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[0:00] 1 Samuel 5, 6. The Lord's hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod. He terrified the people of Ashdod and its territory and afflicted them with tumors.

[0:12] When the people of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, The Ark of Israel's God must not stay here with us because his hand is strongly against us and our God Dagon. So they called all the Philistine rulers together and asked, What should we do with the Ark of Israel's God?

[0:28] The Ark of Israel's God should be moved to Gath, they replied. So they moved the Ark of Israel's God. And after they moved it, the Lord's hand was against the city of Gath, causing a great panic.

[0:42] He afflicted the people of the city from the youngest to the oldest with an outbreak of tumors. The people of Gath then sent the Ark of God to Ekron. But when it got there, the Ekronites called out, They've moved the Ark of God, Israel's God, to kill us and our people.

[0:58] The Ekronites called all the Philistine rulers together. They said, Send the Ark of Israel's God away. Let it return to its place so it won't kill us and kill our people. For the fear of death pervaded the city.

[1:10] God's hand was oppressing them. Those who did not die were afflicted with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven. When the Ark of the Lord had been in the Philistine territory for seven months, the Philistines summoned the priests and the diviners and pleaded, What should we do with the Ark of the Lord?

[1:28] Tell us how we can send it back to its place. They replied, If you send the Ark of Israel's God away, do not send it without an offering. Send back a guilt offering to him, and you will be healed.

[1:39] Then the reason his hand hasn't been removed from you will be revealed. They asked, What guilt offering shall we send back to him? And they answered, Five gold tumors and five gold mice, corresponding to the number of Philistine rulers, since there was one plague for both you and your rulers.

[1:59] Make images of your tumors and your mice that are destroying the land. Give glory to Israel's God, and perhaps he will stop oppressing you, your gods and your land. Why harden your hearts as the Egyptians and the pharaohs hardened theirs?

[2:12] When he afflicted them, didn't they send Israel away and Israel left? Now then, prepare one new cart and two milk cows that had never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up.

[2:25] Take the Ark of the Lord, place it on the cart, put the gold objects that you're sending him as a guilt offering in a box beside the Ark. Send it off and let it go its way. Then watch.

[2:38] If it goes up the road to its homeland, toward Beth Shemesh, it is the Lord who has made this terrible trouble for us. However, if it doesn't, we will know that it was not his hand that punished us.

[2:48] It was just something that happened by chance. The men did this. They took two milk cows, hitched them to the cart, and confined their calves to the pen. Then they put the Ark of the Lord on the cart, along with a box containing the gold mice and the images of the tumors.

[3:04] The cows went straight up the road to Beth Shemesh. They stayed on that one highway, lowing as they went. They never strayed to the right or the left. The Philistine rulers were walking behind them to the territory of Beth Shemesh.

[3:17] The word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord stands forever.

[3:34] Luke 1 says, No word from God shall be void of power. Would you pray with me? Father, we trust that in your providence, you have brought each one here today to sit under your word and to hear this difficult text.

[3:56] We pray, Lord, that your spirit will illumine it to us, that you'll shine the glory of God into our minds and our hearts. We pray that you will help me, Father, in my weakness. I pray that you will help our congregation, Father.

[4:09] Help us to see you truly for who you are. And I pray, Father, that those fears inside of our souls will be settled and put into proper order before this holy God as you've revealed yourself to us.

[4:23] For your glory we ask for Christ's sake. Amen. You may be seated. Natural fear is not a sin.

[4:42] As human beings, we have natural fears. For about eight months, my family and I had to live in Tucson, Arizona for about eight months. And Tucson is like a different planet.

[4:54] It's barely earth. One thing in Tucson is it seems like everything in the wilderness and the desert is trying to kill you and destroy you. The plants, the bugs, everything wants to kill you.

[5:06] And when we had to move there, our little one at the time, our youngest daughter who's now seven, she was just born and would be learning to crawl in those next eight months.

[5:19] And we found every single month we lived there a scorpion in the home. And you can imagine the mother's instincts. We had a natural fear for the life of our daughter.

[5:30] Those little baby scorpions on the counter that are very poisonous. And that type of fear is not a sin. But a phobia, it's a fear disorder.

[5:43] And fear disorders can be crippling. Some of you know this very well from firsthand experience living in this broken world. What I saw was that one in five adults in America suffer from some type of fear disorder.

[6:00] Or anxiety disorder. One out of five adults in the USA. Now these are adults in the USA. A country that does not have the fear of a land war.

[6:14] Canada's got no plans to invade anytime soon. It's not hard to find enough calories for survival in this country. I think we have the opposite problem. I do. Too many calories.

[6:26] Education is free. Social mobility is relatively easy now in this time period of history than it's ever been. And we have this very important invention that keeps us going called antibiotics.

[6:39] Some of us have needed antibiotics this past winter to survive. And we have. We've survived another winter. But still, we have so many anxieties and fears as adults in America.

[6:49] 20% of our nation with a fear disorder. Whenever we start to fear something creaturely, more than we fear the creator, our fears are out of order.

[7:03] We have a phobia disorder. The Puritan John Flabel in the 1600s saw this exact pattern. And this is a time of plagues and a fire that swept across London.

[7:16] But he pointed out, sometimes we, even as Christians, we fear too soon. Other times we fear too much. And still other times we fear for no good reason.

[7:28] We can relate to that, can't we? As we read the Bible, we see more and more a picture of God as a loving father. And no loving father wants his children to be crippled by phobias.

[7:44] The good news is that God is the God who heals us. So beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, I want you to walk through this difficult passage with me and with God's help, we'll see how it is that the Lord heals the fear disorders of his people.

[8:04] Because we have to ask the question, why was this story told? And why is this story preserved in God's word? Why would God's people throughout all the generations and us now have this as part of our Bible? We're told every part of the Bible is for our good, for our instruction.

[8:18] And that's the conclusion I've come to after studying it and meditating it with you and my hearts and in my prayers. So I want you to be ready as we work through this to answer the question, will you let God heal your fears?

[8:32] Will you let our powerful, mighty God heal your fears? Put them in proper order today. That's my prayer. Well, I see two steps to get us going of how God does this.

[8:45] First, the Lord disarms the power of lesser fears. The Lord disarms the power of lesser fears. And he does this very literally. So what were the disordered fears in our passage for today?

[9:00] Well, we know the Israelites, what did they fear? Israel feared the Philistines. And the Philistines, we know what they feared. It was Dagon, their devil, demon god.

[9:13] They had a great temple to Dagon. We saw last week how did the Lord disarm Dagon. Well, he did it by breaking off the arms of Dagon. In chapter 4, verse 3, they asked the question the Israelites do about the Philistines.

[9:29] They say, why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Bring the ark that it may save us from the hand of our enemies. Listen for that theme, the hand.

[9:40] Whose hand are you afraid of? The Israelites were afraid of the hand of the Philistines. The Philistines then, taking this ark captive, carry it to their temple, humiliate the Lord of hosts, they taunt him over the victory, the very victory that he allowed them to have.

[9:56] And then in this temple, we read in chapter 5, verse 4, there was Dagon now as the Philistines gather around, fallen with his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. Both Dagon's head and hands were broken off.

[10:12] Dagon disarmed, powerless. The Philistines disarmed, powerless. And now we read today in chapter 5, verse 6, would you look there with me?

[10:24] The hand of the Lord was heavy on the people of Ashdod. He ravaged them and struck them with tumors. It's the hand of the Lord.

[10:38] Because this passage links these tumors with rats, scholars have come to the conclusion that these may have been symptoms of a bubonic plague. The bubonic plague or the black plague, it was transmitted by mice and then fleas that would ride on the backs of a mouse would get onto humans and bite the humans and then humans get the bubonic plague.

[11:02] What it is is bacteria that would be carried and transmitted that way that causes a swelling of your lymph nodes. A swollen lymph node is called a bubos. That's why it's the bubonic plague.

[11:14] These are located on the neck, under the armpits, and the groin and they're accompanied by severe headaches, frequent chills, shivering, high fever, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and sometimes confusion.

[11:31] The swelling under the skin turns to a purple and black pus-filled boil, painful tumors that can erupt and spread very contagiously to others.

[11:45] A victim of the bubonic plague would die within three to eight days. Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?

[11:57] Not Dagon's statue and not the people of Ashdod. They're totally powerless and disarmed. The hand of the Lord has stricken them. Look at verse 7. There it is again.

[12:09] The Lord's hand, they said, is harsh toward us and to Dagon our God. Now when we have this reference to the hand of God, disarming Dagon and disarming the Philistines, is it God's hand?

[12:24] Is that really what it is? Well let's look at the rest of Scripture to shed some light on this phrase, the hand of God. Jesus says in John 4, verse 24, that God is spirit and Jesus also says in Luke 24, 39, that a spirit does not have flesh and bones.

[12:44] So God does not have flesh and bones yet it's the hand of God that's heavy upon his enemies. So what is the hand of God? It's God acting in space and time.

[12:57] It's a display of God's sovereign power. How God will orchestrate material causes and effects. God displays his power in a specific way through providence.

[13:10] God acting in human history. Sometimes God acts with nature, sometimes he acts against nature, and sometimes above nature as our confession puts it.

[13:21] Today we'll see two examples. striking the Philistines with this plague carried by rats causing tumors on their skins as God showing his mighty sovereign providential hand on them with nature using natural disease.

[13:40] Why does the Lord do this? See, the Lord is revealing even to this lost pagan people, you and your demon God, you're not the ones who have taken the Lord captive.

[13:53] The Lord has not fallen into your hands. Your hands are cut off. You've made immobilized by this plague. You've fallen into the hands of the Lord, and his hand is heavy upon you.

[14:09] This is the Lord of life showing those who opposed him that to fight the Lord of life is to choose death. He's teaching them to fear the heavy hand of God in order to live.

[14:24] I say this with as much love and sensitivity as I can. There may be some here or those who will listen to this later who still oppose this Lord, the Lord of life in your heart or in your life.

[14:42] You're opposing him. I need to lovingly warn you the same way he's warning the Philistines. To oppose God is to invite his wrath upon you.

[14:53] The call is to wake up. You don't need the Lord to send boils onto your skin. You have his word. You can see him acting graciously.

[15:04] Let his spirit soften you up to receive this God because until you fear his heavy hand you and I can't have eternal life.

[15:16] We need to see first the bad news of what we deserve and we deserve the wrath of God for opposing him. So the Lord disarms the power of these lesser fears.

[15:27] That's the first step to healing and putting our fears in order. What's the second step? What I see next is that the Lord replaces creaturely fear with the fear of the creator.

[15:39] The Lord replaces the fear. Instead of fearing these creaturely things like the Philistines or a demon god that they made a statue to or even a plague carried by mice, they need to fear the creator of it all.

[15:53] The holy God. So the people of Ashdod then are going to pass off the ark. It's going to go to two more cities. The first one is called Gath. The second one is Ekron. So look at verse 9 and Gath there's that theme one more time.

[16:08] The hand of the Lord was against the city of Gath. Also with a very great destruction and he struck look very specifically who did he strike?

[16:19] The men of the city in Gath. Flip back to chapter 4. 1 Samuel chapter 4. Do you remember the Philippines called a battle?

[16:31] What is it that they try to stir up in their army to go to war? 1 Samuel chapter 4 verse 9. They say be strong and conduct yourselves like men you Philistines that you do not become slaves to the Hebrews as they have become to you.

[16:48] so here's these warriors from the Philistines behave like a man you know be courageous and fight like a man so the Lord shows them here's who you really need to fear you need to fear the creator of man he strikes the men of Gath and what's the next detail?

[17:08] Both young and old and my translation in English puts it both small and great tumors broke out on them well in a few chapters we have the most famous story of 1 Samuel and that's the story of David and Goliath do you remember what city Goliath is from?

[17:32] he's from Gath be a man come and fight like a man that's the same taunt Goliath uses in chapter 17 and we have this detail that all the men of the city of Gath small and great are stricken with tumors now we can't say for certain but the best guess is that there's 20 years between this chapter 5 and chapter 17 where Goliath calls out the nation of Israel to fight him and to send a champion so MMA fighters today it's the closest we have to hand-to-hand combat they're in their peak years in their early 30s if we subtract 20 years off of that chances are that Goliath was like one of these young men sitting here getting tumors just like the other old men having this message from the Lord of hosts because every man great and small in the city of Gath had tumors breaking out on them and they say get rid of this ark of the Lord of hosts and so it goes to Ekron in verse 10 in Ekron they gathered together all the lords of the Philistines of the entire empire there are five major cities we only have three highlighted in this passage well these are the same lords of the Philistines the generals of their great army that's going to be plaguing and hunting

[18:54] Israel that's going to come out and call this same God of the Israelites to call his bluff see if he'll come fight us maybe he can defeat us how quickly they forget all of their generals were there stricken and seeing what's happening the Lord has shifted their focus away now from Dagon and the plague to himself look at verse 11 send the ark of the Lord God of Israel away let it go back to its own place so that it will not kill us or our people for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city and the hand of God was very heavy there verse 11 verse 12 those men who weren't stricken dead by the Lord were stricken with inflamed pussy boils instead what would it have been like to be in this city in Ekron the last place before it finally goes away during the black plague they recorded how there was a putrid smell in the air the smell of death because all the vapors from decaying flesh set off a sulfuric aroma released by the decomposing bodies so the Lord of hosts the commander of the Lord's angel army you see what he's done he's invaded demon land he's given them a foretaste of hell there's weeping and gnashing of teeth it's the same

[20:35] Lord in all the ages we sang this in that great hymn by Martin Luther the Lord of hosts his name from age to age the same Hebrews 10 31 we read this it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God see that's the New Testament affirming this same living God the Lord of hosts you should have a healthy dread of falling into his hands as his enemy it's one God from the old covenant into the new covenant it's one Lord of hosts who is able to stand before this holy Lord God not the rulers of Ekron or Gath not Goliath's family not the Philistine Lord's the Lord's message is this the same to them as it is to us either you fear God now for your own good or fear him in hell forever

[21:38] John Flabel made this helpful observation the only remedy for sinful fear is godly fear weak Christians fear man too much and god too little do you see what he's saying he's saying that the remedy for an unhealthy fear in our lives the remedy for an anxiety disorder is to fear god properly if John Flabel is right this disorder that's become like a pandemic across our nation it's because there's insufficient fear of god we can even say that most pastors evangelical and otherwise are responsible at least in part for the anxiety disorder in this nation for not opening up the word of god and helping us to see by faith the god who deserves to be feared with reverence because we've made god so small all these other fears in our life have cripped up and they've crippled us i don't need to tell you you know this many people go to what they think is a christian church they don't encounter the god of the bible because the bible is barely opened pastors true or otherwise have turned their pulpits into stand up comedy routines philosophy podcasts or group therapy sessions for positive thinking and the result is a pandemic with fear disorders many never hear about and never encounter the true god of the whole bible i'm sure we all have someone we love that does have a fear disorder and suffers with anxiety the most loving thing we can do with them is to open our bible with them and ask the holy spirit to teach us to fear god properly john flavel again the only remedy for sinful fear is godly fear a proper fear and reverence for god because god replaces a lesser creaturely fear with fear for the creator well now comes the reaction the response how will the philistines respond to this hand of god that's come so close among them i see that those enslaved to sin they reject god because to reverently fear him would change everything isn't that a pattern you notice those enslaved to sin unless the spirit awakens them they will reject god because to reverently fear god would change everything the philistines rejected yahweh so that their life could go back to the style they liked and that they were used to but first they had to test god and they even did this on their own terms in chapter 6 verse 2 the philistines called for their own priests and diviners and they asked them what shall we do with the ark of the lord tell us how we should send it back to its place and these pagan priests of dagon they say well create these little models out of gold and send them along as a guilt offering or an appeasement gift to try to appease yahweh the number five because there's five major philistine cities so the whole philistine empire will be represented someone pointed out how would you like to be called in to be the model for a tumor you know hey you got a good one on your neck come on over let's let's see if we can sculpt that well 6 5 perhaps then yahweh will lighten his hand from you there's the hand of yahweh one more time he will lighten his hand from you your gods and your land they're under a triple providential

[25:39] pressing by the living god and it's fearful thing to fall into his hands so they prepare a new cart so brand new wood they're not just repurposing an old farm one and they get cows that have never been yoked up most likely these are both signs of respect let's not mess it up by being disrespectful but there's also a twist there's a little scheme they want to test out and try to determine whether these plagues were a coincidence was it just a bad break or is it divine judgment these were cows who had suckling calves that had never been under a yoke inexperienced mama cows I grew up in a rural part in Brazil and there was a corral where all the cattle had to come through and get vaccinated well I remember walking up one time and there was this this heifer in this pen all alone and everybody was scared of her like getting out of her way and what it was that had happened is they had separated the mother from the calf and even these experienced cowboys were scared because this mama without her calf was going to destroy something and so even even city people know you can't separate a suckling calf from a heifer that's just given birth so this was their test was it

[26:57] Yahweh who struck and ravaged us or did this disaster just happened to us and it has nothing to do with Yahweh's hand we need to know see they were providing Yahweh an opportunity as someone put it to write his signature across their circumstances and they made it as difficult as possible for God to do so contrary to nature the cows go walking off to Israel as if they were in the grip and being led by the invisible hand of God the Philistines got to witness God miraculously revealing himself to them see earlier with the disease he was working with nature now he's working against nature making it even more clear this is the hand of God he had spoken to these Philistines now through their cowl Yahweh had stooped down and showed himself even on terms that they could understand he is the true and living God he confirmed to the

[28:00] Philistines it was I who struck your God your land and even your bodies but now what will they do with this revelation how will they respond well the only right response would be for them to fear God to learn we have to worship you you are the true and living God we will humble ourselves before you we will go to your land and learn from your people we will do whatever your law requires for us to become your people with Israel but that's not what the Philistines wanted they wanted their own comfortable lifestyle they wanted their own power and dominance perhaps the majority simply said well I'm glad that's over now back to life as usual Dale Ralph Davis made this observation it's so easy for us sinners Philistine or otherwise to respond only to the pain and not to the truth about God in a circumstance once our immediate fears are alleviated our heads are no wiser and our hearts are no softer Yahweh stoops to reveal himself even to enemies of his people this is the same

[29:16] Yahweh who will one day draw near those who are far off and he'll do this by the blood of his own son so they reject God because they don't want to reverently fear him and have to change everything but I think what the Lord is doing for his people who have his word and who get to read this wonderful account of God's mighty hand in providence he is healing and he's showing them his redemption foreshadowed once again the Lord will heal again here through reversal what's the reversal that just took place it's the enslaved deliverer turning exile into exodus see the ark of the Lord that the ark of the presence of God the one who can deliver his people taken into exile on their behalf and then turning that exile into a great exodus see this exodus theme even the Philistines point this out they remember God's mighty hand on

[30:22] Jericho and on Egypt look at chapter 6 verse 6 they point out this connection why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts they see the parallel God is doing to us what he's already done to any who have opposed him and the ark is described as a prisoner of war remember in chapter 4 22 it was captured as if God had been enslaved and allowing himself to become that we read in chapter 6 now look at verse 1 the ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months in Deuteronomy 15 12 and 14 we read that a slave in the seventh year shall be set free and and that slave shall not go empty handed you were to put in the hands of that slave generously from what God has blessed you with and so that slave shall go free why did God allow it to take seven months for the ark to remain captive to the Philistines in the fullness of time he would bring deliverance from slavery deliverance from captivity it's the principle of Jubilee there will be a day the fullness of time where the captives will be released and it'll be by the mighty work of the one who can deliver them who put himself into exile to lead this great exodus of his people the the parallels with the exodus are so strong here in Egypt the

[31:59] Lord killed and struck them with the plague and we read in Exodus 9 3 the hand of the Lord is what brought severe plagues to the Egyptians just as it did to the Philistines now in chapter 6 verse 12 a cry went up to heaven remember when the firstborn of all the Egyptians their sons were strucken down by the Lord that great first Passover there was also a great a great cry and now the Philistines are wanting to send the ark of the Lord away just like in Exodus 10 7 the message was to let Israel go before all of Egypt is completely destroyed see this exodus of the ark leaving the captivity returning to Israel it was revealing to the Philistines the same thing that God revealed to the Egyptians with that exodus it's exposing them to the true God to his name to his glory to his power and to his character think about how even that work of

[33:02] Christ is foreshadowed how tumors and rats are two of the most unclean things and this is the ark of the Lord that was placed in the Holy of Holies think of all the ritual cleansings that it would have had to gone before you can even be close to the ark of the presence of the Holy God a person had a spot on their skin and a blemish they had to be far away outside of the tent and they had to be clean and then be inspected by a priest before they could approach and come close and it wasn't any animal that could be brought to the Lord it had to be only the animals God said were clean and unblemished and perfect at that so the opposite of that would be a rat that's infected with a deadly plague you see how those were put there right next to the ark of the Lord unclean animals unclean skin being carried away by the holiest peace in the tabernacle of the Holy God it's a shadow of the most Holy God touching our sinful diseases yet remaining unblemished himself this is a shadow of the great exodus that God himself would accomplish through Jesus Christ our great deliverer before I let you go today I need you to see that accomplished by the Lord Jesus we've seen now the heavy hand of the

[34:27] Lord on his enemies for their wickedness for opposing him but the reason we can have access to the Holy God is because the heavy hand of the Lord it's that same hand that struck Jesus Christ in your place and in mine and he did this to put our fears in order that we would have a fear for God the beginning of wisdom that no other fears would compete with our fear for this reverence of the Holy God Hebrews 8 verses 8 and 10 say behold the days are coming says the Lord when I will make a new covenant not according to the covenant I made when I took Israel by the hand and led them out of Egypt in this new covenant I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts see there's the hand of God graciously putting his law inside his people it's an inward seal of the new covenant by the hand of God I will be your

[35:27] God and you shall be my people well how would this new covenant happen Isaiah 53 had to be fulfilled it was the will of the Lord to crush his own servant the heavy hand of the Lord upon Jesus Christ for sin for evil for uncleanliness why did the Lord allow himself to be exiled enslaved to be crushed by the heavy hand of the Lord for his enemies so that he could invade hell and set many captives free we sing of this great truth we have been set free from captivity to sin long my imprisoned spirit lay there I was fast bound in sin and nature's night but thine I diffused a quickening way rain I woke my dungeon flamed with light my chains fell off my heart was free I rose went forth and followed thee captives set free following the great deliverer so who is it that's able to stand before this holy Lord God there's one man who can stand before the holy God and it's the deliverer the Lord Jesus

[36:57]  Christ Hebrews 1 8 says Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty of the heavens that same right hand that strikes down his enemies that's heavy upon sin and that crushed the sin of God's people by crushing Jesus in our place he's now seated exalted at the right hand of God he can stand before the holy Lord Ephesians 2 13 makes this good news of the finished work of Christ gospel news for you and me now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off you have been brought near by the blood of Christ you can stand in the presence of the holy God in Christ Jesus by grace you can stand before this holy Lord God because Jesus Christ is the one who has brought you near and it's possible because of his precious blood shed for you and me so we can sing arise my soul arise shake off your guilty fears my God is reconciled his pardoning voice I hear he owns me for his child I can no longer fear will you let the Lord heal your fear disorder this is the work Jesus came to do for you and for me by his wounds we are healed how does he do this what's your response first Peter 5 6 and 7 tells us humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time casting all your cares upon him for he cares for you he's proved that he cares for you in the work of his son Jesus it was grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved respond to this mighty Lord today thanks