Remember: You’ve Got His Word on It
Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture. . . . None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. Romans 8:35–39 MESSAGE
Scripture Passage: 1 Samuel 5
So What? Only one God deserves our worship!
For Parents: [Anything in brackets]
Have you ever lost something that you really loved? What was it? How did you feel? Did you ever get it back again?
During the time when Samuel was a prophet, God’s people stopped following him. They were getting selfish and lazy and they forgot about God. This time the Israelites’ sin caused the loss of their most important treasure. You see, by forgetting God and going their own way, God’s people lost a battle with the Philistines. During the battle they lost, the Philistines took the Israelites’ most important treasure—“the Ark.” That same Ark may still be on our planet, hidden somewhere. It would be wonderful to find.
Have you ever wondered what it might be like to live in heaven? Wouldn’t it be great if someone went up there with a camera and brought you back the pictures? That’s impossible, of course, but God wants us to know what his home is like, so he gave us another kind of picture. He had Moses build the Ark.
The Ark, which God told Moses to build, was a box about four feet long, two feet high, and two feet deep [use hands to illustrate the size, not much different than a toy box]. It was made of wood and covered with gold. The lid was made of solid gold and was called “the mercy seat.” Mercy means “kindness” and “forgiveness.” Seat means “place.” On top of the gold lid were two large angels called cherubim. The Ark was a picture of Jesus’ home, heaven. It’s a place of kindness, forgiveness, and powerful angels. Inside the Ark Moses placed the Israelites’ most special treasure—the Ten Commandments, which were written on two stones by God himself. Where do you keep your special treasures?
Now, the battle was lost, and the Ark was gone. The gold was gone. The gifts that were inside the Ark were gone.
What are some things people love more than God? What did people in Old Testament times worship besides God?
Many people in Old Testament times worshipped statues. It seems silly to us now, to worship something that we made, but that’s what they did. Sometimes we still do this. We might worship our cars, toys, friends, or favorite sports teams. We worship whatever we love the most. If we sacrifice for an entire year to buy a toy, then give all our savings for that toy and put it on a shelf to look at every day, we’ve started worshipping the toy. That kind of worship is sinful. We must worship God and God alone.
The Philistines who took the Ark worshipped a statue named Dagon. They believed he was the most powerful god around. For almost 1,000 years, they had worshipped Dagon! After winning the battle, the Philistines took the Ark to the temple for Dagon. “O great Dagon,” they probably said, “we praise you for winning the battle today. Here is a present for you. This Ark symbolizes the weak god we defeated today.” What a statue would do with a gold box is beyond me, but the Philistines thought Dagon would like it.
How do you think the one true God felt now? His gift of the Ark was now in the temple of a false god!
The Philistines stole the Ark of God and gave it to a statue—a false god! But God, the only true God, wasn’t surprised. He knew this would happen. It had to happen because his people had stopped following him. They needed to come back to him. God knew that losing the battle, the Ark, and the treasures would cause them to do just that. God always has a plan, and this one was going to be fun! He would show the Philistines who the true God really was.
The next day the Philistines came to Dagon’s temple to worship. “Hey, where’s Dagon? Who moved him?” the first one asked. “Over here!” someone screamed. “And look! He’s down in the dirt worshipping the God of the Ark!”
How do you think the Philistines felt? What do you think they did?
The Philistines were embarrassed. They quickly picked up their statue of Dagon and put him back in his place. “No way can Dagon bow down to the God of the Ark,” they thought. “We won the battle, after all.” So they put Dagon in his place, worshipped the old statue, and went home.
Early the next morning they came back to worship Dagon again. “No, it couldn’t be, not again!” they screamed. Dagon was bowing down in the dirt in front of the Ark—again—only this time it was much worse. This time Dagon’s head and hands were gone! They looked around and found that someone had cut the statue’s head and hands off and left them lying by the door! Who could have done this? They realized the true God must have cut off the head and hands from the statue!
Now the Philistines knew the God of the Ark must be more powerful than Dagon. If the statue they believed in had to bow to the God of the Ark, then shouldn’t they bow too? The God of the Ark broke their most powerful god, so he must be the most powerful God of all! They made sure that the Ark went back where it belonged.
What does worship mean? Who deserves our worship?
To worship means to bow down or to serve. We worship what we love the most. Philippians 2:10–11 says, “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (NIV). When we obey God, when we bow down and pray to him, we worship him. Let’s do that now.
Remember: You’ve Got His Word on It
There is only one God worthy of worship. One of the clearest passages for those who might believe or teach otherwise is Isaiah 43:10–13:
“You have been chosen to know me, believe in me, and understand that I alone am God. There is no other God; there never has been and never will be. I am the LORD, and there is no other Savior. First I predicted your deliverance; I declared what I would do, and then I did it—I saved you. No foreign god has ever done this before. You are witnesses that I am the only God,” says the LORD. “From eternity to eternity I am God. No one can oppose what I do. No one can reverse my actions.”
