Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Why God Doesn't Need You | Historical Books | 1 Samuel 5

Episode Date: April 7, 2025

Are you trying to manipulate God? Does God need us? Why did Jesus give his life? In today's episode, guest host, Luke Simon, shares how 1 Samuel 5 reminds us of the good news that God cannot be controlled. If you're listening on Spotify, comment below one takeaway from today's episode! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Samuel 5

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. Keith is currently out of the office and unable to record, so I'm going to be filling in today. My name is Luke Simon. I'm an avid TMBT listener, and I'm excited to be your guest host, so let's get started. In January of 2000, Isaac Bruce won a Super Bowl with the then-St. Louis Rams. Just a month earlier, he had survived a terrifying car wreck. Meanwhile, across the state, Derek Thomas, a legendary linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs, was driving to the airport to watch Bruce play in the NFC championship game when his car spun out of control. Unlike Bruce, Thomas didn't walk away. He was paralyzed from the crash and died weeks later from complications.

Sports writer Rick Riley wrote a powerful piece about their two drastically different outcomes. He described the wreckage from Bruce's crash as horrific. Police on the scene couldn't believe anyone had survived. Meanwhile, Thomas' car wasn't even that badly damaged, yet he never walked again. Riley later caught up with Bruce and asked him if he ever thought, that could have been me. Oh, no, not at all, Bruce says. Why not? Riley asked. Because as I was flipping, I threw my hands off the wheel and called Jesus' name. Does that mean God doesn't love Derek Thomas, Riley asked? Oh, no, Bruce says, I don't know what Derek said as his car was flipping.

What about Payne Stewart? Stewart was a professional golfer who died in the fall of 1999 in a bizarre plane crash in which the private jet lost cabin pressure rendering everyone on board unconscious and incapacitated. What about Payne Stewart? He was a Christian man. Does that mean God didn't love Payne Stewart? I have no idea what Payne Stewart said in that plane that day. What are you saying if Payne Stewart had invoked the name of Jesus Christ, he'd be alive today? Oh, definitely. What about the Combine High School student who was asked by one of the killers if she believed in God? She said yes, and he blew her away. How can that

be. You don't know what she said, do you? There were witnesses, but you weren't there, right? If we had more time, there would be a lot of lessons we could learn from that story. But if we covered them all, it would be called 60-minute Bible talks, not 10-minute Bible talks. Now, let's be clear. Isaac Bruce probably had good intentions. He was genuinely thankful to God for sparing his life, but whether he realized it or not, he had fallen into the trap of thinking God could be controlled, that if you just say the right words, pray the right prayer, or hold on, to the right religious symbol, God will do what you want. That's exactly the mistake Israel made in 1 Samuel 4. After suffering a devastating loss in battle, Israel decided to bring the Ark of the

covenant into the next fight. The Ark was the symbol of God's presence, his power, his promises. And Israel assumed that if they had the Ark, they had God's guaranteed victory. But that didn't work. Instead, they lost again. And this time, the Philistines captured the Ark and took it back to their land as a trophy of war. Israel thought that they could manipulate God, but God does not play that game. And that's where 1 Samuel 5 picks up. If the Israelites thought the ark was some kind of magic charm, the Philistines treated it like a trophy to show off their superiority. First Samuel 5 1 through 2 says, after the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashton. Then they carried the ark into Dagon's temple and set it beside Dagon. Dagon was the chief god of the

Philistines. By placing the ark next to him, they were making a statement. Israel's God now bows to Dagon. But when they came back the next morning, they found something unexpected. Verse three, when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face, on the ground before the ark of the Lord. They took Dagon and put him back in his place. Now stop and think about that for a second. What kind of God needs help standing up? Imagine worshiping something that you have to pick up off the floor. If you have to put your God back in his place, maybe he's not much of a God. But it got worse.

Verse 4. But the following morning, when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the Ark of the Lord. His head and hands had been broken off and relying on the threshold. Only his body remained. In ancient warfare, when a king conquered another nation, his soldiers would cut off the hands and head of the defeated ruler as a sign of total victory. God was making it clear.

Dagon is not in control here. I am. And just in case the Philistines didn't get the message, verse 6 tells us, the Lord's hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity. He brought devastation on them and afflicted them with tumors. Notice the irony. Dagon's hands were broken off, but the Lord's hand was heavy upon them. God wasn't just proving he was superior.

He was judging them. At this point, the Philistines should have repented. Instead, they panicked. They passed the ark from city to city trying to get rid of it. Verse 7 sums it up perfectly. the ark of the god of Israel must not stay here with us because his hand is heavy on us and on Dagon our God. It took suffering for the Philistines to realize what Israel had failed to see. God cannot be manipulated.

He doesn't work like a lucky charm. He doesn't serve us. We serve him. The Israelites thought the ark guaranteed their victory. The Philistines thought Dagon was superior. But God proved that he alone is God and he doesn't need anyone's help. That's what makes the God of the Bible so different from the gods of the ancient world and the gods of our culture today. Pagan gods depended on their worshippers. They need sacrifices, food,

rituals. If the people stopped serving them, they grew weak. But not Yahweh. Psalm 115 says this. Our God is in heaven. He does whatever pleases him. He doesn't need us to survive. He doesn't need our help. He doesn't need anything from us. And that's good news. Because if God needed us, he could be manipulated. If he depended on our performance, we could control him. But we don't worship a God we can control. We worship God who is sovereign, holy, and self-sufficient, a God who moves in power whether people recognize him or not. And that is a God worth trusting. That brings us back to Isaac Bruce's thinking, the idea that if you just say the right words, God will always protect you. Jesus faced this same kind of thinking when Satan tempted him in the wilderness. Matthew 4, 6. If you are the son

of God, Satan told him, throw yourself down, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you. Satan was quoting Psalm 91, twisting scripture to suggest that Jesus should put God to the test. But Jesus wouldn't fall for it. Matthew 4.7, do not put the Lord your God to the test. Jesus wasn't going to manipulate God and he wasn't going to let himself be manipulated either. When people wanted to crown him as king after he fed the 5,000, he withdrew. When Peter tried to stop him from going to the cross, he rebuked him. When Pilate demanded answers, he stayed silent.

Jesus couldn't be manipulated. And yet, he willingly gave up his life. Not because someone forced him. Not because someone tricked him. Not because he had no choice, but because he loved us. John 1018, no one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. Jesus is the only king who cannot be controlled, but who willingly gave himself for us. That's why we don't need lucky charms or magic words to know he's with us.

We don't have to wonder if we said the right prayer or played the right spiritual game. because on the cross, Jesus proved once and for all that we are His, and that is a victory that can never be taken away. Amen.