1 Samuel 5:5 Learn!

1 Samuel 5:5 That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon’s temple at Ashdod step on the threshold.

It is amazing to see the ability of people to stick to beliefs that have been proven false, ineffective or dangerous. We see it all the time with addicts. They do the same things but expect different results.

Some people will learn from their mistakes. Some people just seem to repeat them, perhaps with slight variations, but the same end results. Success in life requires learning from mistakes, either from your own or from other’s. I prefer allowing others to make mistakes and for me to learn from them!

Our text tells us about some people who should have been able to learn from their situation. The situation is this. The Ark of the LORD had been captured by Israel’s enemy, the Philistines. Think about this for a minute.

The Ark of the LORD was the place where the visible presence of the LORD would show up in the camp of Israel. The Bible Project calls it the hotspot of God’s presence. I like that label. So this place where the LORD’s presence had been was captured because of the rebellion of Israel.

It is as though the LORD had abandoned His people by allowing His presence to be taken from their presence. His presence had brought blessing to Israel when they were obedient, but when they walked away from Him, His presence brought judgment.

So when the Ark was taken into Philistine territory the LORD’s presence brought judgment. Each city the Ark had been brought had been put under a plague. They had experienced some type of disease that caused tumors to grow in their groin. Yikes!

But I better start with the first encounter of the Ark of the LORD and the god of the Philistines, Dagon. That is what our text is responding to. When the Ark was first brought into Philistine territory the put it in the temple of their god Dagon.

What happens is a battle of the gods. The LORD wins. Overnight the statue of Dagon falls over in front of the Ark. They put it upright again and the next night Dagon fell over again and his head and hands had been separated from his body and they landed on the steps.

Now most people would learn the obvious lesson from this: The LORD is more powerful than Dagon. But they didn’t. So the LORD sent sickness on each town where they brought the Ark.

But they didn’t learn the lesson. And that is what our text records. They were so bound by superstition they couldn’t see the truth. They would rather stay in their ignorance than embrace reality.

I am the kind of person who wants to embrace reality! And the tendency to embrace non-reality doesn’t stick to one type of people or one political party. All of us can hold onto fantasy. All of us have the ability to cling to superstition, just like the people in our text.

I can imagine that the priests of Dagon had their whole life bound up in their job at the temple. To give up their belief would lead to a complete upheaval of their worldview. Everything in their life would have to change.

And massive changes in worldview can create great uncertainty, so the tendency is to hold onto what is known, even when what is known isn’t leading to the life you want. People stay in abusive relationships because that is what they know. Moving to the unknown is very scary.

Are there beliefs you are holding onto that need to be rejected?