I said last Wednesday that the
Lord willing, I hope to bring several messages which will all
have the Ark of the Covenant as a common thread. The Ark of
the Covenant, I'm sure that all of us here tonight know what
this represented. The Ark of the Covenant along
with the mercy seat was one of those shadows of good things
to come that was contained in the law, the law which was given
on Mount Sinai. In fact, the Ark of the Covenant
along with the mercy seat is a wonderful type of the person
and work of Jesus Christ our Lord. That's one of the ways
the gospel was preached. There's only one gospel. There's
never been but one gospel. One of the ways the gospel was
preached to those in what we call the Old Testament dispensation
was through the symbols, the shadows, and the law, the ceremonial
part of the law. And we love to think about these
things, but we must always remember that the reality, we don't want
to just concentrate on the shadow, as interesting as the shadows
are, but the shadows all tell us of the reality. And the shadow
was the Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat, but the reality
is the person and work of Jesus Christ, our Lord. And it was
there that God told Moses, from above the mercy seat, you remember
when they placed the Ark of the Covenant, it was the only part
of the, only furniture of the tabernacle that was placed in
the most holy place. And the high priest only went
in there one time, only went in there once a year, I should
say. Went in twice on that day. but he only went in there one
day out of the year. And when they set the tabernacle
up, the Shekinah rested above the ark, above the mercy seat,
between the cherubim. The cherubim were fashioned into
the mercy seat. They were part of the mercy seat.
They looked toward each other and looked toward the mercy seat,
but the Shekinah, and that was a representation of God Almighty,
that God was there upon the mercy seat. And he told Moses, he said,
it's there that I will meet with you and commune with you. Now
we know if a sinner, and we're all sinners by nature, of any
son of Adam, if we're ever going to meet with God in peace, and
God meet with us in peace, and we commune with God, and God
commune with us, it's going to be through the person and work
of Jesus Christ. No one should ever think that
they're going to approach unto a holy God in any other way but
through Jesus Christ our Lord, because He is the one mediator. There's one God and one mediator
between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. And so the Ark
of the Covenant we recognize as a picture, a shadow, a type
of the real person and work of Christ our Lord. Now, we saw
last week that the Ark of the Covenant was taken. That the Israelites were engaged
in battle with the Philistines. And the first day they went out
to battle, the Philistines defeated the Israelites. And so they came
up with the idea, some of them, let's fetch the Ark of the Covenant,
bring it into the camp. And they were just sure that
they were going to be victorious when they brought the Ark of
the Covenant. among the camp there of the soldiers. And they,
of course, were defeated in battle, and the Ark of the Covenant was
taken by the Philistines. Now, when word came to Eli the
priest, remember he had those two sons, Hophni and Phinehas,
they were wicked men, evil men, they too were priests, they had
carried the Ark of the Covenant into the camp, And they were
killed. And when word came, a runner
came and told Eli what had happened. Well, he was an older man and
a heavy man, I believe the scripture says. And he was sitting and
he fell over backwards when he heard that the Ark of the Covenant
was taken. And he broke his neck and he
died. And then they brought back word
that both Hophni and Phinehas were dead. And the wife of Phinehas,
she was in labor, and she gave birth to a child right at that
particular time. And she named him Ichabod, the
glory of the Lord is departed. If you notice the last verse
of chapter four, she said, this is Phinehas' wife, she said,
the glory is departed from Israel for or because the ark of God
is taken. Tonight, we will say that while
what she said, the glory of Israel is departed, or the glory is
departed from Israel, that God Almighty remained the all-glorious
Lord God. The glory of God departed from
Israel, but God's glory did not depart from Him, that He is still
the all-glorious God. I have four divisions in the
message tonight as we see what happened when the Philistines
take the Ark of the Covenant. They've captured it and they've
taken it now. So my first point, the Philistines
take or the Philistines place the Ark of the Covenant in the
house of Dagon. Notice in verses 1 and 2 of chapter
5. 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. Who was Dagon? Who was Dagon? Well, let me answer it like this.
Dagon was one of the thousands, if not millions, of false gods
that men have worshipped. As all of these images, now not
every false god is given an image. But many of these false gods,
there were images made of the false god. And they're all the
result of the imaginations of men. Men, as one person, preacher
said one time, we've got a idol factory right here with us. We
carry one with us. And we just imagine how God should
be and how God is. And many people worship a god
that's no more than that, the figment of their imagination. And so Dagon was one of these
gods that had been imagined in someone's mind, or someone's
mind, and he's known as the fish god. The fish god, because if
you see any pictures of him, and yes there still are pictures
from Way back yonder, the Phoenicians, on things that, sculptures that
they made, there are emblems of the fish god. And he's called
a fish god because he was mainly, if you had looked at his image,
you would have seen the fish, but he also had a head and hands
of a man. So if you can imagine an image
with scales running, down his back, and that hat, that mahter,
also that was part of the image of the fish god, Dagon, but he
had hands of a man and a head of a man. Remember in Romans
chapter one where the apostle Paul is showing how that everyone,
all the world is guilty before God. Everyone needs a Savior. That's what he's saying. Every
person. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel,
for it is the power of God unto salvation unto everyone that
believeth. I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation
unto everyone that believeth. And then Paul, from there, begins
to show how all the Gentiles were guilty before God and need
a Savior. And then later, of course, he'll
take up with the Jews. But listen to what he said about
the Gentiles. He said, because that when they
knew God. Now there was at least two times
in the history of the world when everyone knew the truth about
God. When Adam was in the garden,
when Adam and Eve came out of the garden, they knew the truth
about God and they taught their children and one of their own
sons decided he knew better than God and would approach God in
a way that God had not ordained, in a bloodless way, Cain. And then when Noah and his three
sons and their wives all came out of the ark, Noah built an
altar and offered a clean animal, clean animals unto the Lord,
the scripture says, and God smelled a sweet-smelling savor. As that
sacrifice went up, that God found pleasure in that sacrifice, it
pictured, it typified Jesus Christ our Lord. But what did man do? As man began to multiply upon
the face of the earth, it wasn't long, as Paul said, because when
they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were
thankful, but became vain in their imagination. Empty imagination. This is the way I believe God
should be. I don't think God should be like that. You know,
I've got my idea of how God should be and how God should not be.
vain imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened, professing
themselves to be wise. They became fools and changed
the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to
corruptible man and to birds and four-footed
beasts and creeping things. And Paul didn't mention fish,
but we know that's true also. They changed the image of the
uncorruptible, incorruptible God into an image made like to
corruptible man. I remember Brother Ralph Barnard
one time said, you know, you just follow this down. First
God begins as a man and that's too big for him. And so he whittles
him down some more and then he becomes a bird. That's too big
for him. Then he becomes a beast and that's
too large for him. So next of all, he's got him
down to creeping things. Can you imagine that? Man who
was created in the image of God and for the glory of God has
fallen so low that he would worship something that creeps along on
the ground. That's just the condition of
man, isn't it? Dagon was worshipped by the Philistines
in all of their cities. There's five major cities, I
believe. But his house was in Ashdod. Notice that in verse two. When the Philistines took the
ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it
by Dagon. It was in Ashdod. And we should
not miss this as we look through this passage. We should not miss
this fact, that the Ark of the Covenant dwelt in a tent. The Ark of the Covenant dwelt
in a tent, while Dagon, a false god, an idol, had a house, had
a house. You know, men and women, all
of us are impressed by beautiful buildings, stained glass, but
God isn't. We are, but God isn't. Remember
his word through Isaiah? I'm pointing out the fact that
here is a true and living God in the symbol of his presence,
dwelt in a tent, and that's because he chose to dwell there. He never
told them to build him a house. Now David wanted to, but he wouldn't
allow David to build the house, but he allowed Solomon to build
him a house. But God's not impressed by these
beautiful, there's some beautiful cathedrals, aren't there? I mean,
beautiful buildings, and there's many of them here in Houston
and all across our country and all around the world, and people
think, well, this is going to impress God, and surely, it just
makes you feel religious. when you go in one of these places,
and candles are burning, and the music playing softly, and
the incense is burning, and, boy, this is really religion. Yeah, that's all it is. It's
religion. And God is not impressed by these
things. They that worship God, our Lord
said, must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And I think about
what God said through the prophet Isaiah. Thus saith the high and
lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in
the high and holy place. That's understandable, isn't
it? But he didn't stop there. I dwell in the high and holy
place with him also that is of a contrite and humble heart. God dwells with those who are
of a contrite and humble heart. The true and living God will
not share His glory. They put this, they put the Ark
of the Covenant in the house of Dagon. But I'm saying tonight,
and you know this is so, the true and living God will not
share His glory. And what a contrast do we see
here between what the Philistines did and what God commanded the
Israelites to do with the false gods and images when they went
into the land of Canaan. God commanded Israel, when they
entered the promised land, you shall destroy all their altars,
break down their images, and cut down their groves and burn
their images with fire. The Philistines took, now listen,
they took what they thought was the God of Israel. Now we think, we know it was
a shadow, we know it was a type. The Philistines thought that
ark with the mercy seat was the God of Israel. Look back to chapter
four. This is what they thought. They
thought they had Israel's God. Chapter 4, verses 6 and 7 we
read, And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout,
they said, What meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp
of the Hebrews? And they understood that the
ark of the Lord was come into the camp, and the Philistines
were afraid, now notice, for they said, They didn't say the
Ark is coming to the camp. They said, God, God is coming
to the camp. And they said, woe unto us. So they, the Philistines, took
what they thought in their mind they had Israel's God, that Ark. They had Israel's God, and so
they placed Him in the house of Dagon. Well, the Lord God
is a jealous God, and He will have no rivals, and He will not
share His glory with another. He will not share His glory in
saving sinners with anyone else. Salvation is of the Lord. You say, how much? All of it.
Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord in its
planning, in its procuring, and in its application. The thought
today is that as long as someone is sincere, it really doesn't
matter what that person believes. Well, these Philistines, they
were sincere. They were sincere. They thought
they had Israel's God, and so they placed him alongside or
in the house of their God, Dagon. People today say, well, it's
not important what you believe. It doesn't matter if you do not
believe that all of the Word of God is inspired. You can just
choose, pick and choose what you think is inspired and just
cast the other out. It's not important to believe
that God is sovereign. That's just something, you know,
maybe as you mature and as you grow In grace, you'll come to
see that. That's really not important to
say that God is sovereign in creation, that God is sovereign
in providence, that God is sovereign in salvation. That's really not
important. As long as people are sincere.
Well, these Philistines, they were sincere, but they were sincerely
wrong. They didn't realize that the
God of Israel will not share his glory with another. It's
most certain that the Philistines, when they took this Ark of the
Covenant into the house of Dagon, they positioned it, you can be
sure of this, because in their mind, their God was stronger.
After all, they won the battle. Their God, Dagon, had given them
the victory. So their God is stronger than
the God of Israel. So surely they placed the Ark
of the Covenant. They thought that was Israel's
God. They placed it in some kind of position which showed that
their God, Dagon, was superior, maybe elevated above the Ark
of the Covenant. Here's the second thing I want
us to see. The Philistines, like all men,
apart from the grace of God, cannot see. S-E-E. All men, apart from the grace
of God, these Philistines included, apart from the grace of God,
cannot see. Notice verses three through five.
And when they of Ashdod 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. 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 priest
of Dagon nor any that come into Dagon's house tread upon the
threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day." What I said is
the Philistines, like all men, apart from the grace of God,
cannot see. When I say that men cannot see,
I mean that men cannot perceive the things of God. They can't. They cannot perceive the things
of God. When the Lord Jesus Christ told
Nicodemus, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Lost men do not have
the capacity to perceive the things of God. Men must be born
again. These men, think about this,
these men could and they did see physically. We're not saying
they couldn't see physically. They did and could see physically
the first morning they come back to the house of Dagon and he's
fallen over. Now they saw that. They saw he
had fallen over, he was in a position as doing reverence under the
Ark of the Covenant. And they could also see that
it was necessary for them to help their God up. Harry was
falling over, and he's going to stay there unless we do something. They could see that. We've got
to pick him up. We've got to put him back in
his place. They could see that. And on the
next morning, They came back and they could see that not only
was their God fallen over, but this time his head was cut off,
his hands were cut off, and they were lying on the threshold of
his house. Now they could see that, no doubt
about it. But they couldn't see, they did
not perceive, that what they worshipped, what they called
God, was a worthless figment of the imagination of men. Worthless, worthless. Turn with
me to Psalm 115, just a moment. They could see physically what
was taking place, but they couldn't perceive what this meant. That their God was a helpless,
worthless thing. In Psalm 115, the psalmist said,
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 heathen
say, where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens,
and this is the best answer to a lot of questions you may be
asked. Where is your God? How could
a good God allow this to happen? Where's your God? Our God is
in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Their idols are silver and gold
that 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. He had hands,
didn't he? He had a head, too, with eyes,
and mouth, and ears, and all of that. They have hands, but
they handle not. Feet have they, but they walk
not, neither speak they through their throat. Now notice this,
they that make them are like unto them. So is everyone that
trusteth in them. They're like the idol. The idol
is what? Dead, lifeless, powerless. They that make them, they that
trust in them, are like unto them. The Philistines, they trusted
in Dagon. They were like their God. They
were spiritually dead. They couldn't see, they couldn't
proceed. If you look back to our text now, not only Not only
did they not see the truth, that they worshiped a dumb idol, but
look, they took what God did. God cut the idol's head off and
his hands off and placed them there on the threshold. They
took what God did and added that to their superstitious worship. I'm sure they put their hands
back on the idol, head back on him, but one thing they wouldn't
do, they wouldn't step on that threshold again. That somehow
became sacred, somehow became special. And what we can all see here
is they were dead, right? Spiritually dead. And I have
here in my notes, and I want to say this, it behooves each
and every one of us right here, right now, to hear Paul's words in 1 Corinthians
4 and verse 7. For who maketh thee to differ
from another? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? The only reason you and I, are
not worshiping some idol tonight, it's because of God's grace and
mercy. That's the only reason. I used to see these young children
taken by their mothers into a place of worship and their mother would
be down on their knees and make their children kneel down, you
know, and they'd just grow up. worshiping that idol, kissing
that idol, and doing the sign of the cross when they pass by
the church, and all of those things that are part of idolatry. And the only reason you and I
are not, you say, well, I was born in a country where that's
not prevalent. Yes, but you could have been
born in a place where it is. That's true. God's providence. You were placed in a home where
you were placed. and you were taught to understand
that God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship
him in spirit and in truth. Here's the third thing. The Philistines
felt the hand of the Lord heavy upon them. Verses six through
12. But the hand of the Lord was
heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them and smote them
with hemorrhoids, even Ashdod in 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 Dagon our God. Then sent therefore, or 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 God 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 great, very great destruction. And He
smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had
immorality 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,
O no! They didn't cry out, O no, but
that's what they meant, isn't it? They've 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. Do
you notice that they began to call his own place? Remember what the Israelites
said? Let us fetch it. Let us fetch it. These heathens,
the Philistines, they said, Let it go to his own place. that it slay us not, and our
people, for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the
city. The hand of God was heavy there, and the men that died
not were smitten with the hemorrhage, and the cry of the city went
up to heaven. The Lord killed many of them,
both in Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron. The Lord killed many, smote others
with hemorrhage. The Lord of the Philistines had
the ark removed to Gath. It may be that they reasoned
like this. When God's hand was heavy upon
the men of Ashdod, well, let's move it over there to Gath. They
may have thought, I don't know, but they may have thought, change
of location, he won't have the same power. Like those Syrians
thought, remember. When God gave Israel a victory
over them, they were fighting in the hills. And someone told
the king, said, well, their God's the God of the hills. Let's fight
them in the valley. We'll get them. Well, they found
out, didn't they, that God is a God both of the hills and of
the valleys. And he's God in Ashdod. He's
God in Gath. He's God in Ekron, no matter
where you take him. His power is omnipotent power. In none of these cities did it
ever occur to them, let's get rid of our God, and
let's take this God, this God. I want you to turn to another
place, and I'm almost finished, but I want you to see this in
Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 2. One of the
charges that God makes about the nation of Israel later is of all the nations of the
world, none ever changed their God. See, the Philistines, they
were ready to add to their God. Here's Diagon, well, let's put
the Ark of the Covenant in here, too. They were ready to do that,
but no nation has ever just forsaken their God except
one, Israel. Look here in Jeremiah
2, beginning in verse 9. Wherefore, this is God, I will
yet plead with you, saith the Lord, and with your children's
children will I plead. For pass over the isles of Chittim
and see, and send unto Cedar, and consider diligently, and
see if there be such a thing. Hath a nation changed their gods,
which are yet no gods? But my people, isn't this sad? Sad. But my people, have changed
their glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, O
you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid. Be ye very desolate,
saith the Lord, for my people have committed two evils. They
have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them
out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. No nation ever changed their
God except Israel. They forsook the true and living
God, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns. Stale, stagnant water. Now, one
other thing, back here in chapter 5 of 1 Samuel, the scripture
here says they made a great noise. They cried out. You remember
last week in chapter 4 and verses 5 and 6 that it was Israel It was Israel that made a great
noise. When the Ark of the Covenant was brought into their camp,
the scripture says that they made a great noise. But now,
it's the Philistines' turn to make a great noise. Their cry
went up to heaven, as verse 12 says. And I just want to say
this, that loud noises and great shoutings, some people gauge
God's presence if there's a lot of hoopla, a lot of noise and
carrying on in the flesh. They had it in both of these.
Both the Israelites, they shouted, the Philistines shouted, but
it didn't mean that God was for either of them, not at all. When God spoke to Elijah, it
wasn't with a loud, strong voice, was it? It was with a still,
small voice. And when he called Samuel, you
can read about this earlier in 1 Samuel, it must have been not
a loud voice because Eli, he didn't hear it. They lived in
the same place there. Eli didn't hear the voice of
the Lord. Samuel did. When God speaks, it's personal and you'll know
it. You'll know it when he speaks.
And you don't have to hear thunder and lightning and things running
up and down your back and your hair stand up on your head and
all that to think, well, God spoke. No, you'll know. You'll
know. Well, I pray that the Lord would
bless these thoughts to us here tonight.