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Doggone Dagon
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Doggone Dagon by Phil Remember the old commercial where none of the kids want to eat the cereal so they finally say, "Give it to Mikey, he'll eat anything!"? The same thing happened with the Ark of the Covenant back in Samuel's day. This was long before Indiana Jones rescued it from the Nazis. (Indy was fiction, but the real story is even better!) Let's set the scene: Back in 1 Samuel chapter 4, the Israelites take on the Philistines and lose big time. The elders are reviewing the game tape and someone comes up with a bad idea of epic proportions - "Let's bring the Ark of the Covenant to the next battle so God can save us from our enemies." The boys huddled up like the losing bunch on Family Feud and chant, "Good answer, good answer!" So they bring the Ark, and not only do the Israelites get their hineys kicked, the Philistines capture the Ark and take it home to Ashdod. Ouch. (Lesson 1 - you can't use God as a good luck charm to get what you want. He won't go for that.) Back to the story - The Philies put the Ark in Dagon's temple next to his statue. The next morning they find Dagon face down on the ground before the Ark of the Lord, as if Dagon himself were bowing before God. They quietly dusted Dagon off and set him back on his pedestal, but the following morning he is not only face down on the ground again, his head and hands have been broken off as well. That, plus the fact that the people were suddenly afflicted with tumors and death, made the Philistines think that having the Ark around wasn't such a good idea after all. (Some early manuscripts mention that rats appeared in the city, and scholars think this may mean an outbreak of bubonic plague. Others mention "tumors in the groin." Either way, the townsfolk wanted the Ark out of there ASAP.) (This is where the cereal commercial comes in.) The Ashdodites say, "We don't want it, send it to Gath." The Gathites say, "We don't want it, send it to Ekron." The Ekronites say, "We don't want it, send it back to Israel." And so the Ark started its journey back home. What can we learn from the Philistines and broken Dagon? If there is something in your life more important than God (that doesn't "bow" to Him), you'll never get "a head." (Sorry, I couldn't resist that pun, but the fact is true!) In our story, the Ark is not home yet, so in the style of any good two-part cliffhanger... TO BE CONTINUED... Click Here to Check our Concert Schedule! Check us out on Facebook! - http://www.facebook.com/PhilandPamMorgan |
Phil & Pam Morgan
We're authors and musicians who loves to talk about faith & spirituality, arts & crafts, and music. Subscribe and join over 2,000+ newsletter readers every week!
Howdy! Eye update. Thanks for all the prayers and comments about my recent vision dilemma. I saw the Retina specialist and my surgeon last Thursday and here is the latest. Things are improving, but still lots of junk inside the eye. (I think it must take after my garage) We have surgery scheduled for the 29th. They are concerned there is a tear in my retina in the bottom of my eye, but there is too much blood pooled to tell. Three options on 29th: 1. Clearing out on it’s own/no tear - cancel...
Hi there friends and eNeighbors! Sorry this is coming out a bit late, but what a month we’ve had! Some of you have probably been keeping up with my (Phil's) exploits on Facebook, but for the rest: fasten your seatbelts, this is quite a ride! On August 31, I finally got the go-ahead for cataract surgery in my left eye. (The right was done 13 years ago, but this one was slower to cloud up.) The surgery was performed on Tuesday, September 15, and everything seemed fine... until the next day!...
Musicians...Building??? by Phil Here's a little 5th Tuesday bonus for you... In the Old Testament book of Nehemiah, after the wall was rebuilt, the people returned to Jerusalem and had a big dedication service. As I was reading through the account in chapter 12, something jumped out at me that most people overlook. It's probably because of my life experience, but this seemed almost miraculous to me... "The musicians also were brought together from the region around Jerusalem—from the villages...