1 Samuel 5:1-7:1 – This Is The Plague That The Lord Has Made

Just like Strasbourg’s historical dance-till-you-drop plague, trying to out-maneuver a holy God is a losing game that will end in tragedy. Our text in this study is: 1 Samuel 5:1-7:1 Series: Know Kings: The Book Of Samuel Gene Pensiero Jr Find the rest of the series at https://calvaryhanford.com/knowkings Subscribe on YouTube at: https://youtube.com/calvaryhanford Read the notes at: https://calvaryhanford.substack.com Welcome to our ongoing verse by verse Bible study through the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel. In this message, titled This Is The Plague That The Lord Has Made, we dive into 1 Samuel 5:1 to 7:1 to see what happens when the Philistines capture the Ark of the Covenant and try to treat Israel’s God like just another local deity. If you want to study the Bible with a clear focus on the text, this chapter shows us that Yahweh will not share His glory with anyone or anything else. The Philistines place the Ark in the temple of their god, Dagon, thinking they have won a great victory. But the next morning, they find Dagon fallen face down before the Ark. They prop him back up, but by the following day, Dagon is broken, with his head and hands cut off on the threshold. It is a striking illustration of human religion trying to patch up a broken idol that cannot even stand on its own, let alone save anyone. As we look at this text from a conservative evangelical Calvary Chapel perspective, we see how the Lord handles those who mock His holiness. He sends a severe plague of tumors and rats upon the Philistine cities of Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron. The pagan priests try to manage the situation by sending the Ark away on a new cart pulled by two milk cows, accompanied by golden images of the tumors and rats as a guilt offering. Even these animals, acting against their natural instincts to stay with their calves, head straight for the territory of Israel, proving that this was not a random coincidence. This was entirely the hand of the living God. When the Ark arrives at Beth Shemesh, the people forget the holiness of God and peek inside, leading to a swift and sobering judgment. This reminds us of a crucial spiritual truth: we cannot handle holy things with careless familiarity. Whether you are deeply interested in Christianity, curious about the history of Israel, exploring spirituality, or searching specifically for solid Calvary Chapel videos, this exposition of Scripture challenges us to examine our own hearts. Do we have idols in our lives that need to fall down before Jesus? Let us walk away from superficial religious routines and trust our lives to the true Savior. Please subscribe to follow along with the rest of our 1 Samuel series.