And the five lords of the Philistines saw [it], and returned to Ekron the same day.
The five rulers of the Philistines had followed the ark from their own land to Israel's border, watching to see whose hand had struck their cities. This verse records where they went once they knew.
The rulers arranged the test themselves. One commentator lists what stood in the way of it ever succeeding.
It was a most severe test. Only the power of God could make the cows go against their nature and walk straight on to Beth-shemesh, the nearest Israelite town, some nine or ten miles away. Everything was against the ark getting safely out of the land. The cattle were not used to the yoke. They did not know the road to Beth-shemesh. They had no driver or overseer to guide them. They had the strongest instinct of animals — love for their young — to pull them back, and the liking for home that all farm animals have. Yet they "took the straight way to the way of Beth-shemesh, lowing as they went," showing that the unseen, irresistible power of their Creator was driving them. So, "those that thought to triumph over the ark were made to go like menial servants after it," as Matthew Henry remarks.
The Philistines had beaten Israel in battle and taken the ark as a prize. Now they watched that prize go home.
So God stoops to meet these foreign peoples in their distress. At the same time He vindicates His glory in the sight of His enemies. God makes it plain that the victory of the Philistines over a sinning Israel was no victory over Him.
These rulers had no Scripture and no revelation. They had a bad conscience and a hunch that a hand was against them — and God was willing to work with that much.
So God met the thought of the heart, where there was only the working of conscience, without the light of revealed truth. It was not the knowledge of God, but the instinctive sense of His hand. He did it so that there might be a voice in their conscience. If they hardened themselves against it, or forgot it, so much the worse would it be for them.
At the border they saw the ark received and Israel worshipping. The verse tells us what they saw and where they went, and nothing about what it did to them.
The ark had hardly arrived before burnt offerings began again and the Levites took up their service anew. The rulers of the Philistines see this scene and return. A spectacle of this kind is interesting to them, but it does not touch their heart or their conscience.
They had learned enough to get the ark off their hands and stop the plague. That is not the same as a changed heart.
Nature can take warnings and steer its course to escape the worst of the judgment, and still not soften in the least into real repentance. It is just another form of selfishness. This is the selfishness that will save itself. It takes enough interest in God's past ways to work out how it can go on ignoring and despising Him at the least risk to itself.
Ekron was their own city. They had seen enough to know whose hand was on them, and they still chose to go home.
And here we leave the Philistines, who return to their home, glad, no doubt, to be rid both of the plagues and of Him who had inflicted them.
They went home with one thing settled in their minds.
The lords of the Philistines returned to Ekron. They were satisfied that the hand of God had been on them, and that it was now to be lifted off them, their gods and their land.
- Proof. The rulers set a test no ordinary cause could pass. Untrained cows, no driver, calves left behind — and the ark still reached Beth-shemesh.
- Escort. Men who meant to hold God's throne as a war trophy ended up walking behind it like servants, all the way to the border.
- Conscience. God spoke in the only language they had: an instinctive sense of His hand. He did it so there would be a voice in their conscience.
- Warning. They took the warning and saved their skin. A heart can escape the worst of a judgment and never soften into repentance.
- Return. Convinced, but not changed. They saw Israel worship, then turned back to Ekron the same day, glad to be rid of the plagues and of the God who sent them.
And these are the golden sores which the Philistines returned as a trespass-offering to Jehovah for Ashdod one, for Gazah one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one;
The verse reads like a receipt: five golden objects, one from each Philistine city, sent back with the ark of God. Two questions sit behind that list. Why gold shaped like a disease? And could such a gift settle what the Philistines owed?
The number five was not random. Each city sent one, because God's hand had fallen on the whole nation. The two kinds of image matched the two kinds of damage.
On the advice of the priests and diviners they offered a trespass offering: five golden mice and five golden tumours. There was one for each of the five lords of the Philistines, for God's hand had been, and still was, on their lords as much as on the people. The mice had destroyed their land, and the tumours had struck their persons.
The disease behind the gold was already known in Egypt.
Hemorrhoids or tumours. This was one of the diseases of the Egyptians. It also struck the Philistines while they held the ark. They returned 'images' of the same with the ark.
They used the right word for their gift and got the substance wrong. One writer lists everything that stood against them, and still finds God noticing them.
At the advice of the priests and diviners, they offer up golden haemorrhoids and golden mice as a trespass offering. A trespass offering — when they had made war against the people of God! when they had counted Dagon the master over the Sovereign God, the Creator of heaven and earth! An offering without the shedding of blood when atonement for sin was necessary! — But God takes account of the very least cry of conscience.
The gift was not only too small. What it copied was unclean.
So they make images for themselves: five golden tumours and five golden mice. Both are unclean things. The tumours are unclean in themselves, like a running sore. The mice are unclean under the law (see Leviticus 11:29; Isaiah 66:17). So, in their blindness, they made no propitiation at all. Their unclean offering insulted the Holy One of Israel. That is why it is, "perhaps He will lighten His hand from off you."
One writer carries the point into our own day. The urge to hand God something of our own outlives the ancient world.
Yet how ignorant they are of what a true trespass offering is! For that God required a blood sacrifice, and that idea is completely foreign to the unbelieving mind. Men of the world are the same today. God has shown plainly that only the blood of Christ shed at Calvary can atone for man's sins. They think some gift out of their own earthly goods ought to win God's favour. They treat God, the Maker of the universe, as if He had the same selfish nature man does, grasping for material things!
One writer contrasts the Philistines with people who did offer sacrifice to the Lord. Their gold admitted one thing and asked for another.
What a difference between them and the Philistines! The Philistines offered no sacrifice. They sent the golden offerings, a witness that God's hand had been on them; an acknowledgment too that they were unfit and unable to bear His presence among them. As the ark left, they trusted He would take His hand off them. They never once thought of being accepted before Him. All they wanted was to be rid of His presence and of the signs of His power.
The history of the Philistines says something about them. One writer traces where they came from and what their name means.
The Philistines first came from Egypt by the northern route. They never had to cross the Red Sea. So they picture people who take the Christian name without facing the truth of the death of Christ for them — not redeemed, but religious. Their name means "wallowers," because they wallow in the mud of empty forms and ceremonies. They have always been a thorn in Israel's side.
- Plague — God's hand struck all five cities, so five images went back. Gold tumors for their bodies, gold mice for their fields.
- Payment — They called it a guilt offering. But atonement required blood, and they sent metal. The gift named the debt without paying it.
- Pollution — The images copied two unclean things, so the gift meant to soothe God carried an insult in it.
- Pattern — Every age repeats it. Men offer God something of their own instead of receiving the blood of Christ, the only atonement for sin.
- Point — Gold can admit God's hand is heavy and still ask Him to go. The Philistines wanted relief from His presence, not acceptance in it.