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1 Samuel 4:1-11, 5:1-6
4:1 And the word of Samuel came to all Israel.
Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines. They encamped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines encamped at Aphek. 2 The Philistines drew up in line against Israel, and when the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the field of battle. 3 And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD here from Shiloh, that it1 may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.” 4 So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
5 As soon as the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel gave a mighty shout, so that the earth resounded. 6 And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, “What does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” And when they learned that the ark of the LORD had come to the camp, 7 the Philistines were afraid, for they said, “A god has come into the camp.” And they said, “Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before. 8 Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness. 9 Take courage, and be men, O Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you; be men and fight.”
10 So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home. And there was a very great slaughter, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell. 11 And the ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.
[1] 4:3
(ESV)
5:1 When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2 Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. 3 And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, 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. 4 But when they rose early on 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 lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. 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.
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.
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
So one of the, liturgies we have as a church are really the rhythms of what we do here at Redeemer is every few weeks, I ask someone different to come up and
Speaker 2:to share their
Joel Brooks:testimony. Warning, you reject me twice. I get you to share on Easter. But, it's it's just such an encouraging time for my soul to just hear, we hear from one another, testifying to how Jesus has come and rescued them. This morning, I've asked one of our elders to come and share.
Joel Brooks:And so, Dave Parker, we look forward to hearing from you.
Speaker 2:Good morning. I was really thankful, actually, that Joel texted me, like, 2 days ago to see if I could share. Because I knew if I spoke at the 8 o'clock service, I'd be here in time to get a seat for this service. So, thanks, Joel. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I kinda thought about, what to say, and I prayed about it a lot over the last couple of days. And the Lord, under Jeff's admonition to kinda be still in this and spoke to me clearly, and he said, wing it. So buckle up. And I am excited, to get to share with you this morning. The Lord has been so faithful in my life.
Speaker 2:And much to Joel's chagrin, I don't have a super rock bottom story, where he pulled me out of a ditch, and saved me, and nursed me back to health. Mine is more of a story of the Lord's faithfulness in my life. I grew up in the church, in a loving household. I got baptized when I was young, and then a little bit later, and then probably a third time, and then who knows? I was Southern Baptists.
Speaker 2:We did baptisms early and often. But I look back on that time and I am thankful. There's not a day that, in my life that I really don't remember trusting in Christ as my savior. That does not mean that I have a a really glamorous story, or that my story is not filled with pitfalls and sin, but the overshadowing theme is that my life is filled with grace from the Lord, and he constantly brings me back to himself. Even in the moments where I take the idols in my in my life and put them on the throne of my heart, in his graciousness, he tears those down and dashes them to pieces and reasserts his lordship in my life.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So summer after freshman year in college, the Lord really kind of challenged me with the question of, am I am I enough? Is the Lord gonna be enough for my life? And he did this in 2 with 2 big sort of themes. The first one was, like any freshman at Samford, I was hoping to get married.
Speaker 2:So he asked me, if you never get married, will I be enough? The Lord asked Peter to get out of the boat and walk on water, and that's kinda the way the Lord has worked in my life, and some steps I've taken are are similar, so my getting out of the boat in that moment was, as you may assume, my kiss stating goodbye, for a year, and then 3 weeks later, met who is now my wife, and we've been married 20 years. That's a really great story of the lord's fulfillment and my trusting in him in that area of my life. That's not everyone's story. The second half of that question about will he be enough is is where do I place my trust?
Speaker 2:Now, I place my eternal trust in Christ. That's never been a question for me. I know when I leave this earth, I will be with him in heaven and all my worries and all my fears will be gone. But what about tomorrow? Or what about next week or next month?
Speaker 2:That's really where my struggle lies, and that manifests itself through just this hope of financial security. The Lord asked me, did you never have that money that's talked about in Matthew chapter 6, you can't serve God and mammon, that idea of financial security, will I be enough for you? And in my act of Peter stepping out of the boat, I wanted to trust the Lord in this, so after graduating from college, I went to work for a summer camp to ensure that I didn't have any money. In fact, our first fight as a married couple was in the Walmart of a small, Northern California town, where my wife asked me, if we could buy a 95¢ cat toy for our cat, and I said, I don't think we can afford it. And you gotta understand, this was before you could check your bank balance on your phone.
Speaker 2:I had to go back to our house, well, house, our crawl space where we lived, and reconcile my bank account, and sure enough, we had 83¢ in our account. But I was right. And so this is what, you know, this is part of my story, is this the lord wanting me to trust him in this area of my life. Some triumphs, a lot of failures. In fact, as I was thinking about why Joel would have me come and speak, or give my testimony as we study David, all I can figure is that David got it right a couple of times and wrong a lot.
Speaker 2:And that's my story, and my name is also David. So there are triumphs though. The lord has called me and he's been faithful. I just wanna share with some of those with you for a sense of encouragement. I don't think I would believe them if they had not happened to me.
Speaker 2:In an effort to better, myself financially, I decided a step up would to become a part time private school teacher, which is also a very lucrative career, for any of you, those of you who are looking to for jobs. And we were sitting around the table one night, we had we now have 5 children, but at that time, I think we had 1 or 2. I don't know. It kinda gets blurry. There's a lot of them.
Speaker 2:And Dorothy looks at me and she says, hey, we don't have enough money to make our budget this month. And y'all, we were, like, hardcore Dave Ramsey. We had envelopes. We had the wallet. I mean, we were doing it all, and we were doing what we thought the Lord had called us to do.
Speaker 2:I mean, as a matter of fact, we were, like we had prayed about this decision, this job that I would take. And in a moment of clarity, in a moment of stepping out of the boat, I just looked at my wife, Dorothy, and I said, hey, let's just pray about this, because the Lord has promised not to leave us or forsake us. And so we prayed about it, we told the Lord that we trusted him for all the things that we needed, and that we believed that he would provide. We went for a walk around our neighborhood, and when I got back to our house to open the mailbox, and in it was an envelope from our insurance company. Now I'm not aware that insurance companies give you money back very often, but in this case, we received a dividend and within the dollar of what we needed to cover our budget, that check was for that exact amount.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of theological stuff in there that I don't quite understand, like had I not prayed, would that not have happened, you know, what's the Lord trying to teach me in this, and I came to the conclusion, that that check, you know, it had been written before the need ever was real like, we ever came to the realization that we needed that money. In fact, I'm pretty sure that check had been written at the foundation of time, so that in that moment, when the Lord asked us in faith to step out and trust him, he could show up in this way that was real and concrete, and and lay a foundation of trust. There's a lot more stories, in my life where I've really messed it up, where I've been faced with a similar situation and I've wept in my car, I came home from a job, I also started my own business because as if working for a school or a summer camp wasn't hard enough, starting your own business. I mean, I'm just drilling down. Right?
Speaker 2:I'm just trying to find ways for the Lord to show up in my life. Yeah. And I didn't have enough money to pay my mortgage, and I had to call back on a job, and I had to go work for free the day after Thanksgiving. And I got home, and I just cried. I couldn't get out of the car.
Speaker 2:I was so scared. And the Lord reminded me, hey, remember that time that there was that check? You can trust me. Doesn't mean it's gonna be easy, doesn't mean it's gonna be glamorous, doesn't mean you're always gonna get it right, but he's always gonna be there. He's always gonna take care of you.
Speaker 2:I think there's things like that in all of our lives as believers. For me, it was am I gonna get married, where am I hoping for, security. For you it may be something else. There's a great, great image, and I'll leave you with this, it's from C. S.
Speaker 2:Lewis, who we can all agree is the greatest thing to come out of England in the mid 19th century. Much to Joel's chagrin. It's not Tolkien. There's a scene in this book, The Silver Chair. It's one of the lesser read books of the Chronicles of Narnia, or Lesser Quote.
Speaker 2:There's a scene where a girl is faced with this dying sense of thirst, and between her and the stream is is a lion. It's a big scary lion. For me, it's a big scary sense of security. But on the other side of that line is the only source of satisfaction that we can ever have. It's a stream that will not run dry, it will quench your thirst forever.
Speaker 2:But you gotta go through the lion to get there. Now this girl doesn't know that the lion is Aslan and that he's good, but he's not tame, and so she asked the question, are you gonna eat me? And he says, basically, I have eaten people before. And she goes, well, I guess I'll go to another stream. And he says to her, there's no other stream.
Speaker 2:And there are other streams, but there's no there's really no other stream that's gonna satisfy you. And that's what the Lord asks of us, to step out and to trust him. He doesn't promise that it will be easy, that it will always be fun, but he does promise that he's good and that he will always be with us. Thanks.
Joel Brooks:Thank you, David. And I would like to remind you that Tolkien led CS Lewis to the Lord. If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to 1st Samuel chapter 4. We'll be looking at chapters 45. So we are studying, the gospel in the life of David by not talking about David yet.
Joel Brooks:We will get there. But the first half of first Samuel really is laying the foundation for David's arrival. Here in the text that we're about to read. We're going to read about a battle, how the Ark of the covenant was taken, how Israel really needs someone to come and to be their rescuer. They need a savior, and they need someone after God's own heart to come in the name of the Lord and to fight their battles for them.
Joel Brooks:So it sets the stage for David who will come later. But these chapters don't just act as a a precursor for his life. Really, that's pretty revealing about who we are and the things we trust in as well. And so it's helping to prepare our hearts for Christ. And I have found that these two chapters to be particularly convicting to me over the last couple of weeks.
Joel Brooks:So First Samuel chapter 4, first 11 verses. And the word of the Lord came to all Israel. And Israel went out to battle against the Philistines. They encamped at Ebenezer and the Philistines encamped at Aphek. The Philistines drew up in a line against Israel and when the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the Philistines who killed about 4,000 men on the field of battle.
Joel Brooks:And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies. So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, who was enthroned on the cherubim, and the 2 sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas. They were there with the Ark of the Covenant of God. As soon as the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord came into camp, all Israel gave a mighty shout, so that the earth resounded.
Joel Brooks:And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, what does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean? And when they heard that the ark of the Lord had come to the camp, the Philistines were afraid. For they said, a god has come into the camp. And they said, woe to us for nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us.
Joel Brooks:Who can rescue us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness. Take courage and be men, O Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you. Be men and fight. So the Philistines fought and Israel was defeated.
Joel Brooks:And they fled every man to his home. And there was a very great slaughter for 30,000 foot soldiers of Israel fell. And the ark of God was captured And the 2 sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas died. Chapter 5. When the Philistines captured the Ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.
Joel Brooks:When 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 rose early the next morning, 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 they rose early on the next morning, the whole Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the Ark of the Lord. And the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut on the threshold.
Joel Brooks:Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon and Ashdod to this day. The hand of the Lord was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashtad and his territory. This is the word of the Lord. Yes, sir.
Joel Brooks:You'll pray with me. Our father, our simple prayer is this. Would you show us who we are And would you show us who you are? And I pray that my words will fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain and may they change us.
Joel Brooks:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So at this point in Israel's history, they're not yet a kingdom. They're this loose to battle against those pagan Philistines. And you would suppose that, since Israel is God's chosen people after all that this, this battle, it would just be a route.
Joel Brooks:It should be kind of like, you know, Texas A&M playing Appalachian State. Or if Craig's here, Notre Dame playing Marshall. That's the last football references I will ever give, at least for a year or so. The point is this. You are expecting a route.
Joel Brooks:And it actually was a route. It just wasn't the route that you were expecting. Israel gets routed and Israel loses 4,000 men. And they can't believe this happened. How could this happen?
Joel Brooks:I mean, they are God's chosen people. They're the ones who've got the 10 Commandments. They're the good guys. And as they're wondering what happened, one guy, he he says, woah. Woah.
Joel Brooks:Woah. Oh my gosh. Guys. Oh my gosh. We forgot the ark.
Joel Brooks:That's what happened. I mean, we went into battle without the Ark. We just gotta get the Ark and then everything will be good. And and so, that's their solution for, for why they lost. They remember Raiders of Lost Ark, my favorite childhood movie.
Joel Brooks:And if you remember, any army that carries the Ark of the Covenant before them is invincible. And so that's what they're thinking. We need the Ark. It will be invincible. And so they go and they bring the ark and they get slaughtered.
Joel Brooks:30,000 of their soldiers die. And they're just wondering why how? Israel getting conquered here is their lowest point as a nation. They're literally hanging on by a thread as God's people. They've just been utterly defeated and they've lost the symbol of their faith.
Joel Brooks:The Ark is now sitting in a pagan temple. So you see God's promise to Abraham, which was a 1000 years earlier, it's hanging on by a thread. So what happened? I mean, what did Israel do wrong? Something that we do wrong all the time.
Joel Brooks:They place their faith in the wrong thing. They trusted in a symbol of God, but they did not actually trust in God. After the Israelites got routed the first time, they asked a question, why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? That's a really good question. It's the right question to ask after you've been routed.
Joel Brooks:It shows theological understanding. They understand that victory rises and falls with the Lord. And so the reason they lost, what has to be because the Lord was against them. So why was God against them? Good question.
Joel Brooks:Notice they don't take any time afterwards to actually listen to what God has to say. They asked a question, but they do not spend one moment in prayer. They do not spend one moment in contemplation about why God would allow this to happen to them. They do not ask God if they've done anything wrong. They do not ask God if they violated any of those 10 commandments that was just taken off, taken to the pagan temple.
Joel Brooks:They don't seek any areas in their lives where perhaps they might need to repent. A matter of fact, they don't even ask the Lord this question. They ask it to one another. Why is the Lord allowed this to happen? Why has He defeated us?
Joel Brooks:But they don't seek God at all. Have any of you seen that, bumper sticker that says, my kids treat me like I'm God? Any y'all seen that? It's a great bump. Any parent can relate to this?
Joel Brooks:You have to read the second part though. My kids treat me like I'm God. They only talk to me when they need something. The Israelites, you know, they they they certainly felt like they were God's children. So would they treat God like so many children do?
Joel Brooks:You know, we pray to God like all, like this all the time. God, it's been a while. I'm Joel. Just Yeah. I know it's been a long time.
Joel Brooks:If you could just help me out with this one little situation here. Perhaps you pray, God, once again it's it's been a long time, but I've got a test tomorrow I didn't study for. If maybe you could just kinda help me out this one time. God, it's been a while but if you could maybe just give me one date. That's all I want is just one date.
Joel Brooks:If you could just do this one thing for me. We so often pray like this. We we come to God in that moment of need. You would expect Israel to do this, but they don't. They don't seek God, but what they do do is get really religious.
Joel Brooks:They just need some of that old time religion. They need to bring that back. Bring back the old symbol of God's presence. Bring back the Ark of the Covenant that was given to them 400 years earlier. They can think back to that old time religion.
Joel Brooks:They've heard the stories of what the Ark has done. They've heard the stories of the walls of Jericho, and how the the Ark went there and circled around that city and the walls of Jericho came crumbling down. They've heard the stories about how the Ark went forward and battle and conquered all the enemies. They used to be great. And when they brought the Ark out, well, that's gotta be what makes them great again.
Joel Brooks:So they bring the Ark out, you know, they they they slap the make Israel great again bumper sticker on it. So that's what they want. They wanna go back to that time, remember when God used to be on our side. Instead of seeking God, they just claim the old symbols and they pull them forward. That's what religion does.
Joel Brooks:Religion is what happens when one tries to harness God's power for their own advantage. But there's no relationship, there's no worship, there's no adoration. Instead of adoration, there's only manipulation. Religion tries to manipulate God to doing what you want God to do. And so they dig up this old symbol of God and they put it forward like a rabbit's foot.
Joel Brooks:They bring out, you know, their old family bibles, you know, kinda dust them off, Put the the cross around their neck. Maybe put a fish on their car. They even, you know, reprogram the radio stations, put K LOVE on there. You know, they're they're going all in. But are they really going to God?
Joel Brooks:Religion is what happens when one tries to harness God's power to his or her own advantage. Religion clings to symbols, but doesn't cling to God. Now the Ark of the Covenant make no mistake, it was a it was a powerful symbol. A powerful symbol of God's presence among His people, but it was still just a symbol. It wasn't actually God himself.
Joel Brooks:Symbols can be powerful. This this ring that I'm wearing, it's my wedding ring. It is a symbol of my marriage with Lauren. It's a powerful symbol to me. It's my 4th, I think, wedding ring.
Joel Brooks:My first one was a gold one. I lost it mud wrestling on a mission trip. So we got another gold one. I lost it. I don't know where.
Joel Brooks:And so Lauren's like, now we're getting a sterling silver one. So then we got a sterling silver one and, and then, you know, you get older in your your hands and your your they just get bigger and it wouldn't fit anymore. Now I've got like the the sweatband of of wedding rings, the silicone band. It's basically a little fidget toy. But I love it because it's a powerful symbol to me of our marriage, but it's not my wife.
Joel Brooks:So if you were to see me at, Lauren and I our favorite date spot, which is chaise enfon to get the chaise enfon burger there. If you see me there and you see my wedding ring across the table from me and I'm talking to it. I'm like, you look wonderful this evening. Could we get her another drink? And she'd also like the burger.
Joel Brooks:Do you wanna split something this If you saw me doing that, you're concerned. I mean, you're you're probably calling 911 or or more likely, you're getting out your phone just to take pictures and post it. You know, hashtag I've got a crazy pastor. Hashtag he's Gollum, calling him my precious, you know. Yeah.
Joel Brooks:You're concerned and you should be. It's a ridiculous idea. Who would ever mistake a symbol for the real thing? Any of you ever feel defeated? Your soul's weary, tired.
Joel Brooks:You're emotionally, spiritually defeated. It's like every day's a battle and you're just being routed. You don't have any idea why. I mean, after all, you're doing the right things. You know, you're clinging to the right things or going to church regularly.
Joel Brooks:I mean, all of you are here. You know, you you're going through that bible reading plan, perhaps in a bible study. But yet, you're just tired, weary. So you keep doing more. More of those Christian things.
Joel Brooks:When the national census came out, you marked Christianity. Matter of fact, you've been marking a whole lot of Christian boxes. You've been checking them off. I grew up Southern in a small Southern Baptist Church and, they gave the offering envelopes literally had the boxes you could check off. Any of y'all have those growing up?
Joel Brooks:And so you could, you know, have you read your Bible every day? Literally a box. Check. Have you prayed every day? Check.
Joel Brooks:Are you, have you tithed? You know, check. Have you shared your faith or shared the gospel this week? Like, some people saw me say a blessing over my Chick Fil A like check, you know, that's gotta count. But like, you're literally going through and you're checking the boxes yet you feel so defeated.
Joel Brooks:It's not helping. Where is God in all this? Why am I defeated? And perhaps, just perhaps for some of you, the reason is at some point along the road, you began placing your faith in symbols of Christianity, but not in Christ. Which is understandable because those symbols used to have such power for you.
Joel Brooks:But the only reason they had powers because they were attached to Jesus. It was a tool that He was using in your life to draw you closer to Him. But somewhere perhaps along the way, maybe a divorce began to happen. Can I tell you that's been true at times in my life? And I know you're thinking, you're a pastor.
Joel Brooks:Exactly. I literally swim in the symbols of Christianity every single day. It's the air I breathe. For crying out loud, I am a symbol of Christianity as a pastor. And so I can go and I can like, okay.
Joel Brooks:You know, every every Sunday, I'm I'm preaching a sermon, then I'm leading Bible studies, and then I'm giving Godly counsel to people. I'm having people into my home. I'm going to elder meeting. I'm going to these committee meetings. I'm going to all of these things.
Joel Brooks:I'm checking all of these boxes, and then I get so tired. And those are like a warning sign to me. Why why is your soul tired? It's because I'm checking the boxes. I'm clinging to the symbols, but somehow that's begun to gradually replace my relationship with Christ.
Joel Brooks:Perhaps perhaps that could be some of you. Any of you ever experienced that? Elders. Yes. Pastors.
Joel Brooks:I'm talking to you. Have you begun to experience that? Deacons, home group leaders, People in your house every single week. I'm not questioning if you're serving. I'm not questioning if you're checking all the right boxes, but are you just exhausted?
Joel Brooks:Perhaps, somewhere along the way, there's been a shift, gradual. And you begin trusting in these things instead of trusting in Christ. The people of Israel asked the right question, why has the Lord defeated us today? But they never paused to listen to an answer. They never repented of their sins.
Joel Brooks:They never renewed their faith and went back to their first love. And if your soul is weary and defeated, don't make the same mistake. Take pause. Listen, lord, why is there something in my life that needs to change? Have I forsaken my first love?
Joel Brooks:Listen to him. Cling to him. And and Paul's last letter he ever writes in the New Testament is 2nd Timothy and he writes Timothy and he's writing about people in the church, and he's warning Timothy about all about all these people sitting in the pews, and they're doing all these terrible things. There's all this internal sin in their life that they're kind of keeping hidden because outwardly, they look great. And after he gives this laundry list of sins, he sums it all up.
Joel Brooks:He says, these people, they have the appearance of godliness, but they have denied its power. They have the appearance of godly people in the church, the appearance. Somehow the power of the gospel has just kind of left them. They go to church. They sing.
Joel Brooks:They serve. They perhaps even teach. They appear godly. But where's the work of the Holy Spirit in their life? It's a sobering, sobering morning.
Joel Brooks:So church, let me ask you again, how is your soul? Are you clinging to Jesus? Can you hear him calling you? Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Is he a balm for your soul?
Joel Brooks:Are you just burning out? Back to the story. The people when they bring out the Ark, at first it seems great. I mean, verse 5 says, they bring out the ark, Israel's giving a mighty shout, they're getting all excited. I mean, they're singing some Lauren Daigle, some Chris Tomlin.
Joel Brooks:Here's a like, how great is our God? I mean, it's like a modern worship service. It really is. The priests are there. They're loud.
Joel Brooks:The arks before them. They've got the the symbols of their faith, and they're ready to do war. Then they just get routed, defeated again. Lowest point in their history. It's telling to me that after the ark is taken, they do nothing.
Joel Brooks:Kinda like when people leave the church and are like, well, I didn't have any power when I was there. Didn't really change my life when I was there. Why should I go back? The ark leaves and they do nothing. They don't muster people together and think we gotta go and bring that thing back.
Joel Brooks:They don't even like pull together money and think, man, perhaps if we offered a ransom, we could buy it back. They literally do nothing. They are utterly defeated. Israel's hanging on by a thread. So what does God do here?
Joel Brooks:I mean I I don't know about you, but if I'm God at this point, it's abort. I mean if you you know, you picture God up there, you know, he's got the flood button he could hit. You know, maybe the the hurricane or earthquake, and then he, I would be like, hit them all. I mean, we have had a 1000 years of this since Abraham hitting them all. It's time to abort.
Joel Brooks:But God doesn't give up on them. I mean, that is the the good, good news in the story. There is gospel news in the story for the weary soul. Notice when Israel is full of sin, when they are defeated, when they were hanging on by a thread, the Lord God Himself goes off to battle for them. He fights for them.
Joel Brooks:He goes and He reminds them of who He is. The first thing I want you to notice is that although Israel sins, it's the Lord who sent out into exile. The Lord represented in the Ark. He's the one who who was sent out into exile. And the Philistines, they take that Ark and they place them in their temple of their god, Dagon.
Joel Brooks:They're like, we'll add you to the gods. I mean they're pluralist. But of course, since you were the defeated god, you gotta, you know, your second fiddle to Dagon here. But God will not be mocked. God will not be mocked.
Joel Brooks:You might think he is dead. He is not. The next day, they wake up and Dagon is lying prostrate before the ark of Yahweh. Probably, that's strange. We should probably fix that.
Joel Brooks:So they, you know, they put Dagan back upright. The next morning, they get up. Dagon is prostrate before the Ark of Yahweh again, but this time, his hands are cut off and his head is cut off. And I love that image. The Lord seems utterly defeated when the sun goes down.
Joel Brooks:But in the morning, He is the risen Lord victorious, defeating His enemies. The story points us towards another victory that we're gonna soon get to in 1st Samuel of when David takes on Goliath. When David takes on Goliath, he remembers this story. Absolutely, he remembers this story. He's going on to take on the power of Philistine, the Philistines and Goliath.
Joel Brooks:And he says, hey, you come to me with a sword and javelin. I come to you in the name of the Lord. And we remember what he did last time. And this day I will cut your head off. David remembers that the battle belongs to the Lord and it's not in his effort.
Joel Brooks:And then of course, this story ultimately points us to Jesus. Jesus who came when we were so weary. Defeat after defeat of our own demise. Our own sin has brought us to that lowly spot. And Jesus comes to us and He allows Himself to be captured by His enemies, so He could go off and fight our battles for us.
Joel Brooks:And Jesus goes and sun goes down, and they think he is defeated, but he is not. He rises victorious, and he conquers our biggest enemies of all, sin and death. And now Jesus offers once again the call. Are you weary? Would you come to me?
Joel Brooks:Come to me for life. It's a call to a beautiful and glorious life. A life of forgiveness, a life of joy when you come to Jesus, Or would you hold on to the appearance of godliness and deny its power? Pray with me. Lord Jesus, would you be so kind to us in this moment through your spirit to perhaps expose some areas in our life where we have forgotten our first love.
Joel Brooks:Expose our idolatry that has taken the form of symbols of of Christianity, which we've clung to dearly. But, lord, we've let go of you. Would you be so kind to show that to us? And would you call us to yourself? Because a call to you is a call to beauty and to glory and to life.
Joel Brooks:May those who are weary find their rest in you in this this morning. We pray this in your name Jesus. Amen.