The Ark Returned (1 Samuel 6)

Do we treat the things of God with proper reverence as holy or are we sloppy? Do we quickly turn from the error of our ways or stubbornly persist? Let’s look at 1 Samuel 6.

How long did it take the Philistines to admit they made a mistake? Why are we so stubborn to repent of a bad decision?

The Ark of the Lord remained in Philistine territory for seven months. The Philistines summoned the priests and diviners and asked, “What should we do about the Ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it back to its place.” They said, “If you send the Ark of the God of Israel back, don’t send it empty, but rather be sure to send back to him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed and will know why his oppression has not been removed from you.” (1 Samuel 6:1-3 ISV)

What strange offering did the pagan priests and diviners suggest? Did they admit that God was superior to their gods? Did they turn to God or persist in useless idols?

Then said they, What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden emerods, and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for one plague was on you all, and on your lords. Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land. Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed? (1 Samuel 6:4-6 KJV)

Did they want to confirm if their troubles were just coincidence or caused by God?

So now, take and make a new cart and two milch cows on which there has never been a yoke; and hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves home, away from them. And take the ark of Yahweh and place it on the cart; and put the articles of gold which you return to Him as a guilt offering in a box by its side. Then send it away that it may go. See, if it goes up by the way of its own territory to Beth-shemesh, then He has done us this great evil. But if not, then we will know that it was not His hand that smote us; it happened to us by chance.” (1 Samuel 6:7-9 LSB)

What happened to the cart with the ark of the covenant on board?

Then the men did so: they took two milk cows and hitched them to the cart, and shut in their calves at home. And they put the ark of the Lord on the cart, and the saddlebag with the gold mice and the likenesses of their tumors. Now the cows went straight in the direction of Beth-shemesh; they went on the same road, bellowing as they went, and did not turn off to the right or to the left. And the governors of the Philistines followed them to the border of Beth-shemesh. (1 Samuel 6:10-12 NASB)

What did the people of Beth Shemesh do as the ark arrived?

Now the people of Beth Shemesh were harvesting their wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they rejoiced at the sight. The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and there it stopped beside a large rock. The people chopped up the wood of the cart and sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. The Levites took down the ark of the Lord, together with the chest containing the gold objects, and placed them on the large rock. On that day the people of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the Lord. The five rulers of the Philistines saw all this and then returned that same day to Ekron. (1 Samuel 6:13-16 NIV)

How did God impress upon them to treat the ark as holy?

These are the golden tumors which the Philistines returned as a trespass offering to the Lord: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron; and the golden rats, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both fortified cities and country villages, even as far as the large stone of Abel on which they set the ark of the Lord, which stone remains to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh. Then He struck the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. He struck fifty thousand and seventy men of the people, and the people lamented because the Lord had struck the people with a great slaughter. (1 Samuel 6:17-19 NKJV)