DAGON’S UPS AND DOWNS – Charles Spurgeon
Dagon’s Ups and Downs
“When the Philistines took the Ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon. And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the Ark of the Lord. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again. And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the Ark of the Lord; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.” — 1 Samuel 5:2-4
The Ark and Its Captivity
The Ark of the Lord was captured by the Philistines, though it was guarded by all the men of arms that Israel could muster for the battle. It came to no harm when it was surrounded by unarmed priests—although the times were exceedingly disturbed and perilous all through the dreary period of the Judges, yet never was the Ark a captive till it was protected by carnal weapons. When those whom God had ordained to take care of the Ark of the Covenant had it in their charge, it was safe enough. But when the proud banners of the State and the warlike array of the nation formed the bodyguard of the sacred shrine, the Ark of God was taken.
When the civil power was joined with the spiritual, and the arm of flesh came in to patronize and to take into connection with itself the arm of God’s strength, then it was that the Ark was borne away in triumph by its foes! All through human history, you will find the explanation of this instructive fact—leave God’s Truth alone and it will take care of itself without the aid of kings and princes, laws or establishments, endowments or privileges. Only state the pure Truth of Revelation and it will force its own way. But garnish and adorn it by your eloquent language, or protect and guard it by your carnal wisdom and prudence—and the Truth of God goes into captivity.
Leave the Church alone, O you kings and princes, or persecute it if you will, for it will laugh your opposition to scorn! Do not pretend to propagate its doctrines by the civil power, for this is the worst curse that can befall it! Take it under your patronage and the mere touch of your royal hands will create disease within it! Almost to the death has the so-called “Church” come down when her ministers, like Hophni and Phinehas, have allied themselves with the temporal power, for God will do His work by His own instruments and in His own way. He will not be indebted to the might of flesh but will defend His own Glory by His own mysterious power. He uses for His instruments His consecrated ones who wear the white linen, which is the righteousness of saints—not the blood-stained men of war arrayed in coats of mail and glittering breastplate of steel.
God’s Glory and Jealousy
Another lesson may be learned from the incident before us. When the Philistines had beaten the Israelites in battle and captured the sacred chest called the Ark, they boasted and gloried as though they had defeated God Himself! They evidently regarded the golden casket as the very choicest part of the spoil and they placed it as a trophy in the chief temple of their God, Dagon, to show that he was mightier than the God Jehovah who was unable, as they thought, to protect His people. This touched, at once, the honor of Jehovah, and because He is a jealous God, this was good for Israel.
The fact that God is a jealous God has often a terrible side to us, for it leads to our chastisement when we grieve Him. This, indeed, led to the defeat of Israel. But it has, also, a bright side towards us, for His jealousy flames against His foes even more terribly than against His friends! And when His name is blasphemed and honors that are due to Him are ascribed to a mere idol—or He is declared to have been defeated by a false god—then His jealousy burns like coals of juniper and He makes bare His right arm to smite His adversaries as He did on this occasion. He thinks it meet to punish His offending people, but when Philistia says, “Dagon has defeated Jehovah,” then the Lord will no longer suffer Philistia to triumph! Jehovah’s answer to His foes was Dagon broken to shivers before His Ark and the Philistines plagued with tumors, until, in their desperate pain and dire disgrace, they set the Ark free, being no longer able to endure its presence in any of their towns.
And so the Jews ever afterwards used to exasperate the Philistines by reminding them of the disease which so sorely tried them. There is a dash of this in the Psalm which says of the Lord, “He smote His enemies in the inner part. He put them to a perpetual reproach.” Never did a boastful nation undergo a deeper dishonor in the eyes of their neighbors, to whom they became a laughingstock! And never did an image suffer a worse disgrace than that which befell their God, Dagon.
Now, then, whenever, at any time, infidelity or superstition shall so prevail as to discourage your minds, take comfort out of this—that in all these, God’s honor is compromised. Have they blasphemed His name? Then He will protect that name! Have they gone further than they used to do in foul utterances against Him? Then they will provoke Him and He will make bare His holy arm! I pray that they may so provoke Him! All His Church will say, “Amen!” to that, so that He may arise and perform the glorious works of His strength and of His love among the sons of men and put the adversary to confusion by proving that He is still with His people—and still the same mighty God as He was in the days of yore.
Say to yourselves, then, “Our Lord will not always endure this idolatrous popery which is multiplying its priests within our national Church. His people cannot bear it—much less will He! He will not always tolerate these blasphemous theories by which self-conceited, learned men and vainglorious skeptics seek to get rid of God out of the world. They will provoke Him. He will bestir Himself. He will show Himself strong on the behalf of His Truth! He will roll back the waves of sin and let the ages know that He is still the great I AM, the victorious God over all, blessed forever.”
A Spiritual Allegory
Those two truths of God seem to me to lie upon the surface of this passage. And now, though it would be very wrong to make out the Word of God to be a mere set of allegories and so to deny that it records facts—and this, I trust, we shall never do—yet, as the Apostle Paul has shown us that many of the events in the Old Testament are an allegory, and as, indeed, these things are evidently types, and must be regarded as emblems and patterns of things that still occur—we shall use this passage in a spiritual way and make it the channel of experimental teaching.
Where the living God comes into the soul, Dagon, or the idol god of sin and worldliness, must go down! This is the one thought which we shall hammer out at this time.
I. The Coming of Christ into the Soul
To begin, then—the coming of the Ark into Dagon’s temple was an apt simile of the coming of Christ into the soul. Dagon, according to the best information, was the fish-god of Philistia, perhaps borrowed from the Sidonians and the men of Tyre, whose main business was upon the sea and who, therefore, invented a marine deity. The upper part of Dagon was a man or woman and the lower part of the idol was carved like a fish. We get a very good idea of it from the common notion of the fictitious, fabulous creature called a mermaid. Dagon was nothing more than a merman or mermaid, only, of course, there was no pretense of his being alive. He was a carved image—like that which the papists worship and call the Blessed Virgin, or Saint Peter, or Saint Remy.
The temple at Ashdod was, perhaps, the cathedral of Dagon, the chief shrine of his worship—and there he sat erect upon the high altar with pompous surroundings. The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of Hosts was a small wooden box overlaid with gold. It was, by no means, a very cumbersome or bulky thing but, nevertheless, very sacred because it had a representative character and symbolized the Covenant of God—its capture was grievous, indeed, to pious Israelites, for they felt that the Glory of God was departed when the Ark was taken.
The sacred chest was carried in triumph by the Philistines and brought into the temple where Dagon stood. In your mind’s eye, you can see the fish-god high upon his throne and the incense burning before him as the priests gather around and the princes of Philistia, with triumphant banners, bow before his shrine. We hear the shouts of the Philistine lords as they bring in the golden coffer with the golden staves, set it down at the foot of Dagon and sing their exultant songs. Hear them as they sound their trumpets and chant their blasphemous hymns—“Glory be unto you, O Dagon! You have triumphed this day, O mighty god of the land and the sea! Glorious fish-god, you have vanquished those who vanquished the Canaanites. And though their God slew the Egyptians of old, you have smitten them by their thousands. Glory be unto you, you mighty god!”
Thus would they extol their deity and pour contempt upon the captured Ark, which they placed at the foot of the image. Then, when the service was over and they had worshiped Dagon to their heart’s content, they shut up the temple and there was darkness in the holy place, or unholy place—which shall I call it? Not long did the Ark remain where it was, with Dagon still supreme, but the mere incoming of the Ark into the idol temple was a fair picture of the introduction of the Grace of God into the human heart.
The Philistines brought in the Ark of the Lord, but only an act of Divine power can bring the Grace of God into the soul. By different instrumentalities the Truth of God, as it is in Jesus, is read, is heard, is brought to the recollection, is seen printed in the lives of men and so enters into the temple of the inner man or woman. When it first comes into the heart, it finds sin enthroned there—and the Prince of Darkness reigning supreme. The first Grace that enters into the soul finds it in darkness and in death, under the dominion of sin.
Divine Grace in the Soul
Brothers and Sisters, we have not to deliver ourselves from sin and death and darkness—and then obtain Grace! No! While we are yet DEAD, Divine Grace visits us! While we are yet slaves, the Liberator comes! On our blackest midnight, the Sun of Righteousness arises! While the Dagon of sin sits firmly on his throne, as if he never could be stirred and his horrid form is, alone, to be seen lording it over all the thoughts and imaginations of the heart, even then it is that “God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins,” sends His almighty Grace to dwell within us!
When that Grace enters the soul, it comes not with observation—and sin, at first, does not know any more about the incoming of Grace than Dagon knew about the Ark. The Grace, the Light, the Truth, the Love of God come into the soul and the man does not know, as yet, what the Lord has done for him. He is only conscious of some impression—of a thoughtfulness he had never known before, of a calm frame of mind, of a desire to consider eternal things—that may be all that he perceives of the Lord’s work within him. His Dagon seems to still be there in as supreme a majesty as ever—only something strange is also within the mind—the man has no idea what it is. It is the beginning of the end—of a blessed and glorious end! We have now Dagon and the Ark in the same temple—Sin and Grace in the same heart—but this state of things cannot long abide! No man can serve two masters! And even if he could, the two masters would not agree to be served! The two great principles of Sin and Grace will not abide in peace with each other, they are as opposite as fire and water. There will be conflict and victory, but we know which will conquer, for as surely as ever the Grace of God comes into the soul, Sin receives notice to exit!
The Downfall of Dagon
That night, when the Philistines had finished their exulting ceremonies, they thought they had left Dagon robed in glory, reigning and triumphing over the Ark of the Lord. They had scarcely shut the doors and gone before Dagon fell on his face to the ground before the Ark. Down he went! He did not lean over—he fell! Nor did he drop upon his side, but he was made to do obeisance before the Ark, for he fell on his face! And he did not fall merely part of the way, but fell on his face to the ground before the Ark—a change of positions very significant to his worshipers!
The Ark was set at the foot of Dagon and now Dagon lies before the Ark as if he were prostrating himself in worship before the great and mighty God! Even thus Grace in the soul is not long before it overthrows sin. What a turning of things upside down Grace always makes! The watchword is, “Overturn, overturn, overturn!” The Breaker is come up, and the images of man’s invention must be dashed to shivers! Very likely your Dagon is in the shape of self-righteousness. I shall call it Dagon, for it is nothing better—one of the worst idols in the whole world is the idol of self.
The self-righteous man boasts that he is as good as other people, if not a little better, although he is not a Christian. He does not know that he has ever done anything very wrong and he feels that in him there is a great deal that is very good and excellent and, therefore, he expects that things will go well with him at last. He has a very fine figure for his god, and though there may be a rather “fishy” tail to his character, he keeps that as much out of sight as possible and conceals it with excuses. The god of his self-confidence is a very pretty thing, take it for all in all—it is as beautiful as a mermaid and he is fascinated with its beauty. He bows before his idol and sings before it that ancient canticle of the Philistines—I mean the Pharisees—which begins, “God, I thank You that I am not as other men are!”
When Grace enters the soul the dominion of self-confidence comes to an end! Down goes the fish-god on its face to the ground before the Ark of the Lord and the man discovers that he has no such righteousness as that in which he trusted. He begins to bemoan his sins and to lament his shortcomings. A perfect change of feeling has come over him. He loathes himself as much as he once admired himself! And now, instead of taking the highest seat in the synagogue, he is willing to be a doormat in the House of the Lord. “Ah, me!” he says, “what a sinner I am! How vile in the sight of God!” Can you see how this brave Dagon has gone down on his face to the ground before the Ark?
Perhaps the man never had much of this vainglorious self-righteousness, but he served the Dagon of besetting and beloved sin. The man was a drunk. Bacchus ruled him—but as soon as the Grace of God is brought into his soul, he has done with the drink-God! The horrible Dagon of drunkenness is hurled from its throne by Divine Grace. The man cannot bear to think that he should have so disgraced himself as to be fond of wantonness, drunkenness and such-like abominable sins which bring manhood below the level of the beast! He who is truly penitent hates the very name of these filthy sins!
If a man has been guilty of using bad language and profane swearing, the Grace of God generally cures him of that at once. I have heard men who had lived in the practice of swearing for many years say that, from the time they were converted, they have never been tempted to it—that black sin went away—bag and baggage at once! Some sins are slow in dying, but profanity generally gives up the ghost without a struggle. John Bunyan says that a stone from the battering ram slew Mr. Profane by cracking his skull, so that he died early in the siege of outward offenses. Like Dagon, they are soon down before the Ark. Sin of every sort is bowed low before the triumphant Grace of God!
Yes, and the man who receives the Grace of God feels that the love of any and every sin is cast out of its place in his heart. Now he desires to be quit of it all and anxiously cries, “Lord, what would you have me to do?” He will no more go and live in sin, as he did before, than Paul will continue to be a persecutor after the Lord, even Jesus, has appeared to him by the way. What a Dagon-fall there was in the Apostle’s pride just outside the Damascus gate! Such a fall takes place in the heart of every man to whom the Grace of God comes with power! The parallel may be run a little further.
This fall of Dagon very soon began to be perceived, for, “When they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen on his face to the earth.” Very soon after the entrance of Divine Grace, this sign follows and, before long, it is seen and known. Let no man conceive that there is Grace in his soul if Dagon still sits on the throne! This is one of the earliest tokens of the entrance of the life of God into the soul—that sin falls down from its high place and is no more held in honor.
II. The Battle Between Sin and Grace
At the same time, observe that Dagon was not broken. He had fallen on his face, but that was all—so that the next day his foolish worshipers set him up, again. Sometimes, at the first entrance of Grace, there is a downfall of sin, but nothing like such a breaking and destroying of sin in the soul as there will be afterwards. When the Divine life has entered, sin is dethroned—it no longer sits up there in the place of God—but yet, for all that, there is an awful power remaining in the corrupt nature. There is a deadly tendency to sin, a powerful law in the members bringing the soul into captivity. Still, down the idol goes, even if it is not broken! It cannot reign, though it may remain to trouble us.
Now, what happened on the night mentioned in the text? Dagon fell before the Ark when it was all quiet and still in the temple. While the worshipers were there, during the day, there was noise and shouting—the false god sat aloft and you could not tell that there was any mysterious power about the Ark. It was in the quiet of the night that this deed was done and thus, often, in the hearing of the Word, Grace is introduced into the heart. But you would not know that any change was worked, for it is only when the man gets away from the world’s business—gets alone and begins to consider—that a Divinely-mysterious might is displayed by the inward Grace so as to sink sin and lay the power of evil low. Would to God our hearers took more opportunities for quietly considering the Word of God! How much more blessing might often be gotten out of sermons and books if there were more meditation! You get the grapes, but you do not tread them in the winepress! There is more trouble taken to collect the sheaves of the sermon than is afterwards expended in threshing them out!
The power which smote Dagon was displayed in the quiet of the night—and when the Grace of God has entered into your souls, it is probable that the coming down of sin will be better effected in times of quiet thought and searching of heart than at any other period. Thought is the channel of immense benefit to the soul. Shut the temple doors and let all be still—and then will the Holy Spirit work wonders in the soul!
III. The Continued Battle and Final Victory
Now, secondly, the setting up of Dagon, the second time, and his second fall very well represent the battle going on in the soul between sin and Grace. What fools these Philistines were to continue worshiping a god which, when it tumbled down, could not get up again! To worship a god which fell on its face was bad enough, but to worship one that could not rise when he fell—but needed to be set in his place by human hands—was certainly vile infatuation! But they took up their precious deity and they put him in his place again and, no doubt, sang a special “high mass” to him and then went their way, quietly, to their homes, little dreaming that their pretty fish-god would need their help again so soon!
Even thus Satan and the flesh come into our souls and try to set our fallen Dagon up, again, with some measure of success. It often happens that in young converts there comes a period when it looks as if they had altogether apostatized and gone back to their former ways. It seems as if the work of God were not real in their souls and Divine Grace was not triumphant. Do you wonder at it? I have ceased to wonder! The Gospel is preached and the man accepts it—and there is a marvelous difference in him! But when he goes among his old companions, although he is resolved not to fall into his former sins, they try him severely. He is assailed in a thousand ways! Some of our young people, if they were to tell their story, would harrow up your feelings by mentioning the way in which all sorts of jests, insinuations and taunts are hurled at them—and that by influential persons—their parents, their elder brothers and sisters and those who oversee their work. They are beset behind and before, so that if they do not transgress in one way, it is very likely that the devil craftily trips them up in another.
I have known a man, when he has been tempted to go into evil company, refuse again, and again, and again. His tempters have laughed at him and he has borne it all—but at last he has lost his temper—and as soon as the enemies have seen his passion boiling up, they have cried out, “Ah, there you are! We have got you!” At such a time as that the poor man is apt to cry, “Alas, I cannot be a Believer or else I should not have done this.” Now, all this is a violent attempt of Satan and the flesh to set Dagon up again! They know that the Lord has thrown him down and they cannot bear it. They would gladly set the fish-god, again, on his throne. Sometimes they do, for a time, set Dagon up, again, and cause great sorrow in the soul.
I have known a poor lost lamb to be found and brought into the fold, but it has miserably wandered for a time, and the devil has thought that, surely, he had got that lamb and would tear him in pieces. And yet he has been deceived after all! Dagon was only set up for a time and he had to come down again—and so it happens wherever Grace enters the heart. The wanderers have come back, weeping and sighing, to admit that they have dishonored their profession—and what has been the result in the long run? Why, they have had more humility, more tenderness of heart, more love to Christ, more gratitude than they had before! And I have been glad, (not glad that they wandered), but glad that the Grace of God, when He has brought them back again more fully, has given them a deeper conversion and a more lasting and substantial work of Grace, so that afterwards they have continued, by the Grace of God, honorable, useful Christians even to the end!
Charles Spurgeon