God Has a Serious Sense of Humor
When the Philistines saw and realized that the misfortunes which came about were not by accident; but they saw the problems repeated and brought on to themselves by keeping the Ark of the Covenant (The Ark of God), the most sacred vessel of the Israelites, (they thought it was a trophy) they proceeded to plan what to do in accordance to the best way to get the Ark out of their hands. The Philistines of their five cities: Gaza, Gath, Ekron, and Ashkelon planned what to do. They saw the destructive things happening to them (1 Samuel 5:6-8) The hand of the LORD lay heavy on the Ashdonites. He wrought havoc on them. What shall we do? (Their god (Dagon) had been crushed. Dagon’s head, hands and feet were on the threshold. This was beyond their imagination. How could this be??!! They had relied on this man-made handmade “god” for protection …to grow their grain. As always, the “gods” that many people serve will always fall before the “One True God.” Isaiah references this in Isaiah chs. 10 and 41:1-42:17 This lengthy speech speaks of redemption. The nations must show whether their “gods” can match the true deity’s power. If one “god” is destroyed men rush right along making bad decisions one after another to build another new idol and start serving it/them. “Not one of them can predict or respond when I question him.” (The LORD says.) They are all as nothing.” (Isaiah 41:28, 29) This is further proved when reading 1 Samuel chs. 5 & 6. The Ark is sent to Gath and the hand of the LORD came against them in Gath. Then they sent the Ark of God to Ekron and the Ekronites cried out “they have moved the Ark of God to us to slay us and our kin (1 Samuel 5:10).” Send it away to its own place. There was panic so that in the whole city. Death permeated the whole city. The men who did not die were stricken with hemorrhoids (bubonic plague). The Ark was in the territory of the Philistines for seven months. The priests and the diviners (soothsayers) were gathered to decide what to do. After a meeting and discussion, they decided to pay an indemnity and not send their trophy (the Ark) away empty handed. Pay an indemnity of five (one for each city) Golden hemorrhoids (shaped like tumors) and five (one for each city) Golden mice. (The mice had been ravaging the land by destroying the grain crops, which showed the nothingness of their “god” Dagon…grain god.) In 1 Samuel 6:20 we read of our awesome LORD when the cart carrying the Ark was touched and 70 men or more died. For the plague struck all of you the diviners had said. Let us pay an indemnity. The priests and diviners reminded the people of what happened in Egypt…how the LORD make a mockery of the Egyptian gods and convinced them that what happened there was not by chance, but by divine plan. They knew there was something special about the Ark and transported it on a new cart with new cows which were undefiled. The LORD makes a mockery of the “gods.” Throughout the Bible we see contests between our awesome LORD and peoples’ “gods.” There is no match. God always wins. He says, “Fear not, for I am with you.” What then can we say to these things?” One decision made on behalf of ten and one decision made on behalf of millions can devastate or build up our nation. It may take time, but unless we turn to why our nation was created in the first place and stick to its original purpose as a Christian nation, we face consequences which may not be changed. Let’s not forget. Let us do Christian acts.
Thanks for reading! Jeanette Grattan Parker is Founder-Superintendent Today’s Fresh Start Charter School 4514 Crenshaw Boulevard, LA 90043 323-293-9826 www.todaysfreshstart.org (Ask Dr. Jeanette TM) [email protected] Inquiring Minds Want To Know-All articles are copyright. All rights reserved. www.todaysfreshstart.org 323-293-9826. 4514 Crenshaw BL, LA 90043
