Then they said, What is the trespass-offering which we shall return to him? And they said, Five golden hemorrhoids, and five golden mice, the number of the lords of the Philistines; for one plague is upon them all, and upon your lords.
The Philistines had held the ark of God for seven months, and the plague had not lifted. Now their own priests tell them what must go back with it, which raises the question: what does a guilty person owe God, and can any gift of ours settle it?
Their whole consultation started from the wrong question. They wanted a method of removal, not a relationship.
They do not know what to do with the throne of God, the mercy seat, the vessel of the mind of God! Moved by the same spirit, the Gadarenes begged the Lord to leave their district. It makes them uncomfortable because it judges them. For them the question is how they shall send this disturbing guest away, not whether they ought to send it away. It does not occur to them to speak to Him — surely their clergy must know the way to be rid of God.
Still, the advice to send a guilt offering — the trespass offering of older translations — was not pure superstition. Something in them knew they had offended a Person.
Even in the darkest mind, far from any knowledge of God, there is a vague, unclear sense of sin against God. We may well believe this is the witness God leaves in the heart of every man, the most ignorant as well as the most educated: that he has trespassed against his Creator and his Ruler. It is too widespread to ignore. The sense of sin is as wide as the human race, and so is the sense of the need, in some form or other, of an offering to God to turn away His anger.
The count matched the rulers, and the shapes matched the two plagues.
On the advice of the priests and diviners they offered a trespass offering: five golden mice and five golden tumours, one for each of the five lords of the Philistines. God's hand had been, and still was, on their lords as well as on the people. The mice had destroyed their land, and the tumours had struck their persons.
The material was precious. The shapes were not.
So they make images for themselves, five golden tumours and five golden mice. Both were unclean things. The tumours were unclean in themselves, like a running sore. The mice were unclean under the law (see Lev. 11:29; Isa. 66:17). So in their blindness they were not winning God's favour. They were insulting the Holy One of Israel with their unclean offering. That is why it reads, "perhaps He will lighten His hand from off you."
Look closely at what the gold represented. It copied the punishment — and stopped there.
We notice, however, that the offerings go no further than a memorial of their affliction. Images are made of the tumours and of the mice, but what about the sin that brought this judgment on them? Is there any confession of that? Is there any memorial of that? Ah, no. The natural man sees the affliction. He makes so much of it that he forgets or ignores the cause it came from. How different the true trespass offering is! It alone can stand before a holy God. It is not so much a memorial of the affliction deserved as an acknowledgment of the sin that made it necessary.
Commentators name what was missing: blood.
To persuade this "mighty God of the Hebrews" to relieve them of their plagues, they think to win Him over with a present, a trespass offering, just as Jacob thought to soften his brother Esau's anger. But it is "the blood that makes atonement for the soul." "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." Peter writes, "you were ransomed… not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ."
Yet God did not strike them for offering the wrong thing. Writers point out where His priority lay.
Men of the world are the same today, despite God showing clearly that only the blood of Christ shed at Calvary can atone for man's sins. … Still, these were not Jews, and God made no issue of it with the Philistines: the return of the ark was what mattered most.
God met them where they were, and their gold said something truer than they knew.
God stoops to meet these people in their distress, and at the same time He vindicates His glory in the sight of His enemies. He makes clear that the Philistines' victory over sinning Israel was no victory over Him. Their trespass offering, made in ignorance, admits that taking the ark has only brought judgment from a God they now seek to win over.
- Question — They asked how to get rid of the ark, never whether they should have taken it. Being uncomfortable under God is not the same as turning to Him.
- Conscience — Every man senses he owes God some offering. Guilt reaches even those who never heard the truth.
- Count — Five images for five rulers. The plague had touched every city and every leader alike.
- Gap — The gold copied the punishment, not the sin. It carried no blood, and blood is what makes atonement.
- Glory — Even a blind offering confesses that seizing the ark brought only judgment. God won glory in front of His enemies.
And ye shall make images of your hemorrhoids, and images of your mice that destroy the land, and give glory to the God of Israel perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land.
The Philistines captured Israel's ark, and judgment followed it. Now the advice comes: send it back with gold models of the sores and mice that ruined them. Can people who still will not name their sin buy relief from the God who struck them?
The second plague named here had hit the food supply. The Hebrew word covers several small rodents:
The Hebrew word refers to some species of rodent. It may cover the field mouse, the hamster, and the jerboa. All three live in Palestine, and they do great damage to the crops. The law forbade eating them, because they were unclean.
The advice was to copy in gold the very things that had ruined them. One writer names the appetite behind that:
"You must make images," they say. Oh, how the idolatrous heart of man does love an image, something to see, some tangible object, something to be sensed! This has always been the sin man falls into most easily. That is why the very first commandment forbids it so strongly.
The gold models record the pain and nothing else:
They make images of the tumors and of the mice. But what about the sin that brought this judgment on them? Is there any confession of that, is there any memorial of that? Ah, no. The natural man sees the affliction. He makes so much of it that he forgets or ignores why it came. How different this is from the true trespass offering which alone can stand before a holy God! That offering is not mainly a memorial of the affliction or the judgment deserved. It is an acknowledgment of the sin which made it necessary.
The Philistines used the right words — a trespass offering — but had no idea what one was. One writer sees the same mistake today:
Yet how ignorant they are of what a true trespass offering is! For this God required a blood sacrifice. That thought is completely foreign to the unbelieving mind. They come up with the rather amusing notion (thinking it wise, no doubt) of sending five golden images of tumors and five of mice… The five stood for the five cities of the Philistines… Men of the world are the same today, despite God's having shown clearly that only the blood of Christ shed at Calvary can atone for man's sins. They think that some gift of their own earthly possessions ought to win God over. It is as though God, the Maker of the universe, has the same selfish nature as man, grasping for material things!
A true trespass offering had to add a fifth to whatever was taken. One writer traces that to Christ:
He has not merely satisfied every demand of God's justice. In the beautiful teaching of the type He has restored to God more than was taken away, for a fifth part had to be added to whatever had been stolen… Not an image, even a golden one, of our plagues and the sins which made them necessary, but the Image of God Himself.
The advice names two aims for the offering:
The object of the trespass offering was to "give glory to the God of Israel." It was also to ask Him to lighten His hand from off them, their gods and their lands. The presence of the ark among His enemies had vindicated God's glory and compelled them to give Him glory. How great is the glory the death of His Son has brought to God!
The advice ends with a "perhaps." One writer ties that uncertainty to the gift itself:
So they make images for themselves: five golden tumors and five golden mice. Both are unclean things. The tumors are unclean in themselves, like a running sore. The mice are unclean by the law. So, in their blindness, they did not win God's favour. They insulted the Holy One of Israel with their unclean offering. That is why it reads, "perhaps He will lighten His hand from off you."
Even so, God did not turn away. One writer sees mercy and glory together here:
God stoops to meet these pagans in their distress. At the same time He vindicates His glory in the sight of His enemies… Their trespass offering, however ignorantly made, admits that the capture of the ark has only brought judgment from a God whom they now seek to appease.
- Glory demanded. The advice names the real aim: give glory to the God of Israel. That, not the gold, is what the moment is about.
- Glory imaged. Man's instinct is to make something he can see and hand over. Gold models of sores and rodents were the best that idolatry could produce.
- Glory missed. The images remembered the plague but never confessed the sin. So the offering fell short of a real trespass offering.
- Glory bought with blood. A real trespass offering required blood, and it gave back more than the sin took. Gifts cannot buy God's favour today.
- Glory given anyway. God stooped to meet His enemies in their distress, and He compelled even the Philistines to give Him glory.
And why will ye harden your heart, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their heart? When he had wrought mightily among them, did they not let them go, and they departed?
For seven months the ark of Israel's God had sat among the Philistines, and it left them desperate. Now their own priests and diviners advise the nation with a history lesson: don't repeat Egypt's mistake.
The warning points back to an event about three centuries old. It comes from the religious experts of a hostile nation, not from a prophet. One writer treats this as evidence in its own right:
This is a witness to the Exodus three hundred and fifty years later. It is also an admission from the priests of a foreign nation about Pharaoh's stubborn conduct. Israel's natural enemies drew this conclusion: the king deserved his judgment, because he had hardened his heart against the God of Israel. That was their verdict, whatever the hidden purposes of the Lord may have been, as Moses knew them.
The Philistines wanted a way out, not a change of heart. So they took their question to their priests:
They do not know what to do with the throne of God, the mercy seat, the vessel of the mind of God! In the same spirit, the Gadarenes begged the Lord to leave their region. It makes them uncomfortable because it judges them. For them the question is how to send this disturbing guest away, not whether they ought to send Him away. It does not occur to them to speak to Him; surely their clergy will know the way to be rid of God.
Pharaoh had every reason to give in, and he still would not. The same writer describes what his hardening actually was:
Pharaoh was an oppressor until the Lord stepped in as Judge for His people. Even then Pharaoh refused to admit the hand of One mightier than himself. He refused it despite what his magicians and his nobles told him, and despite the ruin and misery his stubbornness was causing.
Pharaoh's story came with a practical lesson. His resistance did not stop God. It only made the pain last longer.
Verse 6 shows they knew well about Israel's deliverance from Egypt, in the face of Pharaoh's cruel opposition. They also knew that God's many miracles broke Pharaoh's stubbornness in the end, and that those miracles caused great suffering in Egypt. So history warns them that if they harden their hearts they will prolong their suffering.
Yet judgment often has the opposite effect on a man:
Yet how often man turns God's judgments, which come through His providence, into an excuse to harden his heart against God. It was so with the Philistines. Seven months go by. Then their desperate condition drives them to look for some relief.
The Philistines did act on the advice — and still nothing in them changed. One writer marks the gap between escaping judgment and real repentance:
So it is: nature can take warnings and steer its course to escape the worst of judgment. Yet it never softens in the least into true repentance. It is only another form of selfishness. This selfishness saves itself. It takes just enough interest in God's past dealings to learn how it can keep ignoring and despising Him at the least risk to itself.
The plan came from the advisers' own heads, not from God. He still went along with it. One writer sees both mercy and a warning here:
Here is a very notable and instructive fact. God meets men where they are. Yet He refuses to meet His own people except according to His word. How good, yet how holy, He is! ... Suppose the Israelites had made up their own plan for the ark of the Lord, brushing aside the word of God. He would certainly have judged that plan instead of healing them. But these poor pagans did not have God's revealed word. They simply acted on what they had, and He showed His tender mercy.
Their offering fell far short of what God had revealed about dealing with sin. They shed no blood. He answered them anyway:
An offering without the shedding of blood, when atonement for sin was necessary! But God takes account of the very smallest cry of conscience.
- The record — centuries later, Israel's enemies still knew about Pharaoh's hardening. Even hostile witnesses treated the Exodus as plain fact.
- The warning — history's lesson was blunt. Hardening never defeated God. It only made Egypt suffer longer, until He had done all He purposed.
- The reflex — judgment often produces the very hardening it warns against. The Philistines waited seven months before they looked for relief.
- The mercy — these people had no revealed word, so God met them where they were and answered even a small stirring of conscience. His own people have His word, and He meets them by that alone.
- The limit — a man can heed the warning, escape the worst, and still never repent. Dodging judgment and softening toward God are two different things.
And now make a new cart, and take two milch kine, on which there has come no yoke, and tie the kine to the cart, and bring their calves home from them;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and take the ark of Jehovah, and lay it upon the cart, and the golden jewels, which ye return him as a trespass-offering, put in the coffer by the side thereof; and send it away that it may go.
The ark of the Lord has been in Philistine hands for seven months. The plagues have left its captors desperate to be rid of it. This verse holds their plan: put the ark on a cart, set a box of gold beside it as a guilt offering, and let it go. Could such a gift, sent in such a way, ever satisfy the God they had offended?
The instructions in this verse are not God's. They asked their own religious experts instead.
Their choice was typical of their completely unrepentant condition. They did not turn to Him who had afflicted them for instruction. They turned to their own priests, the men who served before Dagon, and to the diviners. These diviners match the magicians of Egypt, who bewitched them and led them astray. How true it is! Whatever the circumstances, the natural man never turns of his own accord to the only source of light there is.
The Philistines shaped their gold into images of the plagues they had suffered. That shows how far their thinking reached.
We notice, however, that the offerings go no further than a memorial of their affliction. They make images of the tumours and of the mice. But what about the sin which brought this judgment upon them? Is there any confession of that? Is there any memorial of that? Ah, no. The natural man sees the affliction. He magnifies it so much that he forgets or ignores the cause for which the affliction came. How different this is from the true trespass offering, the only offering that counts before a holy God! That offering is not so much a memorial of the affliction or the judgment deserved. It is an acknowledgment of the sin which made it necessary. Above all, it is a confession that the only sacrifice God can accept is the unblemished sacrifice of a guiltless substitute — Christ, who alone is the trespass offering, the One who "bore our sins in His body on the tree."
There is a second problem with the gift itself. Metal, however precious, is not what Scripture says clears guilt.
They want this "mighty God of the Hebrews" to relieve them of their plagues. So they think to appease Him with a present, a trespass offering, just as Jacob thought to appease the anger of his brother Esau. But it is "the blood that makes atonement for the soul." And "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." "You were ransomed… not with perishable things such as silver or gold," writes Peter, "but with the precious blood of Christ."
The order to "send it off and let it go its way" sets up a test. The Philistines chose cows that had never worn a yoke, and made the result a trial of the Lord.
These Philistines then propose a new cart and "cows on which there has come no yoke," as a test of the Lord… And the Lord was willing to meet them on their own test. Surely this was very gracious. It shows what a God we have to do with — not only for ourselves, but even for those who know Him less.
Even so, they still wanted proof, though the evidence in front of them was already clear.
The previous evidence had been very clear. Yet men are extremely slow to give God the honour that is rightly His.
A cart carried the ark here, and God let it happen. That does not make the cart His way of moving it.
Now a new cart was all very well for the Philistines, as a way to get rid of the ark. But it was not according to God's instruction about the Levites. But then they were not Levites, and you do not expect a "natural man" to be intelligent about divine things. God's children, however, should be, for they are "spiritual."
The Philistines meant the gold as a way out of their trouble. It amounted to a confession.
God makes clear that the victory of the Philistines over sinning Israel was no victory over Him. They made their trespass offering in ignorance. Even so, it is a recognition that the capture of the ark has only brought judgment from a God whom they now seek to propitiate.
- Counsel — The plan came from Dagon's priests and diviners, not from the God who had struck them. Left to himself, the natural man never turns to the only source of light there is.
- Gift — The gold copied the plagues but never named the sin, so it remembered the pain and ignored the cause.
- Blood — Gold cannot appease God. Atonement comes by the precious blood of Christ, the true trespass offering.
- Test — Letting the cart "go its way" was a test God was gracious enough to meet, even for those who knew Him so little.
- Glory — Enemies are slow to honour God. Yet their offering admitted that capturing the ark had brought only His judgment.
And see, if it go up by the way of its own border to Beth-shemesh, it is he who has done us this great evil; if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that touched us; it was a chance [that] happened to us.
The ark of God had been in Philistine land, and it brought them nothing but misery. So they set up a test to settle one question. Was the God of Israel striking them, or had they just had a run of bad luck? They designed the test so that only God could make it work: a cart, two nursing cows taken from their calves, and no driver.
Consider what those two cows were up against:
It was a most severe test. Nothing but the power of God could make the cows go against nature and head straight on to Beth-shemesh. That was 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 offspring — pulling them back. And like all domestic animals, they felt the pull of home.
The wording of the test gives the Philistines an escape route. If the cows wander, they can file the whole disaster under accident:
The hidden unbelief in the hearts of the Philistines shows in the way they chose to send the ark back to the land of Israel. Who would have thought of taking two heifers that had never worn a yoke and harnessing them to a cart with no driver? Would that not guarantee the destruction of the ark? And to make it harder still, they left the calves of these cattle behind. All of nature was against the ark ever reaching the land of Israel. May we not well believe the people held a quiet hope that things would turn out differently from what they had to believe?
God was under no obligation to answer a test drawn up by pagan diviners. He answered it anyway.
And the Lord stooped to meet them on their own test. Surely this was very gracious. It shows what a God we have to do with — not only for ourselves, but even for those who know Him less.
These men had no Scripture to guide them. They did have a conscience, and that was enough for God to answer:
The priests and diviners, for all their deep ignorance, are at least honest. They admit God's hand in these plagues and try to work out how to "give glory to the God of Israel." They tell the people not to harden their hearts against Him. Finally, they suggest a way of knowing whether it really is He who has caused this great evil, or whether the thing was only accidental. All this shows conscience at work in the absence of the light that revealed truth brings. God always takes account of conscience, even a darkened conscience, and gives a clear answer.
The answer came through animals doing what animals never do:
Contrary to nature the cows leave their calves. With no prompting from man they take the ark to Beth-shemesh, lowing as they go. This proves they acted by some power above the instincts of nature. So God stoops to meet these heathen in their distress, and at the same time 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.
A sign given to the conscience carries weight. Refusing it does not cancel it:
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 this 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.
The Philistine rulers watched the whole thing. Their conclusion was not worship but relief:
The lords of the Philistines follow them. At last they have to admit that God has vindicated His honour. He has shown the reality of His own presence and His own care for His throne... And here we leave the Philistines, who return home, glad no doubt to be well rid both of the plagues and of Him who had sent them.
- Hand or accident. The Philistines wrote the test so that one word would settle it: either God's hand struck them, or it was "coincidence". There was no third option.
- Hand hidden by unbelief. They chose every detail of the plan — untrained cows, no driver, calves shut up at home — so that nature could take the blame for failure.
- Hand stooping. God accepted terms set by pagan diviners. He met a conscience that had no Scripture to guide it, and gave it a clear answer.
- Hand above nature. Cows overrode their strongest instinct and walked the straight road. Israel's defeat had never been a defeat of Israel's God.
- Hand refused. They got their answer and used it to send God away. A sign reaching the conscience leaves a man more responsible, not less.
And the men did so, and took two milch kine, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home.
The Philistines wanted rid of the ark — the chest that stood for God's presence with His people — so they set a test for the God of Israel. Men tie two milk cows to a cart, shut the calves away at home, and everything now depends on which way the animals walk.
Shutting the calves away at home was the whole point of the plan.
"The men did so, and took two milk cows and yoked them to the cart and shut up their calves at home." The point of that was to let the cry of the calves and the mother's natural instincts draw her out toward her young. Instead, the cows leave their young. They go in the opposite direction and take a road they had never taken before, against every instinct of their nature.
Everything about the setup worked against the ark ever reaching Israel.
It was a most severe test. Nothing but the power of God could make the cows go against nature and walk straight on to Beth-shemesh, the nearest Israelite town, some nine or ten miles away. Everything was against the ark getting out of the land safely. 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 offspring — pulling them back. And like all domestic animals, they wanted to go home.
The result left only one explanation.
Instead of following their young, the cows carried the new cart with the ark on it to the land of Israel. It was a most striking proof of the power of God above nature. It was not chance; it was not nature; it was God who governed.
God could have left their test unanswered. He did not.
God stoops to meet these pagans in their distress, and at the same time vindicates His glory in the sight of His enemies. God makes it clear that the victory of the Philistines over a sinning Israel was no victory over Him.
Who was handling the ark makes a difference here.
Now a new cart was all very well for the Philistines to use to get rid of the ark, though it was not according to God's instruction about the Levites. But then they were not Levites, and you do not expect a "natural man" to be intelligent about divine things. God's children, however, should be, for they are "spiritual."
Israel later used a cart too, and in one way trusted God less than the Philistines had.
In fact, the Philistines gave more credit to God than the Israelites did on these occasions, for the Philistines left the cart without drivers and without a man going in front of it. They decided to let God direct the oxen, and there was no difficulty. The Israelites had two drivers as well as a man in front. No doubt they thought they should take every human precaution to see that the ark was well conducted. This was not faith.
The two cows finish their journey in a field at Beth-shemesh.
God guided the cows, and they had taken the straight way to Beth-shemesh. Surely He guided the cart too: it entered the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite and stopped beside a great stone. The journey was over. The creatures had served the Creator, and were now to be devoted to Him in death.
- Test — The Philistines shut the calves away on purpose. Instinct should have pulled the cows straight back home.
- Overruled — The cows had no training, no driver, and calves behind them. Still they walked straight for Israel. Not chance, not nature, but God.
- Stooping — God answered a test set by people who did not know Him. He met their fear, and showed His enemies that Israel's defeat was never His.
- Cart — The cart passed in the hands of men who knew no better. The fault came later, when God's own people copied it instead of following His instruction.
- Devoted — The two cows had served their Creator on the road. Their journey ended beside the great stone, where they were given to Him in death.
And they laid the ark of Jehovah upon the cart, and the coffer with the golden mice and the images of their sores.
The Philistines have held the ark of God for seven months, and every month has hurt. Now they load it onto a new cart and set a box of gold beside it. The verse holds two things together: a real fear of the God of Israel, and a plan for handling Him that God never asked for.
The five golden tumours and five golden mice were models of the very plagues the people had suffered. One writer notes what such a gift does and does not admit:
This trespass offering, which they were to send back with the ark, had to do two things. It had to be a memorial of the judgment. Its value had to suggest the reverence due to the One they had wronged. We notice, however, that the offerings go no further than a memorial of their affliction. Images are made of the tumours and of the mice, but what about the sin that brought this judgment on them? Is there any confession of that? Is there any memorial of that? No. The natural man sees the affliction. He makes so much of it that he forgets or ignores the cause that brought it.
The materials themselves were an odd choice for approaching Israel's God:
So they make images for themselves: five golden tumours and five golden mice. Both things are unclean. The tumours are unclean in themselves, like a running sore. The mice are unclean under the law (see Lev. 11:29; Isa. 66:17). So in their blindness they were not winning God's favour at all. They were offering insult to the Holy One of Israel with their unclean offering. That is why it says, "perhaps He will lighten His hand from off you."
They called their gift a trespass offering. One writer weighs that name against the facts, and then adds what God did anyway:
A trespass offering — when they had made war against the people of God! When they had thought Dagon was 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.
Another writer sets the true trespass offering beside it:
How different this is from the true trespass offering, the only one that can stand before a holy God! It is not so much a memorial of the affliction as an acknowledgment of the sin that made it necessary. Above all, it confesses that the only sacrifice God can accept is the unblemished sacrifice of a guiltless substitute — Christ, who alone is the trespass offering, the One who "Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree."
Their own arrangements gave them away:
The hidden unbelief in the hearts of the Philistines is seen in the way they set about restoring the ark to the land of Israel. Who would have thought of taking two heifers that had never known the yoke and harnessing them to a cart without drivers? Would this not guarantee the destruction of the ark?
God did not refuse the terms they set:
And the Lord was pleased to meet them on their own test. Surely this was very gracious, and it shows what a God we have to do with — not only for ourselves, but even for those who know Him less.
The cows themselves answered the test:
It was a most severe test. Nothing but the power of God could make the cows go, against nature, straight on to Beth-shemesh, the nearest Israelite town, some nine or ten miles away. Everything was against the ark getting out of the land safely. 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 — pulling them back. And like other domestic animals, they were drawn towards home. Yet the cows "went straight in the direction of Beth-shemesh ... lowing as they went." Only the unseen, irresistible power of their Creator could drive them.
There was a right way to move the ark, and a cart was not it:
God's method was only for the Levites of the family of Kohath to carry the ark by means of the poles (Ex. 25:13-14; Num. 3:27-32)... Philistines might ignore this, but Israel must not. In fact, on these occasions the Philistines gave God more credit than the Israelites did. The Philistines left the cart with no drivers and no man walking in front of it. They decided to let God direct the oxen, and there was no difficulty.
At Beth-shemesh the people found one more use for the cart and the cows:
They take the cattle and the wood of the cart and offer up a burnt offering. This is far more acceptable to God than the golden images sent by the Philistines, which we never hear of again.
- Fear, not faith. Seven months of plagues made the Philistines act. The golden images record what they suffered, not what they did wrong.
- Gold, not blood. God noticed their faint cry of conscience, but the only trespass offering that can stand before Him is Christ, the guiltless substitute.
- A test they set. Two cows that had never worn a yoke and no driver at all — a test nothing but the power of God could pass.
- Nature overruled. Every instinct pulled the cows the other way, yet they walked straight to Beth-shemesh. Only their Creator could do that.
- A method, not a model. God let the Philistines use a cart. When Israel copied it later, they gave God less credit than the Philistines had.
And the kine went straight forward on the way to Beth-shemesh; they went by the one high way, lowing as they went; and they turned not aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.
The Philistines had captured the ark of God, and holding it brought them nothing but distress. Their priests set a test — two nursing cows hitched to a new cart, their calves shut up at home — and this verse records which way the cows walked.
The Philistines set the terms. God did not refuse them.
And the Lord agreed to meet them on their own test. This was very gracious indeed. It shows what a God we have to deal with — not only for ourselves, but even for those who know Him less... God met the thought of their 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 feeling of His hand. He answered so that there might be a voice in their conscience. If they hardened themselves against it, or forgot it, so much the worse for them.
Their test came with a gift, and the gift shows how little they understood.
At the advice of their priests and diviners, they offered golden tumours and golden mice as a trespass offering. A trespass offering — from people who had made war on the people of God! An offering with no blood shed, when atonement for sin was needed! But God takes account of the very least cry of conscience. He gives a clear answer... Such are the Lord's ways, always right!
Consider what these cows would have had to overcome on their own.
It was a most severe test. Nothing but the power of God could make the cows go against nature like this, straight on to Beth-shemesh. That was 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. The strongest instinct animals have — love for their young — pulled them back. And like all domestic animals, they felt the pull of home.
The Philistine lords watched their own animals obey the God of Israel, not Dagon, the god they worshipped.
No driver directed them that any human eye could see, yet they went straight along the highway... They were not used to the yoke, yet they pulled together as if trained for the work. They turned neither to the right nor to the left... What a sight it must have been to the lords who watched them. Dagon could never have done that. But they were the creatures of Him whose presence the ark represented. They were creatures doing the will of the Creator, and that day they were furthering His glory.
The detail that the cows lowed as they walked is not decoration. It records what the obedience cost them.
They were untrained, unruly animals. No one directed them. They went against nature, lowing with the pain of overriding their instinct as mothers. Yet they carried the ark straight to Beth-shemesh.
The rulers who had taken the ark now walked behind it.
The five lords of the Philistines followed right to the border of Beth-shemesh. They saw all that took place, and then returned to Ekron. No doubt they were convinced that the God of Israel had indeed been dealing with them, and glad that His ark was no longer among them.
Knapp marks the reversal by quoting Matthew Henry:
Those who thought to triumph over the ark were made to go like lowly servants after it.
Israel had sinned, and the Philistines had carried off the ark. This verse shows what their victory was worth.
So God stoops to meet these pagan people in their distress. At the same time He vindicates His glory in the sight of His enemies. God makes it clear that the Philistines' victory over a sinning Israel was no victory over Him.
- Conscience — The test came from priests and diviners, not from repentance. God answered it anyway. He takes account of the least cry of conscience, even from those who know Him least.
- Contrary — The cows were untrained. They had no driver and no known road, and their calves were shut up behind them. Every natural force pulled the other way, so the straight road to Beth-shemesh proved whose hand had struck them.
- Cost — They lowed the entire journey. Obedience against instinct is still obedience, and the pain of it was audible.
- Creator — Dagon could not move a cow. The living God moved two of them nine miles in a straight line, and they served His glory that day.
- Custody — Israel failed to guard the ark, so God guarded it Himself. He turned the men who captured it into the servants who escorted it home.
And [they of] Beth-shemesh were reaping the wheat-harvest in the valley; and they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.
Seven months earlier, Israel lost the ark of God in battle. Now it comes home on a cart pulled by two cows, and farm workers at harvest are the first to see it — glad at the sight, though no one had asked for it back.
One writer draws a line between God's public dealings with His people and His hidden ones.
God's public ways may be in judgment, as we have just seen, but His secret ways always bring Him back among His people in grace. The ark returned to Beth-shemesh without Israel feeling the need of it, or expressing any desire for it.
Why was a wooden chest worth such joy? The ark stood for several things at once, and they all lead to one person.
What a marvellous thing this ark of the Lord is! First of all, the ark is God's throne, His governmental presence among His people. Next, it is marked by the mercy seat, symbol of Christ's work, the place where a sinner may come near, received in grace and justified. Lastly, taken as a whole and taken in detail, it is the image of the person of Christ Himself. As the ark held the tables of the law, so Christ said, "Your law is within My heart."
The Philistine cities had watched this cart leave with relief. The Israelite village watched it arrive with delight — and one writer sets the two responses side by side.
Israel had apparently stayed quiet under the loss of the ark. Now, to the surprise of the men of Beth-shemesh, one of the cities of the priests, it suddenly appeared on the cart drawn by the cows. Reaping their harvest in the valley, they saw it approach, and rejoiced. The people of Ekron had cried out when they first saw it. The men of Beth-shemesh could rejoice at seeing it. God was returning to His people.
The verse notes what these men were doing when the ark appeared: ordinary work. One commentator draws a lesson from that for the day Christ returns.
The men of Beth-shemesh were busy at worthy work, harvesting their grain, when the ark appeared. It was the same with the shepherds of Bethlehem: they were faithfully guarding their flocks by night when the rejoicing angels told them that the infant Saviour had been born. As Matthew Henry says, "The devil visits idle men with his temptations; God visits industrious men with His favours."… And when the Lord comes again, it matters little where He finds us. We may be on our knees in prayer, or reading our Bibles, or at a meeting, or preaching, or at our ordinary work — harvesting wheat or threshing it, tending sheep or minding children. If we are "in the way" of His commandments, honest and hard at work in the task He has given us to do, then at His appearing we may rejoice to see it, as the men of Beth-shemesh rejoiced when they saw the ark.
Commentators differ on how to read this gladness. One writer hears something thin in it.
They receive it with joy and offer sacrifices to the Lord. It appears, however, to be the carnal joy of hearts unbroken by a sense of sin. They were glad to have the ark back, expecting the blessing that they rightly linked with it, but apparently there is no sense of the sin that had cost them the ark. They had yet to learn the glory due to God, and the humility that fits people in such a low condition.
Another writer names what was missing. Joy at grace is right, but it is not the whole of the right response.
But the joy stirred by looking at grace is not everything. It goes together with respect and fear, if one is aware of being in God's presence. The God of grace judges according to each one's work; the God of grace is holy. This is what the people of Beth-shemesh had forgotten. They went on to look inside the ark. They took advantage of the closeness in which God, in grace, wanted to come to them.
- Return. God dealt with Israel openly in judgment. In secret, His ways brought Him back among them in grace — before anyone asked.
- Reason. The joy makes sense once you see what the ark is: God's throne, the mercy seat where a sinner may come near, and the image of Christ Himself.
- Recognition. The same cart drew a cry from Ekron and a shout of joy from Beth-shemesh: God was returning to His people.
- Routine. These men met the returning ark in the middle of an ordinary workday. That is where Christ may find His people when He comes.
- Reverence. Joy alone was not enough. Commentators differ over how real it was, but both say it lacked the respect and fear that God's holiness calls for.
And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemeshite, and stood there; and a great stone was there. And they clave the wood of the cart, and offered up the kine as a burnt-offering to Jehovah.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And the Levites took down the ark of Jehovah, and the coffer that was with it, in which were the golden jewels, and put them on the great stone; and the men of Beth-shemesh offered up burnt-offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day to Jehovah.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
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.