But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and He destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof. 1 Samuel 5:6
A young man who was running across Canada to raise money for a particular cause came to me with a problem. During his run, he had stopped in Fredericton where I was working as a reporter at the time, and had delayed his departure. He told me he would have to wait a few days before resuming his run, because he was not feeling well. When I asked him what was the problem, he hesitated, and then awkwardly explained that his problem was a serious case of hemorrhoids. It’s an ailment that, painful as it is, most people don’t like to talk about. Many, like my friend the runner, find it embarrassing. But maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if everybody around was afflicted with the same problem. That’s what happened in our text.
Most of the modern language versions of the Bible translate the word ’emerods’ as tumours. I guess they were embarrassed by the word ‘hemmorhoids’ too. But the actual affliction that the Lord smote the Philistines in Ashdod with is what Webster’s dictionary defines as ‘swollen veins or groups of veins in the region of the anus’. They had actual hemorrhoids. Why such an awkward, uncomfortable, inconvenient curse? God was punishing those people for taking the Ark of the Covenant from Israel. They had something of God that did not belong to them. And they were suffering for it. Ashdod was a miserable town until they resolved their problem with God. Theirs was a dramatic example of the suffering that people go through because of their own sin and foolishness. Many of the diseases around us are directly related to sinful lifestyles. People pay a heavy price for what they thought started out as pleasure. But we need to recognize that as Christians, we are also subject to the same principle of reaping the consequences of what we sow.
Many a dear Christian bears the scars of unwise choices in their unconverted days. Salvation does not automatically negate the effects of those unwise choices. For example, many people who were drug addicts before they were saved have still died from hepatitis or AIDS. And even though Christians don’t (or shouldn’t) use destructive substances anymore, we can still engage in behaviour that will result in suffering dire consequences. Our bodies will pay a heavy price for poor dietary choices and lack of exercise, for example. Our souls will pay sorely for associating with ungodly crowds, or taking up the degrading entertainments of the world. Our spirits will suffer if we deprive ourselves of prayer, reading the Word, and regular fellowship with the Lord’s people.
Before we complain of our problems today, let’s make sure they are not the result of our own foolishness and disobedience. – Jim MacIntosh
Here is the link to the video of this message: https://youtu.be/–xRIqCR7ps