Puny god
Notes
Transcript
1 Samuel 5-6
1 Samuel 5-6
Intro:
Intro:
Good morning, church.
I just want to start by being real with you—this was a tough week for me. Maybe one of the most difficult weeks of sermon preparation I’ve ever had—or at least, it feels like it.
Nothing catastrophic happened, but it felt like a week where one thing after another was put in front of me—and in each case, it was something I couldn’t control. And I’ll be honest with you—I hate that.
I’m a fixer by nature. I want to make things right. If there’s a problem, I want to give an answer. If something’s broken, I want to fix it. If something’s missing, I want to build what’s needed.
And in many areas of life, that’s a good thing. But in ministry, that posture can bring a lot of unnecessary grief.
Because pastoring isn’t like other jobs in one critical way: it’s really difficult to define success.
(hence the divide in opinion, consider the contrasting example of car salesman and carpenter)
But how do you measure success in ministry? Some weeks—like this past one—I desperately wish there was a clear answer. But there’s not. And, sometimes I really struggle with that.
And, I know I’m not alone in this. It’s this question that has long led churches to create their own metrics of success.
And while I understand the impulse, I’ve come to realize that many of these metrics are, at best, questionable.
Consider our most common metric: Attendance.
It’s easy to count. Easy to track. If a lot of people show up on Sunday, that must mean we’re doing a great job, right?
Wrong—this kind of thinking has been used to justify all kinds of abuse and compromise in the church.
Leaders have excused wickedness, saying, “Yeah, that behavior is concerning, but look at the numbers! The church is growing, so God must be blessing us!”
And if attendance is success, then why in the world would we ever do something as crazy as multiply?
Who can argue with numbers, right?
Or, how about our favorite Baptist metric—baptisms?
A few years back, before SEND Network was formed, church planting in the SBC was overseen by state leadership.
And do you know how a church plant’s “success” was measured? By the number of baptisms they reported each year.
And so one year, we literally prepared to lose funding because we hadn’t had a baptism yet.
It’s this kind of “metric” that has led churches to simply get people in the water at all costs—lower the bar, cut corners, asking people to raise their hands, then count em, line em up and dunk em.
Baptism is beautiful, but this isn’t the way. We plant seeds, we don’t control when God brings the rain.
So I give these examples, because while I understand the desire for clear, measurable success—and trust me, I felt that desire in my bones this week—the reality is, numbers can’t tell this story.
And this tension isn’t just something pastors wrestle with, it’s the reality of the Christian life.
We all desperately want a scoreboard. We want something clear and measurable that tells us we’re on the right track. But following Jesus doesn’t work that way.
And understanding this is essential as we consider 1 Samuel 5-6. Because this passage reminds us that true success isn’t about our ability, our control, or even our results. It’s about God’s power.
And when we forget that—when we try to manufacture success on our own terms—it doesn’t end well, as you heard in the text Barry read a few moments ago.
Last week, we saw that rather than repenting of their sin and seeking God’s will, the people of Israel—especially their leaders—tried to use God for their own purposes. They wanted “success” more than they wanted God Himself.
This is why, when Eli heard the news the Ark had been stolen, he died.
But when he heard from young Samuel of God’s rejection of him, he simply turned over and went back to bed.
God was a means to attaining success. Eli and the people tried to leverage God’s good gift for the purpose of them being powerful apart from Him, and in doing so, they bit from the same apple as Eve.
But instead of attaining success, the object that represented the gift of God's presence was now in the hands of their enemies, and the Ark became the ultimate symbol of their defeat.
Due to the large section of scripture we’re covering today, I won’t reread 1 Samuel 5 but in verses 1-5 (on the screen) we see that after the Philistines captured the Ark of God , they take it to Ashdod, one of the major cities of the Philistines, and they placed it in the temple of Dagon.
Now Dagon, was the god of the Philistines.
The Philistines saw him as their great protector, their provider, and the source of their strength.
So though they despaired briefly in battle, acknowledging that the ark represented the God who defeated the mighty Egyptians, ultimately they determined that Dagon was powerful enough to overcome Him and they declared:
Take courage, and be men, O Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you; be men and fight.”
You see, though they were impressed by what God had done, they felt their god had a pretty decent resume too.
Dagon’s worship can be traced back to the Mesopotamian and Canaanite region as early as 2500 years before Christ.
In Akkadian texts, he is viewed as a fertility god and for providing bountiful harvests.
But by the time of the Philistines, Dagon was no longer just a god of crops—he had become a national god of military power.
Somewhere between 50-100 years before these events, we find a similar scene in Judges 16:23-24 where Samson captured by the Philistines and brought to Gaza.
And after capturing and torturing him, the Philistine leaders gathered for a massive celebration in this temple of Dagon:
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.”
In their minds, the fact that they had captured the Ark meant that Dagon had triumphed over Yahweh.
They weren’t just collecting a war trophy—they were demonstrating the supremacy of their god over Israel’s God.
And so they brought the ark to this place of worship and national pride for the Philistines.
When they placed the Ark inside, it was a statement—they were placing Yahweh under the authority of their god, the one through whom they had found victory.
This was a ritual of conquest—a way of saying, “Yahweh now bows before Dagon.”
And so, for one night, the Philistines slept peacefully, likely believing themselves to be pretty impressive.
But, when the priests arrived the next morning, they realized, they had made a huge mistake.
Dagon was lying face down on the ground, before the Ark of the Covenant.
The statue of their mighty god—the god they believed had conquered Yahweh—was now face down in a position of worship and submission before the very God he was supposed to have defeated.
Perhaps they told themselves it was just a coincidence. Maybe a strong wind had shaken the temple, or perhaps the statue had simply tipped over.
Whatever the explanation, they hurried to lift their adorable little fallen god and they set him back in his place—because he depended on men to pick him back up.
The next morning, they returned—likely entering the temple nervously, and finding that to be an appropriate emotion.
Dagon had fallen again—but this time, his head and hands had been broken off.
The head, the symbol of wisdom and authority, was severed, Dagon was powerless to rule.
The hands, the symbol of action and strength, were cut off, Dagon was powerless to act.
Only the lifeless stump of his body remained, lying in the dust before the Ark of Yahweh.
The message couldn’t have been clearer: Dagon was no god.
Perhaps, Dagon was just a statue they had built to give themselves a false sense of security, at least this is what I grew up thinking idols were.
But, now I believe there was more to it than that.
I think it’s possible, that perhaps Dagon did have power. Perhaps he did someway help them previous battles.
Perhaps…he was what Paul would go on to speak of when he gave this weighty warning to the church in Corinth.
What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
Whether a demonic presence inhabited the idol or demons simply manipulated events to draw worship away from God and toward a lifeless object, the outcome was the same—a counterfeit god, who evoked counterfeit worship in exchange for a counterfeit feeling of success!
This is the essence of ALL idolatry. To place your hope in, and define success by, anything other than the Living God, is to fall for this same scheme.
The demon they had placed their hope in had been defeated to such an extent, that from that day forward all those who entered Dagon’s house didn’t walk on the threshold where he had fallen, fearing that the presence of the one true God might still be there (funny)!
And the rest of chapter 5 (again on the screen) tells us that this was just the beginning:
The Philistines thought capturing the Ark was their victory, but instead, Yahweh invaded their land and humiliated their puny god (hulk and Loki).
And he didn’t stop with this puny god, everywhere the ark went devastation followed.
Yahweh could not be controlled,
He could not be manipulated,
And He could not be confined!
They thought this was the god or “gods” of Israel, but He is the God of all nations, and all galaxies.
And so what began as a celebration turned into a desperate plea to rid themselves of His presence.
And what’s remarkable here, is that like Eli, this pronouncement of His power, should have led to submission.
They should have denounced the “god” that they had to super glue back together, but they wouldn’t:
The ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months. And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us with what we shall send it to its place.” They said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but by all means return him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand does not turn away from you.” And they said, “What is the guilt offering that we shall return to him?” They answered, “Five golden tumors and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for the same plague was on all of you and on your lords. So you must make images of your tumors and images of your mice that ravage the land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you and your gods and your land. Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After he had dealt severely with them, did they not send the people away, and they departed? Now then, take and prepare a new cart and two milk cows on which there has never come a yoke, and yoke the cows to the cart, but take their calves home, away from them. And take the ark of the Lord and place it on the cart and put in a box at its side the figures of gold, which you are returning to him as a guilt offering. Then send it off and let it go its way and watch. If it goes up on the way to its own land, to Beth-shemesh, then it is he who has done us this great harm, but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us; it happened to us by coincidence.”
The men did so, and took two milk cows and yoked them to the cart and shut up their calves at home. And they put the ark of the Lord on the cart and the box with the golden mice and the images of their tumors. And the cows went straight in the direction of Beth-shemesh along one highway, lowing as they went. They turned neither to the right nor to the left, and the lords of the Philistines went after them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.
God is pummeling the Philistines—plaguing them with tumors and ravaging their land with mice. And yet, despite their suffering, they remain stubbornly unrepentant, willing to do anything except turn to Yahweh in surrender.
In a great irony, the Exodus story they had feared—the very one that had made them hesitate in battle (1 Samuel 4:8)—was now playing out in their own backyard.
Consider the parallels:
The Language of Release – The same Hebrew verb used in Exodus when Pharaoh was commanded to “let my people go” is now used here, as the Philistines are urged to “send away” the Ark (6:3). What was once Israel’s deliverance has become the Philistines desperation.
Sending Away Gold – Just as Israel was instructed not to leave Egypt empty-handed, but to take gold and silver from their captors (Exodus 12:35-36), so the Philistine priests advise, “Do not send it away empty” (6:3). Though they don’t know God’s law, they instinctively sense they are in debt to Him. But, this is a:
A Debt Without Knowledge – The Philistines understand they owe something to Yahweh, but they have no idea how to repay Him because they don’t know him. This reflects every lost person’s burden—to feel the weight of sin but lack the knowledge of grace. Their golden tumors and golden mice are a comical yet tragic attempt to buy off a God they do not know. This is just:
Blind Imitation – Just like Pharaoh’s magicians, who mimicked Moses’ miracles without true understanding, the Philistine priests and diviners are grasping at straws.
Their confidence is a façade—they have no clue if their plan will work. Imagine being the “tumor guy” this captures the desperation of people fumbling in the dark, trying to appease a God they refuse to acknowledge.
And so, clinging to superstition rather than repentance, they set their final test:
The plan was simple, yet impossible—unless Yahweh was actually in control.
They took a brand-new cart, one never used for common labor, and loaded it with the Ark of the Covenant along with their strange offering.
Then, they selected two milk cows that had never been yoked. These were not trained oxen accustomed to pulling a cart—they were mothers, newly calved, whose instincts would drive them to return to their young. If left alone, they would never walk in unison, let alone head toward Israel.
The conditions of the test were stacked against success:
Untrained animals unlikely to pull a cart straight.
Nursing mothers who would naturally turn back to their calves.
On the road to Beth-shemesh which was uphill—not an easy path.
The Philistine priests gave their final instructions:
“If these cows leave their calves and go straight to Israel, we will know this was the hand of Yahweh. But if they wander, then all of this was just bad luck.”
And so, with the eyes of five Philistine rulers upon them, they hitched the cows to the cart, shooed them forward, and waited.
To their astonishment, the cows did not hesitate.
They walked straight down the road toward Israel, and the text says they were “lowing as they went” and that phrase is significant. It refers to a deep “mooing” sound a cow will make particularly when separated from it’s calf. This tells us that the cows did not naturally desire to head toward Israel, but God was in control, and thus they did not veer to the right or the left. They did not stop to graze. They did not turn back, they were led by God.
And the Philistines watched in stunned silence.
There was no doubt now. Nothing had been coincidence. This was all Yahweh.
And as the Ark disappeared over the horizon toward Beth-shemesh, the Philistine rulers turned and walked home—defeated not by Israel’s army, but by Israel’s God!
Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. And when they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, they rejoiced to see it. The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there. A great stone was there. And they split up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the box that was beside it, in which were the golden figures, and set them upon the great stone. And the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices on that day to the Lord. And when the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned that day to Ekron.
These are the golden tumors that the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to the Lord: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron, and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both fortified cities and unwalled villages. The great stone beside which they set down the ark of the Lord is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh.
And he struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked upon the ark of the Lord. He struck seventy men of them, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great blow. Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up away from us?” So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up to you.”
The people of Beth-shemesh, a Levitical town (Joshua 21:16), were out in the fields harvesting when they looked up and saw the Ark approaching on the cart.
They likely had spent months discussing how to go and rescue the ark by their own might, but after their soldiers had all been killed, this was a hopeless dream.
But now—the Ark of the Covenant, which had been lost in battle, was returning on its own!!
Their response was pure joy. The presence of God, which had been taken away in shame, was now coming home.
No army, no priest, no human hand had restored it—Yahweh Himself had brought it back.
And so the people immediately began to worship:
They offered burnt offerings (v.14) using the wood of the cart as fuel and the cows as a sacrifice—a sign of thanksgiving and reverence.
The Levites carefully handled the Ark and placed it on a large stone as a sign of honor (v.15).
This moment should have been a powerful testimony to Israel: Unlike Dagon God does not need to be lifted by human hands. He delivers Himself.
And that’s good news, because worship quickly turns to defiance:
And he struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked upon the ark of the Lord. He struck seventy men of them, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great blow.
It seems the people of Beth-shemesh violated God’s holiness by looking into the Ark—something strictly forbidden in Numbers 4:20.
Now the Philistines had mishandled the Ark out of ignorance, but the Israelites knew better. These were Levites—the very ones entrusted with God’s law.
This same thing had happened to Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10:1-2) and will happen again to Uzzah (2 Samuel 6:6-7)—all examples of people disregarding God’s holiness and suffering immediate consequences.
And once again, instead of repenting of their sin, the people react like the Philistines—and after celebrating the arks arrival, now they just wanted to get rid of it saying:
Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up away from us?”
This is a crucial moment. The presence of God had returned, but the people were not ready.
They still saw the ark as merely their success! Not, as their salvation.
Closing: Dagon, Nineveh, and Gospel Success
Closing: Dagon, Nineveh, and Gospel Success
As we close this morning, I want to consider the question we started with—how do we measure success?
We’ve seen how the Israelites, the Philistines, and even churches today have tried to define it on their own terms.
But 1 Samuel 5-6 teaches us that true success isn’t about numbers, control, or human effort—it’s about how we respond to the presence of God.
The Philistines thought they had won, but God pummeled them to the point they begged for His presence to leave.
The people of Beth-shemesh rejoiced at the Ark’s return, but because they treated it casually, their joy turned to judgment and despair.
Both groups encountered God, but neither truly submitted to Him, neither sought their salvation in His mercy.
I want to briefly share a story with you regarding a different response that we discussed last week.
Likely all of you know the story of Jonah and the whale to some degree. Jonah is a prophet whom God commands to preach repentance to the wicked city of
Nineveh. Initially, instead of obeying, Jonah flees by sea, but God sends a great storm, and Jonah is thrown overboard and swallowed by a great fish.
After three days and nights in its belly, Jonah repents, and the fish vomits him onto dry land in Ninevah to go and preach a message of judgement to those people.
Now something you might now know, is that history tells us, that the people of Ninevah almost certainly worshipped the god Dagon.
And in later Greek writings, we learn that at various points, Dagon who the Philistines saw as a god of war and agriculture, had been known as the god of the sea (the dude had a lot of different jobs over the years).
It is believed by many, that his name reveals this title as the word “dag” means “fish.” So many written descriptions of Dagon describe him as half man, half fish.
If we assume that this is true, imagine how stunned the people of Ninevah were, when like the lowing cow, a giant fish of the sea is used by God to deliver God’s messenger to their shore.
Dagon clearly was a puny god who could not stand before Yahweh—not in his own temple, not before his own people.
And while the Philistines experienced the undeniable power of God and chose distance over repentance.
Nineveh however, repented. When confronted by a prophet they didn’t even know, with a message that wasn’t even hopeful, they turned from their sin and sought mercy.
And what did God do? He spared them.
Sometimes, we’re like the Philistines—we see God’s power, we know He is working, but instead of drawing near, we keep Him at arm’s length, afraid of what full surrender might cost.
Other times, we’re like Beth-shemesh—we rejoice in God’s presence, but if we’re honest, we’ve grown casual toward His holiness, forgetting that He is not just near, but worthy of reverence.
Wherever you are, here’s the good news: The very thing that feels like judgment—the conviction, the struggle, the weight of your sin—is actually evidence that God is still at work in you.
The world doesn’t struggle with sin; it just indulges. But if you’re in the fight, if you feel the pull toward holiness, if you long to be made right with God—then rejoice! That means the Spirit is drawing you in.
Because here’s the truth: All of us, in our sin, want a God we can measure, control, or fit into our expectations.
Like the Philistines, we chase success on our terms.
Like Beth-shemesh, we celebrate God’s presence but fail to approach Him with the honor He deserves.
But where we fail, Christ has succeeded.
Unlike the Philistines, who rejected God’s presence, Christ brought us near to Him. He is Immanuel—God with us (Matthew 1:23).
Unlike the Israelites, who treated God casually, Christ perfectly obeyed the Father and became the true and better Ark—the presence of God in human form.
Where the Ark’s presence brought judgment, Christ took that judgment upon Himself. On the cross, He bore the full weight of God’s holiness, justice, and wrath, so that we could stand before Him not in fear, but in grace.
The Philistines and Israelites once asked, "Who can stand before this holy God?" (1 Samuel 6:20), and in many ways, that gets to the root of our questions regarding success.
And the answer is Christ alone.
Like Nineveh, success is not found in what we can accomplish, but in a posture of faithful dependence on the One who accomplished what we never could.
We don’t have the power to save, we can’t cause people to grow or choose to be united, and we can’t completely win the war with evil in the world or even our own hearts.
But what we can do, because of the gift of Christ’s presence, is we can be faithfully dependent.
Let us ask for this together this morning.
Communion
