When God Comes to Town

1 Samuel 5:1-6:21 | Andrew Murch | Israel has already experienced that they cannot use God like their personal genie in a box and the Philistines are about to experience the same as well. At first, the Philistines are feeling pretty good. You see, these battles were not about the strength of one army versus another, but rather, was a show-down of the ‘gods’. The nation with the stronger god would win in battle. Duh! So obviously Dagon is greater than Yahweh, right? Don’t forget that the Lord allowed the Ark to be captured, and like a scene out of a comedy he shows that Dagon is nothing but a silly statue broken into pieces. These people who thought they could take Yahweh as a prisoner of war discover that they are under his terrible judgment. Like the Egyptians under Pharaoh they are plagued by God’s wrath. However, the Philistines get wise and say, “We know what happened to Egypt, let’s not be like them! Send it back!” So in tow of a few cows, away the Ark goes.