Dagon gets busted!

1 Samuel 4:12-8:22 (New King James Version)

Death of Eli

Eli heard that the ark of God had been stolen and his sons were dead.  He fell off the chair he was sitting on and broke his neck because he was old and heavy.

How would things have changed had he listened to the voice of God and repented and disciplined his sons and they repented?  Our day by day decisions are a direct result of our consequences or our blessings.

Ichabod

Phineas' wife was pregnant and when she heard he was dead, she immediately went into childbirth and died.  A woman who was with her at the time of the birth named the child Ichabod and said "The glory of God has departed from Israel!"

The Philistines and the Ark

Hahahaha, this is cool! 

The first place the Philistines put the ark of God is with their god, Dagon.  The first morning they find Dagon fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD.  They set it back up, and the next day they come in and find Dagon on the ground before the ark of the LORD with its head and hands on the threshhold, only the torso remained.

Then the people were afraid because God's wrath was on them so they sent the ark to Ashdod.  God caused tumors to break out on the men.  So, it went from Ashdod to Gath to Ekron.  God kept the tumor thing going and men were dying and they wanted the ark to go back to the Israelites because it was causing so much trouble for them.

The Ark Returned to Israel

The priests and diviners of the Philistines said to return the ark with a sacrifice of five golden tumors and five golden rats and if the cows pulling the cart go to Beth Shemesh then it was God's wrath.  If the cows go a different direction, the whole thing was just a miscellaneous occurrence. 

The cows went straight to Beth Shemesh.  Isn't it "something" how all that happens.  There are no coincidences with God.

The men of Beth Shemesh offered the cows as a burnt sacrifice and looked into the ark.  God smote them for opening the ark and 50,070 men lost their lives.

The Ark at Kirjath Jearim

So the remaining men at Beth Shemesh told the men at Kirjath Jearim to come get the ark.

Samuel Judges Israel

The ark remained at Kirjath Jearim for 20 years.  The Israelites repented and were gathered in at Mizpah so the Philistines decided to head for Israel and conquer it.  Well, God had other ideas for their plans and struck a huge bolt of thunder and they got all confused and stayed that way and the Israelites drove them out and recovered all their cities.  Samuel was their judge the rest of his life, and Israel was at peace.

Israel Demands a King

Samuel appointed his two sons as judges but they were not righteous, so the Israelites wanted a king.

God told Samuel they weren't rejecting him but they were rejecting God.

God needs to be the King of our lives.  We need to serve Him because He never changes and is always righteous and will help us through our issues.  Thank You.