1 Sam
5:2-4 (ESV) Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the
house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. 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. 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.
NOTE: The story is
humorous to us today, but I wonder if we are really that perceptive. Our
ancestors realized that there was more to life than the material. They
recognized a spiritual aspect to life, which for the most part our culture has
dismissed. They were right in that respect but wrong in not recognizing God,
the one true God, as the author of life. Today, we give credence to the
material for everything. And we believe that chaos, random interactions over
time, achieved the ordered universe in which we now live. I suppose they would
laugh at our arrogance. But the other humorous aspect of the story is what God
does to the demon Dagon. God forces Dagon to fall facedown before the one true
God. Secondly, God takes away his head and his hands, showing that Dagon can do
nothing before God -- he can't think, nor can he act. He is literally powerless
before God. The lessons are stark and true, and were probably realized by some
among the Philistines. They may have done some stupid things, but they were not
stupid. They probably could think better than we do today. We could learn a few
things from our ancestors, maybe not their choices of worship but their
realization of the importance of worship.
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