1 Samuel 5 Devotional

No Rival Left Standing

“When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.”1 Samuel 5:3 (BSB)

The Philistines carry the captured ark into the temple of their god Dagon and place it next to his image. The next morning Dagon is lying face down before the ark. They set him back in his place. The following morning he is down again, his head and hands broken off on the threshold (5:3-4). No Israelite lifts a finger. The LORD defends his own name.

Then his hand presses hard on Ashdod, and wherever the ark is sent, to Gath and then to Ekron, panic and tumors follow (5:6-12). The people who thought they had captured Israel's God learn that he cannot be held. There is grim irony in an idol that must be propped up by its worshipers, while the LORD needs no one to keep him standing. Paul says that one day every knee will bow at the name of Jesus (Philippians 2:10-11). When God's cause looks defeated, he has not lost. Whatever people set up in his place will not stand before him.

To think about: What rival to God in your own heart needs to be named, so that you stop propping it up?