistines unto them. Now the Philistines,
there were five principal cities, and let me remind us, we see
them through the Old Testament, Ashdod, Gath, Ascalon, Gaza,
and Ekron. Those five principal cities,
and they didn't have kings over the city, they had lords. So
they were really one nation of people, the Philistines, but
they were divided up into these five principal cities. And so
these of Ashdod, they sent therefore and gathered all the lords. It
would be five at least, five of these 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. Let's take it
to Gath. That was another one of the principal
cities. Let's take it there to Gath.
And they may have done this, we'll know, If the same thing
happens in Gath, it's happened here, we'll know this wasn't
a fluke thing. This wasn't something that's
just an accidental thing, a strange coincidence or anything like
that, that all these people died and disease upon the people. Let's take it to Gath and we'll
see. Well, of course, they took it there to Gath, and the men
of Gath experienced the same thing. And it was so that after
they had carried it about, and that's somewhat strange, after
they had carried it about, took the long way, long way about
from Ashdod to Gath, hoping that might help in some way. But after they had carried it
about, the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very,
this time, it's not just a great, it's a very great, a very great
destruction, and he smote the men of the city, both small and
great, with that same disease, a very painful disease that came
upon them. Well, next, the ark of God was
then sent to Akron, but these people, they saw They saw what
had happened in Ashdod, what had happened in Gath, and now
they're bringing it here to us? 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 brought about
the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people. So once again, they gathered
together all the lords of the Philistines and said, send away
the ark of the God of Israel and let it go to his own place. It's interesting, isn't it? His
own place. Not its own place, his own place. We'll look, the Lord willing,
next week, I trust and we'll see about them sending it back,
how that was, Providentially, God directed that in sending
it back. But I have a couple of lessons
from this, this chapter for us tonight. Number one, the Philistines may
serve as a reminder of how lost men think. How men without Christ,
how they think. They had a God. And they were
happy with their God. They didn't have any power. They
could put Him where they wanted to, put Him in His place. They
had a God. And they thought that they could
just add another God. Well, they just put the Ark of
the Covenant here in the same house with our God. Won't be
any problem. You know, false gods are happy
to do this. False gods, they're happy to
do this. You know, in the book of Jeremiah,
God said, it's never been heard of a nation changing their gods. That's one of the complaints,
right? He registered against Israel, the only nation under
heaven that had ever changed their God. Most nations, they didn't change
their God. What they did, they just added
another one. Just bring another one on. And that's the reason
in most of these societies today, you don't ever find there's just
one idol, there's a multiplicity of idols. Once you add one to
one, then two, then it's easy to go on to four, and to eight,
and to 16, and 32, just keep multiplying by two. One God, I remember in, Yucatan,
Mexico, with the Mayan Indians, they had the wind god, they had
the rain god, Chakmul, I believe his name was, and the snake god. I mean, superstition. And that's the thinking of lost
men, isn't it? Just add another god. If one's
good, two's better. Two'll be better. But the truth
of the matter is, as I said, false gods are happy with that
situation, but not the true God. Not the true God. He must, as
someone said, He must be Lord of all, or He will not be Lord
at all. You don't just add another god.
A believer, when a person is saved by the grace of God, he
doesn't just add. No, he comes for the first time
to know the true and the living God and worship him and him alone. Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, all thy soul, all thy mind. Turn with
me to Acts chapter 17, just a minute. When the apostle Paul visited
Athens for the first time, Now Athens was known for its learning. I mean, some of the greatest
Greek philosophers that men still study, they still read after
these men. They were from Athens, they were
in Athens. And yet you see here the situation
as Paul found it in Athens. Notice in verse 23, he says,
For as I passed by and beheld your devotion. You have a marginal
reading there? Look out in the margin. As I
passed by and beheld your gods that you worship. In other words,
there wasn't just one altar, there was a number of altars
and idols that they were worshiping there. And that's the seat, that's
the pinnacle of learning, of man's wisdom in this world. And yet they were guilty of worshiping
a number. Paul said, I see, as I pass by
and beheld your devotions, I found there was one altar there. He
said, I noticed that you had marked off to the unknown God. Well, that's the true God. That's
a living God. Paul said, that's the God I want
to talk to you about. They're thinking of God, these
Athenians, they're thinking of God as like all us, man, was
completely off base. And I just point these few things
out to us here, but you know the first thing that Paul pointed
out to them is the true God doesn't need you. He doesn't need you. Look at
that in verse 25. Neither is worship with men's
hands as though he needed anything. And I've said this before, but
if I had a mega microphone that I could speak to all of Houston,
that's one thing I would love to be able to say. God doesn't
need you. You need God. Got this thing
completely turned around in our day. God doesn't need any of
us. If he needed another man, he
could just take some more nothing and make some dirt and make another
man. The true God, the living God,
Paul says, he's not a God that needs anything. Well, he gives
us everything we have. Our breath, our life, our intelligence,
our power, our strength, our health, We receive it all from
Him. We need Him. We need God. Oh, I wish this generation would
come to that, don't you? I've been taught for so long
that God is some weakling, some wannabe God, some pretend God,
not the God of the Bible. You don't need us. And then I
noticed another thing in verse 29, Paul pointed out to them,
for as much then as we are the offspring of God, you know, God
made us. Then how in the world could we
ever come to believe that the Godhead, that is, is like unto
gold or silver, or stone graven by man's hands. I mean, we have
intelligence, we have life, we have power, and God made us,
and so we're going to worship something that doesn't have power,
doesn't have life, doesn't have intelligence, something made
out of gold or silver or stone. He's pointed out, you think that
he may be represented by material objects. Listen, God is spirit.
God is spirit. He's everywhere present. He's
omnipresent. And then Paul pointed out, you
think, you believe that God may be satisfied without a perfect
righteousness, verse 31, because he hath appointed a day in the
which he will judge the world in righteousness, in righteousness,
by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance
unto all men, and that he hath raised him from the dead. The Philistines, they may serve
as a reminder of how lost men think, how lost men think about
God, how off base most people's thoughts of God are. If we would just read the Bible,
right? And believe it. Not read it,
but believe it. A second thing, a last thing,
placing the Ark of the Covenant in the house of this false god
may also remind us of the incompatibility between grace and works in this
matter of salvation. Look at Romans 11, and I'll close. The matter of salvation, we know
that grace and works are two opposites. And Paul makes it
ever so clear here, doesn't he, in this verse, Romans 11 and
verse 6, You've got a false God here, and you've got a true God
here. You've got grace over here, and you've got works over here.
The scripture says, for by grace are you saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus, unto good works. You've got works over here, and
they're incompatible. in this matter of salvation.
Either salvation is all of grace or it's all of works. It's like
water and oil. You can have a bucket of water
and pour a quart of oil in there and it's not gonna mix. It's
separate. The same thing is true about
how God saves a sinner. It's either all of grace It's
all of works. Can't be a mixture between them. Look at verse six. And if by
grace, then it is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no
more grace. But if it be of works, then it
is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. May the Lord bless this word
to all of us here this evening.