Scientists tell us HOW the universe is currently expanding out from a central point that began with a Big Bang. This created universe is being stretched throughout the heavens at a rapid clip.
Scripture tells us WHO is responsible for the stretching. It also tells us that creation has a purpose, God’s purpose. He formed it to be inhabited.
12 I have made the earth and created man on it. I—My hands—stretched out the heavens, and all their host I have commanded.
18 For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who did not create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited: “I am the Lord, and there is no other. Isaiah 45:12, 18 (NKJV)
There is but One sitting upon the throne of heaven. As one person has put it, “The throne is not crowded”.
The Philistines thought they had defeated the God of the heavens when they defeated Israel and took the Ark of the Covenant from Eli’s wicked sons, whom they killed. In fact, the Philistines were being utilized by God as an instrument of judgment against the corrupt order of priesthood that was taking over in Shiloh. It would be replaced by God’s chosen prophet, Samuel.
The Philistines carried the ark of God back to their land, and placed it in the temple of their god, Dagon, in Ashdod. Upon awakening the next day, they found their idol Dagon fallen on its face, now bowed before the ark of God. Setting it back up, they returned the next morning to find it on the floor again, this time with its head and the palms of its hands broken off.
To make matters worse, God now turned His judgment against the Philistines themselves. He began to inflict them with tumors and there are indications that their city Ashdod was being overrun with disease-bearing rats. There are also indications that the tumors were in fact a class of intense hemorrhoids.
Ashdod was one of the five great fortified cities of the Philistines, located southwest of Israel. When the lords of the city conferred, they decided to pass the ark along to a second fortified city, Gath, the home of the giant Goliath. But once it arrived, the Lord began to inflict all the men of the city, “both small and great”, with these same tumors. There is a good chance that Goliath himself might have been a victim.
When the lords of Gath decided to pass the ark along to a third city, Ekron, they, too, suffered the same results. By now, word had gotten around – Philistine gods were no match for the God of heaven. After seven months of agony, it was time to send the ark of God back to its original keepers, Israel.
The Philistines had clearly had enough of this suffering. They put the ark on a cart pulled by two milk cows, deciding that if the cows begin walking on their own towards Israel, the tumor judgment was from the Lord and not just a strange coincidence. Just in case, they also had added a second box filled with peace offerings to God, golden idols in the shapes of the tumors and rats of His judgment.
The cows immediately began to pull the cart towards Israel, lowing as they went. The Philistines were finally free of the judgment of God’s ark. In the battle of God vs. Dagon, the latter was no match for the Creator of the universe.
Reflection
There is still much suffering all over our fallen world. God began the healing process through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on the cross. He lives with us and in us and knows each moment of our pain and suffering.
One day, God’s tremendous love and power in Jesus will restore all things and wipe away every tear. But in the meantime, we lean on Him for support and comfort, and seek to be the hands and feet of Christ to comfort those who are suffering around us.
Lord, thank You for Your great love and forgiveness towards us. It is wonderful to be in the care of the Creator of all things, visible and invisible. Show us who needs our help and support today, and guide us as we seek to share Your love and blessing with them. We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Daily Meditations from the Genealogy of Jesus 