Wednesday, September 07, 2011
Reading I Samuel 5 this morning, I came across some very interesting things. The Philistines had fought a battle with Israel and won. They captured the Ark of The Covenant. Israel mourned the loss. The Philistines brought the ark of the LORD into the Temple of Dagon. It is so funny to me that when they came back the next morning, their god Dagon was on his face in the dirt before the ark of the LORD. This happened twice before the priests of Dagon decided that they had to get rid of the ark of the LORD.
It reminds me of another verse in the Word of God. "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Phil. 2:9-10 One day, every man, woman, boy and girl, every false prophet, preacher, king, will bow their knee to Christ our Lord! We may feel we deserve glory down here on Earth, but one day, all the glory and praise will go to the Lamb of God!
Verse six of I Samuel tells us that "the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods". It says in verse nine, "...the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret places". I am not certain what emerods are in the Bible. Some say they are hemroids. Whatever they are, they sure do not sound pleasant. The lords of the Philistines got together and said, "Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was heavy there." Verse twelve says, "And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to heaven." The priests later told the lords in chapter six that they had to "give glory unto the God of Israel". They said if you do this, "peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land."
Now, I am not a scholar, but to me, if the God of Israel was that powerful to make me sick and kill others, to make my god fall before Him, I might would consider making that God my God. That seems logical, but sinners do not often think logically. I have family members that do not go to church, do not care anything about the Lord other than to say the trite "blessing" over their food. When a crisis strikes, they want you to pray for them. They say, "the Lord will work it out", yet they never once will seek Him! Christians will do that too. We will be out of God's will. It is obvious that He is chastising us, yet in our pride, we will not get right with Him. Why do we fail to come to the cross to find healing and strength? Christ IS all-sufficient. We do not need other gods! He is the Only God Who can change us and make us new creatures. Seek ye the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. There is coming a day that will be your last day on this earth. Do not wait to seek Him! It may be too late when you decide that you need this God. Trust Him today!