The Greatness of God - 1 Samuel 5
2024-08-04
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiM9pTgBlYA

Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray.

Good morning. We are glad to be able to gather together this morning. We're going to begin with a word of prayer, and then we're going to read from the 98th Psalm. Father in heaven, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your grace. We thank you for your mercy in our lives, and we just ask this morning that as we gather to sing and to pray and to gather around the table to celebrate and remember and be nourished by the gospel as we open your word, I just ask that you would be at work to encourage us and convict us and to strengthen us. I just thank you for Jesus, and I thank you for our church here. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And so as we walk through our service this morning, we're going to end up in 1 Samuel chapter 5, which if you've read through 1 Samuel, kind of a weird chapter about Philistines and the ark and idols toppling over and weird diseases, but at the heart of all of the

these different events happening is a picture of worship that ultimately has gone wrong. And so as we gather, we want to remind ourselves who God is, what he has done, and focus our hearts and our minds and be encouraged to move forward in service to him through our lives. So we're going to be sort of seeing that as we move through our service this morning. It's going to begin by talking about singing. The middle is about singing. But the main thrust of the passage that we're looking at this morning is about the great things that God has done. So let's read together.

God has known His salvation. He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of nations. He has remembered His steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. This is the word of the Lord. "In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Spirit, Lord, we come. We are gathered together to lift up Your name, to call on our Savior, to fall on Your grace. Hear the joyful sound of our offering as Your saints bear us, as Your saints bear us. And bow down, as Your people sing. We will rise with You, lifted on Your wings. And the world will see that our God saves. Our God saves. There is hope in Your heart. Morning tunes to songs of praise. Our God saves. Our God saves. In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Spirit.

Here we come. We are gathered together. To lift up your name. To call our Savior. To fall on your grace. Hear out of our offering. As your saints bow down. As your people sing. We will rise with you. Lifted on your wings. And the world will see that. Our God saves. Our God saves. There is hope. In your name. Morning turns. To songs of praise. Our God saves. Our God saves. Hear the joyful sound of our offering, as your saints bow down, as your people sing. We will rise with you, lifted on your wings, and the world will see that. Our God saves. Our God saves. There is hope in your name. Morning turns to psalms of praise. Our God saves. Our God saves. He's coming on the clouds. Kings and kingdoms will bow down. Every chain will break. His broken hearts declare His praise. But who can stop the Lord Almighty?

Our God is the Lion, the Lion of Judah. He's roaring with power and fighting our battles. Every knee will bow before Him. Our God is the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain. For the sins of the world, His blood breaks the chains. He will bow before the Lion and the Lamb. Every knee will bow before Him. Open up the gates. Make way before the King of Kings. The God who comes to sin is here to set the captives free. Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Our God is the Lion, the Lion of Judah. He's roaring with power and fighting our battles. Every knee will bow before Him. Our God is the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain for the sins of the world. His blood breaks the chains. Every knee will bow before Him. Every knee will bow before Him. Our God is the Lion, the Lion of Judah. He's roaring with power and fighting our battles. Every knee will bow before Him. Our God is the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain for the sins of the world.

His blood breaks the chains. Every knee will bow before the Lion and the Lamb. Every knee will bow before Him. You may go ahead and be seated. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.

This morning, we are not singing how deep the Father's love for us, we are singing at the cross of love in red as we prepare for the Lord's Supper.

There's a place where mercy reigns and never dies. There's a place where streams of grace flow deep in white. Where all the love I've ever found comes like a flood, comes flowing down. At the cross, at the cross, I surrender my life. I'm in all of you. I'm in all of you. Where your love ran red and my sin washed white. I owe all to you. I owe all to you. Jesus. I'm powerless. Where my heart has peace with God and forgiveness. Where all the love I've ever found comes like a flood. Where my heart is falling down. At the cross, at the cross, I surrender my life. I'm in awe of you. I'm in awe of you. Where your love ran red and my sin washed white. I owe all to you. I owe all to you.

Here, my hope is found. Here, on holy ground. Here, I bow down. Here, I bow down. Here, arms open wide. Here, you saved my life. Here, I bow down. Here, I bow. Thank you. In the Psalms, as you read through them, you'll find that Psalms have sometimes a heading, maybe about who it's written to. Some will say, for example, to the choir master. Some Psalms will simply be a remark about who wrote them. We'll see a Psalm of David. And in the 18th Psalm, perhaps the biggest heading before the Psalm starts, it says this, "To the choir master, a Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who addressed the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul, he said," and then the Psalm begins.

And the picture of this Psalm is a song of praise written to be sung as God's people gathered together. It's why it's addressed to the choir master, but it is a song of God's deliverance over all of David's enemies, including Saul, and how God had saved him. Not how David had saved himself, but rather how God had provided, watched over, and ultimately saved him. We'll see echoes in this, in the cross of Christ from the 18th Psalm, and the victory of Jesus over the resurrection. But for us, as well, we find these words to be especially joyful, because Jesus has delivered us from all of our enemies. In the 18th Psalm, starting in verse 16, it says this, "He sent out from on high, and He took me. He drew me out of the many waters. He rescued me from my strong enemy, and from those who hate me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a broad place.

He rescued me because He delighted in me." As I was reading through this week, I stumbled across something from a man by the name of Chad Bird. He's a teacher, primarily, has been a pastor, but he wrote this. He says, "When you are drowning in the dark waters of grief, or shame, or pain, Jesus is not a coach who stands on the shoreline shouting swimming instructions. He is the Savior who leaps into danger unhesitatingly, who holds you above the water and swims you to shore. He doesn't tell you what to do. He says, "It is done. It is finished." Let's pray. Father, our weary hearts rejoice in those words that it is finished, that it has been accomplished, that you, through your Son, have lifted us out of the darkness and depths of sin, and you have set our feet upon the rock of Christ. And so as we come to partake of this bread and this cup,

may we be reminded of our rescue. May we be directed to our Savior, and may we see, and may our hearts feel the cost of our salvation. May we be forever thankful and joyful and in awe of the fact that Jesus stood in our place at the cross. May you nourish our weary souls. May you strengthen our weaknesses. May you help us to see in our joy that it all comes back to you. So we just ask in this moment that you would direct us to yourself. I ask that you bless this bread and this cup. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you would, take the bread with me, and as we direct our hearts toward Jesus, we eat this bread in remembrance of Him. And as we drink this cup together, we're reminded and nourished by the redemption of our Savior. Let's drink and remember Him.

And this is not simply remembrance. It contains remembrance. It contains the nourishment that our souls desperately need to be founded and rooted in the gospel. But it's also a call to action to proclaim the good news about Jesus until He comes again. In 1 Samuel chapter 5, we're going to be talking this morning about the greatness of God for a little bit in this text. I want to begin not in the book of Samuel, but rather in the book of Romans. It says, "For whatever was written in the former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of Scriptures, we might have hope." And Paul, as he writes back about the Old Testament, he says, "God is doing something through what you have recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures." He's teaching us. He's calling us to endure, and ultimately, he's pointing us to hope.

Keep this in mind as we walk through this text this morning with this weird Philistine events, with toppling statues, with weird diseases, with all of the things going on, that the point of this is that we would learn something, that we would endure faithfully, but also that we would be brought to hope. So let's pray, and we will jump into 1 Samuel chapter 5 in these 12 verses. Bring us to hope. Convict our hearts where we worship those things that are not you. Whether we bow down in our lives in service to them, or lift up our voices giving glory to them, may you help us to see that you are the only thing that satisfies our souls. That you are the only hope that we have. You are our only strength, and you are our only future.

So teach us this morning from your word. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. It's easy, I think, for a lot of us to get distracted. I was walking through the store on Thursday, picking up a couple things we needed. My main thing that I needed was I needed to pick up some wood pellets for the grill so that I could cook some dinner, but I also needed to pick up a couple things for the one person in our family who was having a birthday this week. I've already got the wood pellets in my car, and I'm walking down through those sections of the toy aisles, and immediately, and you wouldn't think this would happen at 42 years old, but I was like, "Oh, that looks really cool." And I was like, "Oh, they have clearance Legos. Let me just see what they have over here."

And next thing, you know, I'm like shopping for myself, and I had to sort of mentally go, "Okay, hold on. Wait a minute. This is not Brandon buys Brandon toys time. This is Brandon buys Luke toys time, and if I could somehow figure out how to make those do both at the same time, it'd be really perfect." So yesterday, the girls and I were there, and we were picking up some specific things for Luke. We were picking up a cake. We were walking down, and the first thing that happens is they go, "Oh, look at this. I would really like to have this." And I was like, "Man, you must get that from your mother, because I've never, ever, ever done this in my life." And so just like their dad, immediately distracted by the toys that they see that grabs their arm.

And it's funny, because what happens in our lives where we look, and what catches our attention, and that catches our desires, the rest of us kind of follow along behind that, right? If something catches our eye and catches our attention, catches our desires, we just sort of gravitate toward it. And so I see it, I want it, and the next thing you know, I'm sort of chasing after it. But what we learn as we grow up, and what I've had to learn as I've grown up, is that we have to be careful with what we allow to catch our eye. We have to be careful with what we allow to grab hold of our affections. We have to be careful about what we let our desires attach themselves to. And it doesn't just happen physically with Legos or bacon or coffee, right? It happens spiritually.

And when we talk about our attention or our affection or desires, spiritually, at the heart of it, what we're talking about, ultimately, is worship. And when we talk about worship, we can use this word in a whole lot of different ways, right? So sometimes it's a service. We're going to a worship service. We use the term worship to describe a period of time where we gather together with the church. And that's not bad, but it's not a complete picture of worship. Maybe we picture it as a style of music, right? That's worship music. Which, once again, isn't bad because that worship music should lift up and glorify and bring praise to God while reminding our hearts of those deep and abiding truths. It's not bad. It's just not complete. You see, worship, I think, and there's a lot of ways that it's been tried to define, and it's such a big thing.

Let me give you two characteristics. One, worship is what you submit your life to, right? What do I allow to direct me? What do I view as in authority over me? What do I prioritize above all the things? What do I bow my life down to? What do I submit my life to? But the second part of this is not just what do we bow our life to, but what do we lift up in our life, right? What do I lift up in my heart and my desires? What am I excited about? What can I not stop talking about? What is it that I am praising, not just with my words, but with my heart and my actions? You see, when we talk about worshiping God, what we're talking about, first of all, is submitting our lives to Him.

But we're also talking about seeking to glorify Him in all things. There's actually a really great example in the book of Samuel about worship. In chapter 1, we meet this woman by the name of Hannah, and she has a difficult home situation. She's had a life that so far has been filled with disappointment, and it hasn't ended where she wants it to. And so where we find Hannah in chapter 1 is at the entrance to the tabernacle of God, and she is pouring out her heart to God with tears. And what she is doing is she is bowing her life before God. And you find that she does that with all of her sorrows and all of her disappointment, but also all of her hopes and all of her dreams are put in submission to God.

She bows down her life before God, even so much so that when her promised son is born, she dedicates him to God. And when he is old enough, she takes him to the tabernacle and leaves him in the service of God. That she bows down, puts her life in service and subject to God. But it's not just what Hannah does in terms of putting herself in submission to God, but listen to her words in chapter 2. And Hannah prayed and said, "My heart exalts." Well, I exalted just a little too much. Hannah says, "My heart exalts in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. There is none holy like the Lord, for there is none beside you. And there is no rock like our God." And so we've seen Hannah submit her life.

She's taken and laid her hurts, her struggles, her hopes and dreams, and her child before God in submission to Him. But at the same time, she's lifting up God's goodness and His glory. She says, "My heart is exalting in God, that His strength is what lifts me up. I put down His enemies. I rejoice. My heart leaps for His salvation. Who satisfies my soul, who gives me strength in a firm place to stand like God." And what we find is that worship is not just for Christians. The question, ultimately, is not, "Are you a worshiper or not? Do I worship or do I not worship?" The question, ultimately, that all of us, even Christians, have to answer is, "Who or what am I currently worshiping? What do I bow my life to? What do I put it in subjection to?

And what do I lift up? What do I glorify in my heart and in my mind and in my words and in my action?" What we're going to find in 1 Samuel 5 is every part of this text has to do with how we think about and how we treat God. And at its heart, this is a text about worship. The Philistines are worshiping badly. The Israelites are worshiping badly. And we see something about the greatness of God in worship in this text. So we're just going to walk through it kind of verse by verse this morning, a couple of verses at a time. We're going to begin in verse 1, where we see that there is a lost ark. Verse 1, "When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod."

And the first question is, "How do you lose the ark of the covenant?" The ark of the covenant is a symbol of God's promises. It's a symbol of His provision, and it's a symbol of His presence. It's a picture of what Israel should have at its heart. They worship and submit to God, they glorify Him, and the ark has been captured. And what you find is by losing the ark, Israel specifically sees themselves as losing God. Chapter 4 ends with a child named Ichabod, which means God's glory has departed. In Israel's eyes, there is no God, no glory in Israel. Now that doesn't answer the question, how does this happen? This happens because instead of Israel worshiping God, instead of submitting their lives to Him and glorifying Him, they treat God as sort of a glorified good luck charm. They don't submit their life to Him. They don't glorify Him.

They see the ark, and they don't actually talk about God. They say, "We've got the ark. The ark is their good luck charm." And Israel loses the ark because they stop worshiping God and treat Him as a good luck charm for their battle with the Philistines. Right? They're not submitting. They're not glorifying God. They don't pray. They don't seek His guidance. They simply grab the ark and they go. They say, "Because we have this physical thing, we can't lose." Right? And it's easy. It's so easy for us to look down on the Israelites and go, "Man, that was a stupid decision." But it's more than that because often, right, we do the same thing. We move from worshiping God and living our lives in submission to Him, glorifying Him, to simply treating God as sort of a good luck charm.

Or some of us, we treat God a little bit like a vending machine. Right? If I put in my service and my prayers and my resources, then God has to give me these things. We're guilty of the same thing as the Israelites just, maybe not with a physical box, but with our attitude toward God. Instead of worshiping God, right, if you've read about baseball players, they all have a bunch of weird superstitions, right? We wore the same pair of socks all season, and we haven't lost, and so I'll never watch them again, right? It's so easy, we end up treating God so many times just like a good luck charm that will hopefully increase the fortunate circumstances I uncover but without worshiping Him. And part of this text that moves us to hope is the correction of our hearts from God as a lucky charm to the infinite God who is over all things and in charge of all things and is in all power

for His people. And so in the correction, we move from the thing that will not support the weight of our lives to the goodness and the greatness of God. Next, we're going to see the Philistines' God Dagon is defeated. Let's read, picking up in verse 2. The Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. And when the people of Ashdod arose early, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. But when he arose early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord and the head of Dagon. And both his hands were left cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk or torso of Dagon was left for him.

So first of all, we've learned in the first verse that the Philistines take the ark of the covenant to Ashdod, one of five major Philistine cities. And it's evidently and likely the most important worship center for this Philistine God, Dagon. It would be likely his biggest temple, the most important place for the Philistines to gather for worship, and they take the covenant in and set it next to Dagon. And what they are doing is they're bringing the ark of the covenant in sort of as an offering to Dagon, saying, "Hey, we brought you a servant. We've brought you the God of Israel, and he now serves you because we have defeated him in battle." And so the Philistines, as they look at the ark of the covenant, they see God subjugated and now in the service of their false God, Dagon.

And if you've ever read a headline on the internet, they always say, "You will not believe in what happens next." They took this supplement for 30 days, and you will not believe what happened next, right? We know the story. But if you're a Philistine, you will not believe what happens next. It says, "When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, not accidentally, throughout the Old Testament, especially in the law, this is the time given for God's people to pray and to worship and to sacrifice to God." Don't miss that little fact here, that this is the time of the worship of the one true God of Israel. Early in the morning they walk in, and what do they find? Dagon had fallen face downward before the ark of God. They walk in at the time appointed for worshiping the God of Israel. They don't know this, but what do they find?

Their false God, Dagon, worshiping before the ark of the covenant, face down in submission to the God of Israel. This is a picture of reverence and worship. And what God has done here is He turned the tables, right? The Philistines had intended to show that their possession of the ark makes their God more powerful, and they find now that Dagon is worshiping the God of Israel. And the author of Samuel is sort of subtly poking fun at the God of the Philistines, because it says this: "They put him back in the place." What kind of God do you have to pick up and put back on his pedestal? What kind of God do you have to pick up and sort of reset? Kind of like when Elijah is with the prophets of Baal, and if you remember what is happening there with Elijah,

he goes, "Why is your God answering you? Maybe he's out on a walk. Maybe he's in the bathroom." That's what the author of Samuel is doing with the Philistines. Why couldn't he pick himself back up? If he's a powerful God, why can't he put himself back on the pedestal? The same thing Isaiah says, where he says, "You get a log, you chop it down in the woods, you take half of it, and you use it for firewood to make your beans, and then you take the other half, carve it into an idol, and you pray to it." He's saying, "This makes no sense," and the author of Samuel is mocking the Philistines. And sometimes we don't learn very easily, right? What you're going to find in this chapter is the Philistines and their idolatry do not learn very easily.

Now, I don't remember what this particular food was. Something we had sitting around, and I opened it up, and I took a bite, and I go, "This is terrible! You should try it," right? Because whenever you eat anything that's horrible, somebody else has to suffer and has to try it with you. And so what happens, I tried it, and Rachel was like, "Oh, that's terrible!" And like five minutes later, she's like, "Are you eating more of that?" And I was like, "Well, I wanted to see if it was still as bad as it was when I first tried it," right? And then a couple minutes later, you've got to try it a third time just to see if it's really as bad as you remember. And you go, "Wow, that's really dumb." And it is!

But this is what you're going to see as we walk through 1 Samuel, the fifth chapter. You're going to see time after time and place after place that the Philistines are doing this exact thing. So it says next in our text that the next morning, right, something even more surprising occurs. Dagon has fallen again, but he's not worshiping this time, right? He's lost both his head and his hands. And what you're seeing is the day before was not an accident. And what is happening here, oftentimes in this time when you would capture an enemy army, and you decide to kill their best soldiers, you know what you do? You line them up, chop off their heads, and then chop off their hands. That this is God intentionally executing the God Dagon before the Ark of the Covenant.

And what we're seeing so clearly is that God is greater than any Philistine God, even in their deepest stronghold, even in their deepest center of worship. That God does not have geographical boundaries. And I want you to see and understand what's happening. Where you would think Dagon should be the strongest and the most powerful God is stronger. And when his power should be absolute, this God Dagon, he worships and then is executed by the God of Israel. Let's pick it up in verse 5. This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day. So this is a little bit ridiculous, right? Their God falls, worships God, they put him back up because he can't get up himself.

The next day, he falls but is executed, head chopped off, hands chopped off, just a torso lying there. But some of that torso touches the sill of the door where you go in. And so now the priests who have stood this God up, have repaired this God because he can't repair himself. We can't touch that because that's holy, right? The author of Samuel is mocking them, going, "You're not going to touch the place where your dead God fell and was broken?" And what you find is they're so blinded by their false worship, they have somehow rationalized defeat. Next we're going to see in the next few sections, this text outlines three bad solutions. Picking up in verse 6. The hand of the Lord was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors.

Both Ashdod and its territory, when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, "The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is hard against us, against Dagon our God." So they sent and they gathered all the lords of the Philistines and said, "What shall we do with the ark of God in Israel?" And they said, "Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath." So they brought the ark of God of Israel there. The presence of the ark is impacting more than the worship of Dagon, right? It's impacting the health of the Philistines. And we're not sure what this disease, what these tumors were, it could have been. Boyle's commentators have a million different ideas, but likely, the most likely answer is that it is bubonic plague.

Because it has boils spread by rodents, and when they send the ark back, or they send it back with statues of those boils, statue of rodents. And most commentators agree that this is likely bubonic plague, although they wouldn't have known it like that, spreading among the people. What's the response to all of this? Well, let's make it somebody else's problem, right? God keeps tipping over. Now he's broken. All of these bad things have happened. Let's just make it somebody else's. It's not like the perfect politician answer. Let's kick the can down the road. Let's make it somebody else's. They send it to a different town. And in verse 9, "After they had brought it around, the hand of the Lord was against the city." This is Gath, "causing a great panic, and he afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, and tumors broke out on them."

And so then the question is, what are we going to do next? Right? We've already taken it here. We've taken it to Gath. Now what happens? Here's what we pick up in verses 10 through 12. So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. But as soon as the ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron said, "They have brought around to us the ark of God to kill us and our people." And they sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines. Send away the ark of God of Israel. Let it not return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people. For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city, and the hand of God was very heavy there. And the men who did not die were struck with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven."

And it's almost like, man, if somebody could have just seen this coming, right? Somebody could have seen when we sent it to Gath and it happened there, but no, maybe even though it happens here, maybe it won't happen there. And we find bad decision after bad decision. And what we find in all of this, in all of this weird Philistine stuff with the tumors and the toppling gods, is a picture of God's greatness. You see, there is a temptation for us to think that God's power somehow has limits, right? And that can be either in discouragement saying, "Man, I'm so broken and everything's so bad that God could never help me." Or it could be in pride, right? We can limit God's greatness or try to in pride. For example, that's what the Philistines do. Well, maybe he can get us here, but he can't get us in Gath.

Maybe he can't get us in Gath, but not in Ekron, right? They think that God is somehow geographically limited. We see the same thing in Jonah. If I go to Tarshish, I'll be outside the hand of God. I want you to understand that discouragement and pride are two sides of the same coin. Discouragement says, "My problems are too big and too great for God." And pride says, "I can do all of this myself, and I have no need for God." And whether we are broken by discouragement or we are puffed up with pride, we need to see the greatness of God. And one of the things we see is that God is not geographically limited. In the 139th Psalm, it says, "Where shall I go from your spirit? Where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night, even the darkness is not dark to you. The night is as bright as day, for darkness is as light for you." This is both comforting and sobering. On one hand, no matter what situation you are in, God is with you. You can't be too high, or too low, or too dark, or too far. That God is with you, and He is protecting you. Even there shall your hand lead me. Your right hand shall hold me.

That even in that distance, in the darkness, God is holding on to you and leading you, but also... There's a bit of a sobering thought here, that if we are living and running and walking in sin, God sees and knows everything. You can't hide, but you also cannot be lost from the eyes of God. That He sees you, and He knows where you are. And it's interesting, and some of us take some time to learn things. I'm really well known for being able to repeat my mistakes continually. Philistines are the same way. We learn from the next chapter that it takes them seven months of tumors and sickness and death to figure this out. Next, we see the brokenness of idolatry. Just like with Israel's broken worship, we can see ourselves reflected in the Philistines' idolatry.

Idolatry is simply worshiping something other than God, bowing our life in submission to someone or something other than God, or lifting up and glorifying or praising ultimately something other or someone other than God. And the crazy thing about idolatry is it can even be something good, right? The Ark of the Covenant is this picture of God's rule and His law and God's provision with the man and God's provision of a priesthood and a picture of God's presence for the people as it leads them into the promised land, right? There's wonderful good things about the Ark, but they have taken a good thing and made it ultimate. And they worshiped it in the place of God. Look at the process the Philistines go to. They say, "Here's our hope. It's Dagon." "Let's put the Ark in front of him."

"He tips over. Let's prop him back up." "That didn't work. Let's try someone else." "Let's send it to a different city and bad things. Let's send it to another city." Over and over again they see that disappointment and brokenness. And have you ever thought that the dissatisfaction with life or hope is holding on to something other than God? Right? Just like the Philistines. Well, I'll try this. I'll prop it back up. I'll make it stronger this time. I'll go over here or I'll go over here. I'll try something new that our hearts in seeking peace and hope and seeking a way to deal with the brokenness of sin. We run from one thing to another. It tips over. We sit it back up. It falls and breaks. We run to the next thing. And we can do it in every aspect of our life.

And our only hope ultimately is in Jesus. Right? The frustration that the Philistines feel is because they're looking in the wrong place. They're trusting in the wrong things. And you notice the thing about the Philistines. As we look in this chapter and the next, they understand some things about the God of Israel. They understand that God is greater than their God. They understand the problem, chapter 6, verse 5, is they have not glorified the God of Israel. They understand, 6:6, that they must not harden their hearts, right? It sounds like they're on their way to being followers of God. They understand God is greater. They know that they haven't glorified Him, and they know that they can't harden their hearts against Him. They glimpse God in kind of an upside-down way, right? They understand the story of God's people. They understand a little bit of the theology.

They send a guilt offering saying that they understand some of the law of God, even. But here's the problem with the Philistines. They don't see that God is for them. He's for Israel. They understand a lot about Him, but they say, "It's not for me." Paul, in Athens, walks through Mars Hill, filled with worshiping, filled with idols. And they were afraid, in some cases, maybe they had missed a God, or maybe there was a God they did not yet know about, and so they have an altar to the unknown God, and Paul stops and says, "Let me tell you about this God that you did not know. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands,

as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life, breath, and everything." The Philistines, in their idea of God, was that we must give all things to God. He's not for us, he's for Israel. Paul here says that God is the one who gives you your very breath. He'll say later on that he has put you exactly where you are at this time, in this place, for his purposes. Not just for individuals, but for nations and people groups. That he gives to all mankind life, breath, and for everything. And he is not just for this group in this location, but he is for everyone. I want to know what to do with this information. Paul says this, "He commands all men everywhere to repent." To set aside those other things we have been seeking meaning and hope in, and to put our trust in God.

In the Philistines, we can feel the frustration of a life without God. It doesn't work. I remember when I was young and growing up, I always wanted to be further along than where I was at the moment. As a kid, I was like, "Well, I turned this age. I can go to school." I was excited about it. Then for me, it was like a countdown to when I could drive. Then it was like a countdown to when I could vote. Then it was like a countdown. My whole life was like, "If I can get here, it's going to be great. If I can drive a car, it'll be great. If I can graduate from high school, it'll be great. If I can go to college, it'll be great. If I can get a job, it'll be great."

It was this constant, "What's next? What's next? What's next? What's next?" And what you find looking back on it is that in all of that striving, it didn't live up to what I thought. I was like, "I can drive, but now I've got to run errands for my mom every day because she doesn't want to drive. I've got to put gas in the car. I've got to pay insurance. I've got to fix it when I crash into a telephone pole." Some of us have lived life chasing after those things. "If I can get this, if I can go to this place, if I can do this thing, if I can be in this relationship, or have this job, or if all of these things will come together." The answer isn't all of those things. It's Jesus, who says to our weary, frustrated souls, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Let's pray. Father, call our hearts into your rest and into your strength and into your peace, that we would not, like the Philistines, try to do it ourselves and figure it out for ourselves, chasing from one thing to another, but rather we would submit our lives to you in worship and submission, and we would lift up your name for your glory in this world. I thank you for Jesus and grace. In your son's name we pray. Amen. We're going to stand up and sing, "I set my hope on Jesus." Maybe. It's probably playing on the TV, the struggle we had.

Joy that runs still deeper. When this life of trials test my faith, I set my hope on Jesus. When the questions come and doubts remain, I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. For the deepest wounds, the time won't heal. There's a joy that runs still deep. There's a truth that's more than all I feel. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. My rock, my only trust. Who set his heart upon me first. I set my hope on Jesus. Though I falter in this war with sin, I set my hope on Jesus. When I feel the fight and sink within, I set my hope on Jesus. Though the shame would drown me in its sea, and I drain the waves of justice, I will cast my life on Calvary. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. My God, my only trust. You set his heart upon me first. I set my hope on Jesus.

Though the world call me to leave my Lord, I set my hope on Jesus. Though it offer all its vain rewards, I set my hope on Jesus. Though this heart of mine is prone to stray, give me grace enough to finish. Till I worship on that final day, I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. My God, my only trust. You set His heart upon me first. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. My God, my only trust. You set His heart upon me first. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him, above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. I'll see you next time.