Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 110
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IMMERSE
•
KINGDOMS
1S
| 5:12–6:16
Those who didn’t die were afflicted with tumors; and the cry from the
town rose to heaven.
The Ark of the Lord remained in Philistine territory seven months in all.
Then the Philistines called in their priests and diviners and asked them,
“What should we do about the Ark of the Lord? Tell us how to return it
to its own country.”
“Send the Ark of the God of Israel back with a gift,” they were told. “Send
a guilt offering so the plague will stop. Then, if you are healed, you will
know it was his hand that caused the plague.”
“What sort of guilt offering should we send?” they asked.
And they were told, “Since the plague has struck both you and your five
rulers, make five gold tumors and five gold rats, just like those that have
ravaged your land. Make these things to show honor to the God of Israel.
Perhaps then he will stop afflicting you, your gods, and your land. Don’t be
stubborn and rebellious as Pharaoh and the Egyptians were. By the time
God was finished with them, they were eager to let Israel go.
“Now build a new cart, and find two cows that have just given birth to
calves. Make sure the cows have never been yoked to a cart. Hitch the cows
to the cart, but shut their calves away from them in a pen. Put the Ark of
the Lord on the cart, and beside it place a chest containing the gold rats
and gold tumors you are sending as a guilt offering. Then let the cows go
wherever they want. If they cross the border of our land and go to Beth-
shemesh, we will know it was the Lord who brought this great disaster
upon us. If they don’t, we will know it was not his hand that caused the
plague. It came simply by chance.”
So these instructions were carried out. Two cows were hitched to the cart,
and their newborn calves were shut up in a pen. Then the Ark of the Lord
and the chest containing the gold rats and gold tumors were placed on the
cart. And sure enough, without veering off in other directions, the cows
went straight along the road toward B
eth-shemesh, lowing as they went.
The Philistine rulers followed them as far as the border of B
eth-shemesh.
The people of B
eth-shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley, and
when they saw the Ark, they were overjoyed! The cart came into the field
of a man named Joshua and stopped beside a large rock. So the people
broke up the wood of the cart for a fire and killed the cows and sacrificed
them to the Lord as a burnt offering. Several men of the tribe of Levi lifted
the Ark of the Lord and the chest containing the gold rats and gold tumors from the cart and placed them on the large rock. Many sacrifices and
burnt offerings were offered to the Lord that day by the people of B
eth-
shemesh. The five Philistine rulers watched all this and then returned to
Ekron that same day.