The experiences described in 5:1–12 occurred during a period of seven months, at the end of which the five lords decided it was time to get rid of the ark. They wouldn’t admit it, but Jehovah had vindicated Himself before the Philistines and humiliated their false god. Still wanting to save face, the lords sought some way to send the ark back to Israel without directly involving themselves or their people.
Man proposes (vv. 1–9). The Philistine wise men came up with a scheme that would test the God of Israel one more time. If Jehovah, represented by the ark, was indeed the true and living God, let Him take the ark back to where it belonged! The lords set up a plan that would absolve them of responsibility and blame. They would take two cows that had calves and separate them from the calves. They would hitch the cows to a new cart, put the ark on the cart, and turn the cows loose. If the cows didn’t move at all, or if they went to their calves, it would be “proof” that the God of Israel wasn’t in control and the Philistines had nothing to fear. If the cows meandered all over without any sense of direction, the lords could draw the same conclusion. The situation being what it was, the cows would probably head for their calves, because that was the natural thing to do. The cows needed to get rid of their milk and the calves needed the nourishment.
But that wasn’t all. The wise men decided that the nation had to send “appeasement gifts” to Jehovah in the form of golden models of the mice and the tumors. If the cows didn’t head for Israelite territory, the Philistines could always reclaim their gold. If the cows went over the border into Israel, the Lord would be appeased and wouldn’t send Philistia any more plagues. This plan enabled the Lord to receive glory without the lords of the Philistines being embarrassed. When you consider that the cows were nursing their calves and lowing for them, and that the cows had never drawn a cart before, the odds were that they wouldn’t go down the road that led from Ekron to Beth-Shemesh. The five lords and their wise men had it all figured out.
God disposes (vv. 10–18). But they were wrong. The lords of the Philistines didn’t know the true and living God, but the cows did, and they obeyed Him! “The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib” (Isa. 1: nkjv). They crossed the border and came to the priestly city of Beth-Shemesh (Josh. 21:13–16) where the men were working in the fields harvesting the wheat. They joyfully welcomed the return of the ark, and the Levites took it off the cart and put it on a great stone in the field.
Grateful that the throne of God had been restored to His people, the Levites offered the cows as burnt offerings to the Lord, and in their joy ignored the fact that only male animals could legally be offered (Lev. 1:3). Other men from the city brought additional sacrifices. They also put the golden gifts on the rock and offered them to the Lord. Since Shiloh had been destroyed and there was no sanctuary available for worship, they used the large rock as an altar, and the Lord accepted their offerings. What the Lord is looking for is a broken and contrite heart, not a slavish obedience to the letter of the law (Ps. 51:15–17). The enemy was near at hand (1 Sam. 6:16) and the Jewish men didn’t dare leave the place to which God had directed the cows.
God had done what Dagon could never do: He guided the cows, kept their attention on the right road, overcame their desire to go to their calves, and brought them to the priestly city of Beth-Shemesh. His providence rules over all. Alas, the priests and Levites didn’t do their job well, and what should have been a great cause for joy turned out to be a cause of sorrow because of man’s foolishness. Eventually the ark would be given a safe resting place until King David would move it to a specially prepared place in Jerusalem (2 Sam. 6:12ff.).