The Foolishness of Idolatry - 1 Samuel 5
One of the challenges of reading the Bible is that it’s sometimes difficult to relate to ancient people. A shrine dedicated to an idol of agriculture and fertility seems so primitive and ignorant doesn’t it? I highly doubt that anyone here has a shrine in their house dedicated to a false god of agriculture and fertility. If you do, I’d like to speak to you after the service!
And of course, I’m joking, but what’s not a joke is that because we live in the most technologically advanced time in all of human history we often assume that we’re smarter and more sophisticated than ancient people who worshiped idols.
But as I’m sure you all know, idol worship is alive and well even in the year 2024. We may not worship statues made of wood or stone, instead we worship the idols of our hearts.
John Calvin famously said, “The human heart is a perpetual idol factory.” He’s absolutely correct, isn’t he? It doesn’t take very much for us to devote our attention to something other than the living God. I think that’s probably the simplest way to define idolatry: anything that we’re more devoted, loyal, or faithful to other than the Lord.
How many people do we all know who profess faith and treat worship flippantly and are absent for months on end, but yet, those same people would never miss a single day of work!
It’s modern idolatry, but it’s just served up a little different. There are no statutes involved (at least I hope not!), but the heart has been captured by something other than the Lord. Because that’s what it boils down to doesn’t it? We tell ourselves that this thing, this idol, that’s the key to happiness. We are somehow convinced that our idols are the key to life-long satisfaction and yet, they always disappoint!
The Scriptures are crystal clear: The Lord is the key to true lasting satisfaction and one day your idols will be broken into pieces and prostrated before God almighty.
And this is precisely what our passage teaches us: that God is greater than any idol. If you’re taking notes, we first learn that God is supreme over all idols (vv. 1-5), secondly, we must submit to Him (vv. 6-10), because at the end of the day, he will reign victorious (vv. 11-12).
Last week, we read about the death of Eli. And if you remember, Eli was the high priest of Israel, which was the most prominent leadership position in all of Israel at this particular point in history. He was one of, if not the primary leader of the people of Israel.
The people of Israel had fought and lost two consecutive battles against the Philistines. The first battle they only lost four thousand men, but they had forgotten the ark of the covenant in Shiloh. So they were fully convinced that they lost the first battle because they had left the ark of the covenant in Shiloh so they brought it out for the second battle against the Philistines. And of course, the second battle had an even more tragic outcome than the first, because in the second battle they lost thirty-thousand men.
As Eli sat at the gate nervously awaiting the news about what happened at the second battle, we’re told that his “heart trembled for the ark of God.” He was worried about the ark of the covenant. Because the ark of the covenant was a visible reminder of God’s presence with his people.
Eli understood what it would mean if the ark didn’t return from the battle: it would mean that the Lord had removed his presence from the people of Israel.
And of course, his greatest fears were confirmed when he was told that the Philistines had captured the ark of the covenant. As soon as he heard the news, he fell over backwards, broke his neck, and immediately died.
Supremacy over idols (vv. 1-5)
1 Samuel up and to this point has been a series of sad, painful events. Of course, there have been a few silver linings, but you really have to look for them! And 1 Samuel 5 is really no different! There is more pain and death in this chapter, but there is a silver lining as well! But it is unique because we have an account behind enemy lines. The whole passage is about the Philistines and the ark of the covenant.
After the Philistines had taken the ark from the people of Israel they took it to one of their major cities: Ashdod.
Ashdod was an important Philistine city because it housed the temple of their most prominent false god, Dagon. Dagon was the head of the Philistine pantheon of gods and was their god of agriculture and fertility.
Dagon was actually a pretty prominent false god in the Ancient Near East. He was also worshiped in Mesopotamia, Syria, and Phoenicia.
And so our passage really opens up with the triumph of the Philistines! Everything seems to be going their way. They defeated their Israelite enemies twice, which of course had geopolitical implications, after all, they had just defeated their neighboring nation of Israel and had them on their heels. But victory in battle also carried theological implications.
Because the assumption was that if you won a battle that your god had granted you the victory! So the Philistines have assumed that their false god, Dagon, was more powerful than the true God of Israel. Which of course explains why they would put the ark of the covenant in the “house” or temple of Dagon.
It carried a symbolic message: Dagon is greater than the Lord.
But of course, that assumption would be incorrect. Just because you win a few battles doesn’t mean that God has relinquished his throne to another. In fact, God sends a clear message to the Philistines in verse 3. Look at verse 3 with me.
“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.”
When they rose the next day they found Dagon facedown before the ark of the Lord. In fact, he’s in the posture of worship before the ark of the Lord.
But of course the Philistines don’t understand what’s going on! Dagon is prostrate before the Lord, but they simply think that a stiff wind or something blew their statue of Dagon over. So they stood Dagon back up.
It reminds me of those infomercials that ran a number of years ago for the medical device called “Life Alert.” It was marketed for elderly people who needed help in the case of an emergency. But perhaps you remember the most infamous line from that commercial, “Help! I’ve fallen and can’t get up!”
And of course, there’s nothing particularly funny about an elderly person needing assistance. But there is something funny about this great, powerful god of the Philistines crying out, “Help! I’ve fallen and can’t get up!”
I like what Dale Ralph Davis said of this episode. He asks, “How would a godly Israelite respond upon hearing this story? With the only pious response: holy uproarious laughter.”
It is rather funny isn’t it? The supposed most powerful god of the Philistines is requiring the help of mere mortals to get back on his metaphorical feet. It really undermines his qualifications as a god doesn’t it?
But then it happens again in verse 4, but the message the second time is much stronger. Look at verse 4.
“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.”
Kings would decapitate enemy kings to demonstrate total defeat and would remove their hands in order to show they had been rendered unable to fight or resist them in any way.
In other words, God had humiliated Dagon which was incredibly ironic because the “victorious” god, Dagon, had been utterly destroyed by the “defeated,” true God of the Israelites in his own temple!
And of course, this draws a tremendous contrast between Dagon and the Lord. The Lord is the God of the living, while Dagon is a worthless idol.
What God did to Dagon had affected their worship is a very small way. In verse 5 we’re told the priests of Dagon wouldn’t “tread on the threshold” because Dagon’s head and hands were found lying on the threshold of his house. They didn’t take it nearly far enough did they? They misinterpreted what just happened!
The Lord had just destroyed Dagon and the Philistines think it means they shouldn’t step on the threshold.
The Lord just demonstrated his supremacy over the great idol of the Philistines, but they completely miss it don’t they?
Dagon is man-made but the Lord has not been built by human hands. Dagon is completely reliant upon his people, after all, they have to stand him back up. But the Lord is entirely independent. He is truly all-powerful and sovereign to do whatever he pleases.
Even believers sometimes forget this fact about God.
Because often in our evangelical circles we talk about being the hands and feet of God. And usually when we talk about being the hands and feet of God we’re talking about being a faithful gospel witness in our homes and communities. Yes and amen! We all want that!
But at the same time, we must be careful not to make God dependent upon us. It’s not like he’s sitting on his heavenly throne thinking, “I really need Bill to come through for me. I can’t do this without him!”
God can accomplish his purposes with or without us.
The Westminster Confession of Faith makes this exact point chapter 5 paragraph 3 on the providence of God.
It says, “God, in His ordinary providence, makes use of means, yet is free to work without, above, and against them, at His pleasure.”
In other words, God typically works through the ordinary events of day to day life and human history to accomplish his purposes, however, he’s not limited to that. He can, as the Confession says, “...work without, above, and against them, at His pleasure.”
He’s not restricted in any way. Which is of course, the massive difference between God and any idol isn’t it? We like idols because we can control and manipulate them, but the God of the universe cannot be controlled or manipulated.
Which makes God worthy of worship - we cannot control him. Rather, he’s in complete control over all things. He’s the creator and we’re His creation.
Submission to the Lord (vv. 6-10)
But in our passage the Philistines pass the ark of the covenant around. First, the ark is in Ashdod, but then things got bad in Ashdod.
Look at verse 6:
“The hand of the Lord was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory.”
The hand of the Lord was heavy against them. The Hebrew word for heavy is “kavod”, which also means “glory.”
His power and glory was against them so much so that not only were they terrified, they had been afflicted with tumors.
Apparently, God afflicted the people of Ashdod with some sort of plague. It’s not entirely clear how they made the connection between the Lord and the outbreak of disease, but they did… and of course, they were right! The Lord was afflicting them.
So how do the Philistines respond to the affliction of the Lord?
Look at what they did in verses 7-8:
And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is hard against us and against Dagon our god.” 8 So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” They answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath.”
The men of Ashdod wanted the ark out of their city and there’s even a meeting among the Philistines over what to do with the ark! So they hatch a full-proof plan… let’s send it to our friends in Gath!
Look at verse 9.
“But after they had brought it around, the hand of the Lord was against the city, causing a very great panic, and he afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them.”
The exact same thing that happened in Ashdod happened in Gath. The hand of the Lord was against the city.
And again, some sort of disease was afflicting the Philistines. Because everyone in Gath was getting tumors too!
So what do the men of Gath do? They said, let’s send the ark to our friends in Ekron! Look at verses 10-11.
“But as soon as the ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They have brought around to us the ark of the God of Israel to kill us and our people.” 11 They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people.”
The people of Ekron wanted nothing to do with the ark. They stopped the folks bringing it over in their tracks! We don’t want it here. They didn’t want the people of Ekron to die.
Many scholars believe that what we read in verses 6-10 took place over the course of months. And the implication from the text is that the disease that was going around killed lots of people. Why else would the people of Ekron say they didn’t want the ark to “kill us and our people” if no one had died?
The Philistines are essentially playing hot potato with the ark of the covenant. No one wants to deal with it. They rather for it to be out of sight and out of mind. They want it out of their face so they can go about living their lives.
Which is so many people’s approach to God isn’t it?
I had a conversation with an old friend a number of years ago and I shared the gospel with him and I forget exactly how he said it, but he said something to the effect that, “if that’s true, then my life would have to change.” I said, “yes.” And he said, “I don’t want to do that.”
He was willing to say the quiet part out loud. And I think there are many people just like him. They love their idols too much. Their idols have the highest position of prominence in their lives and frankly, submitting to God would be a tremendous inconvenience.
And so, they would rather worship idols than submit to God.
We see it all the time. So many that we know would rather, pursue wealth, chase a career, receive validation on social media, distract themselves with entertainment, focus on their physical appearance, accumulate of material belongings, find love or be in a relationship, indulge in sinful sexual desires, or just live a life of ease and comfort - and the list goes on and on.
The reality is, if you trust in Christ and submit yourself to his lordship He’s going to challenge every single one of those idols. After all, you’re not truly submitting to the Lord if you’re recklessly pursuing idols at the same time. The Lord cannot peacefully coexist with the idols of your heart.
The Lord says in Isaiah 42, “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.”
Even more explicit are the first two commandments of the ten commandments. The first commandment is “You shall have no other gods before me.” And the second is, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image.” Both of those commandments forbid idolatry.
Even believers struggle with indwelling sin. The truth is, idols do pop up in our hearts, John Calvin was absolutely right - our hearts are perpetual idol factories. But must repent of our idols and turn to Christ in faith.
That’s precisely what the Philistines should have done too! They should have seen their false god with his head and hands chopped off, along with the disease and death coming upon them from the Lord and thought - Maybe we’ve been worshiping the wrong god? Maybe we should stop worshiping Dagon and submit ourselves to the Lord.
Perhaps the Lord is in fact, the one true God.
The Lord will be victorious (vv. 11-12)
You would think that when all of this terrible stuff happened it would cause the Philistines to reevaluate their worship practices. After all, everywhere the ark went something terrible happened.
But again, they preferred the status quo. They wanted to maintain their lives and God seemed to be a tremendous inconvenience.
Which is why the Philistine lords called a second meeting.
Look at verse 11: “They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people. For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city.”
Literally the end of verse 11 can be translated as a “panic of death.” Many scholars believe that some sort of bubonic plague was ravaging the Philistines. Folks were being struck with tumors and people were dying all over the place.
Verse 12 says, “The men who did not die were struck with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven.”
All of this terrible stuff happened to the Philistines because of the Lord. Which is a very important point because remember what had just happened in the previous chapter.
The people of Israel had desperately wanted to defeat the Philistines in battle and failed to do so twice!
But what have we just read in chapter 5? The Lord went into enemy territory and single handedly defeated the enemies of his people. The Lord accomplished in chapter 5 what Israel failed to do in chapter 4.
The Lord fought for his people. It reminds me of that verse from Exodus 14, “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
This is an important point concerning idolatry, because our sinful nature constantly tells us that this thing over here is going to solve our problems.
If only I had more money! If only I had a significant other! If only I had more time to travel and see the world, then I’d finally be happy! Then I’d be fulfilled.
But what happens? You make more money, you get married, and you have more opportunities to travel and none of it brings you the joy and satisfaction that you were so convinced it would!
Which is precisely what idols do! They make promises of pleasure, joy, and fulfillment but inevitably leave you feeling unfulfilled.
But look at what the Lord has done! Look at what he has accomplished! In our passage, he won the victory that Israel failed to do.
Which in many ways mirrors the gospel doesn’t it? He won the victory over sin, death, and the grave on the cross. But apart from Christ, we’re hopeless.
But through Christ, there is hope.
Sometimes it seems like the warnings against idolatry are primarily an Old Testament thing, but it’s an entire Bible sort of thing. The New Testament is equally as clear in its warnings against idolatry.
The Apostle Paul warns of idolatry in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.
He wrote, “9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
What a tremendous warning to all of us this morning. But I’m sure many of you know what Paul says next. After that severe warning he says in verse 11,
“11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
Christians reject idolatry because we have something better in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
Let’s pray together.
