Good Morning “Believers that God is NOT dead!” Today we are in 1 Samuel 5.
We live in a broken sinful world where we experience sickness, death, the decay of our world and our bodies - all consequences of sin. Furthermore we all sin, so… our world is full of sinful people who do sinful things to each other. Those who oppose the existence of God are often quick to smugly proclaim… “See there is no God, for if there were He would do something about these problems.” These proclamations never acknowledge that the problems themselves are in fact due to our denying, rejecting, and sinning against God. And, if God was to protect and bless despite that rejection… well, that sin problem would only get worse; and, the world would have no reason to turn to Jesus Christ the only solution.
We see this in our blessed world today. Generally speaking we don’t turn to God because of blessing - we turn to ourselves. (Deuteronomy 8:17-18) We turn to God in our struggle.
The Philistines have conquered Israel, for now, and have taken The Ark of The Covenant as their trophy. The Philistines are used to idol worship. Their gods are made of stone, and sit in their temples. They make the mistake of believing they have conquered Israel and Israel’s God. The Ark ends up on tour… much like the Stanley Cup or some other traveling trophy. At first in celebration, then as a hot potato.
They introduce it to Dagon, their merman like idol made of stone. They return the next morning only to find him toppled over. Now understand this would not have been a little figurine on a mantle. The statue would have been huge, at least life size, but likely even larger - as they saw their gods larger than life. It wouldn’t just fall over, but for an earthquake perhaps. They think it odd, stand him back up, only to return the next day to find him over again with his head and hands broken off. Additionally God afflicted them all with tumors. Each place they send it - anyone not killed gets tumors.
Ultimately back to Israel goes the Ark. What’s the point? We don’t somehow empower God with our worship. He exists, and His plan goes forth with it or without it. He is Lord of ALL, including each of us. Acknowledge Him or not. We each get to choose, blessing or cursing (Proverbs 3:5-6). He’s alive!
Love you all! Dig in!
We live in a broken sinful world where we experience sickness, death, the decay of our world and our bodies - all consequences of sin. Furthermore we all sin, so… our world is full of sinful people who do sinful things to each other. Those who oppose the existence of God are often quick to smugly proclaim… “See there is no God, for if there were He would do something about these problems.” These proclamations never acknowledge that the problems themselves are in fact due to our denying, rejecting, and sinning against God. And, if God was to protect and bless despite that rejection… well, that sin problem would only get worse; and, the world would have no reason to turn to Jesus Christ the only solution.
We see this in our blessed world today. Generally speaking we don’t turn to God because of blessing - we turn to ourselves. (Deuteronomy 8:17-18) We turn to God in our struggle.
The Philistines have conquered Israel, for now, and have taken The Ark of The Covenant as their trophy. The Philistines are used to idol worship. Their gods are made of stone, and sit in their temples. They make the mistake of believing they have conquered Israel and Israel’s God. The Ark ends up on tour… much like the Stanley Cup or some other traveling trophy. At first in celebration, then as a hot potato.
They introduce it to Dagon, their merman like idol made of stone. They return the next morning only to find him toppled over. Now understand this would not have been a little figurine on a mantle. The statue would have been huge, at least life size, but likely even larger - as they saw their gods larger than life. It wouldn’t just fall over, but for an earthquake perhaps. They think it odd, stand him back up, only to return the next day to find him over again with his head and hands broken off. Additionally God afflicted them all with tumors. Each place they send it - anyone not killed gets tumors.
Ultimately back to Israel goes the Ark. What’s the point? We don’t somehow empower God with our worship. He exists, and His plan goes forth with it or without it. He is Lord of ALL, including each of us. Acknowledge Him or not. We each get to choose, blessing or cursing (Proverbs 3:5-6). He’s alive!
Love you all! Dig in!
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