1 Samuel 6: The Philistine Offering
1 Now 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 with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how we should send it to its place.”3 So they said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty; but by all means return it to Him with a trespass offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why His hand is not removed from you.” 4 Then they said, “What is the trespass offering which we shall return to Him?” They answered, “Five golden tumors and five golden rats, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines. For the same plague was on all of you and on your lords. 5 Therefore you shall make images of your tumors and images of your rats that ravage the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps He will lighten His hand from you, from your gods, and from your land. 6 Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He did mighty things among them, did they not let the people go, that they might depart?" 7 Now therefore, make a new cart, take two milk cows which have never been yoked, and hitch the cows to the cart; and take their calves home, away from them. 8 Then take the ark of the Lord and set it on the cart; and put the articles of gold which you are returning to Him as a trespass offering in a chest by its side. Then send it away, and let it go. 9 And watch: if it goes up the road to its own territory, to Beth Shemesh, then He has done us this great evil. But if not, then we shall know that it is not His hand that struck us—it happened to us by chance.”
For seven months the ark "had spread among them anxiety, terror, and death. Nothing but utter ruin seemed likely to spring from a longer residence of the ark in their territories." (Expositor's Bible Commentary) The Philistine people knew that the death plague was not chance but the hand of Yahweh. It seems that they should have returned the ark in person to seek forgiveness from the injured parties for their transgressions, but instead they went to their own priests who “were skilled in the rites and ceremonies of religion, not only of their own, but of other nations, particularly of Israel.” (John Gill) They sent it by unmanned cart with an offering enclosed for the those offended.
"At length the Philistines resolved to send it back to the Israelites, and therefore called their priests and diviners to ask them, 'What shall we do with regard to the ark of God; tell us, with what shall we send it to its place?'— the land of Israel." (Keil & Delitzsch) — "for they knew that it is the manner that maketh or marreth an action." (Trapp)
These priests "had not lived so far away from the smoke of Jewish altars, but that they knew God was accustomed to manifold oblations." (Bishop Hall) "It is plain from what is here said, that the Philistines were well acquainted with Israel's history, in the Egyptian bondage and overthrow of Pharaoh. And it is as plain also that they had ideas, (and which they must have gathered from the law of Moses) of the doctrine of trespass-offerings." (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary)
But while they spoke the language of Israel's religion, they redefined the words, meaning something else by them. Be careful to ask what a priest means by his or her sayings. Ask them to explain their stance more clearly, if needed… and to give you the Biblical reference to allow you to look it up for yourself. And most importantly ask Jesus for discernment.
”If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty; but by all means return it to Him with a trespass offering.”(3) "Yet, how ignorant they are of what a true trespass offering is! For this God required a blood sacrifice, which is totally foreign to the unbelieving mind." (L. M. Grant) Instead, they sent golden emerods - "figures representing the disease. These they offered not in contempt of God, for they fought to gain his favour hereby; but in testimony of their humiliation, that by leaving this monument of their own shame and misery, they might obtain pity from God.- golden mice - which marred their land by destroying the fruits thereof; as the other plague afflicted their bodies." (John Wesley) Five- one for each the Philistine lords.
This was in reality not a trespass but rather a "votive offerings of gold, representing that which had plagued them. This was a heathen custom, which has also been adopted and is practiced by Roman Catholicism, the great Philistine system of Christendom. In Romish churches, especially at shrines, one can find hundreds of votive offerings to God by those who are suffering affliction to appease the wrath of God. It is heathenish and denies Him who shed His blood for our redemption." (Arno Gaebelein)
They likely felt this was necessary for their theft of the ark: “Guilt offering (Lv 5:14-6:7; 7:1-7). The guilt or trespass offering was a special kind of sin offering (cf. 5:7) required whenever someone had been denied his rightful due.... Violation of another person's property rights could be expiated only by the guilt offering etc. Such matters included cheating on deposits or security, robbery or oppression, failing to report the find of some lost property,” (Tyndale Dictionary) They robbed Yahweh of His due as Lord of lords and took the ark from His covenant people — Israel.
"'Make a new cart'; as David did for the same use, 2 Samuel 6:3, in reverence to the ark." (Poole)- "take two milk cows which have never been yoked...” “It was in honour of the ark that they employed nothing about it that had ever served for any other use." (Joseph Benson) it was on such an animal that the Lamb of God rode into Jerusalem to die as the ultimate offering for sin. Yet though the cart contained the sacred ark of the covenant, it also contained an filthy offering of man's own devising.
Likewise, in churches and temples of all sorts, “inspite of God’s having shown clearly that only the blood of Christ shed at Calvary can possibly atone for man's sins. They think that some gift of their own temporal possessions ought to ingratiate God toward them, as though God, the Maker of the universe, possesses the same selfish nature as man does, grasping for material things! But God thinks no more of this than He did of Cain's offering of the fruit of the ground (Gen. 4:3-5)." (L. M. Grant)
In all the religion, there is something that you must do to be accepted, but in the Judo-Christian religion we must but accept what God has already done. A true priest would have first instructed them in the burnt offering which was the entrance into fellowship. In it, the whole sacrifice was consumed on the altar by Yahweh— a pleasing aroma. It got what the sinner deserved. And it was slain at the door of the tabernacle of the ark in Judah. Only then came the other various voluntary offerings, like the trespass offering, which served to keep them in fellowship.
The boast of the Philistine lords is having bested the God of Israel. But you know better for unlike the Philistine lords, "you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or GOLD, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." (1 Pet 1:18-19)
Perhaps these false priests and diviners helped them in their carnal ”secret desire is to get rid of God...” (W. G. Blake), instead of helping them obtain forgiveness. Note that people knew that this was the hand of Yahweh but these false priests did not. They were not even convicted of sins. They knew Him not. "And watch: if it”— the cart with the ark and the filthy offering— “goes up the road to its own territory, to Beth Shemesh, then He has done us this great evil. But if not, then we shall know that it is not His hand that struck us—it happened to us by chance."
Next Day: My Morning Manna: 1 Samuel 6: The Final Sign
10 Then the men did so; they took two milk cows and hitched them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home. 11 And they set the ark of the Lord on the cart, and the chest with the gold rats and the images of their tumors. 12 Then the cows headed straight for the road to Beth Shemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right hand or the left. And the lords of the Philistines went after them to the border of Beth Shemesh.
"Then the men did so;" etc. not the priest or deviners—nor the lords, but the men of Philistine by their design, exactly as instructed by them. "The restoration [of the ark to its owner] is performed in the manner prescribed by the priests." (J. P. Lange) They "took two milch kine (milk cows), and tied them to the (new) cart, and shut up their calves at home." (Geneva Study Bible) "Some think they were placed where two roads met; one going to Ekron, the other to Beth-shemesh." (Adam Clarke) And: ”God directed the cattle, and by His angels" (John Trapp) to Beth-shemesh— "a city of the priests, who were by office to take care of it." (John Wesley)
"The kine took the straight way to Beth-shemesh, though they had no driver, nor visible director, and had such strong attractives to draw them back, and there were so many other ways in which they might have gone." (Joseph Benson) —"lowing as they went, calling for their calves" (Adam Clarke)— but "did not turn aside to the right hand or the left'- "Learn, oh my soul, even of these young cows, to subject thy carnal nature to the yoke, without making the smallest retrograde motion." (Joseph Sutcliffe)
"These two kine knew their owner, their great Owner, whom Hophni and Phinehas knew not. God's providence takes notice even of brute creatures, and serves its own purposes by them.“ (Matthew Henry)
"Their frequent lowings attested their ardent longing for their young, and at the same time the supernatural influence that controlled their movements in a contrary direction." (Jameison-Faussett-Brown) — And the lords of the Philistines went after them to the border of Beth Shemesh." They "were so jealous in this business that they would trust no eyes but their own. All this was wisely ordered, that there might be the fullest conviction of the being and interposition of God." (Adam Clarke) "Thus the Philistines have Jehovah’s sovereignty demonstrated to them in the precise terms which they have themselves chosen.” (Numerical Bible)
"It was evident that the living God directed the course of the cart, and that it was He who had sent the punishment upon the Philistines. It may well be that this realization caused at least some of the Philistines to turn to the true God.” (Paul Kretzmann) Yet the masses go back to Dagon worship, loving the world more than the prospect of heaven. Such are those of the world, but the disciples of Yeshua are not of this world.
My Morning Manna:1 Samuel 6: The Ark at Beth Shemesh of Judah
13 Now the people of Beth Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley; and they lifted their eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it. 14 Then the cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and stood there; a large stone was there. So they split the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD. 15 The Levites took down the ark of the LORD and the chest that was with it, in which were the articles of gold, and put them on the large stone. Then the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices the same day to the LORD.
"Shiloh, the old sanctuary, was, we know, now desolate and ruined; but the priests and Levites, from what follows, evidently had forfeited their old position as guides and teachers of the people." (C. J. Ellicott)— but there was a harvest in Israel in Beth-shemesh, — "House of the Sun," "a city given to the priests, Joshua 21:16." (John Trapp) The people "were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley;” — a low place for want of the ark of the covenant — “and they lifted their eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it .” (13) “This was well done... 'And the cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh,... and stood there, where there was a great stone: (14a) .. This stone, saith Comestor, is thought by some to have been an altar, which Abraham had set up unto the Lord..." ( Matthew Poole) as well as "stone of Abel." (1 Sam. 6:18) on which he offered "the firstlings of his flock and of their fat, which the Yahweh had respect unto; see Genesis 4:4-5)
“So they split the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD. (14b) They fired up the old altar.
They cut the wooden cart in pieces, "and laid the wood of it in order upon the stone, and slew the two cows, and laid their pieces on the wood, and set fire to it, and [wholly] burnt them with it." (John Gill)
"There may seem to he a double error in this act. First, that they offered females for a burnt - offering, contrary to Leviticus 1:3. Secondly, that they did it in a forbidden place, Deuteronomy 12:5,6. But this case being extraordinary, may in some sort excuse it, if they did not proceed by ordinary rules." (John Wesley) "They considered them as belonging to Him, as having drawn His ark, and been particularly directed by Him, and therefore to be His sacrifices." (Joseph Benson)
They were offered as burnt offerings: "Because the cows and cart were used for sacred purposes, they could not be used for normal everyday purposes. Therefore, the priests sacrificed the cows using the cart for the fire." (Ken Cayce) May my life “be offered up a burnt-sacrifice to the Lord, that the body of sin may be destroyed.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)
Some suppose that these were burnt offerings for the Philistine lords. However, theirs sacrifice was the offerings of gold described in verses 16-18. To them, the milk cows were the only a means of pulling the cart.
Here is where error entered and sin ensued —> “Then the Levites took down the ark of Yahweh from the cart and the chest that was with it, in which were the articles of gold, and put them on the large stone.” (15a)
”The trophies sent by the Philistines and the Ark of YHWH were set down on the great stone, but it became a ‘stone of lamentation’ (Abel) when instead of fulfilling their duty and covering the Ark, which they knew should not have been exposed to public gaze (see Numbers 4:5), they stood and stared at it in its uncovered state." (Peter Pett)
"And then the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices the same day to Yahweh." (15b) So the men of Israel came hither to make their offerings, according to their hearts. "In token of their gratitude for such a signal mercy, now offered both burnt offerings and sacrifices, probably peace offerings, and doubtless feasted together with great joy and gladness (see 1 Kings 8:62-66; Ezra 6:16-17). There is nothing whatever in the text to indicate that these sacrifices were offered otherwise than in the appointed way by the priests." (Albert Barnes)
16 So when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day. 17 These are the golden tumors which the Philistines returned as a trespass offering to the LORD: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron; 18 and the golden rats, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both fortified cities and country villages, even as far as the large stone of Abel on which they set the ark of the LORD, which stone remains to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.
"The lords of the Philistines would of course take no part in this rejoicing [-nor the bloody sacrifices], but, having seen the ark restored, and the people busied in making preparations for the sacrifice, returned immediately home." (The Pulpit Commentary)
The writer is explicit about the offering accredited to the five lords for Philistine. It was the votive offerings of gold, made according to their cities, which they erroneously thought could cover sin. These verses mention "the stone of Abel" (Verse 18) which brings to remembrance the ancient use of bloody sacrifice for relief according to the Word of God.
19 Then He struck the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD. He struck fifty thousand and seventy men of the people, and the people lamented because the LORD had struck the people with a great slaughter.
“As if the sacred vessel had not had enough of indignity in the din of battle, in the temples of the uncircumcised Philistines, and in the cart drawn by the kine, they must expose it to a yet further profanation! Alas for them! their curiosity prevailed over their reverence. And for this they had to pay a terrible penalty." (Expositor's Bible Commentary)
The curse had now come upon some Israelite worshippers instead due to transgressions on the stone of Abel— the stone of sacrifice.
We must come to God with the intercession of His priest by the way they prescribe by Him in His Word. “The Israelites were charged on pain of death not to look upon the ark bare or uncovered; [Num. 4:20] the Philistines might, and not die, because not alike obliged.” (John Trapp)
Nor can we look on God and live without Jesus' intercession. “God has drawn very near to us in Christ, and given to all that accept of Him the place and privileges of children. He allows us to come very near to Him in prayer. 'In everything,' He says, 'by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make your requests known unto God.' But while we gratefully accept these privileges, and while in the enjoyment of them we become very intimate with God, never let us forget the infinite distance between us, and the infinite condescension manifested in His allowing us to enter into the holiest of all. Never let us forget that in His sight we are 'as dust and ashes,' unworthy to lift up our eyes to the place where His honour dwelleth. To combine reverence and intimacy in our dealings with God, - the profoundest reverence with the closest intimacy, is to realize the highest ideal of worship. God Himself would have us remember, in our approaches to Him, that He is in heaven and we on the earth. 'Thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity and whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place, but with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the hearts of the contrite ones.'" (Expositor's Bible Commentary)
1 Samuel 6:20 And the men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God? And to whom shall it go up from us?” 21 So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjath Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have brought back the ark of the Lord; come down and take it up with you.”
A heavy judgment on the people of God. “The Beth-shemites had the light of the law of God by them, and therefore sinned more against knowledge than those poor blind ignorant Philistines could do." (C. Ness)
"Thus you are to be holy to Me, for I Yahweh am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine." (Leviticus 20:26; cp. 1 Peter 1:16)
"Who is able to stand" etc.? —"For Israelite as well as Philistine is smitten by the presence of the holy shrine." (Daniel Whedon)— "before this holy Yahweh God?" Who can stand? ”He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart." (Psalm 15:2)
They knew that God had forbidden any to look upon His ark but the priests and Levites. But rather an owning their sin, the men "lay the blame of their sufferings upon God, as too holy and strict: of their sins, the true cause, they say nothing; but take care to rid their hands of the ark.” (Trapp) "Thus when the Word of God works with terror on men's consciences, instead of taking the blame to themselves, they frequently quarrel with the Word, and endeavour to put it from them." (Wesley)
"'To whom shall He go up from us?' — "Who next will dare take charge of Him" (John Trapp) — as custodians of the mysteries of godliness?
So they sent messenger to Kirjath-jearim— "located about fifteen miles northeast of Beth Shemesh…” (Bakers Illustrated Bible Commentary ) It is now called "'the city of woods," but previously called Kirjath-baal in the Bible (Josh. 15:60, 18:14; 1 Chron. 13:6, 13:7) for prior to the occupation by Israel, it was know thus. "In the time of the judges this village was one of the four cities of the Gibeonites who, under false pretenses, made a mutual defense pact with Joshua and the elders of Israel (Jos 9:3-27). Because it was on the border between Judah and Benjamin, it was integrated into the tribe of Judah (15:9; 18:14)." (Tyndale Bible Dictionary)
This being a place of strength of physical security, being on high ground, it was a more fitting place for the residence of the ark. "Beth-shemesh being in a low plain, and Kirjath-jearim on a hill, explains the message, 'Come ye down, and fetch it up to you.'" (Jameison-Faussett-Brown)