Main Verse: 1 Samuel 5 – 6:13

Good morning!

In the last writing, the Israelites had lost their precious Ark to the Philistines. When the armies returned to Ashdod, the general placed the Ark in Dagon’s temple as a way of saying, “So much for the god of Israel” or, “Dagon has won”. The next morning the priests found their idol lying face down before the Ark. So, the priests put Dagon back on the stand and the next morning it was broken into several pieces. After that, the people who lived in Ashdod and the surrounding communities started getting cancerous tumors on their bodies. The decision was made to move the Ark to another town in Philistia with the hope that what happened in Ashdod was a freak of nature. In Gath, though, the same problems occurred so the leaders said, “Send it back to Israel before we all die”. So, they built a cart, hooked up two oxen, and added a gift of a gold rat and golden tumors symbolic of what the Philistines experienced. The leaders then let go of the oxen and sent them into Israel.

Because the Lord allowed the Israelites to be destroyed, it did not mean that He had forgotten about them or the Ark of the Covenant. When people steal from us and/or abuse us, God will address the problem when we are not present to witness it because that’s how He is. The Ark is symbolic of God’s protection of his servants just as the Ark given to Noah was given to save him and his family from the coming disaster (Genesis 8). My encouragement for you today as you consider your choices and the situations that you are dealing with, remember houses, buildings, and wealth can be rebuilt but when our heart is destroyed by sin, it is something only the Lord can rebuild.

I.H.S. MK

Father,

Above all things You are Holy and the only God I would ever want in my life. You consider the heart of mankind so important that only one sacrifice could ever save us and that is the blood Jesus shed on the Cross of Calvary. Houses, cars, wealth, and things built by mankind can be replaced but the soul of mankind, just like the soul of a nation, needs to be ransomed through the perfect sacrifice given by Jesus Christ (Psalm 49:1-9, Hebrews 10:11-18). Father I pray for Revival in the USA, we have allowed the nations and people to dictate what is acceptable and what is not and our financial acumen has destroyed us financially to the point where we owe the nations that surround us rather than loaning to them. Pride has clouded our judgment to the point where we thought we could be like the other nations and yet lay claim to being a “Superpower” and we foolishly relied on weapons of destruction rather than the God who once protected us. We have tried man’s way of peace which is likened to a bribe that we can wave in the enemy’s face only to find it doesn’t work (Proverbs 17:8). So I pray for your Shalom peace today.

In Jesus’ Name