On the mission field, Full Count Ministries hasn’t been afraid of the rain. We have a picture of Zach Walker, a volunteer-missionary from Alabama, diving headfirst into first base in Ocotal, Nicaragua -- splashing up a large puddle of mud. We’ve played through our fair share of potential rainouts. Actually, we could argue that the rain has brought some fruit to the ministry. We hail “the rainout” a day that changed our ministry forever in Nicaragua. In 2011, our second year in international baseball ministry, we were still having a hard time connecting relationally with the men on the other side of the diamond. But when the rain came rolling in one fateful day, it gave us an opportunity to break through a wall, unbroken in the past. The dam broke to God-stories still being written.
However, usually, baseball is not a fan of the wet. Turf fields and domed arenas in rare places have cut cancellations, but weather is just so unpredictable – as hard as we try. We tarp the dirt when we can, but the water still wins. It has a mind of its own – more unrelenting and wilder than Nolan Ryan ever was.
Early in history, the ancients caught on to this. The oceans, seas, and rivers represented the “chaos”. You had fisherman who ventured out a-ways from the shore and they had close-costal travel too, but they didn’t really have any crazy exploration “out there” into the unknown. “Out there” was a deep, treacherous, wavy, crazy world of alien creatures. Baseball players are weird, but the creatures in the depths of the water are even weirder. The world of water is the world of the erratic.
Who was the god of the watery abyss that seemed to be untamable? Well, the ancient cities praised and worshipped the creature that could conquer the chaos – a fish. Well, it was a fish-man they made up called Dagon.
God wasn’t impressed with their silly imagination. He didn’t like their worship of Dagon at all – and he totally mocked him. He used this made-up god to humiliate idol worship. The stories are downright funny.
The city of Ashdod, a city that bowed to this made-up god Dagon (written in 1 Samuel 5), took the Ark of the Covenant for themselves. This live, comedy show happened as a result:
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. 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 were lying on the threshold; only his body remained. That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon’s temple at Ashdod step on the threshold. The Lord’s hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity; he brought devastation on them and afflicted them with tumors. When the people of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, “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.” So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked them, “What shall we do with the ark of the god of Israel?”
In the presence of Dagon, chaos broke out in their city! They had no idea what to do with Israel’s God. Their “conqueror of confusion” could not stand before the holy presence God, and to top it off… they got a plague of tumors along with it!
Ashdod wasn’t the only city that worshipped Dagon. Many others seemed to like this make-believe thing too. Actually, Ninevah was one of them. It’s not deliberately written, but archeologists have found it to be true. Jonah, fleeing his duty to call Ninevah to repentance, boarded a boat where he was eventually thrown overboard because of what he had done (running from God). It’s no coincidence that Job was swallowed by a fish, spit out after three days, and preached to a fish-god-worshipping city. If you’ve ever prepared fish, it’s a smell you don’t get off easily! Jonah, in the belly of a fish for that long, smelled so-stinking bad, they knew the outlandish story had to be true.
Israel’s God alone was and is the God of chaos. He controlled even the largest and strongest of fish in the seas that swallowed whole men! Dagon was doggone done for!
As Jesus was sleeping in the bottom of the boat on the sea of Galilee, he proved who he was too. He wasn’t worried a bit about the pandemonium around him when the bellowing storm hit. This story is so familiar, people tend to look over how funny it is. The disciples were going absolutely bonkers, and Jesus was sound asleep! Even when the disciples were going frantic, Jesus probably yawned as he stretched, popped his neck, and looked the anxious disciples in the face.
“C’mon… do you still not know who I AM?”
Jesus calmed the waters and wind. In another place in scripture, Jesus even walked on the waters!
It gets better. Then, he invited Peter, his disciple, out there to step on the surface of unpredictability. Wow, that’s awesome to imagine. He invites us out there with him!
Once again, God had to show the people that even the untamed messy waves has a boss – the God of Israel – and he is going to hold your hand while you walk on them with him!
Prayer Prompt
Lord, sometimes my life feels out of control. The world is just too unpredictable. The storms in my life roll in, and I feel like I’m the only one trying to pull an entire tarp over the infield. It’s an impossible task on my own. Thank you that you are teaching me to give it all to you. You are the God of the storms. Nothing is outside of your dominion. You reign on your throne with complete control. I love that you are in control because you are good! I give it all to you, Lord.