Seize the Moment – Day 737
The Grave Danger of a Graven Image!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, March 24.
Have you ever been tempted to put something or someone other than God on the throne of your heart? That is called idol worship. In Samuel 5:2-4, God judged Dagon, the god of the Philistines, when the ark of the covenant was placed in the temple where the Philistines worshipped Dagon’s idol:
Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it to the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. When the Ashdodites arose early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and set him in his place again. But when they arose early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on 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 on the threshold; only the trunk of Dagon was left to him.
God was powerfully communicating to the Philistines that not only was their god beneath Him, and had been judged accordingly, but that they, as a people given over to idol worship, would end up just like Dagon – cut off from future life (headless) and powerless to do anything about it (handless).
Psalm 115:8 states of people who worship idols, “Those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them” (cf. Psalm 135:18; Isaiah 44:9-11). First Samuel 5:6-12 demonstrates this truth; watch as God’s judgement unfolds in verse 6, “Now the hand of the Lord was heavy on the Ashdodites, and He ravaged them and smote them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territories.” Scholars believe that these tumors would have prevented their ability to have children, causing them to become like Dagon – cut off from future life and powerless to change it.
Seize the moment and “guard yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). You are shaped by your life of devotion so choose carefully what you allow on the throne of your life.