Following the captured ark through Philistine territory, this message showed that the power and holiness of God demand a response — and that the question "What is God like?" is the most important question anyone can answer.
Speakers
Jacob Wright — teaching
God versus Dagon
A.W. Tozer, in The Knowledge of the Holy, wrote: "What comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us." Copies are available in the church book stand.
The Philistines carried the ark to Ashdod as a war trophy and set it in Dagon's temple to show Yahweh had been subjugated.
Morning one: Dagon lay face down before the ark. The worshipers picked him back up — "no better than a toddler who needs help getting in a high chair."
Morning two: Dagon's head and hands were cut off, an execution scene. The hand of the Lord is heavy; Dagon has no hands at all.
God does not need anyone to stand him up. When his people don't glorify him, he glorifies himself.
Conclusion: the futility of idols. Isaiah 44 pictures a carpenter burning half a tree for bread and carving the other half into a god he begs to deliver him.
Idolatry is looking to anything besides God for deliverance or hope — a 401(k) number, someone's recognition, a teenager's craving for approval. Calvin: "The human mind is a perpetual forge of idols."
God versus the Philistines
The ark toured Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron — "the worst concert tour you ever heard of." Each city got panic, tumors, and death.
Before the tumors came fear. The Philistines had feared God in 1 Samuel 4:7, then lost that fear after winning the battle; God restored it.
Four echoes of the exodus: the Hebrew word for "send away" is the same as Moses' "let my people go"; the ark must not go away empty; the priests name Pharaoh's hardened heart; and the plagues lead to knowing the Lord.
The pagan priests devised a test — two milk cows never yoked, calves sent the opposite way. If the cows walk to Israel against instinct, it was truly the Lord.
Conclusion: God will glorify himself. In Psalm 50 he refuses their bulls: "every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills."
Like kids bribing a dad with what already belongs to him, Israel presumed on God as a genie. He showed up without them, then against them.
God will be glorified — by saving his people or by judging his enemies. You decide which side you're on.
God versus the Israelites
Beth-shemesh, a Levite town, rejoiced at the returning ark, burned the cart, and sacrificed the cows.
Then the Lord struck down 70 men who looked on the ark. Their sin was irreverence — treating the ark as a trophy, set on a stone to be gazed at.
The law required the ark to stay in the tabernacle behind curtains, covered by the veil when moved. These Levites, entrusted with the law, disregarded it.
Tragically they reacted exactly like the Philistines: send it away.
Conclusion: God must be approached on his own terms.
What God is like, and why the gospel is good news
Tozer: "The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of him."
Your answer to "What is God like?" cannot come from the culture or your imagination — only from how God has revealed himself in his word.
We have lost, one theologian said, "the unsettling, disconcerting moral presence of God in our midst." The discomfort is the point.
"Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God?" is the great question of the Old Testament. We need a mediator.
Jesus kept the law, died as a sacrifice once for all, and rose — plundering sin, death, and Satan as the ark plundered the Philistines.
The ark returned to punish; Jesus returned to forgive, cleanse, and give new life to all who believe.
Key Takeaways
What you think about God is the most important thing about you.
Bring your idols before God; he has proven he can do the rest.
God will be glorified whether or not you join in.
A holy God who cannot be approached casually is what makes the gospel good news.