In the lesser known Bible story thread I quoted someone who mentioned the statue of Dagon bowing before the Ark of the Covenant. viewtopic.php?t=69006
Showing the power of the real God over thinly veiled demons
Here's the story
What can we see in this story?1 Samuel 5: 1 And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. 2 When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon. 3 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. 4 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. 5 Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon's house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day.
* Dagon is a false god, and all false gods will fall before the real God.
* Even when the Israelites were defeated their God was more powerful.
* The Philistines tried to desecrate a sacred object by placing it in an unhallowed place.
* This happened when no one was around. And it happened repeatedly so wasn't an accident.
* When it happened again, God severed the hands of the idol.
We have plenty of false idols in our world today. Some of them are obvious gods. Others are sportsmen, celebrities, so called "godsend" medicines and so on. But all will have to pay homage to God eventually.
After seeing the superiority of the God of Israel, these Philistine priests had a choice. They could turn from their weak, inferior god Dagon and begin serving the mighty, superior Lord of Israel. Or they could make a religious tradition instead. They chose the religious tradition: Therefore neither the priests of Dagon nor any who come into Dagon’s house tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day. These Philistine priests, like men confronted with the truth today, rejected God despite the evidence, not because of the evidence. They wanted to believe it was an accident. A lesson for today.
It gets worse in the next section. After this incident, the Philistines are punished by God with tumours and haemorrhoids.
Dagon
Dagon is a favourite of series such as Ancient Aliens for his half-man, half-fish nature. He is similar to Oannes, mermen and other sea/water deities. Dagon was also the father of Baal, another notorious deity in the Bible, and considered to be a creator god and leader of their pagan pantheon.
Wikipedia
There is a big "Dagon" in the State of Israel today, in the port of Haifa, which is a massive grain silo. I've seen it myself. It dominates the city.According to Philo of Byblos, the Phoenician author Sanchuniathon explained Dagon as a word for "grain " (siton). Historian Manfred Hutter considers it possible that the god's name derives from the root *dgn (to be cloudy), which he interprets as a sign that he was originally a weather god. However, the notion of Dagan being a weather god is rejected by most researchers of this deity (see the Dagan and weather gods section below).