Punishment: The Ark Taken
367
The Ark Sent to Beth-shemesh
In accordance with prevailing superstition, the Philistine lords
directed the people to make representations of the plagues by which
they had been afflicted “five golden emerods, and five golden mice,
according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for,” said they,
“one plague was on you all, and on your lords.”
These wise men acknowledged a mysterious power accompanying
the ark. Yet they did not counsel the people to turn from their idolatry
[427]
to serve the Lord. They still hated the God of Israel, though compelled
by judgments to submit to His authority. Such submission cannot save
the sinner. The heart must be yielded to God—must be subdued by
divine grace—before man’s repentance can be accepted.
How great is the long-suffering of God toward the wicked! Ten
thousand unnoticed mercies were silently falling in the pathway of
ungrateful, rebellious men. But when they refused to listen to the
voice of God in His created works, and in the warnings, counsels, and
reproofs of His word, He was forced to speak through judgments.
The priests and the diviners admonished the people not to imitate
the stubbornness of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and thus bring upon
themselves still greater afflictions. A plan which won the consent of
all was now proposed. The ark, with the golden trespass offering, was
placed upon a new cart, thus precluding all danger of defilement. To
this cart were attached two kine upon whose necks a yoke had never
been placed. Their calves were shut up at home and the cows left
free to go where they pleased. If the ark should thus be returned to
the Israelites by way of Beth-shemesh, the nearest city of the Levites,
the Philistines would accept this as evidence that the God of Israel
had done unto them this great evil; “but if not,” they said, “then we
shall know that it is not His hand that smote us; it was a chance that
happened to us.”
On being set free, the kine turned from their young and took the
direct road to Beth-shemesh. Guided by no human hand, the patient
animals kept on their way. The divine Presence accompanied the ark
safely to the very place designated.
The men of Beth-shemesh were reaping in the valley, “and saw
the ark, and rejoiced to see it. And the cart came into the field of
Joshua, a Beth-shemite, and stood there, where there was a great