1st Samuel 5:1 And the Philistines took the ark of God, and" .... 2 ... "they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon. 3 And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again. 4 And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.
This passage of scripture helps us to understand how spiritual things are interfaced with the temporal ones, and it should cause us to draw reasonable conclusions when certain courses of action are pursued by nations or individuals. When the circumstances surrounding the above incidents are carefully studied and understood, it will go a long way in preventing us from harboring any unreasonable expectations when violations of truth and duty are committed, either ignorantly or deliberately. In this instance, the philistines had captured the sacred ark of God containing His holy law, and they carried it as a trophy into the temple of their fish god dagon, whose modern counterpart is the little mermaid, being made of half fish and half human.
But as soon as they had placed the ark next to their idol, unexplained perplexities began to occur, for that very first night, he was torn from his pedestal and lay prostrate before the ark of Jehovah. The following morning as the priests opened the doors, and saw what had taken place, they immediately began searching for answers as to who would dare to do such a thing, or whether it was something that had happened by chance. And so they reverently placed the image back in its place and carefully secured the doors as they left, so as to make certain that no one could enter to cause any like disturbance.
But on the following day when they opened up their sanctuary, they saw that there had been no forced entry, but dagon again lay flat on his face before the very same ark, only this time his upper torso was completely severed from his lower regions, and his entire frame was badly mutilated. At this point they must of necessity come to some conclusion as to the mysterious cause of the idol's destruction. Human agencies must be ruled out, for there was no visible sign of break in or forced entry, and nothing was missing. The only thing that was different now in their temple was the presence of the sacred chest, and therefore, reason would have it that there must be some link between the ark's presence, and the mutilation of their idol god.
Not long after these two occurrences, a deadly destruction took place across the land, by which many people bled to death from their secret parts, and a devastating plague of mice followed, by which the storehouses and farms were literally reduced to ruin. These unnatural and sudden tragedies must inevitably be linked to the capture of the sacred ark, for this was the only differentiating factor that had been recently introduced, thus teaching us the sacred and sobering truth that there are laws of cause and effect which are set in motion by certain courses of action that may be pursued by nations and individuals, and therefore the spiritual and temporal issues of life must of necessity be interfaced in our daily experience. Let's read:
1st Samuel 5:8 They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?"..... 9 And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts. 10 Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people. 11 "For there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.
Since the introduction of same sex marriage into our legislature, the economy has been stalled out for some unknown reason, with the Dow industrial average bobbing and weaving between seventeen and eighteen thousand points for the last seven months, and because it is a leading indicator of economic activity across the nation, one has to wonder, if like the philistines who tampered with the sacred ark of God containing His law, that we too are now suffering the adverse headwinds of impending doom, because of the blatant disregard of the sacred laws, and the institution of marriage, which has done violence to the plainest instructions of Jehovah on this issue, as well as well as shaking the very foundations of society.
There is not a single instance in sacred history where a nation or individual was rewarded with blessings for doing evil, not one. And therefore, our expectations of tranquility, security, and prosperity, after having trampled the ark of God in the dust, is a delusion, and an unreasonable expectation, for the same spiritual laws of cause and effect have already been set in motion, and it's only a matter of time before we reap the full brunt of the results of our actions, which must inevitably be linked to our acts of rebellion. No amount of human reasoning along normal philosophical lines, will stay the judgments that have already been determined, and therefore it behooves us to reason soberly from cause to effect, and make straight paths for our feet.
We therefore end with a passage of scripture which demonstrates both God's forbearance with the human family, and also the certainty of His judgments, for we are instructed that there is an invisible threshold point at which the former gives way to the latter. Let's read:
Ecclesiastes 8:11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. 12 Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him: 13 But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.
He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what The Spirit saith to the churches. "Good night", and God bless!