NOTE: When I was working on the first narrative sermon for 1 Samuel 5 and 6, a second idea from the text came to mind, and so, I thought that I would see where it went! With some overlap (it is the same text!), I wrote a second narrative sermon on 1 Samuel 5 and 6.
Sometimes, unbelievers acknowledge the LORD; even when they don’t want too. Why would the Philistines acknowledge the God of Israel, after all, he is just one God among many gods. The Philistines just defeated Israel in battle, killed Eli’s sons as well as over 34,000 Israeli soldiers, and captured the Ark of the Covenant (1 Samuel 4). In their view, not only did they win, but their gods won! The God of Israel met defeat. The Philistines think, “He must not be as strong as our god.”
Why would the Philistines acknowledge the God of Israel? Why would anyone acknowledge the LORD? I grew up with 2 older brothers. Yes, I’m the youngest. Our wrestling around could get pretty rough. Sometimes, well, a lot of times, we would wrestle around with the intention of making the opponent say, “I quit,” or “I give up.” Usually, it meant one of them bending my arm around my back with me eating carpet until I gave up! I think that’s how I developed a pretty high pain tolerance! Why did I submit? Why did I acknowledge defeat? The obvious answer is the pain of having my arm twisted behind my back and my face driven into the floor, but was that really it?
God uses a similar tactic on the Philistines, but with an interesting difference. After Israel’s defeat, the Philistines take Israel’s Ark of the Covenant to the Philistine state of Ashdod and place it in the temple of Dagon (5:1-2). The next morning, a curious thing had occurred. Their god, Dagon, was found face down before the Ark of the Covenant (5:3). That’s weird! Was there an earthquake or something? Who did this? So, they put Dagon back in his place (5:3).
The next morning, things went from curious to disturbing. Dagon was once again face down before the Ark, but this time his head and hands were severed (5:4)! Dagon was decapitated! AND this was only the beginning of Ashdod’s problems! When the devastation and outbreak of tumors began, the men of Ashdod said, “The ark of the god of Israel must not stay here with us, because his hand is heavy upon us and upon Dagon our god (5:7).
So, they called an emergency governor’s meeting of all the Philistine states. “What shall we do with the ark of the god of Israel (5:8)?” With a hint of arrogance and disbelief, the governor of Gath said, “We will take it.” That didn’t last long! The state of Gath went into “a great panic” with “an outbreak of tumors” (5:9)! People feared for their lives! So, the Ark was sent to the Philistine state of Ekron (5:10). They didn’t wait to panic. Scripture says, “As the ark of God was entering Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, ‘They have brought the ark of the god of Israel around to us to kill us and our people” (5:10).
Why would the Philistines acknowledge the God of Israel? Without much thought, we answer, “The Pain!” If we stopped here in our story, pain would seem to be the primary motivator for them to acknowledge God, but is that really the reason? The Philistines thought that when they defeated Israel that they had also defeated Israel’s God. If Israel failed, then God must have failed. Why acknowledge him? He could not even give Israel the victory! The Philistines are still not completely convinced, and maybe you aren’t either. How can they know? What would convince them?
The Philistine state of Ekron is in trouble. People are suffering and dying! So, they call another emergency governor’s meeting (5:11-12). Rather than move the Ark to another Philistine state, the pain makes them simply want to get rid of it, but how? They call in their religious professions. “How do we get rid of the Ark?” They will send the Ark back to Israel on a new cart, pulled by two cows with calves who have never been yoked (6:7-8), and most importantly, with a guilt offering for their sin (6:3). They let it go where it will, but they keep watch on it to see where the cows will take it (6:8-9).
Just a side note about separating cows and calves: I live on the edge of my dad’s farm. He raises cattle, and every year, he has a whole bunch of calves to wean from their mothers. Do you think that the cows or calves are happy about it? Oh no! When they are first separated, they will bawl and bellow all night and day. Did I mention that I live on the edge of my dad’s farm? Cows do not like to be separated from their calves! They do not willingly leave their calves!
Is it the God of Israel or NOT? They think that he might be doing this, but they still have some doubt. Here’s the test: If the cows, of their own accord, take it back to Israel, then the God of Israel has been behind all of this, but if not, then it was coincidence (6:9). What happened when they let the cows go? Can you guess? In other words, we do not want to admit that it’s the God of Israel, but we will if we absolutely have too! We do not want to submit! Why? That would mean admitting that our gods are not as powerful as the God of Israel.
What happens when they let the cows go? Scripture says, “Then the cows went straight up toward Beth Shemesh,” in other words, they went straight to Israel (6:12). Confirmed! The God of Israel did this to them. He caused the devastation and sickness among the Philistines. Like it or not, and they don’t like it, the God of Israel caused their pain, but it was not the pain that convinced them. Was it the highly improbability of the cows taking the Ark directly to Israel? Was that what really convinced them? Could there be another answer?
When I would wrestle around with my brothers, it was not the pain of having my arm twisted behind my back, nor my face driven in the carpet that ever convinced me to give up. Pain may have created a situation to consider yielding, but it was never the reason that I did. Actually, as long as I could move my other arm or my legs, I kept fighting. What eventually made me give up? When they finally got me in a position where I could not move, I gave up because I had exhausted all chances of winning. In other words, I had no hope of winning left within me. I had no choice!
The Philistines did not acknowledge God because of the pain or fear. These only created the situation for them. They did not acknowledge God because the Ark miraculously went home. They acknowledged the God of Israel because they had no other choice! Internally, they were defeated. They had no other hope left. The God of Israel was more powerful than their gods. These unbelievers had to acknowledge the God of Israel. Some unbelievers will only acknowledge the true God when there is no other choice.
Does acknowledging God necessarily mean that they became followers of God? Scripture says, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe – and shudder (James 2:19). WOW! You can acknowledge God without being a follower of God! You can even fear the God that you acknowledge without being committed to Him! You can even offer a guilt offering to God without having all of your sins wiped away? You can even believe that there is only one God and one way to heaven without going to heaven! The Philistine did, and so do many others! There is more to this than meets the eye!
BUT all Israel believed and obeyed God’s Word, right? WRONG! The Ark of the Covenant went to the Israeli city of Beth Shemesh, but some of the men there did not believe and obey God’s Word. They looked into the Ark! Scripture says, “But God struck down some of the men of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy of them to death because they had looked into the ark of the LORD” (6:19).
We may acknowledge God like the Philistines did; like many people do. They have no other choice but to do it, but does that mean that they are now Christians? NO! Our hopelessness must intersect with God’s grace. When this happens, a dynamic occurs that we call faith!
Acknowledging God exists is an important first step toward responding to God’s grace, but it still falls short. Scripture says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). Do we believe that He exists AND seek Him? In other words, when our hopelessness smashes into the face of God’s grace, do we believe and act upon that belief?
What do we believe? We believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only son, our Lord. He died for our sin and rose from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures. Faith moves us to commitment to Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord. Faith moves us to following him!
May our hopelessness encounter God’s grace in a fresh, new way, and may Jesus Christ become more real and personal to us today than ever before! AMEN!
Sources:
THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version.
Lowry, Eugene. The Homiletical Plot: the Sermon as Narrative Art Form (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001).
Lowry, Eugene. Website: http://www.eugenelowry.com/
My Narrative Sermons on 1 Samuel:
1 Samuel 1: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/8340729/narrative_sermon_why_is_god_against.html?cat=52
1 Samuel 2: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/8319861/narrative_sermon_could_my_kids_really.html?cat=37
1 Samuel 3: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/8351675/narrative_sermon_an_unfamiliar_voice.html?cat=37
1 Samuel 4: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/8358917/narrative_sermon_all_alone.html?cat=44
1 Samuel 5-6: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/8370439/narrative_sermon_can_god_fail.html?cat=44 (This is my first sermon from this passage.)
My Book Review of Eugene Lowry’s Homiletical Plot: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7940249/book_review_the_homiletical_plot_by.html?cat=38