Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20011223.htm

1 AND 2 SAMUEL: GOD'S SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS IN OVERSIGHT
Part VIII: Trusting God's Immutability Amidst His People's Spiritual Bankruptcy
(1 Samuel 5:1-7:2)
  1. Introduction
    1. There are times when the people of God and their leaders lose out on God's blessings because of sin.
    2. Yet, the Lord can not fail as He is immutable, and 1 Samuel 5:1-7:2 illustrates this truth (as follows):
  2. Trusting God's Immutability Amidst His People's Spiritual Bankruptcy, 1 Samuel 5:1-7:2.
    1. Though the Philistines had defeated the sinful people of Israel in battle, they learned from God Himself that He was not conquerable, but that He was to be revered above all other gods, 5:1-12; 6:1-18:
      1. The Philistines experienced ultimate religious humiliation and physical distress when they treated God's ark as a trophy of their conquest might and the might of their false god, Dagon, 1 Sam. 5:1-12:
        1. Assuming they had captured the ark of Israel's God because their god, Dagon was greater than Israel's God, the Philistines placed the ark beside their statue of Dagon in Dagon's temple, 5:1-2.
        2. Now, Dagon was the Philistines' greatest god: even in ancient Ugarit, Dagon was Baal's father, and Dagon was widely worshipped in Mesopotamia, Chaldea and Syria; from his waist down, Dagon was formed as a fish where his upper torso, head and arms were in a human shape, Z.P.E.B., v. 2, p. 2; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Com. on the Whole Bible, p. 208.
        3. The next morning, the Philistines found the entire Dagon statue fallen prostrate before the ark of God, implying Dagon was weaker than Israel's God, 1 Samuel 5:3a,b.
        4. Assuming the fall had been a chance accident, the Philistines set the statue back up in its place, 5:3c.
        5. However, the next morning, the Dagon statue was mutilated: its lower fish part remained in place, but the upper human torso had been broken off, and its head and hands separated from the fallen torso and placed on the temple door's threshold as though mutilated by an enemy. Israel's God had mutilated the idol in this particular way, 1 Samuel 5:4; Ibid., Jamieson, Fausset & Brown. Hence, with their chief god so mutilated by Israel's God, the Philistines were ever afterward too humiliated to cross Dagon's temple door threshold and thus worship in Dagon's temple, 1 Samuel 5:5!
        6. Besides this ultimate religious humiliation, wherever the Philistines took the ark of God, the people of the area were afflicted with embarrassing, painful, lethal tumors, 1 Samuel 5:6-12.
      2. Hence, they performed a test to see if their troubles were due to the work of Israel's God, and God passed the test to reveal His sovereignty and power over the Philistines and their god, 1 Samuel 6:1-18:
        1. When the Philistines called the diviners to ask for a solution to their trials, the diviners said Israel's God was afflicting them like He had the Egyptians hundreds of years before, 6:1-2, 6.
        2. Thus, the diviners urged trespass offerings be made to Israel's God, and that they place His ark on a new cart driven by two milking cows to see if it would return to Israel, 1 Samuel 6:3-5, 7-9a. If the ark returned against the wishes of the milking cows [who would naturally not want to leave their calves and pull the cart to Israel], they would know for sure their trials were from Israel's God, 6:9b.
        3. When they did so, the Philistine lords saw the ark return to Israel against the will of the lowing cows who pulled its cart, so they knew for sure Israel's God was sovereign over them, 6:10-12, 16-18.
    2. When the ark returned to Israel, even Israel learned God was to be revered and obeyed as God, 6:19-7:2:
      1. Though the people of God rejoiced to have the ark back, some of them at Beth-shemesh looked into the ark in violation of the Mosaic Law, so God killed them, 1 Sam. 6:19 with Numbers 4:5.
      2. Accordingly, the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh expressed their amazement at God's holiness, and in reverence sent God's ark to Kirjath-jearim, 1 Samuel 6:20-21.
      3. In Kirjath-jearim, Eleazar the son of Abinadab was sanctified to keep the ark, 1 Samuel 7:1.
      4. For the next twenty years, fearing punishment for their unholiness, Israel mourned after the Lord, 7:2b.
Lesson: Though Israel and her LEADERS had FAILED God, resulting in her defeat before the Philistines, God revealed to the PHILISTINES and ISRAEL that He was not to be conquered, but was the same HOLY, SOVEREIGN Lord as had delivered Israel out of former Egyptian bondage!

Application: In times of spiritual DEFEAT among God's people and their leaders, we must TRUST in God, for HE is UNCHANGINGLY, SOVEREIGNLY IMMUNE to sin and defeat as are we!