Adrian
Old -Sunday Worship April 26th, 2026
  • 10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord)
  • My Tribute

      • John 10:1–10ESV

      • John 10:1–10ESV

  • Jesus Keep Me Near The Cross (Near The Cross)
  • Doxology

      • 1 Samuel 5:1–12ESV

  • “No God Like Our God”

    K. Adrian Scott
    April 26, 2026
    Contextual Introduction.
    The book of 1 Samuel covers approximately one-hundred years of Hebrew history. 1 Samuel’s human author is anonymous although it is confirmed that the Prophet Samuel contributed to the book according to chapter 10.25. Most of 1st Samuel is comprised of the history of Israel’s ridiculous first king, Saul. You will also find the remarkable story of the young Hannah who was barren and desperately wanted to bear a child. After sincerely and fervently praying to this end, God favored Hannah to become the mother of who would become a phenomenal figure in the history of Israel, Samuel. Appropriately the book named after Samuel includes the history of God’s dramatic call upon his life Samuel when he was a child.
    The Text.
    Verse 1; “Now the Philistines had captured the Ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.”
    When the Philistines captured Israel, they also captured Israel’s treasured Ark of the Covenant as a part of the war bounty. The Philistines, however, had nothing to do with Israel’s God before this. They would find out their army can take the people of Israel captive, but they cannot take their God captive! The Philistines took possession of the Ark, but didn’t want possession of Israel’s God who was represented in the contents of the Ark.
    It appears the Philistines saw the Ark as some kind of supernatural but non-personal magical piece of furniture that once under their possession could be used against Israel and to their benefit. This reminds me of some people who see the physical church the same way the Philistines used the Ark of the Covenant; that is, when things are going sideways in their lives, they believe all they need to do is start going to church again and everything will be alright! In the same way, there are some people who think about the Bible they have around their house in the same way the Philistines were thinking about the Ark of the Covenant. When things are going bad for them, they start searching high and low trying to find the Bible their church or parents gave them when they were a child. Now they want to pick it up and read it, thinking this will please God and everything going wrong in their life will suddenly turn around, even though they know full well as soon as things start to straighten out for them, they will forget all about God and God’s Word and fall right back into the same old habits.
    Friends, we cannot use, or trick God! One’s relationship with God cannot be reduced to a hobby that we pick up when other things are not taking our time. We must also know that a genuine personal relationship with God is not available to those who are disingenuous or in other words, those who are not sincere. If knowing, serving and worshiping God is not your real goal, then you will find out God isn’t interested in that kind of relationship because the Bible does not teach the possibility of persons having a casual relationship with God that lacks genuine commitment.
    “Draw near to God and God will draw near to you” (James 4.8). Christians have often said these persons with this agenda were ‘playing Church’; they were insincere and were trying to use our holy and powerful God to their benefit without making a sincere Christian faith commitment. Once again, there is no description of a true believer that looks like this.
    Once the Philistines had possession of the Ark, they thought they could strategically move it wherever they chose to and wherever it would benefit them the most. As it were in this case, they moved the Ark of the Covenant to Ashdod, one of the chief places for the worship of Dagon, the Philistines god of fertility. Worship of this ‘god of fertility’ had been taking place for over two-thousand years. Once the Ark was in Ashdod, the Philistines then placed the Ark in their temple, the temple of Dagon.
    Oh, the Philistines must have thought they were in complete control of things, especially since the name Ashdod means “fortified” and in addition to the town being well fortified, Ashdod was perched on a peak or plateau. And now that they are in possession of Israel’s secret weapon, the mysteriously powerful the Ark of the Covenant, the Philistines must have thought they were certainly invincible! (A historical fact says that this city was so well protected because of where it physically stood, and because of the fearlessness of the Philistine army, it would take Israel until the days of King Uzziah to occupy Ashdod as recorded in 2 Chronicles 26.6).
    The Ark is now in the Temple of Dagon, the Philistine’s god, whose image according to popular belief was the upper body, the head, the chest and hands of a man, but the lower part from waist down had the torso of a fish. Dagon was the Philistines god of fertility and Dagon was considered the national god of the Philistines(Easton Bible Dictionary). Fish were called ‘dag’ by the Hebrews which pointed to their extraordinary ability to reproduce. Thus, ‘dag-on’ was their god of fertility or fruitfulness. Like other religions, their pagan god had a temple and priests, and when the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant, they placed the Ark in the temple at Ashdod next to Dagon.
    Just what was inside of the Ark of the Covenant? According to Hebrews 9.4 there were three things inside of the Ark: First, there was the two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments were written on. Second, Aaron’s rod that supernaturally budded. Third, a jar of manna. The tablets of stone represented the uniqueness of God’s relationship with Israel. They were to be a ‘set apart’ or sanctified people, different from the other idol worshiping nations. Then, Aaron’s rod represented God’s call upon and anointing or empowerment of the Hebrew Priests. And finally, the jar of manna clearly represented God or Yahweh’s faithful provision for the people of God.
    Note: The Philistines knew the Ark was something special to Israel and there was a special power connected to it, but what the Philistines did not know was – there was nothing magical about the Ark of the Covenant so that anyone who would come into possession of the Ark could use it and receive the same results Israel received. But what made this piece of furniture so special to the Israelites was that certainly inside of the Ark were the historical artifacts that reminded Israel of the many miracles the Lord performed on their behalf, but the Bible tells us that outside of and on top of this beautiful ornate wooden chest that was overlayed with pure gold and in there was the likeness of two golden cherubim with their wings spread and in the space between the wings of the cherubim was a special and undeniably powerful presence of the Spirit of God! This is why whenever the Israelites were going out to the battlefield, or they found themselves in difficult circumstances when they needed divine assistance like crossing the Jordan River to enter the land of Canaan the Ark of the Covenant was carried across the Jordan first, insuring Israel’s safe passage. Or, when the Israelites were tasked to take down the mighty wall surrounding the city of Jericho, the Ark of the Covenant was carried and circled outside of the Jericho walls seven times until they fell when the people shouted. These dramas portrayed Israel’s success; they put God first; God was going before them in each of these cases.
    What the Philistines were ignorant of is; this chest itself, the acacia wood and the gold, did not possess any magical powers, but there was someone whose presence was hovering over the outside of the chest who could do far more than magic! The Philistines had something and someone, the God of Israel, on their hands who is far more than they could handle!
    Now to give the Philistines a little credit, when they placed the Ark of the Covenant next to their god, Dagon, the Philistines they did something that most people refuse to do, and that is to acknowledge the reality of the God of Israel. At this point however, the Philistines were not acknowledging Yahweh as ‘the’ true God, but they limited their confession to saying Yahweh was ‘a’ true God, and while they were not confessing Yahweh to be ‘the’ greatest God, they were at least acknowledging Yahweh to be ‘a’great God, perhaps implied by Ark’s placement next to Dagon. So then, there is more than an implication that the Philistines believed their god, Dagon, was at least equal to the God of the Israelites if not greater. I want to make it abundantly clear that the Philistine’s confession did not go far enough. Attempting to recognize the real Lord from Glory while at the same time holding onto our other ‘idol’ gods, is not sufficient and will not pause or stop God’s judgment from coming upon us. In the eyes of the One true and living God, it is not sufficient or to say, ‘I believe in God and His Son Jesus Christ’ while at the same time still recognizing and worshiping the idol gods of this world of vanity, unbridled lust and greed – In reference to the love of money, Matthew’s Gospel says this, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matthew 6.24). Further in the ten commandments the Lord God says, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20.3, ESV). John says in his Epistle, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16. Because all that is in the world (the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance produced by material possessions) is not from the Father but is from the world” (1 John 2. 15-16).
    v. 2; “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” (V. 3).
    Having taken the Ark of the Covenant, God’s holy gift to the people who call on God’s name that represents all that God had done for them in the history of their existence, and a piece of furniture where the very powerful and holy presence of God rests, they place the Ark in their temple. The next day the worshippers of Dagon enter Dagon’s temple and find Dagon, their idol god, lying face down on the ground before the Ark of the Covenant! The text does not say someone pushed Dagon down, but it says, “Dagon had fallen face down.” To walk into the temple and see that your god has fallen ‘face down’ is an immediate cause to rethink, ‘is this really a god? To lay prostrate or flat is a common position of worship, and here is the Philistine’s god lying face down before the Ark of God, in its temporary house, the house of Dagon, yet even in this place, a house of idol worship, it is full of Yahweh’s power, the power of God! Oh, yes, Israel’s God and my God and your God is God everywhere and under every circumstance! Our God is God in a flood and God on a boat, ask Noah! He is God in a tent, ask Abraham! Our God is God in a dungeon, ask Joseph, God in a cave, ask David, God in Nineveh, ask Jonah; God while held captive and even put in a lion’s den, ask Daniel! Our One, true God is very God when imprisoned, ask Paul or Silas, and God when banished as a prisoner, ask John, and the Father is surely God when His Son was falsely accused, improperly tried, God when fastened to a cross and God when the Father raised Christ from the dead! Our God is God all the time and everywhere! It seemed that the Philistines thought this was due to an accident or for some unexplained reason Dagon had fallen while the Israelite’s representation of God, the Ark of the Covenant, had not fallen even though they stood next to one another.
    Nothing was broken from the Philistine’s idol, so they picked up their God
    from the floor where he had fallen and put him back in his usual place.
    There is something about having to pick up, or carry, or reposition your god that
    runs contrary to the idea of an all-sufficient God! Someone must have wondered
    why Dagon fell in the first place, while the Ark of God remained standing! Was this
    A coincidence or is there a point being made in this circumstance?
    The Philistines determined they would put Dagon back where he was.
    By the way, every false god needs to be fixed up then propped up to stand before the
    true God, the Yahweh of Israel!
    We can’t help but notice the obvious needy and weak idol god of the Philistines, Dagon. If Dagon could not stand by himself or even pick himself up once he had fallen, how could the people expect Dagon to keep his followers from falling, and when they do, pick them up? If you cannot save himself, how could he save someone else?
    Yahweh, Israel’s God, however, did not need anyone to pick him up. In fact, not only did not the Ark fall because of the presence of God, but Jude 24 says, “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling…” Israel’s God is clearly seen in this circumstance as proven to be reliable! There was no one standing guard beside the Ark of the Covenant to make sure it didn’t topple over! Our God not only doesn’t stumble or fall, but He is also the One who keeps us from stumbling or falling!
    Church, your God is sufficient all by himself! And here we see the point being made that Yahweh, the only true and living God, does not need people, but people
    truly need the One, true God from Glory!
    The Proposition.
    We cannot borrow from our parents or grandparents or Pastor’s religion, relying upon their relationship with God to carry over to us without any effort on our part. Knowing God must be a personal heartfelt commitment. Is your relationship with God based on a true desire to live, love and serve God, or is your connection with God a connection born merely out of convenience because you were born into a Christian home or attended a Christian School or Vacation Bible School? Those things alone do not make a person Christian. They can certainly play an important part of your faith journey, but these things are not the conclusion to the journey, but a part of the journey to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
    The Close.
    So, the Philistines were confronted with the question – ‘Who was Israel’s God, Yahweh to them?’ And I ask us this morning, ‘Whose God are you serving, Yahweh the One, True God, or Dagon? Is the great ‘Adonai’ the Lord or Master; or ‘Elohim’ which alludes to God’s power; ‘El Shaddai’ translated God Almighty; or Yahweh/Jehovah which means ‘I Am Who I Am. Since there are many facets of God’s person, there are many names given to describe God’s virtues or character. Is this God, to define some of the other names of God, is the only One who protects and provides; who heals, sanctifies and gives peace your God? Or is this God who always was and always will be your God or someone else’s God, or like the Philistines, you just have happened to hear about him and when the opportunity presented itself, you’ve attempted to borrow Him when it is convenient?
    If your God isn’t working for you like Dagon, why not look to the God of Israel who stands tall in every circumstance. The choice is yours.

      • 1 Samuel 5:1–12ESV

      • 1 Samuel 5:1ESV

      • James 4:8ESV

      • Hebrews 9:4ESV

      • Matthew 6:24ESV

      • Exodus 20:3ESV

      • 1 John 2:15–16ESV

      • 1 Samuel 5:2ESV

      • Jude 24ESV

      • 1 John 2:1ESV

      • Isaiah 55:6–7ESV

  • Open Our Eyes

      • Ephesians 3:20–21ESV

Adrian
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