Dagon - God is Sufficient - Mike Chipman
As a younger man living in Mississippi, I loved to listen to the variety of talk radio options. One that I enjoyed listening to quite a bit was American Family Radio. I enjoyed the programs where listeners were able to call in and ask/answer questions from the host. As a relatively new believer, I gravitated toward programming like this. It sharpened my wits and helped me to better handle my own faith. On one such program, the host discussed some recent changes in the government. Those changes concerned him. A listener called in and said, “the government has fallen off God’s shoulders, and it’s up to us to place it back on.” There was an obvious allusion to Isaiah 9:6, and some obvious misunderstandings of who God is and who we are. Recently, my congregation has been going through 1 Samuel. Our study in chapter 5 made me think back to that radio program.
The Philistines captured the ark of the covenant and they set it up in their temple next to Dagon - who was a kind of mermaid. The Philistines wanted to celebrate the victory the actual God gave them over his own people. So, they displayed the ark - representing God’s presence, next to Dagon, a stone mermaid. When they come back the next morning, Dagon is on the ground. And notice the language - “they took Dagon and put him back in his place” What kind of God needs others to put it in his place? Stone mermaids named Dagon, among others.
Consider your own idolatry. Consider your lust for the acceptance of others. Consider your hunger for money and power as their own end. Consider your need for control of every detail of your life and the lives of others. Each represents our desire to be god - something we’ve wanted since the Garden. And each time that god gets knocked over - by circumstances, by personal failure, by the one true God - we set it back up. We hope, this time, it’ll finally do what it’s supposed to and save us. It can’t. It’s a kind of stone mermaid thing at best.
God wanted to make that clear to the Philistines - and us - on the next day. As the priests of Dagon came in the next morning, behold, Dagon was in ruins! As it turns out, the one true God doesn’t share a “place” and doesn’t need to be “placed.” He has always had the same place: Creator, Redeemer, King. While priests had to set Dagon back upright, Almighty God moved about the temple with no constraints. He was free to knock things over. He’s able to do the same for you and I and the petty gods that we attempt to set in his place.
Woe to us, brethren, when we set up any other kind of god other than the one true God. It could be that God will send it toppling. What if that god was the approval of man? Money? Power? Control? We’ve all seen those gods tumble down from high places. They roll their creators underneath until the remains of both smash on the ground. What if that god was the government itself? Should we attempt to hoist the government back onto the shoulders of our beloved Lord? Money is worth less. Hard work and good morals are hard to come by. The government is wholly corrupt and insatiable as it dines on our freedom. Perhaps, God needs a helping hand. Then, finally, things will be better. Or it could be we wake up and find our idol smashed to pieces, with none but its Destroyer left to turn to. Lord, cast down our idols. Turn our hearts to you.