Verse of the week 1 Samuel 5:1-4 After the Philistines has captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then they carried the ark into Dagons temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only the body remained. OK this is a sermon I have waited a long time to preach. Here is the point of the sermon; some people try and separate God the Father and Jesus God the Son by talking about how Jesus humbled himself on earth. What I want to point out is that humility is a trait of God. In the ancient world they believed the world was full of many creatures battling for supremacy. But how would you know who was winning? Well by what happened here on earth. If you people are beaten in war by another people, then the creatures that you serve obviously must have been beaten because they were unable to give you the victory. Here we see Gods people Israel have been beaten in war and the arc, the very symbol of Gods presence and provision for them has been captured. To all the world it looks like God has lost. There is no point in putting a modern spin on it, God has been humiliated. Was this due to a lack of power on Gods part? No, this is the God who beat Egypt, this provincial little thing called Philistine should be no problem. God allowed Himself to be humiliated in front of the world. Only a truly humble God could do this. Why though did He do it? Well this is what the passage is about. I dont know if you remember a long time ago when I preached about another statue from Daniel 2. This statue represented the powers in the world and a stone is cut out of the mountain, not by human hand and smashed the statue. Well this statue got smashed. In the end its hands, the things it uses to do things are destroyed, as is its head then it uses to think and speak. The only thing that is left is its body by which it is recognised but which can do nothing. God is making it plain, Dagon has got no power compared to Him. But there is more. The ark was brought in on the first day, was there another and then the day after smashed the statue of Dagon. What does that remind you of? Jesus was placed in the tomb the first day, was there the second and rose on the third, brought out not by human hands. The death of Jesus was God being humiliated but He showed the world by rising Him from the dead. Dont you see, God the maker of the heavens and the earth is prepared to be humiliated in order to smash the statues of this world. Consider this and consider whether or not you would rather have a statue that you have to lift back into place or God who is prepared to be humiliated for you. As to your statement that you have no statues that some of you are saying> I intend to address this in a future sermon series.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 13:13:35 +0000