God and the Little Mermaid

When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. And 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. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. But 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. This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.

Our Understanding of God Matters

The Philistines understanding of God.

A god has come into the camp.

They thought he was a “god” like theirs or any other.

Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness.

They had heard about what the Lord had done in Egypt.

They also knew about what God had done in their midst already.

Judges 16:23 ESV

Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice, and they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.”

The Philistines were in the midst of praising Dagon for their victory when the Lord remembered Samson.

They thought it was multiple gods, like their gods.

Take courage, and be men, O Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you; be men and fight.”

They also clearly did not know who they were standing against. If the Lord had been involved in what the Israelites were doing, they would not have stood a chance.

Their success was dependent on God’s lack of involvement with the situation.

The Philistines captured the ark of God.

They viewed the ark of God as a trophy to be taken from war.

Perhaps they thought that he would fight on their behalf.

What do you think of when you think of God?

Is He like a good luck charm?

Is He your get out of Jail free card?

Is He your safety net?

Is he like a genie?

Or do you treat Him as He really is? The God who created all things.

Do we approach God as someone that we serve or someone who can serve us?

What do we learn from this?

We must be aware of how or prior understanding affects our understanding of God.

The Philistines thought he was like their Gods.

They couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Everything we experience in life builds a picture of who we will think God is.

Having something in your life so greatly built up with anticipation that when you finally interact with it, it is a let down. IE the movie the Titanic.

The same thing happens in regard to God, but in the opposite way.

You hear that God is your father.

But your father wasn’t perfect.

You hear that God loves you.

But you have heard that before but then they hurt you.

You hear that God will forgive you.

But forgiveness has always come with preconditions.

We need to understand who God is.

As he reveals himself in Scripture.

The one true living God.

Eternal

Creator

Holy

Savior

The problem the Philistines faced (and the problem that so many people face today) is that they view God as one option of many.

This is a super common view in the world today.

It is fine if you want to believe in God… As long as you accept and endorse what others believe as well.

This is the prevailing secular thought about how Israel treated the God of the bible.

The idea YHWH was just one of many gods that the ancient Israelites followed.

The assertion is that YHWH was later regarded as the one true God.

This understanding fully describes the history of Israel, without understanding that this was never a secret. This was the point of many stories in the Old Testament.

The name Israel, one who struggles with God, quite poetically describes this pattern.

The people of Israel constantly followed other gods. A few examples:

The Golden Calf

2 Kings 17:7–20 ESV

And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced. And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. They set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, and there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom the Lord carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger, and they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this.” Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.” But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God. They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them. And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only. Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced. And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast them out of his sight.

They constantly misunderstood who God was and rejected him.

God, in His loving kindness, did not completely forsake them.

This is where we see from this story that...

Our Treatment of God Matters

Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon.

Placed him beside idol.

It is easy to look at these stories and say: “how do these people not get it?”

We make idols of all things.

We worship the created rather than the creator.

The works of God are evident, but too often the reaction of us an all others is as though he is not as great as he really is.

How do you treat the Lord?

Does your treatment of God line up with who God is?

As one thing of many in your life?

What idols do you have in your life?

Relationships

Sports

Social Media

School

Friends

What things do you value beside or over God?

I don’t want you to think about what you would say… What does your life say?

This was baseball in my life… or sports in general. As well as meeting the expectations of people.

What things threaten to be idols in your life?

Idols are deceptive and will promise great things, only to let you down in the end.

Idols do not always start our as destructive influences, but they quickly become that when they take the place of God.

There is speculation that the worship of some of these ancient gods did not start as destructively as they ended up being. IE child sacrifice.

This doesn’t make it less abhorrent, but shows the destructive influence of idols within our life.

The alcoholic who has ruined his life and others didn’t anticipate that on his first drink.

The workaholic didn’t anticipate being an absent parent.

ETC...

Anything that you are living your life for other than God, is going to fall short.

It will literally fall short as Dagon did before the Lord. It cannot compare with him.

Whatever promises these things may hold are empty when compared to what can be found in the Lord.

Anything you replace God with is going to fall short in satisfying you.

You were created to experience and enjoy God. Anything you try to satisfy you aside from that will fall short.

When placed beside this false god, The Lord showed who was God.

When they placed the ark of God beside a false idol, he showed who the only real God was.

Dagon was fallen face down before him.

They set him back up and the next day his head and arms are cut off.

This is where we see that...

Our Response to God Matters

What happened after this.

The people of the city were afflicted in great ways.

They broke out with tumors.

Didn’t die, but were afflicted.

They moved the ark.

The troubles followed.

They returned the ark to Israel with an offering.

God does this time and time again throughout the Bible.

Through miraculous means he shows that He is who He says He is.

Despite this, people do do not turn to him.

Or they turn for a short period of time.

Or they follow for the wrong reasons (IE Jesus when he fed the 5,000.)

The Philistines set their idol back up and then ultimately remove God from their city.

They see what he has done, but they don’t follow Him.

They have seen how God has blessed those who follow him.

They have seen how God moves against those who oppose him.

The result of the clear work of God among them was to move away from him.

We look at the Philistines and other similar situations in the Bible and we ask: “How do they not get it?”

In reality we out to look at our own lives and make sure that we are not falling into this same trap!

We see the reality of God’s work.

We have seen him move in our midst.

But yet we don’t live as people thoroughly and utterly changed by what we have seen.

The sad reality is that there are so many people who are in the world today who fall into this same category.

They have been blessed by God. (through good means or through his patience)

They hear or see the rebuke of God.

They decide to turn from God rather than surrendering their life to him.

Where are you today?

If you are a Christian this morning...

Do you have a right understanding of who God is?

Are you following Him alone, or placing Him next to idols?

Are you responding to how he would lead you? Or ignoring the way he is moving in and through your life?

Have you responded to the Lord’s movement in your life?

Have you been saved?

The Lord has done great things. There is evidence all around you.

Perhaps greatest is the Lord’s patience with us through our sin.

Today is the day to respond to the movement of the Lord.

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