Sometimes the only way we can get things across to people is to do something extreme. A number of years ago, a dairy farmer near Weatherford, Texas, had promised his young wife repeatedly that he would build her a new home. Their old one was rickety, too small for their four children, and was located right where they wanted the new one to stand.
Finally, out of patience one day, she moved her household goods into the dairy barn and took a crowbar to the old house. When her husband came home, he found a partially dismantled shell where their house once stood.
She got her new house, and her children got the room they needed.
Sometimes God has to do something extreme to get humanity’s attention. In 1 Samuel 5:1-5 we read of the Philistines. They had captured the ark of God. They brought it to the house of Dagon, their god, and set it up beside a statue of Dagon.
Here’s the interesting thing. God asked for the ark to be given a new home. We can read about it in Verse 3:
“And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord…”
The Philistines apparently had cotton in their ears, either that, or they were working so hard they couldn’t listen to God saying, “Hey, Dudes, get my ark out of this abysmal place. I refuse to reside next to this false god.”
No, instead the Philistines set Dagon back up and thought things were just peachy…until God got extreme. Verse 4 tells us:
“But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him.”
When the Philistines didn’t listen, God got out his crowbar and began to take Dagon apart. He even cut off his head and his hands.
Read what 1 John 1:9 says:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
1 Peter 3:15 tells us:
“But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.”
Most of all, we can trust in the words we find in Psalm 119:89:
“Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.”
We build our lives, and because God is spirit and we are flesh, we sometimes find it easy to get distracted from what he tells us he needs us to do. If we don’t get his polite requests, sometimes he has to get extreme with us. He will tear our house down, if need be, so that he can build it up again and make it better than it was before.
We have to learn to listen to God, so that he doesn’t need to take extreme measures to get our attention.
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