Putting Nothing Above the Lord

For Reference, read 1 Samuel 3-7

In my last post I talked about worshiping God above all else. He deserves all the glory, adoration and love. The Lord has continued to challenge me in this area. There’s a story in 1 Samuel that addresses this head on.

Basically, leading up to this, there were corrupt priests in the tabernacle at Shiloh. Eli the priest had two sons, Phinehas and Hophni, When they became priests, they did not follow God's Law regarding sacrifices. Sacrifices and offerings were how the people of Israel could worship God and have forgiveness for their sins. If they weren’t carried out as specified in the law of Moses, God counted that as disobedience. Under the leadership of Phinehas and Hophni, ignorance of God’s righteous Law continued year by year. Eli did nothing to stop it. The Lord warned him of judgement, he paid no heed. Then the Lord told a young Samuel the judgement was certain. The Philistines defeated the Israelites in battle and took the Ark of the Covenant. The ark is where the presence and power of the Lord dwelt at this time. Phinehas, Hophni and Eli all died that day, as the Lord had warned. He ended their lineage as priests because of their continual, deliberate disobedience.

Now we pick up in chapter five. The Philistines took the Ark to Ashdod and put it in the temple to Dagon, their chief god. Verses 2-5 read:

“When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. And when the people of Ashdod arose early in the morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the earth before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and set it in its place again. And when they arose early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon and both the palms of its hands were broken off on the threshold; only Dagon’s torso^[ was left of it.  Therefore neither the priests of Dagon nor any who come into Dagon’s house tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.” (NKJV)

God showed the Philistines that every idol must fall before Him. Only He is to be worshiped.

The Philistines weren’t surprised when the Lord brought sickness on them. The people had heard about how He dealt with Pharaoh in Egypt. They moved it to four more cities before finally returning it to Beth Shemesh in Israel. The people of Beth Shemesh eventually sent the Ark to Kirjath Jearim.  While all this is happening, even with the Ark back in Israel, the people were still practicing idolatry and straying from the Law.

Twenty years later, the Ark was still there. The Bible says the people felt like God had abandoned them.   God gave the Israelites a chance for victory over the Philistines with this command:

“Then Samuel said to all the people of Israel, “If you are really serious about wanting to return to the Lord, get rid of your foreign gods and your images of Ashtoreth. Determine to obey only the Lord; then he will rescue you from the Philistines.” So the Israelites got rid of their images of Baal and Ashtoreth and worshiped only the Lord.”
1 Samuel 7:3-4 (NLT)

The Israelites then experienced victory over the Philistines.

We are all, even now susceptible to idolatry. Whether we idolize dreams, friends, current celebrities or famous historical figures, it can happen at any time. Sometimes, we think we know better than to follow God’s plan, like those priests did. We can never experience total closeness to God if we put anything above Him, because when we do, He doesn’t have our whole heart. He wants to be loved with everything we are. That is His greatest commandment.