Afflicted by plagues of rats and tumors, the Philistines returned the ark to Israel. The plagues were like the plagues the Egyptians suffered when they would not bend to God’s command to let His enslaved people go a few centuries earlier.  This miraculous Exodus of God’s People from Egypt was apparently known throughout the world because even the ungodly Philistines knew the story of the God of Israel. 

“You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” James 2:19

The Philistine “spiritual” diviners (magicians) warned their rulers about the God of Israel who was most powerful and the cause of their plagues.  Send it back! And send it with offerings to appease their God, too!  They knew enough to know Israel’s God was greater than their gods.  It is a bit comical that golden rats and tumors were formed to appease our God.  They wanted to send a clear message to God—take away the plague of rats who caused this disease of tumors!

The Holy things of God were held captive by the unholy Philistines. They mocked God by setting the Holy Ark beside Dagon their unholy manmade god. Yesterday, we learned how that worked out for them!  (See 1 Samuel 5)

The Israelites rejoiced to see the Ark of the Covenant come into view.  The Ark was a Holy symbol to remind the Israelites who God is and what He desires of His people. The Covenant was a Holy agreement between God and His people and was safely held inside in the Ark.

1 Samuel 6

The Ark Returned to Israel

When the ark of the Lord had been in Philistine territory seven months, ² the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it back to its place.”

³ They answered, “If you return the ark of the god of Israel, do not send it back to him without a gift; by all means send a guilt offering to him. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand has not been lifted from you.”

⁴ The Philistines asked, “What guilt offering should we send to him?”

They replied, “Five gold tumors and five gold rats, according to the number of the Philistine rulers, because the same plague has struck both you and your rulers. ⁵ Make models of the tumors and of the rats that are destroying the country, and give glory to Israel’s god. Perhaps he will lift his hand from you and your gods and your land. ⁶ Why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When Israel’s god dealt harshly with them, did they not send the Israelites out so they could go on their way?

⁷ “Now then, get a new cart ready, with two cows that have calved and have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up. ⁸ Take the ark of the Lord and put it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to him as a guilt offering. Send it on its way, ⁹ but keep watching it. If it goes up to its own territory, toward Beth Shemesh, then the Lord has brought this great disaster on us. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us but that it happened to us by chance.”

¹⁰ So they did this. They took two such cows and hitched them to the cart and penned up their calves. ¹¹ They placed the ark of the Lord on the cart and along with it the chest containing the gold rats and the models of the tumors. ¹² Then the cows went straight up toward Beth Shemesh, keeping on the road and lowing all the way; they did not turn to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh.

¹³ 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. ¹⁴ 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. ¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶ The five rulers of the Philistines saw all this and then returned that same day to Ekron.

¹⁷ These are the gold tumors the Philistines sent as a guilt offering to the Lord—one each for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron. ¹⁸ And the number of the gold rats was according to the number of Philistine towns belonging to the five rulers—the fortified towns with their country villages. The large rock on which the Levites set the ark of the Lord is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.

¹⁹ But God struck down some of the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy of them to death because they looked into the ark of the Lord. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the Lord had dealt them. ²⁰ And the people of Beth Shemesh asked, “Who can stand in the presence of the Lord, this holy God? To whom will the ark go up from here?”

²¹ Then they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up to your town.”

1 Samuel 7:1—So the men of Kiriath Jearim came and took up the ark of the Lord. They brought it to Abinadab’s house on the hill and consecrated Eleazar his son to guard the ark of the Lord. ² The ark remained at Kiriath Jearim a long time—twenty years in all.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

God wins every time, all the time.  Then and now and forever God reigns. God was, is, and always will be God who is above all.  There is nothing on earth or in the heavens that God does not know—even before it happens!  God knows.  While we humans worry and fret; God knows what is troubling us and is at work on our behalf. 

What is our response most often?  “God, could you hurry your work along, I need peace. I need to move on to the next project. I need for this person to cooperate. I need more resources. I need more people to help me get this done” …and the list of our needs that plagues our minds of earthly things are said while God is already at work doing what is best, in His perfect timing, for us until we discover that what we need most is God. We need a faith in God that does not tell Him what to do. We need to love God back with all that is in us. We need to be driven by our love for God that produces immediate, no questions asked, obedience to God.  God is the One and Only who should be our first thought for wisdom, insight and understanding.

“Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles (nonbelievers) seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” –Jesus, Matthew 6:31-34 (Emphasis mine)

God knows. Trust Him.

Admit it, our first thought is to groan and complain while our faithful Father God does all the heavy lifting to bring us back to focusing on Him and all He has to offer us freely—all the riches of His righteousness!  God uses the unholy things of this world to display His Holy great power, merciful goodness, relentless love, and faithfulness to us.   We were made by God for God, in His own image—no other image—but God’s image.  Until we fully grasp the truth of who God is and truly believe that what He says, has done and will continue to do; His peace alludes us. 

Lord, every hour we need you…

God looks for broken and contrite hearts. (Psalm 51) He is not looking for more sacrifices of our time on more good tasks or more displayed acts of law keeping.  What God truly desires is an intimate, loving relationship with us.  He gave all He had for this relationship!  How do we give? All we are to all of Him.

“God with us,” Emmanel, came down from heaven to prove this truth!  Jesus was part of God who came down, moved into the neighborhood of humanity to “seek and to save the lost”—and we are the lost until we give our lives to Him and ask for forgiveness of our sins.  God forgives and our relationship begins simultaneously.  Oh, what a Savior!

God created humans to love and commune with Him.  Nothing breaks my heart more than to read God’s question after Adam and Eve fell for sin and hid themselves from Him because of doing exactly what God told them not to do. God already knew but asked, “Where are you?”  It was their habit to meet God in the cool of the evening and be with God.  But sin severed their relationship.  But God, faithful in love, mercy and grace made a way for the broken and contrite to come back to Him—through Jesus—the One and Only way back to the Father who restores our relationship with God. 

Something to think about in our passage for today—

The Lord could have withdrawn Himself from His people, but He did not. Instead, He graciously allowed the ark to be led about ten miles to Kirjath Jearim, where it remained in the home of Abinadab. The men of the city consecrated Abinadab’s son Eleazar to guard the ark.  The ark of the covenant represented the presence of the Lord with His people and the rule of the Lord over His people. The Lord had every right to abandon His sinful people, but He graciously remained with them, though not in the special tabernacle He had commanded them to build.

There’s more to come as Samuel becomes God’s spokesperson for Israel! Stay tuned!

Lord,

I love you with all that is in me. Your Word teaches while Your Holy Spirit living in us guides us to truth, the only truth who is You. Thank you for leading us today.  Our relationship with you is most important relationship of our lives—for you are Life!

In Jesus Name, Amen