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@ LibertyGal
2024-10-13 14:57:58There have been many so called gods throughout the history of mankind. All but one have been created by man (or possibly fallen angels) and formed by man’s hands. Only the God of the Bible created man, formed man & breathed breath into him, and revealed Himself to mankind.
The God of the Bible does not need man to defend Him. (Believers are called to be “… ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you …”(1 Peter 3:15) and to stand up for the truth.) The God of the Bible is the only God who is able to fight for Himself and His honor with no help from His creation. This story from 1 Samuel is an inspiring and humorous story that shows God’s ability to defend Himself even when none of His “followers” are doing a good job of following.
The Philistines Eli’s son’s, Hophni and Phinehas, carried the Ark of the Covenant with the Israelite army into battle against the Philistines and Hophni & Phinehas were killed, the Israelite army was defeated, and the Ark of the Covenant was captured.
God had been disrespected by the Israelites in general and the priests in particular, so God allowed them to be defeated by their enemies. This however doesn’t mean that He allowed His name to be dishonored.
Now the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it to the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. When the Ashdodites arose early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and set him in his place again. (1 Samuel 5:1-3a) {emphasis mine}
When the Philistines put the Ark into the temple of their “god,” they put the Ark before Dagon as a sign of submission, but the one true God doesn’t need anyone to defend Him. When the people returned the next day, their “god” Dagon was face down, prostrate before the Earthly throne of God. The real God cast down the false god/idol in the ultimate position of submission and worship.
The Philistines, however, weren’t ready to submit to the real God yet.
So they took Dagon and set him in his place again. But when they arose early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on 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 on the threshold; only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. (1 Samuel 5:3b-4) {emphasis mine}
After the Philistines sat their “god” up again (because he couldn’t set himself up), the real God cast him face down again, but this time removed his head and his hands (his mind and his ability to act). You have to love God’s sense of humor showing them who was really God, but like most people, they were slow learners and didn’t want to change their worldview.
Now the hand of the Lord was heavy on the Ashdodites, and He ravaged them and smote them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territories. When the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for His hand is severe on us and on Dagon our god.” So they sent and gathered all the lords of the Philistines to them and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” And they said, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath.” And they brought the ark of the God of Israel around. (1 Samuel 5:6-8) {emphasis mine}
When the Philistines still wouldn’t listen, God attacked them personally by smiting “them with tumors.” Fear overcame them, so they sent the Ark to another Philistine city, Gath. They didn’t worship the one, true God. They didn’t return the Ark. They just passed the misery to another of their cities.
After they had brought it around, the hand of the Lord was against the city with very great confusion; and He smote the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them. So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And as the ark of God came to Ekron the Ekronites cried out, saying, “They have brought the ark of the God of Israel around to us, to kill us and our people.” (1 Samuel 5:6-8) {emphasis mine}
As the Ark arrived in Gath, the people of Gath had tumors break out, so the people of Gath sent the Ark on to Ekron. The Ekronites realized what was about to befall them and cried out saying, “They have brought the ark of the God of Israel around to us, to kill us and our people.” After seven months of various cities being ravaged by God, they finally called their diviners in order to try to figure out what to do to stop this plague.
They said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty; but you shall surely return to Him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed and it will be known to you why His hand is not removed from you.” Then they said, “What shall be the guilt offering which we shall return to Him?” And they said, “Five golden tumors and five golden mice according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for one plague was on all of you and on your lords. So you shall make likenesses of your tumors and likenesses of your mice that ravage the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps He will ease His hand from you, your gods, and your land. (1 Samuel 6:3-5) {emphasis mine}
God hates divination, but this was the first wise action taken by the Philistines. They started to show proper respect for the one true God, even if they didn’t really understand that He wasn’t just another god, but the one and only God. The one thing they did understand was that they should give a guilt offering to ask forgiveness for their sins against God.
Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He had severely dealt with them, did they not allow the people to go, and they departed? (1 Samuel 6:6)
They also had seen God’s majesty and wrath with respect to the Egyptians and Pharaoh and didn’t want to suffer what Egypt suffered for refusing to obey God. They feared God, but they didn’t want to submit to Him and they really didn’t want to submit to the Israelites, so they decided to put God to a test:
Now therefore, take and prepare a new cart and two milch cows on which there has never been a yoke; and hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves home, away from them. Take the ark of the Lord and place it on the cart; and put the articles of gold which you return to Him as a guilt offering in a box by its side. Then send it away that it may go. Watch, if it goes up by the way of its own territory to Beth-shemesh, then He has done us this great evil. But if not, then we will know that it was not His hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance.” (1 Samuel 6:7-9) {emphasis mine}
The Creator of the universe didn’t have any trouble with the Philistine’s test. The Philistines had two nursing cows yoked to a cart with the Ark on it. They wanted to see if these nursing cows would head home to their nursing calves as would be expected, or would they take the Ark home to Israel? What do you think happened? Of course, the cows took the Ark straight to Israel to the very city, Beth-shemesh, that the Philistines had specified. He proved without a shadow of a doubt that He was God.
If only the Israelites showed as much respect. Many of the residents of Beth-shemesh died because they disobeyed and looked into the Ark. The one true God is omnipotent, but He is also holy and must be treated as such.
God made sure His people and these pagan foreigners knew His power and He didn’t need any help.
Just as was shown in my last post, this historical event demonstrated God’s power to His people and to foreigners. When God’s chosen people refused to show Him proper reverence, He corrected them and corrected those surrounding them.
Trust Jesus.
your sister in Christ,
Christy
Bible verses are NASB (New American Standard Bible) 1995 edition unless otherwise stated