Exploring the Meaning of 1 Samuel 6
Ni Garry Walsh
The Philistines stole the Ark of the Covenant but now they were desperate to get rid of it. The statue of their god, Dagon, had fallen and broken, and they had suffered plagues. Seven months after they had taken the Ark, they asked the priests and diviners of the Philistines what to do. The priests and diviners said they should return the Ark, as well as a “trespass offering,” to the Lord “Jehovah” in Israel’s territory. The trespass offering was to be five gold tumors, and five gold mice, to represent the two plagues that had struck the five cities of the Philistines.
So, the Philistines built a special cart to carry the Ark and the trespass offering, and two young milk cows pulled it. The cows were set free to find their own route, and they headed straight for Israelite territory.
In Divine Providence 326[11-13], we get an explanation of the meaning of the symbols in this. The hemorrhoids that plagued the Philistines in 1 Samuel 5 represent earthly loves separated from spiritual ones. The golden hemorrhoids of the trespass offering represent earthly loves that have been purified, and made good.
The mice represent distortions of the truth which destroy the church. The golden mice represent the repair of this destruction by good loves and actions.
The cart that carried the ark and the trespass offerings symbolizes a new teaching, and the cows that pulled it symbolize “good earthly feelings.”
The cows lowed as they drew the cart away from the Philistines back to Israel. This represents how difficult it is to turn away from our obsessions with evil, and turn towards good.
The end of the chapter tells that the Israelite people in the border town of Beth Shemesh saw the cart coming, and rejoiced. They used a large stone as an altar, split up the wood of the cart and offered the two cows as a sacrifice. The golden objects were then distributed through the land.
These symbols reveal something about our relationship with God, and the importance of uniting faith and charity, good and truth, within ourselves. The Philistines represent a spiritual state with faith that is separate from charity. This chapter tells us that in order to reunite our faith with charity we must turn our loves of evil into the desire to do good with our knowledge.
But the people of Beth Shemesh, who received the Ark of the Covenant, made a fatal mistake: some of them looked into the Ark. As a consequence, 50,070 of their people died. So they sent a message to the people of Kirjath Jearim, asking them to come down and take the Ark from them.
The primary message here is the power of the Lord’s Ten Commandments. In the book "True Christian Religion", we are taught that there was tremendous holiness and power in the law written on the stone tablets, because it was a “summary of the whole of religion.” (See True Christian Religion 285, 286.) The two engraved tablets represent the link between us and God. One of them contains a synopsis of all things related to God, and the other, a synopsis of all things related to us.
If we ever disobey the commandments or treat them as less than holy, harm will surely come. Therefore, we must work with the Lord in order to learn to love His commandments. This needs to go together with an active and sincere effort to obey them to the best of our frail and limited human ability.
1 Samuel 6
1
The ark of Yahweh was in the country of the Philistines seven months.
2
The Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, "What shall we do with the ark of Yahweh? Show us with which we shall send it to its place."
3
They said, "If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, don't send it empty; but by all means return him a trespass offering: then you shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you."
4
Then they said, "What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him?" They said, "Five golden tumors, and five golden mice, [according to] the number of the lords of the Philistines; for one plague was on you all, and on your lords.
5
Therefore you shall make images of your tumors, and images of your mice that mar the land; and you shall give glory to the God of Israel: perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land.
6
Why then do you harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had worked wonderfully among them, didn't they let the people go, and they departed?
7
"Now therefore take and prepare yourselves a new cart, and two milk cows, on which there has come no yoke; and tie the cows to the cart, and bring their calves home from them;
8
and take the ark of Yahweh, and lay it on the cart; and put the jewels of gold, which you return him for a trespass offering, in a coffer by its side; and send it away, that it may go.
9
Behold; if it goes up by the way of its own border 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 was a chance that happened to us."
10
The men did so, and took two milk cows, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home;
11
and they put the ark of Yahweh on the cart, and the coffer with the mice of gold and the images of their tumors.
12
The cows took the straight way by the way to Beth Shemesh; they went along the highway, lowing as they went, and didn't turn aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them to the border of Beth Shemesh.
13
They of Beth Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley; and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.
14
The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they split the wood of the cart, and offered up the cows for a burnt offering to Yahweh.
15
The Levites took down the ark of Yahweh, and the coffer that was with it, in which the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone: and the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day to Yahweh.
16
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 for a trespass offering to Yahweh: for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one;
18
and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fortified cities and of country villages, even to the great stone, whereon they set down the ark of Yahweh, [which stone remains] to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.
19
He struck of the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of Yahweh, he struck of the people fifty thousand seventy men; and the people mourned, because Yahweh had struck the people with a great slaughter.
20
The men of Beth Shemesh said, "Who is able to stand before Yahweh, this holy God? To whom shall he go up from us?"
21
They sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath Jearim, saying, "The Philistines have brought back the ark of Yahweh; come down, and bring it up to yourselves."
