Dear Church Family,

Last Sunday’s sermons certainly focused on a part of Israel’s history that most of us would rather forget. To say that the glory of God had departed from His chosen people certainly painted a grim picture. Remember the story did not end with that as we traveled to the New Testament and rejoiced our trust can be in our faithful Great High Priest, Jesus Christ. In Him there is victory over sin and death. In Him we have a hope that cannot be taken away!

As this is a Friday with the hope of giving you something a little lighter to think over, I encourage you to read on in 1 Samuel to find out “The Rest of the Story” as point 2A of my sermon this coming will say. Due to time constraints (Do you know how hard it is to preach only 20 minutes?) I will give only a brief mention of what happens after the declaration of Ichabod (no glory) at the end of chapter four. Read on to see if I give a good summary of what happened.

The Philistines were thrilled to capture the ark of the covenant. They place it in the temple of their pagan god named Dagon. It is placed beside the idol of Dagon. The next morning (for reasons unknown) Dagon had “fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord!” They put him back in place, but the next day had had fallen again with his head and hands broken off. At the same time the hand of God came against the citizens of the Philistine city of Ashdod. God afflicted them with tumors that caused great pain. Because Israel’s enemy failed to give God glory they said, “Death has filled the city with panic; God’s hand was heavy upon it.” They soon send the ark back to Israel with guilt offerings.

God showed mercy to His people and brought judgment of His/their enemies. It was not the end of the story. He one day would send the Redeemer as promised in Genesis 3:15. We can continue to trust God to work for His glory. That is Good News!

Living by grace to His glory,
Pastor Gillikin