Neither the priest of Dagon nor any who come into Dagon's house tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.
Well in deference, superstitious deference, we don't walk over the threshold.
Well where'd they get this from? How do you?
So you found parts of him, you know, humiliated at the threshold, stepping over to somehow what? But that's what superstition is. It's just a fear. There's no basis for it. You can't back it up.
It suggests that there's another power in the universe other than God. You're listening to Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of 1 Samuel. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching.
But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of 1 Samuel chapter 5 as he begins a new study called Discovery and Recovery. 1 Samuel chapter 5, hopefully we'll get 5 and 6.
Well then the title is supposed to Be for you too. It uh helps me. to know what direction this is going in, and the title is Discovery and Recovery. It may not sound very exciting, but it hints at what's going on. I struggled with these two chapters a little bit.
Saying to the Lord, What is the purpose of all this? Why mess with the Philistines over the ark? Wasn't there a better way to do this? I wasn't content with the commentators that I referenced, not to speak badly of them, poorly of them. But Then I think the Lord did give me something concerning this.
I was pretty excited. For myself as a Christian. This Discovery about Yahweh and the recovery of the ark. We're going to learn something, hopefully, about God and how He Does things under these circumstances, and of course, we're going to see him recover the ark that the Jews lost on the battlefield to the Philistines. And so before he returns the Ark of the Covenant to Israel, which should have meant everything to a righteous Jew, which was reduced to just a sort of a mascot emblem for the unrighteous Jew, For the other peoples of the land, the ark was.
The emblem of the other guy's God, and they had their own emblems. Of course it'd be Dagon in this chapter, the God of the Philistines. And so God's going to return the ark to his people, but there were some things that they had to face, facts they had to discover, and he's going to lay them out. Believe that it's for all of us, not just for the Jews at that time.
Now again, just a little review. The ancient people supposed that when you captured the enemy's emblems or idols, of their gods, emblems of their gods, idols. That meant your God was stronger than their God, their faith was weaker than your faith. Your religion was better than their religion, and that meant everything. We experience some of this when we do battles for the truth with unbelievers.
So, Yahweh is going to take this opportunity to capture the ark back and to teach. That Though you may defeat His people on the battlefield, you've not defeated him. And that's the big part of the d the the discovery. We can lose on the battlefield, but God does not lose. And the Bible lays this out again and again, story after story, parable, fact, and so many ways.
And then we grow up to be Christians and. When we reach a certain age, our faith begins to get challenged seriously and it doesn't stop until we go home. to the Lord.
So, yes, his own people defeated on the battlefield by the enemies. of God and his people And it did not mean that God was defeated. They didn't know this at the time. And this is for anyone who would receive it to this day in the church. How relevant is this to the church?
We don't have the Ark of the Covenant to lose.
Well, the discovery for us is simply this: that we Christians are to win through. Oftentimes through apparent defeat. That is what the cross of Christ teaches us. he appeared to have been defeated on the cross. The ark is lost to believers.
The Christ was lost to Rome and the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin. And Thomas, again, so upset at that, he just wanted no more. He just wanted to go away and not be anymore. Only to discover that Christ was not defeated. Paul writes it this way in the Colossian letter, a letter that he is.
Addressing the heresies creeping into the church at the in Colossee. And he says about Christ on the cross having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them. He appeared to be defeated on the cross. But he was not. And this is now the third day they sit on the road to Emmaus.
And we were hoping he would deliver us. And he did from sin. That's a discovery. When you become a Christian, you discover this. And then you get to act it out in your own life.
The recovery is the return of the ark in this story. By Yahweh, not by those who lost it. Another Important discovery. That recovery of the essential things is by the hand of God and not by the swords of men. Reminds me of a General MacArthur quote Whoever said that The pen is mightier than the sword, never faced automatic weapons.
And I like that because it forces us to rethink Proverbs. Proverbs are very good when they apply, and when they don't apply, they They're blunt.
Well, the Philistines and the Jews would discover that Yahweh rules through this whole event. The Philistines would look back and say, We beat them on the battlefield, but what happened with that whole ark thing? Yahweh is what happened. The Jews would recover the ark only because Yahweh rules.
So Nebuchadnezzar learned this lesson. He discovered that recovery was all God's work. Daniel chapter thirty-two We read that the messenger came to Nebuchadnezzar after he was warned by Daniel. to stop puffing himself up and thinking he was so special. And then, of course, he goes out and he says, This is the great Babylon that I have built.
And at that moment, The messenger came. And they sh well the ma b Getting ahead of the story of getting to the recovery, but before then, the angel messenger gave him this warning: he said, And they shall drive you from men. And you're dwelling shall be with the beast of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen, and seven times shall pass over you until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men. And he gives it to whomever he chooses.
Well, that's the lesson, that's the discovery of the Jews. He gives it to whoever he chooses until you know the most high rules.
Well, what about us? When we're faced with all sorts of junk in our life that we didn't ask for. We didn't ask to be born. We have to face it anyway. We're woven into each other.
Can't get away from it. Because the same thing applies. Until we learn. that the Most High rules. In the kingdom of man.
And that's what we are discovering when we hear The Lord teach us to pray. and say, For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory. And we get to live this over and over again. I would be content with one time, but I'd like to go back to Daniel chapter 4. And that experience Nebuchadnezzar had.
I read verse 32, but now I'm going to jump to 35, and this is his recovery. And once he recovers, He goes into this speech. He says, All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, no one can restrain his hand, or say to him, What have you done? At the same time my reason returned to me.
and for the glory of my kingdom my honour and splendour return to me. I was restored to my kingdom. An excellent majesty was added to me.
Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the king of heaven. all of whose works are truth and his ways justice, And those who walk in pride he is able to put down. Because he learned it firsthand. He discovered that, and now he's recovered from this. And the lesson is there for us.
As Christians, we win through apparent defeat routinely. But one day the kingdom won't be restored to us, the kingdom will be opened to us, and we will. Be here no more. A kingdom that will never end. And we believe this by faith.
And Paul? Said, here's the thing. I press toward the goal, for the prize, for the upward call. In God. Christ Jesus.
in this nasty world. There are discoveries that we make about life that we would rather not make But there is one thing that is constant. And that is the glory of God. And it is worth it, and that's why we worship him. Because we say it's worth it.
And the thought of saying, I wish I was never born. Which many of the saints in the scripture said. I have two of them in mind, Job and Jeremiah.
Now in heaven they're saying, Thank you, Lord, I was born. God knows how to make it all come together.
So now, with that background, understanding that God has a lesson to teach about this ark and who is in control to whoever will receive it, that it is still applicable to New Testament believers to this day. We look at verse 1. Then the Philistines took the ark of God. And brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.
Now for seven months they have this ark in their custody. Not yet seven months at the time of the events that are unfolding before us, but it will be a seven-month trip. We'll get that from chapter 6 and verse 1. This mention of Ebenezer, of course, was named by Samuel 20 years later. We covered this last session.
Samuel's writing this, it's a reminder to the people. that though they lost the ark of the covenant on the battlefield, 20 years earlier. They have it back now, and the name Ebenezer is retained as proof of God as the champion. Battles without God end in humiliating defeat, and battles with Him end in victory. And that is the story of Samuel's participation twenty years later in the battle over the Philistines in the same area.
And when People fell on the battlefield because of their spiritual disobedience. God becomes his own champion.
Now how much more? for the church. A Christian believer that loves the Lord, albeit is disobedient from time to time. fails often And still Christ is our champion. And he rules in heaven, he rules on earth.
And anywhere else in his creation, verse 2. When the Philistines took The Ark of God. They brought it into the house of Dagon, and said it by Dagon.
So they bring it into this pagan temple and they set it next to the statue of the god that they worship. And the idea is it's a trophy, the Ark of the Covenant. It has been defeated by Dagon, and it will be there subservient to Dagon. And Satan will try to hit us with things like this. He won't use statues, he'll use events, and he'll make us think that we are defeated.
There's no power to our faith.
So the Philistines now saw Yahweh, As a lesser God. And This making him a trophy is going to get them in very big trouble. In First Chronicles, we'll read about. The defeat of Saul, king Saul, And I'll just read it to you: 1 Chronicles 10. And after they killed him there on Mount Gilboa, and they stripped him.
And took his head and his armor, and sent word throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temple of their idols and among the people. Then they put his armour in the temple of their gods, and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon. And so Over 20 years later, there will be another, in fact, 60 years later. Almost. There'll be another battle with the Philistines, and it will be King Saul who is slain, and they will use his armor as a trophy, and his head, and all the other gory things that go with it.
They will gloat over. But God is not defeated, because after Saul was killed, David came to the throne, and David did defeat the Philistines. After this life, time for me will be no more. But right now, time is very important. And the important part of time is waiting for God to do whatever He's going to do.
And that is a skill of a Christian, a skill that we are to learn, and we learn it through just trusting God by faith. Verse 3 And when the people of Ashdod arose early in the morning, there was Dagon falling on his face to the earth before the ark of Yahweh.
So they took Dagon and set it on its place again. This is the beginning of the scourge. They don't see it yet, but it's coming. This is the first outright miracle in Samuel's book. Uh this uh treatment of this false god, this Philistine God.
who again they thought prevailed in battle, And now this Presence of the Ark of the Covenant topples their grotesque rendering of deity. And such images cannot stand in his presence. That's one of the many lessons from this. Revealed truth about God comes in many forms, and this is one of them. It was again a humiliating defeat.
And it continues: it says: So they took Dagon and set. Set it in its place again. Yeah. Samuel doesn't refer to him as in a pronoun. He doesn't say any set him because it's nothing.
It's stone, it's whatever it's chiseled out of is nothing. It's no person. It's just a a lump of nothing. But when men must defend their God, Prop them up. The God is not worth defending and not worth propping up.
This is another irreconcilable difference between true Christianity and Islam. Islam has to defend their God. We don't. We can't. How can we defend someone who's omnipotent?
We're not omnipotent. That doesn't make any sense. If he is God, he can defend himself. Even Gideon's father said that about a pagan god.
Well, you know, if he's a God, let him deal with him, you know, protect himself. Anyway, that's what it means for us to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth. We are His witnesses, not defenders. Turn the lights on that otherwise. Would not be on through the preaching of the word, through the living of our life, a testimony.
And that is to create a process that slows down corruption, the salt of the earth. When David carried that jug head of Goliath around for three days, He no doubt salted the head to preserve it and to keep it from, of course, rotting under his very fingers, or slow it down drastically. Verse 5, and when they arose early the next morning, there was Dagon falling on its face. To the ground before the ark of Yahweh, the head of Dagon, and both. palms of his hands were broken off, On the threshold Only Dagon's torso was left of it.
Well, this happens two consecutive days in a row. The first day they go in, and he's toppled. The second day they go in and His hands and his head is severed, and his hands are laying by the entranceway, the doorway, the threshold. The fate of every false God is this. to be chopped to pieces.
Jonah in the belly of the fish prayed out, Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy. That's the unpardonable sin, is to go to your death forsaking the mercy available to you in Christ Jesus.
So, by turning to idols, of course, one declares that Jesus is not enough. That's what was happening with the Jews, is so infuriated Yahweh. They're bringing home these idols with saying, Yeah, we believe you, but you're just not enough. Unfortunately, there are many Christians that treat Jesus Christ the same way. I believe you.
but you're not enough. I have to bring in other. Beliefs. to help me get through life. And it says that, hey, I can do better.
In life. If I have Yahweh and Another God. Another belief. If I can add the gods up in my life, insisting that these will improve. How I live.
Contrary to God, So yeah, idolatry is a big thing, it's still here. It's fashioning And things in our head and our heart about God that He has forbidden. And uh we don't want to do that. He says here in verse 4, Before the ark of Yahweh, Again, this is the beginning of their affliction, the beginning of their scourges upon them. Isaiah 45, God speaking to the prophet, I have sworn by myself.
The word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return. That to me every knee shall bow. Every tongue shall take an oath. In other words, confess that he is God. And there is no other.
And when he says it shall not return, God says, I'm not backing down from this. This is it. This is final. And so again, the great difference between God's people being defeated and God being defeated, and that is what is taking place here in the temple. Nobody's figured this out yet, as this is unfolding in history back then.
No one's figured this out. Not yet. The ancients didn't see it this way. But Yahweh will help them all with this understanding. It continues in verse 4.
The head of Dagon, both palms of its hands were were broken off. On the threshold. He was violated. In the presence of the Ark of the Covenant. They're gonna get that part.
But the fact that his head And his palms are broken off, meaning he's brainless and he's powerless. There's nothing upstairs and there's nothing he can do. He cannot put his hands to anything. That's the message behind this, the symbolism here. God is exposing Dagon for what he is, nothing.
Useless as a god, pretty good as a dust collector. only Dagon's torso was left of it. Dismembered. pushed flat on his face. In the Book of Kings, we read about that wicked Jezebel.
and her fate was to be eaten by dogs. You just didn't get any lower than that as far as a curse being upon you. Second Kings chapter nine.
So they went to bury her. and they found no more of her than the skull And the feet In the palms of her hands, the dogs would have nothing to do with her pathway, with nothing to do with what she put her hands to, with nothing that she entered her mind. What did Jezebel do before she died? She painted her face. She puts makeup on.
She hears that they're here and she looks out the, you know, the eunuchs, they look out the window, and Jehu says, you know, who's with me? Throw her down. And so he threw it down. and the horses trampled her, and then the dogs did her in. And that is uh A fate that we warn the wicked.
We say, listen, you're not going to be able to endure the judgment and wrath of God. convert That times of refreshing may come. Verse 5: Therefore, neither the priest of Dagon, nor any who come into Dagon's house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.
Well, in deference, superstitious deference, we don't walk over the threshold.
Well, where'd they get this from? How do you, so you found parts of him, you know, humiliated at the threshold, stepping over to somehow what? But that's what superstition is. It's just a fear. There's no basis for it.
You can't back it up. It suggests that there's another power in the universe other than God. When a Christian enters into, you know, throwing salt over their shoulder or carrying a rabbit's foot, why would anybody carry a rabbit's foot for luck? It didn't help the rabbit. Anyway, coming back to this, Zephaniah, the prophet.
He points out that they're still doing this kind of stuff in Israel. Zephaniah 1, verse 9: In the same day, I will punish all those who leap over the threshold, all those still playing games of superstition. I'm going to deal with them. Verse six. But the hand of Yahweh was heavy on the people of Ashdod.
And he ravaged them and struck them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory.
So not only the city, but of the suburbs around it and the country around it. Speaking of hands, the hand of the Lord. The hands of Dagon were chopped off, but the hand of Yahweh were a scourging. The people in one of the capital cities of the Philistines. He ravaged them, and that means he destroyed and killed.
This was a serious plague. The tumors were swellings. The Greek word is the Hebrew word, swellings. And the translators have just.
So our tumors will work. You can't dispute that. This is a physical judgment. on the people. It appears to be only on the men.
The particulars of these afflictions are subject to debate, but the essentials are easy to get. God smote them with some sort of physical ailment, and they were dying. And so rather than ra majoring in the minors, we'll suffice it to say, this wa they were in serious trouble. Verse 7. And when the men of Ashdod saw how it was, they said, The Ark of God The God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is harsh toward us, and Dagon our God.
so steeped in darkness Conversion was not an option. They just stay fixed on the emblem. Let's get rid of the ark. Obviously, the Jewish God is stronger now than Dagon. Instead of saying let's switch to their God and submit, Which was the purpose of the Jews, to be the light of the world.
That was part of their commission. They really never did enter into it. May that not be so with us. Every Christian should be hoping to share the gospel with someone. And God will make that.
easier than you could ever make it. And it is face to face and is personal. The people that uh Before becoming a pastor, and just in the workplace, in the neighborhood, the people that came to the Lord came because of eye-to-eye contact, because of a relationship. Because I was around them. and they had opportunity to ask me questions and observe.
They were not expecting me to be perfect, but they were. expected me to not be a hypocrite. And God always made it easy. And whenever there were droughts, there were times where I didn't get to preach to anybody. I knew that I was not to do anything to change that, that he would bring them, and he did.
The end. Thanks for joining us for today's edition of Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Rick is in the book of 1 Samuel. If you'd like to listen again to this or other messages or share it with someone you know, please visit crossreferenceradio.com.
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Okay.
