A devotional on 1 Samuel 6
We often wonder: Was this event, this meeting, this encounter ordained of God, or did it happen by chance? The Philistines had experienced seven months of being “terrorized,” afflicted by “tumors.” Their own gods had fallen face down, dismembered before the ark of the Lord.
Was this all by chance? The Philistines weren’t sure. Perhaps Dagon fell accidentally, breaking in the fall. Perhaps the tumors came from a natural source. And so they passed the ark from Ashdod to Gath and then to Ekron, watching curiously to see if tragedy followed. It did. And each time they wondered …
Was it all by chance? Or was there a God — a different God — behind it all …
“What shall we do with the ark of the Lord?” Their fears leap out of the text. This thing that they stole must go somewhere else — anywhere else. Keeping it is no longer an option. It must go back “to its place” and its place is not with them! This God belongs back with His people.
But even here they wonder … did it happen by chance — all the terror and tumors?
Surely there is no God bigger than theirs, no God who is this restless when He is separated from His people. And so they do what they can to prove that it is by chance. They place the ark on a cart and, instead of giving it a driver, they separate two milk cows from their calves and hook them to the front of the cart. Not only have the cows never pulled a cart, they have never been separated from their young. It should be impossible for these two cows to lead this cart anywhere other than back to their calves. After all, what animal leaves its young when there is no driver forcing it to do so?
Here the gauntlet is thrown. In 1 Samuel 6:8-9 the Philistines declare, “Then send it off, and let it go its way. And watch; if it goes up on the way to its own land, to Beth-she′mesh, 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.”
Five Philistine lords watched as “the cows went straight in the direction of Beth-she′mesh … 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-she′mesh” (verse 12).
These lords can’t believe what they see, so they follow the cows and the cart all the way to its destination. They hear the cows “lowing” — longing for their young even as they go “straight” to their destination, moving to a divine impulse. The Philistine lords are astonished. It seems this God will bring the symbol of Himself back to His people and He will use these animals to do it. Only after they watch the reunion of this God with His people do the Philistine lords return to Ekron.
Did this happen by chance? Not this.
Sometimes we wonder where God is and if what we see is mere chance. But this text is different. This text moves with clarity and forcefulness in one direction. Chance? No way. In this situation, the Philistines themselves made it clear — through the “impossible” task they gave to two milk cows that would never leave their young. Except they did.
This text says more than “God is in control.” This text says something about where God wants to be and how determined He is to be there. Chance? Not when it comes to being with His people.
Not chance at all.
—Carla Gober-Park, PhD, MS, MPH, RN, is assistant vice president for Spiritual Life and Mission at Loma Linda University Health, as well as director of the Center for Spiritual Life and Wholeness.