Read
1 Samuel 6:1-21
1And the ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months.
2 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.
3 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.
4 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.
5 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.
6 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?
7 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:
8 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.
9 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.
10 And the men did so; and took two milch kine, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home:
11 And they laid the ark of the Lord upon the cart, and the coffer with the mice of gold and the images of their emerods.
12 And the kine took the straight way to the way of Bethshemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them unto the border of Bethshemesh.
13 And they of Bethshemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley: and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.
14 And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they clave the wood of the cart, and offered the kine a burnt offering unto the Lord.
15 And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord, and the coffer that was with it, wherein the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone: and the men of Bethshemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day unto the Lord.
16 And when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.
17 And these are the golden emerods which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering unto the Lord; for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Askelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one;
18 And the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fenced cities, and of country villages, even unto the great stone of Abel, whereon they set down the ark of the Lord: which stone remaineth unto this day in the field of Joshua, the Bethshemite.
19 And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.
20 And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? and to whom shall he go up from us?
21 And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjathjearim, saying, The Philistines have brought again the ark of the Lord; come ye down, and fetch it up to you.
Reflect
After 7 months, the Philistines had enough of God’s judgment, so they decided to send the ark back. They gave an offering of gold emerods (golden molds of hemorrhoids, yuck!) and golden mice. Kind of nasty, but gold is gold. The milk cows left their young and took the art directly to Israel, which was miraculous, as a mother cow never left her young. However, the men of Bethshemesh, where the ark was taken to, decided to look inside of it. This was a desecration of the holiness of the Lord, and He judged the men accordingly. Rightfully so, this brought the people of the town back into a correct understanding of how they related to the Lord, for they said “Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?”. Oh that we would feel that same conviction today.
Remember
God is holy. He will not be disrespected by his children or the pagans. Acts 10:25-37 tells us He is no respecter of persons. This means he will hold me in the same regard that He holds the president of the United States. Manmade titles and accolades have no bearing in the realm of eternity or its Creator.
It is human nature to commemorate things, even if it is slightly (or really) icky. Some of us would think that the Philistines were odd for making golden images of their hemorrhoids to send to the Israelites. The truth is, this was an act of remembrance. This was a symbol of the pain they had come upon after taking the ark of the Lord. We do the same kind of odd things today. Some people take pictures of stillborn babies or relatives in the casket at the funeral. Some stuff dead pets. Why do we do this? Because, deep down, people have a need to commemorate. They have a need to process pain, and some do it in different ways.
Don’t fall into the trap of looking at the ancient people groups of the Bible as some form of ignorant, uneducated cavepeople. We read stories about them burning children alive to appease Molech (Leviticus 18:21), or cutting themselves with knives and wailing to get the attention of Baal (1 Kings 18:28). It’s important to see we are no smarter today. Man’s impulse to seek validation apart from God is as strong as ever. We may not offer children to fire gods, but we swallow pills to kill them in the womb. We may not cut ourselves with knives to get a god’s attention, but people still cut themselves with razors and blades today in attempts to feel and cut through numbness.
It’s also worth mentioning that people are nosy. It’s not our job to know everything, and the men peeking into the ark proved human nature. It may have been well-intentioned, like making sure the Philistines hadn’t stolen anything, but it went against God’s commandment. The same situation happened with Uzzah. He was one of David’s soldiers who was struck dead in 2 Samuel 6 for touching the ark when he thought it was about to fall off the cart that was transporting it. God’s specific command was that it only be carried on foot by Levites (1 Chronicles 15:12-13) It shouldn’t have been on the cart in the first place. Similarly, the ark shouldn’t have been in the Phillistine possession in the first place. Every action has consequences. Good intentions get people nowhere. Following God’s commandments, loving and serving Him, will.
