Adrian
Old-Sunday Worship May 3rd, 2026
  • His Name Is Wonderful

      • Psalm 31:1–16ESV

      • Psalm 31:1–16ESV

  • How Deep The Father's Love For Us
  • Doxology

      • 1 Samuel 5:1–12ESV

  • “No God Like Our God” (Conclusion)

    K. Adrian Scott
    May 3, 2026
    Introductory Review.
    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.
    When the Philistines captured Israel, they also captured Israel’s treasured Ark of the Covenant as a part of the war bounty.
    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).
    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!
    vv. 1-2; “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.”
    Satan is powerless in God’s house, but the Lord remains “mighty to save” even in the house of the enemy!
    v. 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.”
    v. 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.”
    Dagon had fallen again, a second time, while the Ark, the symbol of Israel’s God, the Ark, had never fallen and remained standing in the place where he had been placed. This time the fall of Dagon, resulted in the head and both hands of Dagon being mysteriously cut off! God has an invisible hand capable of subduing any enemy or rival! The God of the Philistines now lays prostrate before him!
    Note: We should remember that in this time in history, victorious armies would sever the head of their enemies (1 Sam. 29.6) and after battle display it as a trophy. David cut off the head of Goliath later in the book, and Saul will also be beheaded.
    A person’s hands and arms often represented their strength or power. To cut off an enemy’s head would indicate who was truly in control. Dagon’s head and both hands were cut off. Headless this idol is which tells us Dagon has no mind, without thoughts or a will. He has no hands, so he also is of no help! And without arms Dagon has no strength! Who needs a god who has no will or capacity to think or plan, no hands are idle hands, so Dagon has no creative power, and without arms, he is also without strength! In other words, Dagon can do nothing!
    “His head and hands cut off lay on the threshold, presenting him as a headless monster, emblem of their folly who worshipped him; and handless, to intimate the impotence of his arm to save himself or them” (Thomas Coke, Commentary on 1 Samuel).
    Of the two objects of worship, one the (false) god Dagon whom the Philistines worshiped, and the God of Israel, Yahweh, the Philistines god Dagon is the only one who has fallen, and the only one who due to his fall is now more obviously and graphically powerless. Therefore, Dagon is inferior to the God of the Israelites, the God of the sacred Covenant who was still found unmoved (which may say something to us about the unmoved or immutable nature of our God) since the Ark of the Covenant was still standing where it was originally placed.
    Oh, I’m sure God was happy for the opportunity to show all the Philistines who the real God is!
    v. 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.”
    Who would want to worship a god when the first thing you see once you enter his temple is proof your god is actually a dead god, and the evidence is on the floor where his severed head and hands lie on the floor! At this point, any rational worshiper would immediately start looking for another god, this time, the true God! Because I need and you need a God who can think and know when I am confused, and a God whose hands can pick me up when I am down and needing lifted up! Give me this God!
    At this point every would-be worshiper in Dagon’s temple has more power than Dagon because at least they have hands and a head and that’s two hands a head more than Dagon has! A commonsense question that begs to be answered is this – ‘what good does it do to worship and commit oneself to a god who cannot help you?’
    And on the other hand, why wouldn’t you want to worship a God without a rival; a God with strong hands and willing to help; with power in His arms to lift the fallen and a mind to providentially will His worshipers to victory when they are tested? A God who cannot fall and will stand the test of time? Isn’t this the kind of God we want to serve?
    Don’t you want to worship and serve a God whose arms are strong that He might save? A God whose long arm reached down from Glory above and saves whom He wills when they cannot save themselves? Who wouldn’t want to serve an all-seeing God who saw us when we were at our worst but still determined to give us His best; that is the gift of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ! Not just any son, but His One and only perfectly holy Son who alone has the capacity and will to love those who hate Him, and befriends His enemies? Who is this Son who although sinless willingly owned the sin He didn’t commit that we might become righteous as He is? Oh, you ought to turn to this God!
    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.”
    If there was any question about who did this to Dagon, or who was responsible for the falling, broken and dismembering of the Philistine god Dagon, now we know. Israel’s God, Yahweh did it. Where Dagon’s hands were cut off, the text says, “the hand of the Lord was heavy.” This ‘hand of the Lord’ phrase means ‘the power of the Lord’ and it says, ‘God is in taking action’ (NET Bible). The true God still has hands which means the true God is still at work and with hands our God can still help!
    While Dagon’s head has been severed or cut off from his body/torso, completely incapacitated, the God of Israel is now going to further prove He is yet in control by causing the Philistines to be afflicted with tumors!
    What the Philistines, Israel’s enemy feared most, has happened; the God of Israel whom they heard had delivered the Israelites from under Egypt’s control by plaguing the Egyptians with several plagues, ten plagues to be exact, Yahweh has done the same thing to us! He has sent plagues upon us also!
    Don’t challenge Israel’s God because He is a true, living and a powerful God, while the Philistine’s god is false, lifeless and powerless!
    “And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, The Ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is hard against us and against Dagon our God. So, they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, What shall we do with the Ark of the God of Israel? They answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath. So, they brought the ark of the God of Israel there” (vv. 7,8).
    Move the Ark of God if you may, but be assured you Philistines, that wherever the Ark of God travelled, the power of God’s judgment travelled with it! The Philistines should have realized they would have their own Jordan Rivers to cross! Their own battles to fight! And while in the heat of battle or wading a river or climbing a mountain fortress they could use a God like this!
    Let me tell every and anyone who is not worshiping and serving this great God whose fingerprints are all over creation, just like the Philistines, you too will have your rivers to cross and mountains to climb. And you will need a God like this! Rivers of trouble and mountains of heartache you cannot overcome by yourself! But here the very thing the Philistines feared the most is what became their lot. That is, the God of Israel sent upon them plagues as he did upon the Egyptians.
    In v. 8 the Philistines asked themselves the same question that the crowd asked after hearing the message and seeing miracles of grace on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2: “What shall we do?” The Philistines believed in their hearts and saw with their own eyes the inferiority of their god, Dagon, and on the other hand, the superiority of the God of Israel.
    Here is a real opportunity for the Philistines to turn to the living and true God! An opportunity to stop worshiping an impotent or powerless god and an otherwise useless god they had created with their own hands. How could they expect their god to be more powerful than themselves when they are the ones who created it?
    However, instead of worshiping Israel’s God, they thought it would be better to get Yahweh off of their hands, instead of letting him into their hearts! They thought deemed it was better to move the One whose presence was on top of the Ark rather than to love him; it is best to run from him than to run to him and bow before him! After all, if their lifeless god, Dagon, could be made to bow before Yahweh, why couldn’t or wouldn’t they also bow before the God of the Israelites, Yahweh?
    Was this a matter of pride that the Philistines refused to worship the real true and living God? Were they too ashamed to admit they had it wrong by worshiping the wrong god? Isn’t this a sign of the danger of idol worship? Isn’t this clear evidence of both the potential arrogance of blindness and the power of spiritual bondage?
    Why won’t you turn from your broken down, frustrating and useless idols, god’s that are blinding you to the truth about your idol god that cannot help you and the reality of the One, true God seen in His Son Jesus Christ? Is your pride stopping you from acknowledging who the real God is? Are you too ashamed to admit you have been wrong? Don’t listen to anyone else because God has revealed the truth to you!
    Our true God has shown you the error of your ways, but you won’t let it go and at the same time He has shown us the truth of the reality and supernatural presence of the true God, Yahweh! It’s time to give up your gods of leisure; gods that cannot speak or see or help. These idols are keeping you from the joy and comforting presence of the real God.
    Leave your Dagon and turn to the real, living, saving God through the Lord Jesus Christ!
    For the Philistines it was plagues of health, but what will God’s judgment be on you for your unbelief?
    Moving the ark or the representation of the God of Israel was not what will bring relief to the Philistines, but surrendering to the reality of the superiority of Israel’s God is what would bring them relief! Acknowledging him as the supreme God of the universe, and the only true and living God would have stopped the judgment of God upon them! And now and in the age to come, again it will only be the acknowledgment of the one true God and his Son, Jesus Christ, that will stay the hand of God’s judgment! Acknowledge him, believe in him, receive him, trust in him! Jesus, the complete revelation of God in the flesh said this, “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for except ye believe that I am He, ye shall die in your sins.” (John 8.24)
    vv. 9-10; “But after they had brought it around, the hand of the LORD was against the city, causing a very great panic, and he afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them. So, they sent the ark of God to Ekron. But as soon as the ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, They have brought around to us the ark of the God of Israel to kill us and our people.”
    The Philistines changed the location of the Ark from Gath to Ekron, but they couldn’t change God! He is immutable and unchanging, and wherever God is found, our God will be the same! We cannot hide or run fromGod; we can only run to this God!
    v. 11; “So they assembled all the leaders of the Philistines and said, “Get the ark of the God of Israel out of here! Let it go back to its own place so that it won’t kill us and our people!” The terror of death was throughout the entire city; God was attacking them very severely there.”
    The Philistines said, “Get the ark of the God of Israel out of here!”
    How hard their hearts were! Rather than to change and invite God in their hearts, their temple and their community, they tried to kick God out! Instead of repenting they chose to run! When the true God of this world reveals himself to you, turn to him! Run ‘to’ him, don’t run ‘from’ him! Because the Philistines discovered from their own experience with Yahweh, there is no God like Israel’s God!
    v. 12; “The people who did not die were struck with sores; the city’s cry for help went all the way up to heaven.”
    No God like Our God because our God is attentive to the needs of God’s people.
    This God alone creates and sustains his world.
    There is ‘no God like our God’!
    This God is Majestic in holiness.
    Magnificent in his attributes.
    He is glorious in his power.
    No one like our God!
    He is resolute in his sovereign will.
    Awesome in his deeds.
    ‘Who is like Our God?’
    He is perfect in all of his dealings.
    He is the very definition of goodness and
    The personification of truth.
    ‘No God like Our God!”
    God is the epitome of grace.
    He is approachable yet holy.
    Perfect yet forgiving.
    Holy, yet redeeming.
    ‘Who is Like Our God?’
    Psalm 89.6 – “Who in the skies can compare to our Lord?”
    No God like Our God!
    If Dagon was supposed to save, he failed!
    If the Philistine god was supposed to protect, Dagon failed!
    If Dagon was to give his people hope, he failed!
    If the Philistine god was to heal diseases, Dagon failed!
    If Dagon, the Philistine’s god was supposed to help, he failed!
    There is No God like Our God! Who saves, protects, gives hope, heals, and helps! There is no one like our God!
    What do you need? Just ask Him!
    What will you do?

      • 1 Samuel 5:1–12ESV

      • 1 Samuel 5:1–2ESV

      • 1 Samuel 5:3ESV

      • 1 Samuel 5:4ESV

      • 1 Samuel 5:5ESV

      • 1 Samuel 5:6ESV

      • 1 Samuel 5:7–8ESV

      • John 8:24ESV

      • 1 Samuel 5:9ESV

      • 1 Samuel 5:10ESV

      • 1 Samuel 5:11ESV

      • 1 Samuel 5:12ESV

      • 1 Samuel 5:1–12ESV

      • Psalm 32:5ESV

      • Isaiah 53:5aESV

  • How Great Thou Art

      • Exodus 15:2ESV

Adrian
8 members