Never Count God Out!

Highlights from 1^st Samuel

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church

Jan. 29, 2023

Never Count God Out!

Let’s turn to 1 Sam. 5. Last week we read how Israel went to battle against the Philistines and lost badly. They wondered why God didn’t give them victory, so to ensure that God would be with them, they took the ark of the covenant – the holy symbol of God’s presence among them – and carried it with them into battle.

What they didn’t realize is that Israel had strayed so far from God, led by two despicable priests, Hophni and Phineas, who were raiding the offerings meant for God and were sleeping with the women serving in the house of God, that God had decided to discipline them through defeat and put Hophni and Phineas to death.

So as Hop and Phin walked alongside the ark into battle they were sealing their own death warrant. Sure enough the Philistines kill thirty thousand Jews, including Hophni and Phineas, and capture the ark of the covenant. It’s a devastating day for Israel, made worse by the death of Eli their high priest and judge for the last 40 years.

It seemed like God had abandoned His people. Even worse, it appeared that God had been defeated by the Philistine army and the Philistine gods.

That’s certainly how the Philistines interpreted it. It was a great day of victory! Everyone thought that Israel’s God was so great and powerful but it turned out He was no match for their god Dagon.

5 When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. ² Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. 1 Sam. 5:1-2

Dagon was an impressive and an imposing looking god. Half man, half fish, they had a large statue of him in his temple and next to this imposing god they put the ark of the covenant. Visually speaking, the ark couldn’t compare to Dagon.

The Jews were forbidden to make any image of God, but God did give them instructions to create the ark. It was not particularly imposing or impressive. If you’ve seen Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, you may remember it was a chest, about 4 feet long by 2 ½ high and 2 ½ wide with a gold lid and the image of two angels with their wings stretched out over the top of it. Inside the ark God commanded Moses to put Aaron’s rod (the one that became a snake when he threw it down before Pharoah), a jar of manna, and the two stone tablets engraved with the ten commandments. These three things symbolized the delivering power of God, the law of God, and the provision of God.

The tabernacle had two rooms, the Holy Place, and behind a massive curtain, the Most Holy Place or the Holy of Holies. It was in this Most Holy Place that the ark was kept. No one was allowed to go in there except once a year the high priest entered the Holy of Holies in order to sprinkle blood on the lid of the ark, what was called the “mercy seat”. We’ll come back to that in a little bit.

So Dagon cuts an imposing figure, and Yahweh is represented by a small chest. Dagon just won a mighty victory in battle over Yahweh and they figure Dagon deserves to look down on the God he just defeated.

There are inexplicable times in history when it looks like God either isn’t real or isn’t real powerful. There are times in history – and in our lives – when we don’t see a lot of activity on God’s part and we can feel like the Israelites: either God has abandoned us or He is too weak to do anything about this situation, this need, this prayer I’ve been lifting up to Him for so long.

Here's my message to us this morning: never count God out! Stir up your faith in God and never, never, never count God out! I want to share four true things we learn about God in the following narrative that is just as true today as it was then.

1. God is powerful

³ And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. 1 Sam 5:3

They offered Yahweh as a subordinate God to Dagon, but the next morning Dagon has done a faceplant before the ark of God. Kind of weird, but maybe Dagon was doing a victory dance and accidentally slipped so they propped him back up.

So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. ⁴ But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him.  1 Sam. 5:3-4

This time there’s no mistaking that Yahweh is messing with Dagon. He not only knocked him on his face, He cut off his head and his hands.

God says in Isa. 45:5, I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God

We see in chapter 7 that one of the reasons Israel was defeated is because they were worshipping false gods. Paul writes to the Thessalonians that they have turned from idols to serve the living God. The church is weak and defeated when we turn from the living God to worship idols. Most of us probably don’t have statues of fish-men in our living room but we can turn anything into an idol when we put it in the place of God in our lives.

If we think life comes from having a lot of money, money becomes an idol. When we put our trust in science to save mankind (or us personally), science becomes an idol. If we trust in a politician to make everything right, we not only making an idol out of politics, but we’re crazy too.

Our culture can erect idols and demand that we bow down to them, like they did in Daniel’s day. The extremes of political views is a case in point. Sadly I’ve seen and heard Christians on both extremes of the political spectrum speak in angry, sarcastic, and demeaning ways and if you don’t bow down to what they’re saying (and the way they’re saying it), it can feel like they’re throwing you to the lions.

Notice that Daniel and his three friends didn’t get angry, didn’t curse Nebuchadnezzar out, didn’t insult everyone else who was bowing. They stood quietly and believed God would back them up (and were ready to pay the consequences for their stand).

Daniel said those who know their God will do exploits. The exploits aren’t yelling at people and putting them down. It’s standing for God and not bowing down to idols and trusting God to do His work through our witness.

I believe that life begins at conception because that’s what I see in God’s word. So I want to stand for that. But I want to stand in such a way that offers hope, love, and compassion to those who have had an abortion.

I believe God made us biologically male and female. I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. At the same time I want to offer genuine love and respect to those who are homosexuals or transgenders. I see that as turning from the idol of changing people through anger, guilt and judging to the living God who transforms lives by the power of Jesus Christ.

I don’t care how far God seems from the situation or how powerful the idol seems to be, never count God out! God is powerful!

2. God is holy

After Dagon got knocked down and cut up, the hand of God was heavy on the people of Ashdod, with tumors and rats and people dying, until they said, “we’ve got to get the ark out of here!” so they move it to the Philistine town of Gath, but God’s hand is so heavy there a panic breaks out so they try to move it to the Philistine town of Ekron, but the people there are like, “what are you, trying to kill us? We don’t want that thing!”

So they put the ark on a cart with two cows who’ve never pulled a cart in their lives and put an offering of gold tumors and rats on it (to appease God) and send the cows on their way. The cows head straight for Israeli territory and come to a small town called Beth-shemesh and the Jews see the ark of the covenant coming and rejoice! God has come back to them! What happens next is unexpected. Some of them decide to look inside the ark.

¹⁹ And he struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked upon the ark of the Lord. He struck seventy men of them, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great blow. 

Of course, the big moment in Raiders of the Lost Ark is when the Nazi’s with a phony priest, open the ark of the covenant to see what was inside. The priest exclaims, “it’s beautiful!” just before the power of God kills them all. There’s that unforgettable scene of the arrogant Nazi’s face melting off.Indiana Jones and Marion survive because they keep their eyes closed.

Some of the people of Beth-shemesh looked upon (meaning inside) the ark. I don’t know if any of their faces melted but God immediately put to death those who looked into the ark. They approached God casually and disobeyed His command to keep the ark holy.

There’s an attitude among many today that God is nothing to be afraid of. Either He’s so nice or so non-judgmental and accepting that He’s ok with us no matter what. Or that God isn’t real or if He is real He doesn’t care what we do.

The Bible speaks of the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Jesus said don’t fear people because they can only kill you, fear God who can kill you and send your soul to hell. Yes, Jesus repeats, fear him!

Have you ever experienced terror? I don’t mean fear – we’ve all experienced fear. I mean terror which is extreme, panicky fear. Some people experience night terrors where they wake up screaming and flailing and feeling extreme fear. When we think of terror we might think of things like natural disasters or coming face to face with a psychopathic killer or maybe something demonic. But it might surprise you to know that the greatest reason for terror is God. That’s what Jesus is saying (but with one important qualification I’ll share in a minute).

Now someone might say, “it sounds as though you’re saying God is mean and cruel.” Actually there’s not a mean or cruel bone in God so we don’t have to be afraid of Him being cruel.

It’s God’s goodness that should terrify us. His holiness. His righteousness. Our sin – no matter how good we think we are – is filthy compared to His brilliantly perfect goodness. It’s His piercing gaze that exposes every part of us that will undo us. Hell is being cast away from God’s love and goodness forever and nothing is more terrifying than that.

And that brings us back to the ark of the covenant. As Jesus hung on the cross, the ark was in the holy of holies in the temple, behind a 1 inch thick curtain. When he cried out “it is finished!” and died, the Bible says there was an earthquake and the curtain was torn from top to bottom. Jesus was the ultimate high priest who took his blood and sprinkled it on the mercy seat so that all who believe in him can enter the presence of God boldly as a son or a daughter. We need not be in terror of God, we can draw near with confidence. Not because God became small and no big deal, but because Jesus purchased our forgiveness and gives us his righteousness.

Now, God invites us to draw near to Him, to be in close relationship with Him, and to receive His lavish love and acceptance and power to live a transformed life.

Let’s continue because there’s one more point I want to make.

3. God is committed to His people

Now the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh are afraid of God and ask the men from another town, Kiriath Jearim, to come and get the ark. And that’s where the ark stays for twenty years. God never abandons His people, He returned to be with them and bless them. God was raising up a priest and judge, Samuel, who would lead them back to God.

³ And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” ⁴ So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the Lord only.

When we clean the house of idols, God’s hand will be powerful upon His people once again. His power will be seen in all the world. Never count God out! He will glorify His name and He will deliver His people. Let’s draw near to God, turn from idols, and believe God for great things. In Jesus’ name!