Imagine worshiping a god who can’t get up off its own face! Isn’t God supposed to help you up?
Every country has its national treasures and, throughout history, victorious armies have delighted in capturing and displaying those spoils of war as the evidence of their superior might. I think of the Arch of Titus in Rome, where you can see carvings of some of the holy vessels taken by the Tenth Roman Legion when Jerusalem was sacked in AD 70. But what a treasure this was that the Philistines brought home to Ashdod! Why Ashdod? It was the site of “the house of Dagon” (1 Sam 5:2). To them, placing the ark before Dagon gave convincing evidence of the superiority of their gods over the God of Israel. But who was Dagon? He was an ancient Semitic god, chief deity of the Philistines, appearing in records as early as 2500 BC. Some refer to him as the fertility god of grain; others as the god of fishermen, reflected in his form as half man, half fish—a merman. Considered the father of Baal, he was referred to as Be-ka-na-na (“Lord of Canaan”). But although the Philistines were familiar with Jehovah’s power over the gods of Egypt, they seem to be unfamiliar with the very first commandment! “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Ex 20:3). So at closing time, they all went home from their temple, secure in the fact that their god was bigger than Israel’s, and the proof lay in the darkness before Dagon. But in the morning, what was their surprise to find “Dagon, fallen on its face to the earth before the ark of the Lord” (1 Sam 5:3). What do you do when your god falls over? “They took Dagon and set it in its place again.” And the next morning, he had fallen again, but this time with his human head and hands broken off. It didn’t take the Philistines long to see that something very fishy was going on!