Good morning Friends!
1st Samuel chapter 5.
The Philistines defeated Israel and took the ark of God into their god's Temple. They placed the ark next to their god Dagon. BUT GOD WILL NOT BE MOCKED! The Philistines faced much devastation for how they treated the ark of God.
God does not wish to be treated as one of the gods in our lives, but rather wants to be Lord of our lives. The Philistines recognized that the God of Israel was real but did not recognize him as the one and only true God. So rather than worship the God of Israel as the one and only true God they tried to get rid of Him.
It's no different than for us. We can't mess with God because he will not be mocked. He is not a God to be referred to on Sunday in amongst all the other hobbies, passion and desires we refer to throughout the week. He's not to be treated as a god amongst our other gods, or things we value more than God. God wants to be on the threshold of our hearts. He does not wish to be shared with anyone or anything else. He wants to be number one. He wants to be in all we do and all we say. He wants to be our number one God that is head of our hobbies. We do our hobbies not because it's a god, but we do our hobbies so God can be glorified in and through our hobbies. Our passions and desires are not something separate from God, but because God is number one we pray that his passions and his desires become our passions and our desires so that all we do and always say it's just a reflection of him and giving him glory.
The Philistines new the God of Israel was real but not real enough to worship him over all other gods. Many of us know God is real and believe in him but we don't surrender everything over to him. We give him Sunday, maybe, for an hour. Our Bible sets on the shelf because we're too busy valuing or worshiping what is really important to us.
Like I said God is serious. He will not be mocked. Matthew 4:10 Jesus said to worship and serve God only. Matthew 10:32-33 Jesus said for whoever will confess me before men I will also confess him before my father who is in heaven but whoever shall deny me before men I will also deny him before my father who is in heaven. Jesus also said in Luke 14:26-27 that if we can't take up our cross daily and follow him then we cannot be his disciple. He also said no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for service in the kingdom of God Luke 6:62.
Keywords that I'm challenged with:
Surrender and commitment (100%)!
The Philistines had defeated Israel, but God made it clear that they had not defeated the God of Israel. They may have wanted to display the ark of the covenant as some kind of trophy that they won, but God showed them that He was real and that their fake god, Dagon would not be able to stay standing before Him. It reminds me of when Aaron’s rod that turned into a snake swallowed the magicians’ rods when they did the same. I’m also thinking of what we read in Philippians 2:10 about how the day is coming when “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.” It wouldn’t be long before the people would want rid of the ark of the covenant because they were being afflicted with boils and they feared for their lives. The lesson is to not mess with God! He is the only one to worship and serve!
Luke 4:8
And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.’”
Amen, brothers! Instead of turning to the Lord when His hand was upon them, the Philistines would simply send the ark on to the next city. What a way to treat your brothers and sisters!