Worshiping A god Of Your Own Creation
We are preaching the whole of the Bible this morning, nothing sugar coated here. The title for the morning is Hemorrhoids and Dagon dummies. It’s from first Samuel four at the end through chapter five into the first part of six. The five Kings of the Philistines had won the battle at Ebenezer and they captured the Arc of the Covenant. For those of you who are new to all of this, that’s the thing they were looking for in the first Raiders of the lost Arc. And they did rock paper scissors to decide which city got to keep it and Ashdod won and they took it and put it in their temple to their God, Dagon.
Next morning, Dagon is on his face in front of the Arc in a worship position, they prop him back up. Next morning, same position, but his head and hands cut off, not broken off as some of your translations say, cut off, it’s a military term. It’s what they did to make the body counts easier, it’s what David did to Goliath, it’s what the Philistines did to Saul. It’s what a Conquerer did to the vanquished enemy, they cut off their head and their hands. That’s what you did, that was the culture. And so Dagon being in front of the Arc with his head and hands chopped off, was a sign that said, “I just conquered that guy”. But he did a little more than that, he sent some tumors to plague the land, now see that’s sugar coated.
Now king James says “Emerod, tumors of the private places, tumors of the groin”. Hemorrhoids. There’s no way to smooth this over. They got, God plagued them with Hem- but these were not just the kind that make you walk funny. These were the kind that killed you. These were Killeroids, Megaroids, And Preparation H wouldn’t touch them.
People are dying. And they said, oh no, this must have come from the Arc, send it to Gath. They sent it to Gath, Megaroids. They sent it to Ekron, ‘Roids. And by that time, the other two cities of Ashkalon and Gaza got ‘Roids too, and they said, what do we do? Well, let’s think about this, maybe we ought to send it back. “Remember when Pharaoh, the thing with Moses?” They said. They said that in the scripture, “remember they started off with a plague, turning water into blood. He started off with us with Killeroids.”
“Who knows what would come second, we don’t chance it. Let’s send the Arc back to the Jews.” Yeah, but you can’t just send it back without including a guilt offering. “Okay. What do you think we ought to do? All right. Let’s make a Hemorrhoid out of gold…” I didn’t write this stuff, folks. I’m just telling you. “Let’s make five golden Hemorrhoids and five golden rats. Rats? Yeah, there’s a plague of rats, with rats, you get fleas, with fleas, you get Bubonic plague, with Bubonic plague, you get Hemorrhoids. Let’s send that back on the Arc and see if God in a miraculous way will take it back,” and God did.
And the Philistines said, “This God of the Jews is tougher than our God. He’s far more powerful, he’s the winner, but I think we’ll keep worshiping Dagon, because when you worship the God of the Jews, you can’t be your own God anymore. And when you worship a God of your own creation, then you get to be a little God.” And folks, that’s the heart of the issue. See the core issue, there’s just one sin, just one. Playing God.
When God asks you to do something and you say no, or if he says don’t do something, and you do it anyhow, you’re playing God. And that’s the core of sin. Now we can measure the outcome of that sin. And we got lists and categories, lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, boastful pride of life. Those are categories, Ten Commandments, a list, new Testament and old Testament have a whole list of specific sins, right? Various kinds of sexual sins and lying and cheating and murder and don’t get drunk and all the specific things. And when you attack your sin problem at the outcome level, instead of the core level, here’s what happens. You say, “I’m going to stop drinking,” let’s say. And so you set your willpower down and your self control and you decide you’re going to stop drinking.
But folks, self-control is just another word for being a little God, because God’s not in that. And when you take it on at the outcome level, you’re probably going to be a loser. But if you take it on, on the core level and say, “God, I don’t want to be God anymore.” And you chase after the God with your heart, mind, and soul, there won’t be room for this other stuff, because you’re wanting to be like God.
So my advice is don’t be a Dagon dummy, repent of being your own God and folks, you will save yourself a lot of pain in the end. Oh yeah, all right.
