Pastor John Stasse SYPC pm, 21st February 2010
The Popular Treatment of God (1 Samuel 5&6)
What can you say about a generation that thinks God is dead and Elvis is alive!
The Yiddish word “chutzpah” seems right. It has no English equivalent, but it refers to one who has an attitude of incredible gall or presumption.
The classic example of a chutzpah is the young man who murders his parents and then asks the court to show mercy because he is an orphan. Now, if we are inclined to smile at that, it isn’t because we think murder is funny! We are amused at the ridiculousness of the situation.
And yet this is the way that many people treat God – not with honour and praise but with chutzpah, with presumption, with contempt. Where there is any reference to Him it is with contempt, or with the assumption that He will fit in with our ideas or agendas. How many people do you know never give thought to Him during their life except to complain – but the moment something goes wrong they plead for Him to be on their side, especially when faced by death?
The passage of time makes no difference to this attitude to God, for what we see in many among our family, friends and neighbours we see in the Philistine people as noted in our reading this evening.
Now from the outset we ought to see that this people were not without knowledge about God. Not only because they were Israel’s neighbours, but from the very entry of Israel into the Promised Land they like the other nations in and around this area were very much aware of what God was doing for them. Indeed we also see in 6:6 that they were aware of God’s treatment of Egypt as He delivered His people – from which very act they then went up to possess this land, and over which they had been fighting the Philistines for many years.
But knowledge of God, even if it is but formative and basic, is not the question. The question being looked at and explored here is simply this: What do you do with God? How do you respond to Him as he makes Himself known to you?
Sadly, like the Philistines, many people respond to God with:
1. Disdain
The scene before us begins with the Philistine army having defeated Israel after the death of Eli, and in the process of which they had captured the ‘Ark of the Covenant’. You see Israel had foolishly taken into battle as some sort of good-luck charm or talisman in hope of victory.
The Philistine kings, having defeated Israel, took the captured Ark and placed it in their temple as a trophy of victory to their god, Dagon (whose idol was a composite of a man’s torso and a fish tail). They were in effect identifying the Ark with God in an idolatrous sense, as suggested the action of Israel in carrying it before them into battle. This was a declaration that Dagon was supreme, not the God of Israel of whom the nations had become so afraid. The Philistines were celebrating their triumph by displaying the captured ark of the Lord in Dagon’s temple at Ashdod. It was here, as it were, that the victor and the vanquished were symbolically brought face to face, but in such a way that God was being treated with contemptuous ridicule.
Notice how the ark was placed in a position of subordination “by” Dagon (v.2). In this way they sought to humiliate God by throwing Dagon’s victory in his face.
They also created the idea in the mind of the Philistine nation that the God of Israel is irrelevant for life – that their god Dagon is more powerful, the one to whom they should turn for worship, as well as in thanksgiving and worship.
And by having God’s ‘Ark’ in this temple, albeit in a secondary position, they projected a conviction that they were also able to harness his power for their lives when necessary. That is without diminishing their trust in Dagon who they now were convinced was superior, they also had the God of Israel as a kind of back-up.
Now there is something familiar in all of this.
Do we not here competing voices of contempt seeking to declare that God is dead? It was the cry of communism, and is the cry of humanism and of many areas of modern science and ethics. We here the cry of those who ask (without ever wanting an answer let alone willing to wrestle with it) ‘If God is real why doesn’t He just do something about the suffering…’
Many even without necessarily denying the existence of God or at least the possibility of it, nevertheless live as without any real reference to Him. They trust in their technology, their wisdom, their leaders. No God is not considered relevant for many in today’s world, just as He wasn’t in the days of Samuel among the Philistines.
Or if some sense the need to acknowledge God it is more in line with the ‘back-up’ theology of the Philistine model. It is not where they turn first, or trust above all – but there is a sensed need to have Him nearby just in case. This is particularly a problem facing those who have grown up in a Christian context but who never embraced Christ in faith. They don’t want to eradicate Him in terms of any significance or role in their life, but at the same time live as if he has none.
A similar disdain may be found among those who would call themselves Christians, who profess a belief in the relevance of God in their lives.
But whereas the Philistines brought the true God into the temple of an idol, they bring their idols into the house of God – but the principle of cohabitation is still the same. On top of this religious pluralism is all the go with its belief, that all religions are merely different expressions of belief in one God, and that Jesus is but one road to a common God even if for them He is seen as the main one. Their faith is perhaps involving a priority to Jesus, but not a solitariness or uniqueness. It is Christ plus whatever ‘god’ or ‘gods’ that have a current flavour in their lives, bring them some purpose or fulfil some need.
But even among those who would consider themselves more biblical in their separation this underlying attitude of disdain may yet not be far removed. It may for instance be seen in
(a) worship. For many who enter churches on Sunday their real desire is for forms and styles of worship that leave the mind untroubled and heart unexercised, but which are entertaining and create an atmosphere which leads them to say ‘Wasn’t that great’ or ‘Well that was nice’ – depending on what social grouping they come from. They approve of almost anything that works as a substitute for intercourse and homage of the soul with God. To worship in any way but “in spirit and truth” is contempt of God (whether it is being done in a modern or traditional worship format).
(b) divided loyalties. For many there are objects in their hearts and lives that are adored and pursued alongside or even over God. Jesus said you cannot serve both “God and mammon (riches)”.
(c) disobedience. To fail to keep His commandments is to throw his law it into His face, indeed it is not merely a reflection on God’s law but on God Himself. What makes sin so offence is not simply that the law if broken, but that it is God’s law that is broken. It is an affront against God, His love, His wisdom, His righteousness and justice, and even His grace. It is to say you are an equal if not greater authority!
(d) disturbing times. Melting and buckling under the situation, doubting God’s love and care or even His ability to do anything about or with this situation. This is but to pour contempt on His wisdom, power, love – on His whole character!
In each of these we’re putting ourselves, others or circumstances in the place of Dagon over and above God! Have you set up a Dagon in your life? Brought it into this house of God? That is to treat God with disdain.
2. Disbelief
Now one thing that comes out clearly in this passage is that God does not take this treatment lightly. He responds by challenging their confidences and beliefs about Him and about their Dagon.
Look at what we see! The next morning as these worshippers come in to honour their god, they see the mighty Dagon, their mighty Dagon, dislodged from his place and sprawled in all his impotence before the throne of the true and only God! And all they can do is prop Dagon up again.
The next day the scene is even more pointed. This time they find him not only dislodged but also with his head and hands removed. A very pitiful scene indeed!
The miracle was clearly done by divine power in both cases. What made it worse was that these parts were on the threshold – indicating that he was fit only to be trampled underfoot.
In so doing God revealed that the idol was very ridiculous and worthy to be despises, that it was impotent and unworthy to be trusted in or prayed to.
But more importantly it highlighted the truth concerning God: He is subordinate to none, and that God will share His glory with none, and He is the one before whom all should and indeed will bow.
Yet in all of this we see a determined unbelief. They propped him back up after the first night’s discovery. Then after the second night’s also, after which they also venerated the very spot – refusing from then on to step on the threshold! This is beyond belief – yet so it was. Despite His displays of glory, they refused to believe in God.
By this we see that the amount and clarity of evidence is not the key to faith. Jesus complained of the people in his day “If you will not believe my words, believe My works” – but He knew they would not. Elsewhere Jesus pointed out that it is that which is in the man that comes out and defiles. The problem was a heart problem, not at heart an evidence problem. Man is committed to disbelief. This is why he said to Nicodemus: “Need to be born again” to see and enter the Kingdom of heaven.
Mankind today is without excuse, yet they respond in unbelief. How we need to pray that God will bless the Word so that it will bear forth saving fruit. Without it they will respond in further and increasing disbelief. How often people pick up their fallen and shattered ‘idols’ and re-fasten into place over their lives, only to move even further away from God and to come further under the displeasure of God. Indeed do we understand that we are responding to God’s presence and power in our lives with disbelief if we fail to repent of our sins?
3. Disposal
Their refusal to believe, though, came at a heavy price. God’s response was to bring a heavy hand upon them, just as He did against Pharaoh and the Egyptians before them. Their evasions made no difference to the reality, showing that it clearly was not a mere coincidence – it was wherever God’s ark was located. The source, they rightly concluded (v.7) after a further test, was God. The objective of the test was to see if God was really behind all of their troubles. It involved two elements. Firstly, cows which had “never been yoked” which meant they were untrained to pull a cart and probably would not go anywhere. Secondly, nursing cows which were taken away from their calves. For the cows unnaturally to head off in the opposite direction from their calves would be a clear sign that the cause of their judgment was supernatural. But these were not obstacles to God, who demonstrated His Being and glory.
Yet even when their disbelief became untenable they did not turn to faith but became filled with fear and dread of God. As someone astutely stated, ‘A delusion proved is not a delusion abandoned!’
They should’ve parted with their sin, with their idolatry rather than with the ark of God. But so defiant in their unbelief were they, so hardened by sin against the truth, they sought to get rid of God. This we see in one community after another. If we read on in 1 Samuel 6 & 7 we see this is true of Israel also. Initially the people of Beth-shemesh had rejoiced at the return of the Ark, yet they are found treating the Ark, and hence God with disdain and disbelief as they looked inside. But God’s judgment upon them did not lead them to repent but they also in a real sense ‘disposed’ of the ark for it was soon moved from Beth-shemesh to Kiriath-jearim where it remained in obscurity for some twenty years (1 Sam 7:2), during which time we are told that “all the house of Israel lamented the Lord”.
Men will cry to God in despair, but they give no evidence that sin is troubling them, only its punishment. Like the Philistines they’d like to be rid of their suffering and humiliation, but not willing to give up their Dagons. No, they’d rather get rid of God who they see as causing them all this grief.
The right response, however, is that of repentance and disposal of our idols and unbelief – cf 1 Sam 73-4. As we are brought to see the truth about God as He touches on every area and circumstance of our life from worship to service, let us – to use the words of William Cowper, pray:
“The dearest idol I have known,
Whate’er that idol be,
Help me to tear it from Thy throne,
And worship only Thee.”