Golden Tumors and Rats

1 Samuel 6:1-7:2

¹The ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months. ²And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us with what we shall send it to its place.” ³They said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but by all means return him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand does not turn away from you.” ⁴And they said, “What is the guilt offering that we shall return to him?” They answered, “Five golden tumors and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for the same plague was on all of you and on your lords. ⁵So you must make images of your tumors and images of your mice that ravage the land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you and your gods and your land. ⁶Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After he had dealt severely with them, did they not send the people away, and they departed? ⁷Now then, take and prepare a new cart and two milk cows on which there has never come a yoke, and yoke the cows to the cart, but take their calves home, away from them. ⁸And take the ark of the Lord and place it on the cart and put in a box at its side the figures of gold, which you are returning to him as a guilt offering. Then send it off and let it go its way ⁹and watch. If it goes up on the way to its own land, to Beth-shemesh, then it is he who has done us this great harm, but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us; it happened to us by coincidence.” ¹⁰The men did so, and took two milk cows and yoked them to the cart and shut up their calves at home. ¹¹And they put the ark of the Lord on the cart and the box with the golden mice and the images of their tumors. ¹²And the cows went straight in the direction of Beth-shemesh along one highway, lowing as they went. They turned neither to the right nor to the left, and the lords of the Philistines went after them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh. ¹³Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. And when they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, they rejoiced to see it. ¹⁴The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there. A great stone was there. And they split up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. ¹⁵And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the box that was beside it, in which were the golden figures, and set them upon the great stone. And the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices on that day to the Lord. ¹⁶And when the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned that day to Ekron. ¹⁷These are the golden tumors that the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to the Lord: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron, ¹⁸and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both fortified cities and unwalled villages. The great stone beside which they set down the ark of the Lord is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh. ¹⁹And he struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked upon the ark of the Lord. He struck seventy men of them, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great blow. ²⁰Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up away from us?” ²¹So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up to you.” ^7:1And the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took up the ark of the Lord and brought it to the house of Abinadab on the hill. And they consecrated his son Eleazar to have charge of the ark of the Lord. ²From the day that the ark was lodged at Kiriath-jearim, a long time passed, some twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.

The Ark of God spends seven months with the Philistines, being passed from city to city, as the plague that came with God’s displeasure spans the country. The Philistines see cause and effect and seek to send the Ark back to Israel. They are, in effect, admitting that Yahweh is greater than their own gods, for He cannot be conquered or captured. They even reference God’s treatment of Egypt 500 years earlier and are not interested in that type of treatment for themselves.

The priests of Philistia devise an interesting plan for returning the Ark to Israel. They are under the assumption that the correct actions and offerings must be followed in order to appease the God of Israel. That is nothing new, for of course that was the case with their own gods, and we’ve been trying to earn our way into God’s grace since Adam. That is not the way it is with God, but they didn’t know that.

The diviners provided a test that was rigged so that the ark probably would not go back to Beth-shemesh: the cows had never been yoked and had never pulled a cart, so they would not pull together in the same direction. As nursing mothers, they would have naturally tried to follow their calves back to their stalls. This test was the diviners’ way of ensuring to their satisfaction that they were not mistaken. The ark probably would travel back to Philistia or go in circles or go nowhere. If the ark returned to Israelite territory, it must be because Yahweh willed it and was also responsible for the plague. The author emphasizes that the calves headed directly for Beth-shemesh. They were lowing—perhaps calling for their calves—yet they did not veer off course to either side. The Philistine governors followed to see this.

Steinmann, A. E. (2016). 1 Samuel. (p. 151). Saint Louis, MO: CPH.

As the Ark finds its way back to Beth-shemesh, the Hebrew priests now have control of it again. And they immediately made wrong decisions about it. As Levitical priests, they knew how the Ark was to be handled, and yet disregarded those standards. Some of them even chose to take that opportunity to look inside. We will never know what they saw, as they died for their curiosity. They allowed their priestly status and familiarity with God to lead them to a casualness and laxity in the presence of Yahweh. This taking for granted the presence of the holy God is what caused the death of Eli’s sons Hophni and Phinehas. They had not learned from the mistakes of the past.

All of these contrivances and rules created by the diviners of Philistia are a lesson to us in how not to approach the God of the Universe. He does not need clever tricks and appeasements. If He did, we could somehow earn our way into His presence. But that is not necessary or even wise. Instead, He took care of it all through the blood of Jesus. As such, we are free to enter into His throne room with our hearts and our prayers. We are assured of our place in His Kingdom forever.