It was an ancient custom to take an object or objects that belonged to a defeated person or army and to put such items on public display or to give those objects as an offering to a god. The Philistines give the credit for their victory to their god Dagon and they place the ark in his temple at Ashdod as thanks for his supposed help in the battle. Another reason for doing such a thing was probably to symbolize their belief that Dagon of the Philistines was superior to the God of Israel. Their actions are intended to show that the God of Israel has been humbled by the god of the Philistines.
But Dagon doesn't exist and the only reason the Philistines were victorious in battle over the Israelites is because the Lord allowed it to happen due to what we've been referring to as a "spiritual decline" among the nation's religious and political leaders and among the general populace. As you'll recall from the book of Judges, in at least one Israelite city the behavior of some of the people had sunk to the level of that of Sodom and Gomorrah. We've learned from the book of 1 Samuel that corruption has entered the priesthood. We've learned that the elders of Israel made a battle decision without consulting the Lord: the elders of Israel voted to send the ark to the battlefield as a good luck talisman after losing 4,000 men in the first skirmish with the Philistines. Instead of bowing on their knees and praying and asking the Lord why the first defeat occurred, and thus allowing Him to reveal things that needed to be repented of, they decided to take the ark to battle because they thought the Lord would have to defend the honor of His name. But the Lord is far more concerned with the condition of people's souls than with the honor of His name.
He doesn't need man's help in defending His holy name; He will defend the honor of His name when it needs defending, as He will do in today's passage, but He will not do it on man's command or in man's way. He allowed defeat in battle and He allowed the ark to be taken so that those in the nation who have gotten spiritually off track will humble themselves before Him and repent. When man lifts himself up in pride against the Lord, the Lord must humble him. But when man humbles himself and lifts the Lord up, the Lord lifts man up. The Apostle Peter wisely advises us, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time." (1 Peter 5:6)
The Philistines believe they've gotten the upper hand over Israel. In a celebratory spirit, they carry the ark to the city of Ashdod and place it before an image of their god Dagon who is believed to have been represented by a figure that is half man and half fish. "After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then they carried the ark into Dagon's temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord!" (1 Samuel 5:1-3a)
The Lord will glorify His name even when man does not. When the Philistines go to the temple the next morning, perhaps to bring thanks offering to Dagon or to conduct some type of ceremony there, they find the symbol of their god bowing to the object that symbolizes the God of Israel. Although there is only one God and no others have ever existed or ever will, idolatry has the powers of darkness behind it. The Apostle Paul, in his first letter to the Christian church at Corinth, compared idolatry with the worship of demons, saying that offerings made to idols were offerings made to demons and referring to idolatrous feasts as "the table of demons". Dagon was not real and could not do anything for or against the Philistines who worshiped him but what he stood for is real: the sin of idolatry and the demonic influences of idolatry. When the statue of Dagon falls prostrate before the ark of the covenant I believe we are seeing something Jesus' brother James spoke about when he said the demons believe in God and shudder at the thought of Him. (James 2:19) The spiritual forces of darkness that are behind the sinful worship of Dagon are compelled to grovel before the ark of the one true God.
The Philistines don't take this sight to heart. They aren't overcome with fear and trembling at the thought of Israel's God. They evidently attribute the fall of Dagon to some sort of natural cause and set him back up. "They took Dagon and put him back in his place." (1 Samuel 5:3b)
The same thing happens again but this time it's even more dramatic. "But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained." (1 Samuel 5:4) Dagon is once again bowing before the Lord but this time he fell facedown so hard that his head and hands broke off.
When the Philistines took the ark of the Lord and placed it in the house of Dagon, they were mocking the God of Israel. But, oh, how the tables have turned! The God of Israel has made a mockery of this useless idol. Dagon had never done anything for anyone, not even when he still had his head and his hands, and now the Lord has proven that Dagon wasn't able to protect his own statue. If a "god" can't even keep his own statue standing upright or prevent it from being broken in pieces, what can this "god" do for mankind? Nothing!
The Lord is giving the Philistines an opportunity to take this sight to heart and turn from idolatry to the living God. If they had fallen facedown before the Lord, as their statue did, and if they had repented of their sins and called upon the Lord for salvation, everything would have turned around for the better for them. Their lives on earth would have been better by having the Lord with them and they would have gained the assurance of eternal life in His presence. Sadly, they don't take the Lord's display of His power to heart. Instead, bizarre as it may seem and against all common sense, they consider the threshold holy where Dagon's head and hands fell! "That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon's temple at Ashdod step on the threshold." (1 Samuel 5:5) They actually revere this spot in the heathen temple. They treat the place of brokenness as something holy. They "double down", as the saying goes, on their idolatry. The prophet Zephaniah will make reference to this practice in Zephaniah 1:9 during a time when many of the people of Israel have fallen into idolatry, for they apparently took up the heathen practice of leaping across thresholds in heathen temples rather than stepping on the thresholds.
Many more dramatic things are going to take place due to the Philistines having the ark in their possession. But we'll close today with the thought of picking up idols. The Philistines picked up the fallen statue of Dagon twice: the first time while it was still intact and the second time when it was certainly the worse for wear. You and I may never have literally bowed on our knees before a graven image but idolatry takes different forms. Whatever form it takes, it will have a hold on our lives, so much so that we will find it difficult to lay it down and walk away from it---so difficult that we may lay it down over and over only to pick it back up again and again. It might be a bad habit or a temptation. It might be a wrong attitude or a tendency to have obsessive fears or doubts. Whatever that thing is, it's doing us no good, and it becomes the worse for wear as time goes on. Just as the statue of Dagon became less valuable as time went on in today's text, our idols are of less and less use to us as time goes on. Every time we pick that useless thing back up, we are figuratively bowing to it.
There are things I struggle with and I'm sure there are things you struggle with too. It may not be the type of thing we typically think of as a sin, such as stealing or committing adultery. It may be other forms of disobedience, such as giving in to fears and worries when the Lord has specifically told us time and again in His word not to fear and not to worry. I'm going to go ahead and admit to you that worry is one of my biggest faults. It's something I struggle with a lot. I'm struggling with it right now because of a routine medical test that came back indicating I need further, more invasive testing. I've almost given in to panic several times over the past couple of days even though I know fear doesn't come from the Lord and the Lord doesn't want His children living in fear. Sitting here thinking about all the "what ifs" and feeling like life is spiraling out of control is doing nothing for me except taking away the peace the Lord wants me to have. It's doing nothing but taking my focus off the Lord and placing it on something that may turn out to be nothing. And even if it doesn't turn out to be nothing, it won't be something that's bigger than my God! I don't know whether fear and doubt and worry are the things you struggle with or whether your challenges are something else entirely, but I do think that the more often we bow to the Lord the less often we'll bow at the altars of fear or temptation or bad habits or whatever it may be. We can take a lesson from the mistakes of the Philistines in today's passage. Let's not treat as holy the things that are dragging us down. Let's not cling to them. Instead let us cling to the God who created us, who loves us, and who does mighty things on our behalf!
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