The Threshold

We step over it many times a day.
People come up to it, when they want to approach us.
We may even be carried over it, on our wedding day.

The doorstep.
The threshold.

For many, the threshold is the line to be crossed.
Family members step over it with ease.
Good friends are able to cross it without so much as a knock at the door.

I used to have an old fashioned sign years ago that said: Backdoor friends are best.
Backdoor friends can always step over the threshold.
People who randomly knock at our door, may not cross the threshold.
Not without an invitation.

The doorstep is often used as an analogy.
On one’s doorstep means that something is very near.
When things are pressing other places in the world, we experience a disconnect.
I don’t have to worry about that…not until it reaches my doorstep.

That is a dangerous mentality.
It resembles an ostrich with its head in the sand.
By the time the situation reaches your doorstep, it may be too late.
What has been coming all along is suddenly upon you.

The doorstep can be a sort of litmus test for many.
What comes in…what goes out of our lives…is determined by us.
Or so we think!

After the Philistines captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. They carried the ark into Dagon’s temple and set it before Dagon. 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. (1 Samuel 5:1-5)

Dagon was an agricultural god, and also the storm god of Canaan and Mesopotamia.
The Philistines looked to him above all else.
The Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant…the Ark of God.
They placed it next to Dagon’s statue as if to show Dagon’s defeat of Israel’s God.
No other god made by human hands could ever defeat the Lord!

I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from Me there is no God. (Isaiah 45:5)

Dagon’s fall was no accident.
The head and the hands of his statue were broken off and placed on the threshold.
The priests of Dagon and the other worshipers would never step on Dagon’s threshold.
It was there, at the threshold, that Dagon was defeated before the One true God.

There are many issues that are trying to make a beeline to our doorstep.
We sit in our homes and pretend that the rumblings in the distance are far off.
We rest in our complacency…with our feet up…unprepared.
We foolishly think that reclining means readiness.

Not according to God.

As they stood before the Red Sea, the Israelites panicked.
Pharaoh and his army were at their doorstep.
Before them was the sea where they would most assuredly drown.
Behind them was the army that would surely kill them in the desert.

Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring to you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still. (Exodus 14:13,14)

No time to recline!
Stand!
Stand firm!

In this fallen world, things are coming.
They always have…they always will.

No god of your own hand can ever save you.
All the man made gods of money, power, political maneuvering…self…will have their head and hands cut off and placed on HIS threshold.

I am the Lord your God…you shall have no other gods before Me. (Exodus 20:2,3)

God’s threshold.
Only those saved by the blood of His Son Jesus, can cross over.

This is no time to sit and wait until it is upon you.
Stand!
Stand firm!
See the deliverance the Lord will bring to you today!