R.C. Sproul

And they had a coalition of these kings.

There was the king of Gath and of Escalon and the various cities there among the Philistines.

So they run back, and they're having a religious celebration because they've defeated the Jews and they've captured the throne of God.

So they take the Ark into their most holy temple, which is a temple devoted to Dagon, the god of the Philistines.

And they take the Ark of the Covenant and place it at the feet of Dagon in the place of humiliation and of subordination before this pagan idol.

And then they go out to spend the night carousing and celebrating their victory over the Jews.

Well, the next morning they come back in and what happens?

They find the statue of their god Dagon falling over on its face, and now the statue of Dagon is situated in such a way that it's prostrate before the throne of Yahweh.

And the priest said, we've got to fix this before anybody sees it.

And so they propped their deity back out and went back out for more partying.

The next day they come in.

Now the statue has not only fallen over on its face, but this time it's smashed into a thousand pieces.

And to make matters worse,

A plague breaks out in the town, a plague of tumors.

And with the plague of tumors comes an infestation of rats.

So the city is besieged with rats and everybody's getting tumors.

and their deity has been disgraced.

So the king of the city says, you know, this isn't such a good idea.

I mean, all these calamities are falling on top of our town ever since we brought the throne of Yahweh here into town.

I'm going to send this on down to the king down the road.