1S5-2: How God Used A Trojan Horse Strategy To Defeat The Philistines

Ever heard of the Trojan horse story?

It’s a tale taken from Greek Mythology found in a book called Odyssey.

It’s all about how a bunch of Greek soldiers conquered the city of Troy after a fruitless ten-year siege.

They did it by building a giant wooden horse and leaving it outside the city gates as an offering to the Trojans’ goddess Athena.

The Trojans, thinking the horse was a gift and a sign of the Greeks’ surrender, brought it into their city.

However, unbeknownst to them, Greek soldiers were hidden inside the horse…

So during the night, the Trojans came out and opened the gates to their city…

Once that happened it was game over.

The Greek army emerged, rushed into the city and conquered Troy.

The lessons often taught from this story are the power of thinking outside of the box to achieve a goal…

And the danger of dropping one’s guard and not being aware of deceptive tactics being used against you.

Now what’s interesting is that the God of Israel employed this very same tactic thousands of years earlier.

When the Philistines brought the Ark of the Covenant into their territory, it was pretty much the equivalent of what the Trojans did when they carried that big horse into their city.

The only difference is the Ark was a million times more powerful than any Trojan horse.

Not only was their chief idol Dagon toppled and destroyed…

But the people of Ashdod suddenly broke out in tumors.

The Philistines quickly concluded the Ark was the source of their grief.

So they decided the best thing to do was to take the Ark somewhere else.

But where?

There’s no way they were going to return the Ark to Israel.

So they carried it off to another one of their cities called GAT.

Now I don’t know why the heck the Philistines thought moving the Ark to another one of their cities would solve their problem?

God had already demonstrated how unhappy He was that His Ark was in their territory (well technically speaking, really Israel’s territory).

As was to be expected, the people of GAT also broke out in tumors and panic set in.

Now there’s something fascinating I wanna show you…

Check out this verse:

“This is why, to this day,
the priests of Dagon and
those entering his temple
never walk on the threshold
of Dagon in Ashdod.“
-1 Samuel 5:5

Hmm…interesting.

We’re given this explanation about how the Philistine priests had this custom of skipping over the doorway’s threshold before entering their temple.

In their minds, this threshold was the area where the common ended and the holy began.

 It was the border separating the world of men outside from the world of the gods inside.

However, what they didn’t understand is that what they perceived to be the “world of the gods” was actually a world dominated by the one true God of Israel.

And they were on the wrong side of that particular God.

That’s why they broke out in painful tumors…

And that’s your takeaway for today.

After your life on this planet ends…

You’ll will instantly be thrust into a spiritual dimension…

A “world of the gods” so to speak…

But this world will be dominated by the ONE true God of Israel…

And your relationship with him will determine whether you enter into everlasting life or not…

Will you be on the right side of that relationship?

Or the WRONG side?

If you wanna get on the right side with God…

Check out the New Testament reference below.

Later homies!

CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT

“The jailer called for lights,
rushed in and fell trembling
before Paul and Silas.
He then brought them out and asked,
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
They replied, “Believe in the Lord Yeshua,
and you will be saved—
you and your household.”
Then they spoke the word of the Lord
to him and to all the others in his house.
At that hour of the night the jailer
took them and washed their wounds;
then immediately he and all his
household were baptized.
The jailer brought them into his house
and set a meal before them;
he was filled with joy because
he had come to believe in God
—he and his whole household.“
-Acts 16:29-34

“For He has set a day when
he will judge the world with justice
by the man he has appointed.
He has given proof of this to
everyone by raising him
from the dead.”
-Acts 17:31