Sermon Tone Analysis

Big themes:

Sovereignty of God

The heart of God vs. the heart of man - it shows us who we really are, Who God really is, and it so clearly shows us our need for Him because of who we are and Who He is!

And once again today, we are going to see these things in a big way, and as we find God in our passage today, I wants us to see how He sovereignly works good, in all circumstances.

And how He does what we can’t do.

Because think about what we do.

Think about what man does.

Think about what we saw last week.

The Israelites tried to use God for their own ends.

They tried to get God to work their way.

First review the battle, the Ark (given by God to represent His presence) (but used as a token or icon that gave Israel strength - like God would empower them to do things their own way) - the defeat of Israel (their way didn’t work!)

As we saw with Eli and his sons, and the history of Israel through that time, and the condition of the priesthood, and the worship of Israel at this point - almost everything was wrong because they were doing things their way.

But as we have already started to see - God was going to set it right.

He would for His people what they couldn’t do for themselves.

Because that’s what our God does.

He had already begun to do that by removing the priesthood as it was and placing Samuel in position to become priest, prophet, and judge in Israel.

He took care of the most important in-house problem.

And now God was going to begin to take care of the greatest outward threat, the Philistines.

At the end of chapter 4, it looks like the Philistines had won.

The earthly circumstances were not seemingly good for God’s people.

But very often, we interpret our own circumstances wrong.

Because God is always - ALWAYS - at work to carry out His sovereign - and His good - will.

He has a plan, and He has and is and will carry it out.

And we saw Him begin to do that at the end of the last chapter.

And He did it, not by giving Israel victory against the Philistines, but defeat.

They lost tens of thousands of men, and they lost the Ark.

The glory had left Israel.

Everything was going according to God’s plan.

Let’s talk some more about Dagon.

As Pastor Dave told us last week, Dagon was a half-man, half-fish god.

Here’s Dagon:

Dagon worship has a long history.

Worshiped as early as the third millenium BC in Mesopotamia - Sargon the Great credited Dagon for his conquest of northern Mesopotamia

Early Amorite texts speak of Dagon as one of their chief deities

Hammurabi of Babylon claimed that it was the power of Dagon that gave him military victory

This same Dagon was the god of the Philistines.

As we see when the Philistines captured Samson about 40 years before the events we’re considering today:

Now note that even here, if you know the story of Samson that Pastor Dave mentioned last week, God overcame the Philistines not by giving His people victory, but defeat.

God truly uses all circumstances to achieve His will.

No matter how it looks to us.

God is good, and God is in control.

And here we are again, God has handed His people defeat at the hands of the Philistines, and they credit their god for the victory:

In the Ancient Near East, it was customary to take the gods or the idols of a defeated enemy and give them to your own god, because it was believed that the victory of one people over another was really the victory of their gods over the gods of those they defeated.

So in this case, Israel brought the Ark into the battle - a representation of their God - and because they were defeated, the Philistines take their “idol” and present it to their god.

And don’t miss that what Israel did here, was act just like the nations around them.

They treated the Ark like an idol.

And please realize, that when ancient peoples like the Philistines made statutes or idols of gods like Dagon, they were not dumb enough to think that the idol they created was actually a god.

They believed the god was a real entity, and the idol or the statue was a physical representation of the god, and that the god would place his presence in the idol or statue.

They would make the idol, pray to the god, and he would then make his presence with them in the man-made vessel.

And this is exactly what God did with the Ark.

He had the Ark made with the mercy seat and the Cherubim as a representation of His presence, and He then places His presence there, in the Holy of Holies.

God used many already recognized customs and forms of worship when He revealed Himself to Israel.

But here’s the big difference.

Whereas all the other nations would make their vessel and call their god to them, and hope that he would come and reveal himself to them…

…God revealed Himself to His people, commanded the Ark be made, and He placed His presence there, and then called His people to Him.

That’s amazing.

God brought His presence to His people and then called them to Him.

But Israel treated the Ark no different than the Philistines treated their statue of Dagon.

They thought they could bring their “idol” and call God to them there.

But that isn’t how the true God works.

And Israel was defeated.

And the Philistines believed Dagon conquered the god of Israel - remember, we saw this in the last chapter:

This was a battle of the gods to them.

So to them, their victory over Israel was really Dagon’s victory over YHWH.

Now back to Dagon for a moment.

In the lore of Dagon, he is said to be subservient only to one god.

And the same is said of Baal in Canaanite lore.

They are both subject to a supreme God who is named, in both cases, El.

Which is a name used of God in the Bible that is used when combined with descriptions of His attributes - like El-Shaddai, God Almighty, or El-Elyon - God Most High.

Why is this important?

Well, in order to understand what is going on in our passage today, we need to understand not only the worldview of both the Philistines and the Israelites, but what the Bible says about the spiritual reality behind the physical world.

And let me try to peak your interest in this by telling you right up front, that to the Philistines, and to the Israelites, and according to the Bible - Dagon was real.

He wasn’t made up.

He wasn’t a statute.

He was, in fact, what the Bible calls a god.

He was a real heavenly being.

Now before you run me out of town with pitchforks and torches, let me explain.

And if you are part off our Revelation study, this is all going to be old news to you, so bear with me.

When God created man: man, God, and angels lived together in Eden.

This is why when Satan shows up and speaks to Adam and Eve, it was nothing out of the ordinary.

Eve is not at all freaked out that some heavenly being is speaking with her.

And God tells man that our job is to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth - that we are to spread our perfect image of God over the earth - to make the world like the Garden where God, man, and angel dwelt together.

But we know that one of those angels - Satan - sinned against God, and then he convinced man to join his rebellion against God, and the rest as they say is history.

And because sin becomes the norm on earth, God destroys man with a flood, and tells the survivors to restart human creation and fill the earth and multiply.

But sin is still the norm, and instead of filling the earth and subduing it, all these sinners come together at Babel to be in one place and reach heaven themselves - to try themselves to regain what they had lost.

So God separates man - He does what He told man to do, and fills the earth He created with man that He created.

But there’s more to it.

Because God at that point is saying to man - “fine, have it your way.

Do it your way.

I’m done with you.”

And He disinherits man.

He throws them into all these nations and tells the angels to take care of them.

And God calls only one nation out of all the world to be His.

He has Israel, and other heavenly beings - angels - have charge of the rest of the world.

As we read in Deuteronomy:

(explain “Sons of God”)

So God sends the nations away from Him, puts angels over them, and He takes for Himself just one people.

And while the Bible is silent on when and how, for the most part - these heavenly beings over the nations joined Satan - and man - in our rebellion against God.

So when Israel was called by God, the rest of the world was given to angels.

Every nation was alloted their gods.