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The Story of Redemption
made in honor to their most popular God Dagon, and placed it by the
side of their god. In the morning the priests of these gods entered
the temple, and they were terrified to find Dagon fallen upon his
face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. They raised Dagon
and placed him in his former position. They thought he might have
fallen accidentally. But the next morning they found him fallen as
before, upon his face to the ground, and the head of Dagon and both
his hands were cut off.
The angels of God, who ever accompanied the ark, prostrated the
senseless idol God and afterward mutilated it, to show that God, the
living God, was above all gods, and that before Him every heathen
God was as nothing. The heathen possessed great reverence for their
god, Dagon; and when they found it ruinously mutilated and lying
upon its face before the ark of God, they were sad and considered it
a very bad omen to the Philistines. It was interpreted by them that
the Philistines and all their gods would yet be subdued and destroyed
by the Hebrews, and the Hebrews’ God would be greater and more
powerful than all gods. They removed the ark of God from their idol
temple and placed it by itself.
The ark of God was kept seven months by the Philistines. They
had overcome the Israelites and had taken the ark of God, wherein
they supposed their power consisted, and thought that they should
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ever be in safety and have no more fear of the armies of Israel. But
in the midst of their joy at their success a wailing was heard all over
the land, and the cause was at length credited to the ark of God. It
was borne from place to place in terror, and destruction from God
followed its course, until the Philistines were greatly perplexed to
know what to do with it. Angels, who accompanied it, guarded it
from all harm. And the Philistines did not dare to open the chest;
for their God Dagon had met with such a fate that they feared to
touch it, or to have it near them. They called for the priests and the
diviners, and inquired of them what they should do with the ark of
God. They advised them to send it back to the people to whom it
belonged, and to send with it a costly trespass offering, which if God
would be pleased to accept, they would be healed. They should also
understand that God’s hand was upon them because they had taken
His ark, which belonged alone to Israel.