Scripture: 1 Samuel 6: 1-18
Sermon: Homeward Bound
Topics: cows, Ark of the Covenant, journey
Preached: August 8, 2021
Rev. Mike Abma
Preamble:
This will be the final sermon in this summer mini-series on the first chapters of 1 Samuel. A few weeks ago we looked at 1 Samuel 5. We saw how a Philistine victory was turned upside-down in almost a comical series of events.
By the end of chapter 5 the Philistines realize they cannot keep the captured Ark of the Covenant. Chapter 6 is about what happens next.
There are 3 divisions in the text, so we will read, stop, comment, then read some more.
PART ONE 1 Samuel 6: 1-9
The ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines for seven months.
2Then the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, ‘What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us what we should send with 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 will be ransomed; will not his hand then turn from you?’
4And they said, ‘What is the guilt-offering that we should return to him?’
They answered, ‘Five gold tumours and five gold mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines; for the same plague was upon all of you and upon your lords. 5So you must make images of your tumours and images of your mice that ravage the land, and give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps he will lighten his hand on you and your gods and your land. 6Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After he had made fools of them, did they not let the people go, and they departed? 7Now then, get ready a new cart and two milch-cows that have never borne a yoke, and yoke the cows to the cart, but take their calves home, away from them. 8Take 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 on 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 chance.’
THE DECISION
So this chapter begins with the Philistines realizing they have to send the Ark of the Covenant back to Israel. But they were not sure how to do it.
They sense that they have offended the God of Israel and they do not want to make matters worse.
So they consult their own religious professionals.
Isn’t it rather striking that these pagan priests actually give rather remarkably sensitive and wise advice?
They realize the Philistines must atone for their offence.
They realize a guilt offering of some kind needs to be made.
Understandably, the Philistine politicians want to know what kind of guilt offering these religious professionals are considering.
The religious leaders basically say that the offering has to be substantial in terms of its worth — it has to give glory, give kabod, to the God of Israel.
Secondly, the offering should show submission and humility – they do not want to be hard-hearted like Pharaoh was long ago.
And third, the offerings should be a plea for relief from what was plaguing all 5 Philistine cities.
So they suggest 5 golden tumors shaped to look like mice.
And they suggest that these golden offerings be put onto a new wooden cart with the Ark of the Covenant.
That makes for a very odd payload.
The Ark, symbolizing God’s presence – the God who detests idols.
And yet there is the Ark with these golden images.
Perhaps there is something of a parallel here with the bronze serpent in Numbers 21. The Israelites are plagued by serpents.
And what are they told?
To make a bronze image of a serpent on a pole in order to save them from the very serpents that are plaguing them.
In an odd way, the Philistines want the golden images of the very things plaguing them to do the same thing — to save them from this plague.
Hearing this advice, you can just imagine the Philistine leaders talking among themselves:
Do we really have to do this?
Do we really want to use all our gold for this?
Will it even do any good?
But in the end they go ahead and get it all ready.
And just to make sure they are doing the right thing,
they decide to follow the cart.
If it goes where it is supposed to go, then great.
But if not, well, they wanted their money back.
PART TWO verses 10-12 THE COWS
The men did so; they took two milch-cows and yoked them to the cart, and shut up their calves (penned their calves) at home. 11They put the ark of the Lord on the cart, and the box with the gold mice and the images of their tumours. 12The 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.
THE COWS
I have saved all talk of the cows for this second part of the story.
These verse represent a Biblical version of The Incredible Journey – remember that 1963 Disney movie classic of two dogs and a cat trekking for miles through the wilderness.
Well this Biblical incredible journey is made by cows.
And it is incredible because it goes against every natural tendency of cow behavior.
First of all, these are milking cows, meaning they are cows who have just had calves. Cows do not wander far from their calves. Cows do not leave their calves behind. You do not have to be a farmer to realize that these cows leaving their calves behind goes against every biological bone in their body. It is “incredible.”
Second, milk cows are not natural cart-pullers. The world is not filled with Frisian Holsteins pulling carts and carriages. Cows do not like to pull. They like to plod. They like to stop. They like to wander off into a pasture to graze. And if possible, they like to plop down and chew their cud.
Third, the road from the Philistine city of Ekron to Beth-shemesh was through what is know as the Sorek pass. It winds its way up into the Shephelah Hills of Judea. In other words, the 7 or so miles the cows travelled was mainly uphill. Cows, like most creatures, do not naturally walk uphill – not if they can avoid it.
So everything is against these 2 cows pulling this cart anywhere.
And yet
the writer of this passage wants us to know that,
against every expectation,
the cows still went straight as an arrow down the road back to Israel.
Let me translate the passage rather literally:
“The cows went straight on the way;
On the way to Beth-shemesh they went;
On a single highway they went;
Lowing they went,
Veering neither to the right nor to the left
they went to the border of Beth-Shemesh
With the Philistine lords walking after them.”
May I just say one more thing about this remarkable passage?
It says the calves of these cows were shut up or penned back at their home.
Here is the remarkable thing.
The Hebrew does not use the usual word for calves.
It uses the word for “children.”
In other words, it literally says the cows were leaving their children behind.
It is as if the cows are doing a holy duty,
they are making a holy sacrifice,
similar to the sacrifice Hannah made at the beginning of 1 Samuel
when she leaves her child, Samuel, behind.
What I want you to see is that the road these cows are travelling
Is a road of obedience;
It is a road of sacrifice.
In New Testament terms, we would say it is a road of discipleship.
PART THREE verse 13-18 THE RECEPTION
Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. When they looked up and saw the ark, they went with rejoicing to meet it. 14The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh, and stopped there. A large stone was there; so they split up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt-offering to the Lord. 15The Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the box that was beside it, in which were the gold objects, and set them upon the large stone. Then the people of Beth-shemesh offered burnt-offerings and presented sacrifices on that day to the Lord. 16When the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned that day to Ekron.
17 These are the gold tumours, which 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; 18also the gold 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.
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
THE RECEPTION
According to Joshua 21:16, the town of Beth-shemesh was a Levite town. Thus it makes sense that when the citizens of Beth-shemesh see this strange sight of the cart, and the cows, and the Ark of the Covenant, it is Levites who take care of things.
They sense that the Ark of the Covenant has come to them by divine power.
So even as the Philistines made a guilt offering with this cart,
the Levites use the cart to make a thank-offering:
* the wood of the cart becomes the fuel for the fire
* a great stone in the field of Joshua of Beth-Shemesh becomes the altar
* and the cows, these beloved bovines, become the sacrifice.
And so begins a New Day in Israel,
A New Beginning.
A New Start.
For God had not abandoned them.
The glory of God had miraculously returned.
THE ROAD CONTINUES
This is the end of this particular section of 1 Samuel.
But we know the story goes on.
* We know the glory of God, the kabod of God, does not settle permanently
in Beth-shemesh.
* We know it will eventually continue up the road to Jerusalem, King
David’s new capital city.
* And we know the Glory of God does not stay there permanently either.
When the Babylonians destroy the temple in Jerusalem, Ezekiel recounts in detail how the Glory of God leaves that city (Ezekiel 10).
* We also know that the prophets foretold the return of the Glory of God.
Isaiah 40 famously describes the Glory of God coming down the highway (same word as in our passage by the way), through the wilderness, and surprising His people (Isaiah 40: 3-5).
* And we know how God’s Glory made its way to us
in that most incredible of all Journeys
where, against all nature,
the divine becomes human;
where against all nature
the Lord of life walks down the road to death;
where against all nature
the almighty one becomes powerless
and offers himself as a sacrifice for us.
The Glory of God
makes this incredible journey
all because, on our own, we had made a mess of things.
All because we were incapable of saving ourselves.
This is the road, the highway, our Savior took:
The road of obedience;
The road of sacrifice;
The road of a child being abandoned by a parent;
a Father giving up a Son,
all so that we might have a New start,
so that we might have a New beginning.
ROADS AND TRAILS
Our family took a vacation last week.
We do a lot of walking on our vacations:
* hikes through forests
* walks down sandy beaches
* treks through city streets
All that walking reminded me that walking down a road is a dominant Biblical image of the Christian life.
We are people on a journey.
We are people running the race set before us.
We are people
keeping our eyes on Jesus,
the author and perfecter of our faith
and the one who shows us the way, and who is the way.
When we Christ-followers, consider this road before us,
we need to realize that it is not our natural route.
Every bone is our body
is going to pull us to go another way, an easier way.
Every inclination of our heart
pulls us away from making sacrifices.
Everything will tempt us toward
the comforts of this world
rather than the costs and commitments of the cross.
And yet,
And yet
Our Master call us onward,
To offer ourselves
As living sacrifices of thanks to God.
Our Master
compels us forward
to live our lives
walking in His Way,
and doing His Will.
This is the Journey we are on.
This is the Road we are walking.
We try to turn
neither to the right
nor to the left
but to stay focused on our Master,
for His is the Only Way,
and following Him
is the only Way Home.
Amen
PRAYER
Dear Lord and Master,
Keep our feet on your path
Our eyes on your Son
And our hearts on your love
So that our journey
Is always moving toward You and our true homeland.
AMEN
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