Year One, August 7

For the LORD Is a…Great King Above All Gods1

1 Samuel 5:1-4; 6-12

1When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. 3And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD. (The true God would not tolerate having an idol standing upright in the same temple with his ark. Therefore, down it must go. The ark was brought into the house as a captive, but immediately became a conqueror. If the Lord, by his Spirit, comes into the human heart, sin soon falls before him.) So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. (It was a worthless god that needed help putting itself back in place. Idolatry makes people foolish. If it did not, they would see how irrational their behavior is.)

4But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. (The second fall was greater than the first, for the fish god was broken, and only his scaly tail remained. The head and hands which symbolized wisdom and power, were dashed to atoms. The ark in the pagan temple resulted in the destruction of Dagon. Grace in the heart destroys the power and energy of sin.)

6The hand of the LORD was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory. 7And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is hard against us and against Dagon our god.” 8So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” They answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath.” So they brought the ark of the God of Israel there. 9But after they had brought it around, the hand of the LORD was against the city, causing a very great panic, and he afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them.

10So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. But as soon as the ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They have brought around to us the ark of the God of Israel to kill us and our people. 11They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people.” For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there. 12The men who did not die were struck with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven. (This disease was not only extremely painful but was intended to embarrass the Philistines, because they dared to seize the ark of God and held it in contempt. How glad they would have been to get rid of their captive, who even in captivity achieved victory over them.)

We have a summary of this part of Israel’s history in the Psalms. Let us read it.

  

Psalm 78:58-66

58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places;

they moved him to jealousy with their idols.

59 When God heard, he was full of wrath,

and he utterly rejected Israel.

60 He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh,

the tent where he dwelt among mankind,

Shiloh was abandoned. The ark never returned to it. The place became a desert and no buildings remained standing. The lampstand of the Lord went out in Shiloh.

61 and (the Lord) delivered his power to captivity,

his glory to the hand of the foe.

62 He gave his people over to the sword

and vented his wrath on his heritage.

63 Fire devoured their young men,

and their young women had no marriage song.

64 Their priests fell by the sword,

and their widows made no lamentation.

The wife of Phinehas was so overcome with sorrow because the ark had been captured by the Philistines, that she was unable to grieve over the death of her husband.

65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,

like a strong man shouting because of wine.

66 And he put his adversaries to rout;

he put them to everlasting shame.

Wickedness will not win for long. God will always be victorious.

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¹ From Psalm 95:3