Don’t prop up your idols.

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1 Samuel 5:1-12

¹ And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod.

² When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.

³ 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.

⁴ 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.

⁵ 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.

⁶ But the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof.

⁷ 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.

⁸ 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.

⁹ 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 emerods in their secret parts.

¹⁰ 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 God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.

¹¹ 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; the hand of God was very heavy there.

¹² And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

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Reflect

After taking the ark of God 1 Samuel 4, the Philistines bring it to the house/temple of Dagon, the grain god. They then placed the ark next to this huge statue. The next day, the Statue of Dagon was lying on its face before the ark. They reset it in its place in the temple, standing it back upright. The next day, Dagon was lying before the ark again, this time with his head and hands chopped off. Spooked, the Philistines proceeded to pass the ark between different cities, but God brought similar nuisance and destruction to each city it came to, giving the citizens hemorrhoids as punishment

Remember

Have you ever tried to make God share space with an idol in your life? Perhaps it was a relationship with a girl, a sport, or career, or a pastime. How did that work out? It amazes me the steps that we sometimes go through to “prop our Dagons up” after God has broken them down. Just as the Philistines did, we try to justify the gods we’ve made beside the God we didn’t make. God will not allow this, for He is holy.  God will show his power and he will get his glory. These Philistines had no relationship with God, yet he still showed them that their idols were meaningless and powerless. Imagine how much more he would demonstrate this to a child of His. Because He loves us, He breaks us of our idols. He has to slice and chop them up to show how insignificant they are when next to him. 

Knowing that, isn’t it sad when we run back to our idols? As I said earlier, we prop them up again. God brings people, believers, and non-believers, to the realization of Him, yet they run back to carnal solutions and carnal pleasures attempting to remedy their spiritual problems. Some get so aggravated that they move on from God entirely. They want the ark in another city, far away from them. They don’t want to be reminded of the frailty of their idols, the meaninglessness of their self-centered lives, and the judgment that will come. It doesn’t work that way though. In the end, God will get your attention. The Bible says that every knee will bow. You can’t escape His glory, and you can’t escape His judgment.