Basic HTML Version
376
The Beginning of the End
The Ark Sent to Beth Shemesh
Based on a widespread superstition, the Philistine lords directed
the people to make likenesses of the plagues that had afflicted them—
[297]
“five golden tumors and five golden rats, according to the number of
the lords of the Philistines. For,” they said, “the same plague was on
all of you and on your lords.”
These wise men recognized that a mysterious power accompa-
nied the ark. Yet they did not counsel the people to turn from their
idolatry to serve the Lord. They still hated the God of Israel, though
His judgments had compelled them to submit to His authority. Such
submission cannot save the sinner. The heart must be yielded to
God—must be subdued by divine grace—if God is to accept our
repentance.
How great is God’s patience toward the wicked! Ten thousand
unnoticed mercies were silently falling on the pathway of the un-
grateful and rebellious, but when they refused to listen to the voice
of God in His created works and in the warnings and counsels of
His word, He was forced to speak to them through judgments.
The priests and the soothsayers urged the people not to imitate
the stubbornness of Pharaoh and the Egyptians and thus bring still
greater afflictions on themselves. These religious leaders now pro-
posed a plan with which everyone agreed. The ark, with the golden
trespass offering, was placed on a new cart, to avoid all danger of
defilement. Two milk cows that had never worn a yoke were attached
to the cart. Their calves were shut up at home and the cows were left
free to go where they pleased. If the ark returned to the Israelites in
this manner by way of Beth Shemesh, the nearest city of the Levites,
the Philistines would take this as evidence that the God of Israel had
done this great evil to them. “But if not,” they said, “then we shall
know that it is not His hand that struck us—it happened to us by
chance.”
When they were set free, the cows turned from their young and
took the direct road to Beth Shemesh. Not guided by any human
hand, the patient animals kept on their way. The divine Presence ac-
companied the ark safely to the very place chosen by the Philistines.
The men of Beth Shemesh were reaping in the valley, “and saw
the ark, and rejoiced to see it. Then the cart came into the field of