1 Samuel 6 tells the story of the Philistines, who had captured the ark of the covenant from Israel. They brought the Ark, which represented and maybe housed the presence of God, into the temple of their God Dagon. The next day they found their idol face down before the ark of the covenant. The next day the same thing happened and the hands and feet of their idol were severed. Over the next 7 months they moved the ark from city to city with disastrous effects on the population.
As they came upon God's judgment they decided they needed to get rid of the ark and give a guilt offering to appease Israel's God. This, for me, is an interesting response to coming face-to-face with a more powerful God than your own. Why wouldn't they recognize God as more powerful and turn toward him, instead of appease him? Why be satisfied with a lesser god? It doesn't seem to make sense, but I see it all around me.
How often do people choose they lesser "gods" instead of serving the God they actually fear? Instead of obedience to God they try to appease God, seeking some way to make God a little less angry for the time being. Once God's anger has gone away, it is back to life as normal, until the next time that God needs to be appeased.
That is a tough way to live, when we have the opportunity to live under the smile of God all the time! We don't need to appease God's anger, that has been done by Jesus on the cross! We simply need to turn toward God, the Great God, God Most High, and follow him. That has got to be easier than finding creative ways to appease God's anger until we finally send God away from us, as the Philistines did.
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