Ark Taken by the Philistines
531
There were some among the Philistines who stood ready to oppose
the return of the ark to its own land. Such an acknowledgment of the
power of Israel’s God would be humiliating to the pride of Philistia.
But “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, and immediately put in execution. The ark,
with the golden trespass offering, was placed upon a new cart, thus
precluding all danger of defilement; to this cart, or car, were attached
two kine upon whose necks a yoke had never been placed. Their calves
were shut up at home, and the cows were left free to go where they
pleased. If the ark should thus be returned to the Israelites by the 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, lowing
as they went, took the direct road to Beth-shemesh. Guided by no
human hand, the patient animals kept on their way. The divine Pres-
ence accompanied the ark, and it passed on safely to the very place
designated.
It was now the time of wheat harvest, and the men of Beth-shemesh
were reaping in the valley. “And they lifted up their eyes, 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 stone: and they
clave the wood of the cart, and offered the kine of burnt-offering unto
the Lord.” The lords of the Philistines, who had followed the ark “unto
the border of Beth-shemesh,” and had witnessed its reception, now
returned to Ekron. The plague had ceased, and they were convinced
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that their calamities had been a judgment from the God of Israel.
The men of Beth-shemesh quickly spread the tidings that the ark
was in their possession, and the people from the surrounding country
flocked to welcome its return. The ark had been placed upon the
stone that first served for an altar, and before it additional sacrifices
were offered unto the Lord. Had the worshipers repented of their sins,
God’s blessing would have attended them. But they were not faithfully
obeying His law; and while they rejoiced at the return of the ark as a
harbinger of good, they had no true sense of its sacredness. Instead of