Provoking God

"Now the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it to the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon." -1 Samuel 5.1-2

The Philistines manned up, fought Israel, and emerged victorious with spoils of war. They captured the ark of the covenant and placed in the temple of their god, Dagon. They offer tribute to their god, but their actions provoke God. First the image of Dagon is found face down before the ark, the next day it is face down and destroyed. The Philistines move the ark to a new place, but the people are afflicted with tumors. It is moved again and the same thing happens. It is moved a third time, and again the people are afflicted.

The holiest item in Israel, the thing that symbolized the very presence of God, is being treated as a common deity object and presented to a pagan god as tribute. It is not revered in anyway by those who have captured it, and it brings the judgment of God upon the Philistines.

Several years ago I was in Turkey, a place that is full of churches that became mosques and are now museums. In these museums you can still see mosaics from when they were churches. The faces of Jesus, Mary, and the disciples are intact. When the Muslims captured the churches and converted them, they didn't destroy the images, they simply covered them with tapestries. At the end of Kingdom of Heaven Saladin, a Muslim leader, is enter Jerusalem after winning the city. There is a stone in the street with cross on it, and he walks around it, refusing to step on it. Shortly after there is a small golden cross laying on the ground, which he picks up and gently places on a table.

Men, what do you do with the sacred and holy? How do you treat the Bible, or the church? Do you treat them with reverence or as common items? Yes, the Bible might be a book, but the words that it contains are the very words of God. The church may just be a building, but it is the house of God, a place where His people gather together to worship Him. How do you treat them?

Let us never treat the sacred as common. Let us not provoke God's anger by shaming the most precious gifts He has given us.

"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

To God alone be the Glory!

Strength and Honor