Today, we are going to talk about the mighty hands of God.
In fact, there are approx. 122 Bible references concerning His hands.
Most of these passages talk about the hand of God involved in the creation of the world.
But one of my favorite verses that talks about His hand is found in Isaiah 49:16 (NIV) "See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me."
The word "engraved" means - He has etched out or carved our names in His hands.
That means He is telling the whole world how special we are to Him as His very own children.
This thought should encourage us to live for Him always.
Of course, the context of the verse here is about Israel - the people of God.
He is telling the world that Israel is precious to Him.
But based from Romans 9, we are now the new Israel by virtue of our being born again in Christ and being grafted in God's new vine.
And those who do not believe in Christ have been taken out from the vine and thrown into fire.
And so, this verse talks about we are His children, God is our Father and we are precious to His sight.
He wants to always remember us by engraving our names in His hands so that whenever He looks at His hands, He will see us.
It is good to be on God's side, don't you think so?
We belong to Him. This truth alone makes us happy and proud to be a Christian.
God's hand therefore is a symbol of His love, His constant care and protection.
However, the Scripture also talks about being dreadful if we fall in the hands of God.
Hebrews 10:31(NIV) "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
Again the hands of God is spoken of here but used in a different context.
He uses the word "dreadful" if a person falls into the hands of God.
That word "dreadful" means horrible and frightening.
It means it's horrendous to be part of those who do not believe in God - those who are His enemies.
When a person is against God, when he ignores God's voice, when He disobeys God's commands, when He rejects God's leading and resists the sweet voice of the Holy Spirit, it is like falling into the angry and strong hands of God.
We don't want that to happen, do you?
Because the hand of God here is no longer a symbol of care and protection but of judgment and discipline on sin.
And so, it is the most terrifying and alarming to fall into the hands of an angry God.
That is why, I encourage you to let us remain in the safe place always, let us be engraved in the palm of His hands enjoying His care rather than to fall into the hands of the living God receiving His wrath.
And how we relate to God in this life will determine whether we are one or the other.
Do you love God and obey His words?
Or do you ignore His voice?
It is in this context that we will continue our study on the Book of I Samuel chapter 5 entitled "The Mighty Hands of God".
In this short chapter alone of only 12 verses, the words: "hand of God" is repeated four times: vs. 6, 7, 9 and 11.
The writer is telling us to pay utmost attention on the significance of the use of the hands of God.
It is a warning to all of us that God's hands can be very heavy upon the Philistines as a symbol of His judgment for their sin.
Their sins have piled up because they have killed thousands of foot soldiers from Israel and they have taken the ark of God and they have desecrated God's ark by bringing this to their camp.
Actually, the Philistines thought that they have taken captive and conquered the God of Israel.
They thought that they have been victorious in that battle.
But they were wrong.
They did not know that God was using the Philistines to punish and discipline God's people, Israel.
And so, God's hands was heavy upon the Philistines.
A lot of dreadful and horrible things had happened in their temple, in their city and to their people.
In this study, we will first look at the hand of God heavy upon their idol - Dagon.
Then, we will look at the hand of God heavy upon the people of Ashdod and then, to the people of Akron, inflicting them with illness.
The last verse ends with these words: "the outcry of the city went up to heaven."
That means, it was so horrible that they have never experienced anything like it before.
Wherever they bring the ark of God, there was the accompanying horrible judgment ahead.
Because it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, whether to discipline his people Israel or to judge the enemy nation Philistines.
That is why we must always choose to serve and be faithful to God.
As much as possible, let us be grateful that we have been engraved in the palm of His hands for it means blessings.
Let us not fall into the hands of an angry God for it means disaster.
As always, at the end of this message, I will ask you to make a commitment to receive Christ as Lord and Savior.
You must choose today whom you will serve.
Will it be the idols or will it be the true and living God?
May the Lord give us wisdom as we study the Scriptures.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE FIFTH CHAPTER OF 1 SAMUEL
1. GOD'S HAND IS HEAVY UPON DAGON.
I Samuel 5:1-3 (NIV) “After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2 Then they carried the ark into Dagon’s temple and set it beside Dagon. 3 When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! They took Dagon and put him back in his place."
The first thing we could learn is that God's hand was heavy upon their god, Dagon.
Verse 1 starts with the Philistines capturing the ark of God and taking it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.
To those who are not familiar with the ark of God, the ark was a wooden chest overlaid with gold about four feet long, two feet wide and two feet high.
Its cover was made of pure gold with two cherubim angels hammered out of gold on top.
The ark contained the gold jar of manna (symbolizing God's provision), Aaron's staff that budded (symbolizing God's authority), and the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments (symbolizing God's laws to be followed).
And so, the ark was always a reminder to Israel that God is the source of all power, source of all provision and the giver of the law to be obeyed.
But the ark was more than just a chest box.
The ark was the visible symbol or manifestation of God's presence among the Israelites.
God dwelt in the midst of His people.
So, when the Israelites lost the ark in battle, it was as if they had lost God Himself.
But all of these are part of the spiritual lessons for Israel in order to discipline and correct them because they have disobeyed God and did not listen to His voice.
And so, we find in verse 2 that the Philistine carried the ark of God and set it beside Dagon, their god.
Who is Dagon? Dagon is the pagan deity which came from (dag) - means "fish" and (dagan) means "corn."
This idol had a human head but the body of a fish.
This is part of their worship of nature which represents the sea where the Philistines drew their wealth and power.
When the Philistines captured the ark of God, there was rejoicing in their camp thinking that the God of Israel had been defeated by their god - Dagon.
However, they did not know that the true God had not been defeated at all.
Israel indeed had suffered a defeat, because they had to be disciplined of their sins but God still loved Israel.
And it was time for God to judge those who have harmed His people.
The Philistines placing the ark in the temple of their god Dagon was the normal procedure for the disposal of the captured "gods" or other trophies of defeated enemies.
This was also part of their vengeance for the slaughter of the 3,000 Philistine worshipers in the temple of the same deity at Gaza during the time of Samson.
They can still remember the blind hero on that fatal day with superhuman strength who called on the name of God and forced the great temple pillars down.
But verse 3 was a big surprise for the Philistines when they woke up the next day and found their god - Dagon fallen face down on the ground before the ark of the Lord.
Somehow, during the night, God's hand was heavy upon the idol and thereupon pulled it down to destruction.
You see, God cannot tolerate any competition with idols.
It is either you worship God alone or you do not.
You cannot worship both.
You cannot worship two masters - either you will hate the one and love the other.
God is a jealous God. He is not supposed to be put on the same level with man-made idols made from stone which could not speak.
He is the Lord God who created the heavens and the earth.
And God's anger was aroused upon the Philistines because of that.
This brings us to the first life lesson.
DON'T PROVOKE GOD TO ANGER. Jeremiah 7:18(NIV) "18 The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to arouse my anger."
Here in this verse, we find the entire family involved in idolatry which God hate.
The children gathering wood, and the men used it to build altars to worship the false gods.
The women were engaged in kneading dough and baking cakes of bread to offer to their idol the "Queen of heaven."
They did not know that their actions were provoking God to anger.
According to gotquestions.org, the title "Queen of Heaven" referred to Ishtar, an Assyrian and Babylonian goddess also called Ashtoreth.
She was thought to be the wife of the false god Baal, also known as Molech.
The motivation of women to worship Ashtoreth stemmed from her reputation as a fertility goddess, in order to bear children.
And so, the women of that era who desired to have children worship this "Queen of heaven."
It was very rampant among the pagan civilizations at that time.
Sadly, it spread and became popular among the Israelites as well especially those who are barren as they intermingle with the heathen nations.
But they did not know that such idol worship has caused the Lord to be very angry at them and hence to punish them with diseases and calamity.
And so, God poured forth His anger over them.
It was indeed a dreadful thing to fall in the hands of God.
Brothers and sisters, we must not provoke God to anger.
We must instead worship and love God only.
We must not do anything that will make Him angry.
Sin makes Him angry.
Idolatry makes Him angry.
Disobedience and rebellion make Him angry.
We must eliminate any competition in our hearts and minds as if God is in the same level with our cherished idols.
We must destroy those graven images and focus wholeheartedly on God's love and forgiveness for God is a jealous God.
He wants our full and wholehearted commitment in Christ.
Then, in the last sentence of verse 3 we will find the Philistines taking their god Dagon and putting him back to his place.
They thought that it was just an accident that their god-Dagon has fallen to the ground probably due to an earthquake during the night.
They have not yet recognized the hand of God at work.
And so, they just put Dagon back to his place - no big deal.
Here then is the difference between the true and living God and an idol.
An idol has to be helped to be put back in place, while God does not need our help to defend Himself.
Our God does not need our help to protect Him.
He is completely different from the pagan gods.
He is a powerful God.
His hand is mighty.
And so, in verse 4, we find the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, again fallen on his
face on the ground before the ark of the Lord!
This time, his head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained.
The intensity of God's blow upon Dagon has increased overnight.
This was a sure sign that God's wrath was being provoked to another level.
And so, God smashed first his face - the sign of his beauty.
Next, God destroyed his head - the seat of his wisdom.
Last of all, God broke off his hands - the symbol of Dagon's power.
It was a message to the Philistines that God cannot tolerate idol worship.
This brings us to the next life lesson.
TRUST IN THE STRONG HAND OF GOD. Psalms 89:13 (NIV) "Your arm is endowed with power; your hand is strong, your right hand exalted."
If we love Him, we trust Him and never fear Him.
If we love Him, His mighty hand is a source of strength, not a source of destruction.
Notice the description of the right hand of God - "endowed with power"
That means that God's hands had been supplied, enriched and fully equipped to vanquish all His enemies.
If we are on God's side, you are on the side of the strong and powerful hand of God.
The idols of stone are no match to the power of God.
Story.
Last week, I came upon the website of a Filipino singer turned preacher named Bobby Cabonce.
His website is at "thereisnoothername.com.
According to his testimony, at one point, he had been a nightclub singer in Manila, Philippines and had been associated with the mobs.
He said that most of the members of his gangs were professional killers.
At that time in the early part of 1970's, Dewey Boulevard in Manila was their territory.
It was where high class night clubs were lined up for miles.
He said that in spite of being a thug, he was also a religious fanatics going to a church every night in Baclaran to attend mass.
At the same time, since he was a male vocalist in the orchestra, he was always exposed to a lot of beautiful and rich women in his life and thereupon wallowed in the mud of sin.
But one day, in 1975, he heard God's Word through a preacher and gave his life to Christ and a miracle happened in his life.
He could not believe how God has used a wretched sinner like him, but he is so grateful to the power of God in changing His heart.
He is now focused in serving the Lord by preaching the truth of God's Word and educating Christians through his website.
He has about 60 original sermons in his website on different topics such as the Bible, hell, grace, faith and others.
However, there is a sermon he wrote entitled "Idolatry is rampant in the Philippines" that has a lot of hits from various viewers.
Let me quote some of this thoughts from this sermon:
"People in our country proclaimed that the Philippines is the only Christian nation in Asia.
But look! Idolatry is rampant among the people.
Every year in their festivity, that huge idol of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo Manila, in their annual procession in the City,
people are rampaging to worship that ugly idol.
In Cebu City, people celebrate the Sinulog every January where people dance erratically before the Santo Nino idol
parading in colorful costumes and becoming an attraction to tourists.
In Bicol Naga City, people celebrate their Pena Francia in wild passion where the idol of their Queen of Heaven, the lavishly decorated statue of Mary, is wildly worshiped.
In every city, town and barrio, fiestas are celebrated to the extent that every single cent is spent just to worship their idol gods.
All these celebrations are pagan practices and are a violation of God's Commandments. They are all lies from Satan."
Lord, have mercy upon our land. May you forgive our people.
May the Lord heal our nation from the sin of idolatry not just from the sin of drug addiction.
So far, we have learned that God's hand was heavy upon Dagon.
2. GOD'S HAND IS HEAVY UPON THE PEOPLE OF ASHDOD
1 Samuel 5:6-8 (NIV) 6 The Lord’s hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity; he brought devastation on them and afflicted them with tumors. 7 When the people of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, “The ark of the god of Israel must not stay here with us, because his hand is heavy on us and on Dagon our god.” 8 So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked them, “What shall we do with the ark of the god of Israel?”
Not only the Lord's hand was heavy upon their idols, because God is a jealous God but in these verses, God's hand was also heavy upon the people as well.
Notice that after they have put back their god Dagon to its place in the temple side by side the ark of God, the Lord turned his wrath upon the people because of their stubbornness.
Hence, God's hand afflicted them with tumors and diseases that had been severe.
It was then they realized that the ark must not stay with them even for a moment.
They knew that God was fighting for Israel and they were experiencing frightening times in the land.
With this thought in mind, we ask ourselves a question:
Is God the author of pandemic diseases?
Will God allow plagues and diseases to punish even His own people?
That is a very interesting question, so I did my research on-line.
I discovered that the Bible describes numerous occasions in the Old Testament when God brought plagues and diseases on both His people and upon His enemies in order to display His power.
For instance, God used the plagues on Egypt to force Pharaoh to free the Israelites from bondage while sparing His people from being afflicted by them.
And so, God has one hand stretched out to protect His own people while another hand to afflict the enemy nation.
You could read that in Exodus chapters 12 and 15.
Here is the Bible truth: God will always warn His people of the consequences of disobedience.
But if they would not listen, He allows those diseases to come to teach them a lesson of obedience the hard way.
However, it is often hard for us to imagine our loving and merciful God displaying such wrath and anger even towards His people.
Some of us will say, "No way could God unleash those calamity to His people!"
But I tell you, He can and He will due to the severity of sin.
Here is the truth: God's punishment and discipline always have the goal of repentance and restoration.
That is why in the New Testament, when Jesus came, he healed "every diseases and every sickness" as well as plagues in the areas He visited.
You could read the account of Matthew chapter 9 and in Mark chapter 3.
This is to show to Israel that He is the Son of God ushering the Kingdom of God.
In fact, He gave the same healing power to His disciples when He sent them two by two to heal and drive out demons.
Even now, God still allows sickness for His own purposes and praise God, He is still in the business of healing the sick.
When we allow God to take control of our lives, He washes us from sin and He begins to heal us completely.
This brings us to the next life lesson:
GOD ALLOWS SICKNESS SO THAT WE CAN LEARN HIS LAWS. Psalm 119:71New International Version (NIV) It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees."
That is true. Every sickness is an opportunity for us to slow down from our fast faced life.
for a while and rest your mind.
Every sickness is an opportunity for you to listen to His voice so that you could learn what He wants in your life.
You see, when you get sick, you lie in your bed, you have time to rest, you are not in a hurry, and you look up to God and not to anyone else.
When you are sick, God can rebuke you for the sins you have made against Him.
When you are sick, God will remind you that you are just mortal and you cannot exist without Him.
When we are sick, God will remind us that we need Him and someday, life will end and we will go back to our Creator who made us.
As many of you know, I am also a hospice chaplain and I have a chance to visit old and dying patients, to encourage them with God's Word and most of all to pray for them and commit them to God's care.
I tell you that it is not always joyful to visit the sick and the dying, especially those who have not been visited by their family members.
Many of them have been overtaken by the spirit of fear and depression in their dying days.
But each time I visit one of these patients, I am always reminded over and over again that life is short.
I could never turn back the hands of time in my life.
I am here for a moment and someday, I will be in their position lying in bed until the Lord calls me home.
My prayer is that I will not be overcome with fear but my faith will continue to grow ever more.
.
GOD ALLOWS SICKNESS TO DISPLAY HIS POWER. John 9:2-3(NIV) 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents,that he was born blind?” 3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
Here then is the reason why God allows sickness in our lives.
That His power will be displayed for all to see.
He does not intend people to suffer severely.
God is a merciful and loving.
When we get sick, we humble ourselves before Him and God can display His miracle of healing so that people will give glory to Him.
First, we learned that God's hand was heavy upon Dagon as judgment to idolatry.
Secondly, we learned that God's hand was heavy upon the people of Ashdod as judgment upon sin.
3. GOD'S HAND IS HEAVY UPON THE PEOPLE OF EKRON
1 Samuel 5:9-12 (NIV) 9 But after they had moved it, the Lord’s hand was against that city, throwing it into a great panic. He afflicted the people of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumors. 10 So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. As the ark of God was entering Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They have brought the ark of the god of Israel around to us to kill us and our people.” 11 So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, “Send the ark of the god of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it[c] will kill us and our people.” For death had filled the city with panic; God’s hand was very heavy on it. 12 Those who did not die were afflicted with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.
The last thing we can learn in this chapter is that the Lord's hand was heavy upon the city of Ekron throwing it into a great panic.
He also afflicted them with tumors and various diseases so that the people cried out to send the ark back to Israel.
They knew that if the ark will stay there even for a little longer, they will all be killed.
And so, they decided and begged to send the ark of God back to Israel to its own place.
The entire city was in panic and their outcry went up to heaven.
It was a dreadful thing to fall in the hands of God.
That is why, it is always safe for us to stay under the protection of His loving hands.
This should lead us to the next Bible lesson:
GOD'S DESIRE IS FOR US TO BE HEALTHY. Deuteronomy 6:24(NIV) 24 The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today."
That is true.
If we faithfully obey His Word and follow His commands every single day, He will bring us to prosperity - that covers physical health, spiritual health and emotional health.
In fact, God's desire is for our health, not for our destruction.
And so, I encourage you, my brothers and sisters to always take care of your physical health because God wants us all to be healthy.
This brings us to the last life lesson.
GOD'S DESIRE IS WHEN WE WORSHIP HIM, HE CAN TAKE AWAY OUR SICKNESS.
Exodus 23:25 (NIV) "Worship the Lord your God, and His blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you."
This is a wonderful promise of healing from all our sicknesses through consistent worship of God.
As we worship God, we are reminded of our sins that as we confess those sins, His healing power flow upon us.
As we worship God, he fills us with His presence.
As we worship God, His glory and His blessings flows upon the food and water that we take.
As we worship God, those harmful chemicals in the food and water that bring about illness and diseases to our bodies are taken away by the power of Christ's blood and we are healed so that we could serve Him better.
As we worship God, our emotional state stabilizes so that all worries and anxieties are taken away from us and we are being healed in the name of Jesus.
As we worship God, the grace of God and His supernatural strength flows in us so that we are restored back to good health.
Surely, this is a powerful new revelation to us Christians.
Imagine, just by constant worshiping and praising God, He extends His hands of healing upon us.
That is how the hand of God works in us.
Amazing.
Let me close with this story entitled "Healed Through Worship" I took from ibethel.org regarding a family attending worship one Sunday night at Bethel church.
The man brought his wife, two boys, ages 10 and 7 and his nephews.
Both of his boys brought their electronic tablets to keep them occupied during the service.
His 10 year old son, who has to wear eyeglasses to see, was sitting on the floor by his feet.
Halfway through the worship, this boy tugged on his leg to get permission to get a Bible app for his tablet.
The man said, "Of course" and went back to worshiping.
But after five minutes, the boy tugs him again and said, "Dad, I think I can see without my glasses on."
The father said, "What?" and the boy told him as best as he can remember, that while he was sitting on the floor,
God led him to look up a verse in Ephesians 3.
And the little boy prayed and was asking God to heal his eyes.
He said he then felt a little pain in his eyes and his glasses were kinda blurry.
He stood up next to the father and started reading the words on the screen on the bottom corner that identifies the song and who wrote it.
He couldn't have normally have done that without his eyeglasses on.
And even then might not have totally seen it!
Needless to say, his son's vision was restored during worship while simply sitting on the floor asking God to help his eyes.
This is the hand of God at work to bring healing upon His children.
Let me now ask you to make a decision for Christ.
Come forward so that I can anoint you with oil.
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