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*'Arkaeological Discoveries' (1 Sam 5:1-7:1)*
/introduction/
Transporting spent nuclear waste is not an easy thing to do.
There are special transportation casks needed – lead and other material to confine radiation - advanced route approvals and notification – shipment escorts – satellite tracking – and so it goes on.
It's not easy moving something so volatile over long distances.
Radioactive material demands the utmost respect when its standing still and especially when its moving.
About 3 000 years ago the Philistines probably would have preferred nuclear waste in their towns rather than the ark of God.
This morning we'll find out why this is the case as we come to a text that centres on Yahweh's holiness, his sanctity.
Chapter 4 told us that we cannot put God in a box – he belongs to no-one – we cannot manipulate God.
He will suffer shame rather than allow us to carry on in false relationship with him.
We cannot treat God like a rabbit's foot, he's not a good luck charm to be used at our convenience.
He is Yahweh and there is no other god like him.
He maybe our God, but he is not safe!
/the Philistines meet a holy God (5:1-16)/
/ 'my god is bigger than your God' (5:1-5)/
Chapter 5 opens with the ark in the possession of the Philistines.
It moves from Ebenezer to Ashdod and what happens next borders on comical.
The ark of the Lord – representing God himself – is placed side by side with the rather cocky Dagon who has just flexed his muscle by defeating Israel.
Let's pick it up from verse 3, 'When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! (What sort of God is Dagon?)
They took Dagon and put him back in his place (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).
But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord!
His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained'.
Things are looking grim for Dagon who gets the 'god-ness' knocked out of him.
After being set against Yahweh's ark, on the first night Dagon falls on his face before him.
Then next night Yahweh destroys the pagan god.
Once again God can look after himself.
He doesn't need to have someone come and put him up again.
God can fight the Philistines by himself.
Israel is learning a lot about God.
You cannot manipulate God like a lucky charm for your own convenience.
And Yahweh is not the sort of God who needs to be carried and supported by others.
He does not bow down before other gods for he is supreme over all gods.
If any carrying is to be done, God will carry you.
The prophet Isaiah reminds Israel that it is God who carries us.
He does the carrying.
I'll read Isaiah 40:3-4, 'Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all you who remain of the house of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried you since birth.
Even to your old age and grey hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you'.
It's important that we get it around the right way.
God carries us, we don't carry him.
God doesn't need our efforts lest he wither and die.
The church has its own paganising mind.
It's tempting to think that the presence of God in Springwood and Winmalee depends on our efforts, or the efforts of other local churches.
But God is sovereign and supreme and he is utterly independent of his people.
Dagon is typical of gods in the ancient world who are dependent upon man.
When not served by food or drink they begin to languish and so man is there to sustain them.
Yahweh is not like Dagon, a helpless god needing to be cuddled, protected and sustained by his worshippers.
Now we respond to God by lovingly serving him.
We pray, read the scriptures, we worship together – we care for the sick and the needy as best we can.
The ethics of the Kingdom are utmost in our minds.
But we do not in anyway sustain God.
Paul told the Athenians, 'The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.
And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breathe and everything else' (Acts 17:25).
The God of the Bible does not need us.
To be sure he wants us - he wants us to love and serve him.
God wants us to bow down before him and he delights in lifting the humble and he pours out his mercy on those who repent and seek forgiveness.
But words like, 'somehow he needed me' – as one song says - are wrong.
The God of the Bible is sovereign and supreme – and as the Philistines are about to learn – he is also 'holy'.
/ 'pass the parcel' (5:6-12)/
Living in the presence of/ /a holy God requires considerably care.
In verses 6-12 three towns in Philistine territory learn this the hard way.
The action begins with the people of Ashdod in verse 6, 'The Lord's hand was heavy upon the people of Ashdod and its vicinity; he brought devastation upon them and afflicted them with tumours.
When the men of Ashdod saw what was happening they said, “The ark of the god of Israel must not stay here with us, because his hand is heavy upon us and upon Dagon our god”'.
Soon the rulers of Ashdod have had enough – they don't want the ark any more and they devise a great plan - move the ark up the road to another town.
Make it some else’s problem.
They do this and the people living in Gath soon discover that receiving Yahweh's ark wasn't such a bright idea.
The citizens are thrown into panic and the reason why is told in verse 9. God 'afflicted the people of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumours.
(It's pass the parcel again!)
So they sent the ark of God to Ekron'.
As the ark approaches Ekron the people panic.
Something has to be done.
'So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, “Send the ark of the God of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it will kill us and our people”.
For death had filled the city with panic; God's hand was very heavy upon it.
Those who did not die were afflicted with tumours, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven'.
God is good but not safe.
The Philistines took no precautions in the presence of a holy God.
They thought they had captured Yahweh – the ultimate spoil after defeating the Israelites on the battlefield.
But God struck out against them.
Notice this section on the devastation the ark brings is embraced by the 'heaviness' of God's hand – the word is used in verses 7 and 11.
The word for 'heaviness' comes from the word for 'glory' – the Philistines are experiencing the glory of God in a way they are not expecting.
The glory of God had departed from Israel and was reaping havoc amongst the Philistines who lose control of the situation and many die.
Again we learn something about the character of God: judgement is a manifestation of his glory.
When God's glory is revealed amongst the pagan nations – typically on judgement day – every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.
Not to be prepared to meet the glory of God is fatal.
The Book of Revelation celebrates the revelation of the glory of God.
Rev 15:4, 'Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name?' and Rev 19:1-2, 'Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgements'.
The revelation of the glory of God.
For those unprepared it means judgement and condemnation, 'It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God' (Heb 10:31).
/ coming to terms with a holy God (6:1-6)/
And the Philistines certainly don't want to do that.
Israel are going to get the ark back, not because they deserve it – but because the Philistines find Yahweh's ark too 'hot' to handle.
God is good but not safe – he is to be treated carefully.
In chapter 6, and after seven months, the Philistines make careful preparations to return the ark.
Since there are five Philistine rulers (v.
4b) the ark must carry back five golden tumours and five golden rats suggestive of the plagues that struck them.
An interesting exercise to try and sculpture a tumour but far from an amusing one when under a triple curse: diseases and death, Dagon reduced to a pile of rubble, curses on the land.
The Philistines aren't totally silly.
They say in verse 6 that they must not be as stubborn as the Egyptians were at the exodus.
They must not resist Israel's God only to crumple under the mockery of his judgement.
All is nearly ready: there's a new cart to be pulled by two cows that are sucking calves – cows that have never been under a yoke before – making the whole experience for the cows an unpleasant one.
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