(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
1 Samuel 6:1–9, “And the ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines seven months. And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do to the ark of the LORD? tell us wherewith we shall send it to his place. And they said, If ye send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty; but in any wise return him a trespass offering: then ye shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you. 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? Now therefore make a new cart, and take two milch kine, on which there hath come no yoke, and tie the kine to the cart, and bring their calves home from them: And take the ark of the LORD, and lay it upon the cart; and put the jewels of gold, which ye return him for a trespass offering, in a coffer by the side thereof; and send it away, that it may go. And see, if it goeth up by the way of his own coast to Bethshemesh, then he hath done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us: it was a chance that happened to us.”
The Philistines did everything they could to keep the symbol of their victory over Israel and persevered for seven month with the ark in their custody. Eventually they decided that they would have to get rid of the ark. After their leaders discussed the situation they decided that they would have to offer the Lord a gift as well. After all, they had brought all this upon themselves and believed they should offer the Lord a gift to placate His anger. The Philistines could remember how the Lord had delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt and how they had suffered severe plagues. It seems as though the other nations in the region had a better memory of the Lord’s power than Israel had. They were not completely superstitious and decided to test their theory, just to make sure their problems came from possessing the ark rather than just a random event. The took some cows, who had just calved and yoked them together in a cart. These were cows that had never been broken to the yoke. Everyone knows that a cow, which has just calved will go to its calf when it starts to bawl. The Philistine placed the ark and the gifts they had made for the Lord in the card. They tied the calves and then let the cows go. If the cows returned to their calves then they would know that this was just a random plague but if the cows went towards Israel then that miracle would confirm the fact that the Lord had punished them for taking the ark.
No comments:
Post a Comment