Cries up to Heaven!
Scripture reading for August 5: 1 Samuel 5:11-12 “They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people.” For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there. The men who did not die were struck with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven.”
In today’s story from Scripture, the Philistines, enemies of Israel, had captured the ark of God and they were having great troubles everywhere that they took it. First they took it to the temple of Dagon and set it before their idol god. The next day, Dagon was lying on his face before the ark of God. They set the idol up again and the next morning, Dagon lay dismembered before the ark with the head and hands on the threshold of the temple. The people also noticed tumors growing on their bodies for God’s hand was heavy on them. There was great fear and panic in the whole city and countryside that caused them to cry out to heaven themselves. Their leaders devised a plan to move the ark of God out of their city. Offerings would be made of gold tumors and gold mice, five of them, for each of the lords of the Philistines. They put the ark on a new cart with two milk cows pulling it.
Have you ever had the ‘hand of the Lord’ heavy on you? These Philistines were Gentile idolaters but God had shown them mercy by coming near to them. They instead put God’s ark in their temple and continued their idolatry. Judgment from God fell and resulted in tumors and deathly fear and panic. They began to cry out and the cry went up to heaven. God showed them mercy in removing His presence and allowing them to continue in the darkness of idolatry.
As believers in Jesus, we are no longer under the curse of the law of sin and death. Jesus has bought and paid for our deliverance and for our healing. When attacked by cancer or disease, we go to our Father and He hears because He lives in us through His Holy Spirit. We trust His promises by faith. His hand is not heavy on us, but reaches out to lift us up and take us through! (Romans 8:37-38) Amen!
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