Lord Over All
After the Philistines captured the Ark of God, they took it from the battleground at Ebenezer to the town of Ashdod. They carried the Ark of God into the temple of Dagon and placed it beside an idol of Dagon. But when the citizens of Ashdod went to see it the next morning, Dagon had fallen with his face to the ground in front of the Ark of the LORD! So they took Dagon and put him in his place again. But the next morning the same thing happened — Dagon had fallen face down before the Ark of the LORD again. This time his head and hands had broken off and were lying in the doorway. Only the trunk of his body was left intact. – 1 Samuel 5:1–4
Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you thought you knew were confident in an outcome only to find something else different ended up happening? I remember watching a game where the team I was cheering for was down a goal in the final period against their bitter rival, which meant it was a very intense game throughout. Early in the final period, the rival team scored given themselves a 2-goal lead. This would typically mean the game was over, and having seen that situation numerous times, I assumed the worst was inevitable. I turned the channel, and did some work. I then glanced back to watch what was going to be a gloomy end. However, my team fought back to tie the game. When I turned the game on, I was not only surprised but later cheered in jubilation as they would score the go-ahead goal to win the game. I vowed to never turn off a game like that again.
That night sat with me longer than the score did. I had written off the outcome because the situation looked decided, and in writing it off, I had quietly assumed I knew the limits of what was possible. We do this with God too. We see a circumstance that seems settled: a diagnosis, a closed door, a relationship that looks beyond repair, a season that feels too long, and we begin to act as if the outcome is already written. But the God we serve is not bound by what the room looks like in the final period. His power is not measured by our visibility or our patience. He is at work in places we have already stopped watching, and what He does there often surprises everyone who thought the story was over.
Today’s verses capture this so clearly it almost feels staged. The Philistines had just won a battle against Israel. They had captured the Ark of God and carried it home like a trophy. By every visible measure, their gods had defeated Israel's God. So, they did what victors do. They placed the Ark inside the temple of their god Dagon, right next to his idol, as if to say the matter was settled. They went home that night believing the outcome was decided.
It was not.
Notice what God does not do in this passage. He does not send a prophet to argue His case. He does not call down fire. He does not need anyone to defend His name or recover His reputation. He simply is who He is, and the idol cannot stand in His presence. Twice. The second time, broken. The men of Ashdod kept propping Dagon back up because they could not accept what was happening. They thought they had a god who was proven greater than others, but it would not stay where they placed Him.
I have done my own version of that. I have taken the God who parted seas and quieted storms and tried to fit Him into a space small enough that I could manage the outcome. I have looked at challenging situations and quietly decided what He would and would not do. I have, more times than I want to admit, propped up the idol of my own understanding because it was easier than trusting a power I cannot fully see. And every time, gently and without announcement, He has shown me again that He does not need my permission to move.
The awesome power of God is not loud the way we expect loud to sound. It is steady. It is patient. It outlasts our assumptions and outworks our timelines. The Philistines walked into that temple thinking they had something to celebrate, and what they found was a quiet, immovable truth that no rival, no circumstance, no idol of our making can stand in the same room as Him for long.
This is why Paul writes, in 2 Corinthians 5:7, that “we live by believing and not by seeing.” The Philistines lived by what they saw. They saw a captured Ark, a defeated nation, and an intact idol, and they drew their conclusions accordingly. They were wrong before the sun came up. What our eyes report to us in a hard season is rarely the whole story, because the One whose power moves in the dark is not finished when we are.
When the situation in front of you looks settled in the wrong direction, remember Dagon on the floor. Remember that God is already at work in the room you stopped checking. You do not need to defend Him, explain Him, or rescue the outcome. You need only to trust that He who topples idols in the dark is still the One who holds your story in the light.
Where in your life have you quietly decided what God will or will not do? What would it look like to stop propping up that conclusion and let Him move? Who in your life is in a season that looks settled in the wrong direction? How might your steady trust in God's awesome power encourage them this week?
My prayer is that we would stop trying to fit God into the size of our circumstances. He is the God who topples idols in the dark, who works where we have stopped watching, and who finishes stories we have already written off. Forgive us for the times we have prepared ourselves for defeat instead of trusting Your power. Steady our hearts today. Help us rest in who You are, even when the room looks decided. We trust You with what we cannot see. Amen.