Dagon's Down Again

Introduction

Theres a science to falling. NASA records Sir Isaac Newton’s first law applied to falling objects as such, “every object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled to change its state by the action of an external force”. He calls it a “free fall”. This is also known as inirta. In other words, it stands, until something knocks it down.

I know it seems pretty simple, just topple over and youve eventually hit the ground; youve fallen. Teenagers make fun of the Life Alert commercials where the seasoned citizen yells “I’ve fallen and I cant get up!”. It’s comical to them because they dont know what its like to age. They dont understand what its like to one day have been capable of doing something with ease, and time slowly steals those abilities away from you. Ahh but young people do know what it is to fall. We fall in and out of what we believe is love. We fall into one career and out of another trying to find our purpose. All the while enduring the echoing aching nag of those decades ahead of us telling us how they worked harder than we did when they were growing up, or how we dont have values and patience. They dont understand that the world we live in has literally programmed us to desire more faster with no regard for how things are now, only anticpation of what can be. Young people appreciate your seasoned counterparts because their falls have paved the way for your standing. Seasoned citicens appreciate your younger counterparts, because their falls thought different are quite the same, and will allow the world to continue on as your legacy is remembered.

But the reality is, all of us have fallen, are falling, and will fall again. Its called humanity expressed through life’s journey. While I appreciate Sir Isaac Newton’s contribution to science and physics, I have to push back on that term “free fall”, because every fall no matter who or what you are will cost you something. It will cost you something when life simply knocks you down, but itll cost you even more when God knocks you down…or when God knocks your gods down.

Focus: God’s desire is to be isolated in worship where no other gods are present.

Function: Our desire should be to present an empty heart, house, community where God can come in and dwell how God pleases.

Big Idea: Idols stay where the one true God puts them; down!

Background

This book is positioned after a peculiar period in the history of Israel. Moses led the people out of their slavery and into their wilderness. But he’s been dead now. Joshua led the people across the Jordan river which was the bridge between their wilderness and their promised land. Along Joshua’s leadership there were many conquests as well. But Joshua’s now been dead for some time as well. Though at the end of his leadership he takes the nation to the contractual table with God and encourages them to sign on the dotted line a renewed covenant, by the time we get to the Book of Judges, we encounter 300 years of cycles. Dr. Evans categorizes these cycles as ones of disobedience, discipine, repentance, and deliverance. God raises up individuals who try to help guide the people in alignment with God’s will and purpose for the nation but the pull away from God is strong around and within them. To simplistically illustrate the Israelite journey from Egypt to this point I would say Moses has led the people from worthless workers to wanderers in the wilderness. Joshua leads the people from wanderers in the wilderness to warriors in conquest. But in Judges, the people revert back from warriors to wanderers again, engaging in these previously identified cycles.

Our text today is centered in between another transition. Its the transition between Eli and Samuel. But stuck between Eli’s death and Samuel’s rise in influence is a location situation. Where is God? In chapter 4 Israel goes to battle and loses. Not only do they lose the ark of the covenant, representing the glory and the presence of God to the people, Eli’s son’s Hophni and Phineas are killed. When the word gets back to Eli, hes blind, of old, age and over weight. He is distraught by the news of the death of his sons, falls backwards in his chair and breaks his neck and dies. But he has a daughter in law pregnant with his sons child. She gets the news that the ark has been captured, her husband has been killed and her father in law has died as well and her grief causes her to go into premature labor. As shes there dying herself from all the death she’s expereinced, she names her son Ichabod which means “The glory has departed from Israel.” Have you ever been there?...

While this question of God’s presence and glory is important, this text provides an answer. Where is God? He’s handling idols.

God stands next to no one!

Exodus 20:2–6 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. Do not have other gods besides me. Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. Do not bow in worship to them, and do not serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commands.”

We know where God is in this text. No God’s not up on Mt. Sinai as we have seen, but God’s in Dagon’s temple.

Who is Dagon? Though Dagon was a well-known Semitic deity worshiped for centuries throughout western Asia as a meteorological and military deity, the non-Semitic Philistines had incorporated this god into their pantheon as well, assigning it a central role in their cult.

Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel, vol. 7, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 97.

Ascribed to the Philistines who inhabited the coastal region of Mesopotamia, the etymology of the world stems from the word “fish” and “grain” but only by folklore. We’ve see this god before as Samson is brought out in Judges 16. At the end of his life they make a mockery of him and bring him out to the people as they are making sacrifices to Dagon. It is here that Samson pushes the pilars of the temple apart and kills more in that moment than he had in his entire life. You would think Dagon was tired of God. In that instance, God’s servant handled Dagon and his people. In this text, God says “Ill do it myself.”

Who is Dagon? For the Philistines Dagon represented victory and prosperity. Maybe for you Dagon is the preservation of that toxic relationship. Maybe Dagon is your obsession with internet affirmation. Maybe Dagon is an obsession with building your stock portfolio and 401k. Maybe Dagon for you is an inward generational, gendered, ethnic, economic prejudice that you mask as tolerance. Maybe Dagon for you is frustration and lack of focus. Whatever Dagon is for you, this text teaches us that Dagon doesnt have great balance and all Dagons go down.

God creates space

In the NBA you have players like Luka Doncic, Steph Curry, Jalen Brunson, and Devin Booker, Anthony Edwards. In the WNBA you have players like A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Skylar Diggins Smith, Alyah Boston, and so many others who are the greats. These players are great because of their ability to move the ball, drive the pace, and sink the shots. But the shot doesn’t go in unless space is created.

God is a master space creator. He tells Adam and Eve not to eat from one tree in the garden or they will surely die; space. He tells Moses to take off his shoes because since His presence is present, this dirt aint regular dirt; space. But the space doesn’t stop there. God uses people to create space. Joshua and Caleb look at the Shaq’s of Jericho come back with a good report when the rest come back scared; space. Gideon defeats an army with 300 when he thoughts he needed thousands; space.

Placing the captured symbol of Israel’s God in the stronghold of Dagon reflected the Philistines’ understanding of the theological dimension of their recent military conquest. The Philistine soldiers had prevailed over Israelite forces, they believed, because Dagon had proven superior to Yahweh on the divine battlefield. Thus it was fitting that Yahweh should exist as an attendant in the household of Dagon, just as Israel would serve Philistia. However, the Lord defied the Ashdodites’ theological understanding of the recent turn of events. Early the next morning, at the time of day prescribed in the Torah for the first daily act of worship toward the Lord (cf. Exod 24:14; 29:39, 41; 30:7; Lev 6:12, 20; 9:17; Num 28:4, 23), Dagon was found in a posture of reverence and submission before “the ark of the Lord” (v. 3); “his face” was “on the ground” (cf. Gen 19:1; 24:52; Neh 8:6). The writer, subtly suggesting the futility of the Philistine’s idolatrous practices (cf. Isa 44:9–20; Jer 10:5; Hab 2:18; Acts 19:26; 1 Cor 8:4), noted that the people of Ashdod had to “put” Dagon “back in his place.” Their god, thought to be so virile on the battlefield, in the confines of his own dwelling did not even have the strength to lift his face out of the dust!

Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel, vol. 7, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 97.

Space creates distance - horizontal tangible difference (location)

Consider the ways the runners line up in preparation for a race. They may be in a straight line or staggered along the track, but their all on the same level.

Consider your career or college orientation. Everyone in the same room hearing the same speech or conversation, but their are different majors and maybe departments in that room.

Who is on your level but not in your lane?

God’s distance is nestled in the oxymoronic nature of creation. You can feel God’s vastness in looking at the sea and sky, but you can feel God’s closness in every deep breath.

Space creates distinction - vertical tangible difference (authority)

Consider the runners at the end of that race, when they mount that podium the first place is on the higher platform while those in 4th and below dont make the platform at all.

Consider the employee who gets the promotion, their desk and maybe even office changes. The student who excels in the class makes it to the platform to give the valedictorian and salutatorian speech at commencement.

The idol of Dagon is in the same space as the ark of God but it cannot stand to sustain the level as God.

Who/what is in your space but not on your level?

God’s distinction is manifested in God’s holiness and righteousness. That standard washes over God’s people to make us distinct as well.

In verses 1-5 God humbles the god, in verses 6-12 God humbles the worshippers of the god. God’s authority reigns over you and what is holding you.

But Wait! God created space between both the Israelites and the Philistines. The Isrelite priests Hophni and Phineas were corrupting the sacrifice and they were presuming on the presence of God, while the Philistines were diminishing the presence of God by reducing it to a trophy to place on their shelf of conquests.

Those who claim to know AND not know God are liable for creating distance between themselves and God. Dosnt matter which side youre on, theyre both further away from God than you need to be.

God commands victory

The cutting off of heads and hands represents victory and the dibilitation of the enemy. Robert. D. Bergen says that God performed a “ritual execution” of this deity.

Joel M. LeMon says this

In the ancient world, as today, nothing captures the horror and spectacle of death more than the severed head. Unlike other disarticulated body parts, the sight of a severed head leaves no doubt about the identity of the deceased. Moreover, it provides the clearest possible “proof of death.”

Beheading is also the ultimate life-extinguishing act. The ancient battlefield produced many nonlethal injuries. It was possible to survive being stabbed with a sword, shot with an arrow, or impaled with a spear. Yet beheading always has the same consequence.

Because of the unambiguous way in which beheading signals death, decapitation was a common practice in the ancient world, especially in the context of war. The story of David cutting off Goliath’s head (1Sam 17:50-51) is one of many biblical accounts of decapitation. For other examples from the larger ancient Near Eastern context, one can turn to in the annals of Ashurnasirpal II, in which the Neo-Assyrian king boasts about one of his victories: “I felled 800 of their combat troops with the sword (and) cut off their heads.” Describing another conquest, he claims: “I hung their heads on trees around the city.” Numbering and displaying heads provided a terrifying and effective means of commemorating the king’s domination.

Indeed, severed heads and headless corpses recur as frequent tropes throughout ancient Near Eastern art. The Sumerian Stela of Eannatum (circa 2450 B.C.E.), for example, presents severed heads being picked apart and carried aloft by vultures. This image relates the dis-integration of a once-powerful enemy. Enemies without bodies pose a threat no longer but are instead reduced to food for scavengers.

John 16:33 “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.””

Again, our gods stay where God puts them; down!

The exhilerating HBO drama Game of Thrones depicts a Sir. Jamie Lannister was knows as one of the best swordsmen in the kingdom. After Aryes Targarean, he earned the derogtory name Kingslayer. He was over all the armies in the kingdom and with his name and abilities he was untouchable. He had the confidence of one who just doesnt lose. But that same confidence in is ability and name has him at the mercy of soldiers loyal to House Bolton. He tries to use his name and status and the leader of the army simply cuts off his hand. What a punishment for the use of a name!...

There are times when the name works, and other times when the hand works better.

You can recall a time when momma said dont do this and dont do that, and just because she said it doesnt mean you obeyed it. Momma would then have to graduate from the name of discipline to the hand of discipline. If we are honest, there have been times in all of our lives when the name of God didnt get to us like it shouldve but the hand of God did.

It is not by any means a suggestion a reference to the weakness of God’s name, but rather an emphasis to the reality of God’s hand.

Yes the Lord is my Shpeherd and I shall not want, but His rod and staff also confort me. Im glad that the hand of God not only conforts me but it corrects me to the point where it will knock my idols down time and time again.

Is there anyone that can appreciat the hand of God? God destroys what tries to destroy us, but God’s hand also keeps us in line.

The hand of God smashed Jericho’s walls so the Isrealites didnt have to rent a bulldozer. The hand of God is creation in Genesis and deliverence in Exodus. It is confort in the Psalms and instruction in Proverbs. It defeats sin in the Gospels through the person and work of Jesus Christ and it builds up the church in the Epistles. The hand of God has always been at work is at work right now and will always be at work. Because one day, God is coming back in the form of Jesus Christ with a set of hands marked with nailprints....

Colossians 2:15 “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.”

He’s got the whole world in His hands.