Good morning to you my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends,
No matter where you live or your age, I presume you have seen evil, wickedness, injustice, unfairness. We all have experienced the painful reality of evil which permeates every society and is part of every person. But this is NOT how God designed either the human race or this planet, do you understand that? The utopia God designed, which was an earthly reflection of His heaven, was taken hostage by Satan and his dark kingdom, back in the garden of Eden when only two people existed, Adam and Eve.
But it’s important we understand something fundamental… that hostage taking act of Satan, which brought evil into every aspect of our human experience was not a terrorist attack, not an invasion, it was an INVITATION! Adam and Eve succumbed to the deception of Satan, they bought his lies, and they INVITED Satan into their perfect garden. (Genesis 3) In so doing they turned away from God and hid in their shame and they blamed each other. Then they started a family and one of their sons actually killed the other! (Genesis 4) And that evil wickedness has continued in every family, every generation since then to the present day all around the world, would you agree?
But my friends, as you know God has NOT turned His back on the universe He created, nor our planet earth, nor the human race! God designed us humans in His image and created us for His delight and His glory! And God has NOT given up on us, even if we sometimes give up on each other!
Christmas, now only 10 days away, is the incredible reality of how far God will go to restore what we have broken and provide redemption, hope, forgiveness and restoration to our human race, one person at a time! That is why God came here to earth, in the person of Jesus the Messiah (Christ) to become our Savior! And if you have trusted Jesus to be your Savior and your King, and if you are experiencing the Holy Spirit of God living in you and refining you more and more into the person God designed you to be, then your excitement these days should be growing as Christmas approaches!
But even as our excitement grows, we grieve the daily news from Israel, Ukraine and many other regions of our world torn apart by great evil! We wonder how justice could be served against those who cruelly attack innocent people, especially children and elderly folks. How can such terrorist violence be excused or even tolerated by us humans and by Holy God?
Do you hear a growing outcry from around the world, that God Himself would respond to all this evil with His justice? Do you even hear some calls for God to pour out His judgment in revenge against such wickedness? Have you ever thought about what it would be like if God did in fact unleash His mighty power in revenge?
Join me again today, as we go back in time 3000 years to Israel in about 1100bc and to a place very near where the fighting is happening right now in the city of Ashdod. As we saw yesterday the ferocious, vicious Philistines had attacked the Israelites and inflicted very heavy casualties with more than 30,000 Israelite soldiers killed in one day, plus many civilians including priests Hophni and Phinehas, sons of the High Priest Eli.
To make matters worse, the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the Philistines and taken to their city of Ashdod and placed in the temple of their god Dagon. But as we saw in 1 Samuel 5 yesterday, God responded and Dagon was knocked over by some unseen superior power, its hands and head broken off from its body!
Worse than that, however, the people in Ashdod were getting sick and dying, and rats were suddenly invading the city! In their fear the Ashdod Philistine rulers concluded all these disasters were the work of the powerful God of the Israelites whom they had heard stories about in the defeat of the Egyptian Pharaoh and even opening the Red Sea for fleeing Hebrew slaves, centuries before!
Their conclusion was to send the Ark of the Covenant of Israel away, to another Philistine city, Gath, but the record of 1 Samuel 5:9 says: “But…the LORD’s hand was heavy against that city, throwing it into a great panic. He afflicted the people of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumors. So, the people of Gath sent the Ark of the God of Israel to the city of Ekron.”
Do you see what’s happening here my friends? God is responding by unleashing some of His almighty power in retaliation against the people who have stolen and are defiling the symbol of His great Covenant of love with His people Israel. But notice please… God’s response is not devastating vengeance. God did not wipe out the platoon of soldiers who captured the Ark and brought it to Ashdod. Nor did God send a detachment of angels and simply annihilate every living thing in that city the first day the Ark was brought to their town, Ashdod. No, God is dealing with the Philistines in a merciful manner. Why?
Because God’s ultimate purpose for EVERY person of every generation in every place is NOT pain or misery or tragedy, but rather that EVERY person would have a chance to recognize the majesty and power and wonder of God, and then realize the great love of God which desires a sin forgiven, love relationship with every person for all eternity! So God was showing the city of Ashdod His superiority over their false God Dagon, and that He holds our human health in His hands, and even showing His superiority over animals. And God was INVITING the people of Ashdod to turn away from Dagon and their vicious evil, and turn to Him, the loving, Holy, Almighty God, Creator of all people and all things!
But they didn’t, instead they put the Ark on a cart and sent it down the road to Gath. But the people in Gath also responded in fear and sent the Ark on to Ekron. I would imagine news of this mysterious Ark traveled far faster than the ox drawn cart carrying it, so it appears the people of Ekron were working on a plan when they saw the Ark coming. The record says: “As the Ark of God was entering Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, ‘They have brought the Ark of the god of Israel around to us to kill us and our people.’ So, they called together the rulers of the Philistines and said to them, ‘Send the ark of the god of Israel away from us, let it go back to its own people and its own place.’ For death had filled the city with panic. God’s hand was very heavy upon it… and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.” (1 Samuel 5:9-12)
Those last two lines strike me today as very powerful and very contemporary. Is it possible the hand of God is today very heavy upon some cities in the world where evil is almost unrestrained? Is it possible there is an outcry going up to heaven from many places in our world on this Friday, 10 days away from Christmas? If we listen closely, do we hear the outcry and what is the cry saying to God?
For some it’s a cry of anger against God as people hold God responsible for their pain. For others it’s a cry for God to take action and destroy their enemies. For others it’s a cry for God to deliver them from the horrificness in which they are barely surviving. And for a few, it’s a cry for God’s mercy upon them, and a cry of repentance as they turn from their sin to God and they acknowledge Jesus as their only Savior!
Oh, my friends, as we listen to this worship song, I also urge us to listen to the outcries all around us, and if you have the opportunity, tell those crying out to God that the ONLY answer for hope and help is to cry out to God thanking Him for Christmas and Jesus, and asking Him to save us from our sins as we trust in Jesus! And let’s come back here tomorrow to see the amazing thing God did in response to this outcry from Philistines in Ashdod, Gath and Ekron!
Today’s Scripture is 1 Samuel 5:8-12.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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