As I have been writing recently on First Samuel, I have been struck by the actions of the two milking cows that are mentioned in chapter 6 of that book. Their actions came as a challenge to me, and made me feel a sense of shame, and the question came to me, and I feel burdened to share this with my many brothers and sisters. Would I, would you be willing to do what they did?

There was at least one other occasion when the ‘dumb animals’ showed that they had more common sense than men who were created in the image of God. I refer to the time of the flood when Noah built the ark. Noah had been building the Ark for at least 120 years. It is quite probable that during that time he was assisted by many people. Because it seems most unlikely that four men could build such a huge ship as the Ark was, unaided, even in 120 years. However as Noah built he peached about the oncoming judgment. He must have drawn the attention of lost men to the only way of salvation from the coming judgment. He must also have pleaded with those that heard him, to repent of their sin. He pleaded with lost men to take advantage of the way of salvation that God had provided, from the judgment to come. But how many believed his message? How many entered the Ark with him? Not one! Only those of his own family entered, in spite of his preaching, and his godly life also.

But the ‘dumb animals’ were different. They had no one to preach to them. Noah did not have to gather then, or to drive them, they came willingly, of their own choice. They obeyed the voice of the instinct that God had placed within them. They were saved from judgment, and came through the deluge to replenish the earth once again. This is a sad commentary on man’s stubbornness and his stupidity.

The Ark was in the land of the Philistines for seven months. These were months of terror, death and misery. First their fish god Dagon was broken, then, God’s hand of judgment was on all of their gods. One god after another came under the judgmental hand of the mighty Jehovah, wherever the Ark was sent, because the Ark was a symbol of the presence of the Almighty. But though this was a cause of great trouble to all these superstitious people, yet God’s hand of judgment was upon them also. The men, who were probably homosexuals, were smitten with ‘Emerods’, or tumours, or haemorrhoids, in their secret parts. This would make anal intercourse either torturous, or impossible, thus their pleasures were spoiled. Rats or mice, (the Hebrew word is the same for both), ruined their crops, and spread disease amongst the people, (probably the plague). So that during that seven months it is probable that more than fifty thousand of their men died, besides women and children.

At last after moving the Ark from place to place, and spreading the disease and death that it brought with it; the Lords of the Philistines, (though loathe to let it go), were compelled to hold a special meeting with their religious leaders to decide what to do with it.

These religious leaders, though pagan idolaters, yet they had a greater sense of the holiness of God, than His own people Israel did. They discerned that the Lords of the Philistines had grossly offended the Great God of Israel, and they must not only return the Ark, but they must also make a trespass offering, in the form of gold jewels, which were copies of their haemorrhoids, or tumours, and also of the rats or mice that had ruined their crops, and spread the plague amongst them.

The gods that they served were very vengeful beings and when offended demanded much sacrifice to assuage their anger. Ask any devout Hindu today and they will confirm this. Yet the people of Israel had no proper sense of the holiness of the true God, nor of what was due to Him. Though He had used the swords of the Philistines to slay more then 34,000 of their soldiers, and had allowed them to capture the Ark. Though their Tabernacle at Shiloh had been destroyed, yet even then it would seem that they were not troubled by it, but just submitted to the slavery of the Philistine Lords, and went back to planting their crops etc again, (as if nothing had happened).

Even though Samuel had itinerated amongst them, and had faithfully and powerfully presented the claims of God to them, yet they took no notice. But when the lying religious leaders of the Philistines instructed the Lords what they must do, they obeyed. The children of Israel paid no heed to what their God said to them, nor did they heed His warnings and commands given in His written word. What a shame and disgrace this was to the people of Israel, God’s chosen people! So the decision was made, the Ark was to be sent back along with the trespass offering. But it was to be done in such a way, that it would require just a miracle of God’s power to return it. For us the Ark represents the truth of the person of Christ, which He is Himself. John 14:6. The Philistines represent carnal and nominal Christians, like the big men at Corinth, who wanted to reign as kings, but without Paul. The Philistines were in the Promised Land, but it was never given to them, and they came into it the easy way, by ‘the way of the Philistines;’ it was ‘near’ and did not cross the Red Sea. The Philistines were the ‘Caphtorim’, and when the earth was divided in the days of Peleg, they were given the Island of Crete, (Caphtor). They outgrew their allotted inheritance, and some of them migrated to Egypt, (they were cousins to the Egyptians). They are pictured on the walls of some of the tombs of the Pharaohs as warriors. Later some of them migrated from Egypt, and settled in the coastal strip of the land of Canaan. So though they were dwelling in the Promised Land, it was never given to them, they were usurpers.

Similarly today, there are many in the public professing Church, who have never been born again. They have laid claims to doctrines and principles that are not theirs, the truth of the person of Christ is meant to be central in the Church of God, but what are we willing to do, or to suffer that He might be given His rightful place? These poor cows could teach us a lesson!

Though it was plain that the disaster that befell the Philistines was surely the judgment of Israel’s great God, yet these superstitious religious leaders were still willing to put it all down to chance, to ‘bad luck’. What they suggested to the Lords of the Philistines required nothing less than a divine miracle to come to pass, if the Ark was to be returned to its rightful place. They were to take two milking cows, that had never borne yoke, who’s wills had never been broken, that had never been trained in any way. They were to take their calves from them, and to shut them up at home. Under normal circumstances this would be a recipe for real trouble; for disaster. God has given to these poor creatures a very strong affection for their young. He also had a great respect for this affection, and went so far as to command that His people were never to seethe a kid in it’s mother’s milk. Exodus 23:19. Even the calf or lamb that was given to God had to be left with its mother for seven days, Exodus 22:30. In four places God gives strict instructions as to the mother, (whether bird or animal), as though the relationship and the affection that He had put into them was sacred in His sight. But for the Ark to be returned to God’s people, these poor dumb creatures must act contrary to the strong maternal instinct that God had placed with in them.

The challenge comes to me and to you are we prepared to put God first in our lives? Are we prepared to put Him and His interests before our children and their interests? The Lord Jesus said that "He that loveth son or daughter more than ME is not worthy of ME". Matthew 10:37. Do these poor dumb creatures put us to shame in this matter?

These two cows had enjoyed perfect freedom all their lives. They had grazed the pastures each day, letting their calves drink of their milk at will, but now this liberty was to be taken from them, they were to be tied to a horrible cart, a mechanical thing that was to trundle along behind them. To do this it meant that their wills must be totally yielded to the will of God. They had never borne a yoke before, they had never been trained in any way, yet under Divine control, they meekly surrendered the liberty that they had enjoyed all of their lives, they totally surrendered their wills to the will of their Creator, and stood quietly beside the pole of the cart while they were yoked together, and the yoke was fastened to the cart.

If left to themselves they would have naturally gone in different ways, but it was not so, they were governed now by the will of God. But what about you and me, how do we react when it comes to the test? By nature we love to do our own thing, to go our own way. Oh yes, when the will of God suits us, or fits in with our plans, then we will accept and do His will. But when His will cuts across our plans, when it demands that we give up our right to go our own way, what then? When we are willing to wholly surrender our wills to God, it is then that we taste perfect liberty. The Lord Jesus sets us free then, and when He sets us free we are really free. John 8:38.

These cows would have made such confusion and difficulty if they had each tried to go their own way. But having surrendered their wills to the control of their Creator, they then pulled together. We too can learn from them in this action also. There is tremendous latent strength, gift and ability amongst the people of God. But sadly too often this strength is dissipated, this gift is wasted because we pull against each other. Paul wrote to the Philippians urging them to "be striving together for the faith of the gospel", Philippians 1:27. There may be many reasons for this, but if we sift all to their basic reality, we find that the underlying cause is self, or egotism, the desire for a place of prominence, or of power. How we should be ashamed of ourselves if this is so. Thus these poor dumb creatures would put us to shame. Let us now humble ourselves and discard or renounce our selfish ambitions, let us pull together, so that the testimony may prosper; so that Christ may be returned to His rightful place!

These poor dumb creatures meekly took to the highway, the shortest route to the territory of Israel, the border of Bethshemesh. In so doing, they turned their backs on their own calves, and on the only place that they had ever known. They left the place where they had been born, and had grown up, to go to a place that they had never known before. They were not like so many young people amongst us today, who are inspired by the spirit of adventure, and a desire to travel, and to see other parts of the world.

But in going they did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. We are told that there were other road junctions at this place. They could have taken other routes that would have led them to other areas of the land occupied by the Philistines, but they resisted any desire to go any other way, than the way that the will of God had chosen for them. Neither were they distracted from this by the temptation to enjoy the lush green grass that may have been growing on either side of the road. They denied their natural liking for these tasty morsels, their only desire was to do the will of God, (their Creator).

Perhaps we can learn from them in this also. How often we put fun, excitement, entertainment, or enjoyment before our treading the highway of Divine Principles; the will of God. Do these poor creatures put us to shame in this also? Let us humble ourselves and confess our sin and failure to God! Let us get back to the path of God’s will. Let us seek to put Christ and His will first in our lives!

There are several places in the scripture where we are warned not to ‘turn to the right hand or to the left’. It seems that the middle path is the path of the will of God for us. I have often thought of this, and it seems to me that the first danger to those that are spiritual, and that wish to tread the path of the will of God, is to turn to the right. The right hand I would suggest is conservatism, legality that leads to religious hypocrisy, and to Phariseeism. It results in our imagining that we are more faithful than others. It leads us to refuse fellowship with other true believers, because they do not see things exactly as we do. It leads us to ‘strain at the gnat, but to swallow the camel’. The left hand is just the opposite, it is gross worldliness, revolution, the overthrow of accepted and proven values. It leads us into modernism, and liberalism.

When the Lord Jesus was here on earth, He had the Pharisees on the right hand, and the Sadducees on the left, but He had no close fellowship with either, but chose to tread the middle path of the will of God. Thus we see that turning aside from the path of the will of God, can be to spiritual extremes, not just worldly or sinful things.

Men love to have a visible leader or driver, but these poor cows had neither. There was none to crack the whip over them, or to shout instructions, to tell them which way to go, or not to go. The Lords of the Philistines walked behind the cart, no doubt marveling at the miracle that was unfolding before their eyes. It must have confounded their reason to see these dumb animals behave in such a way. The question for us to ask ourselves is ‘do we crave someone to show us the way’, ‘do we want some man to get out in front, and to tell us what we should do’? There are plenty who will grasp such an opportunity, to usurp authority and control over others. But let us always remember that we have only one Master or Leader, and He leads or controls us by His Spirit who indwells us. The Holy Spirit guides us through the word of God, the Bible, and never leads any child of God to walk in paths contrary to that word.

The cows pulled the cart with its precious burden to the exact spot that God had chosen. They came into the field of Joshua the Bethshemeshite, and stood still by a great stone. This was the only time that they left the highway. The men of Bethshemesh though they were glad to see the Ark thus returned to them; it is plain that they had not missed it. They had just continued with their daily routines of sowing and reaping, even though the symbol of the presence of God was not with them. More than twenty years were to pass before they began to miss the Ark, and to lament after it. 1Samuel, 7:2. So often Christian believers claim the promise of Matthew 18:20, without really asking ‘Is the Lord really amongst us?’ Too often (like Joseph and Mary), we ‘suppose that He is in the company’. If He is really with us, we need to see the display of His power and His grace. We need to sense and to enjoy the sweetness of His blessed presence.

It was God’s intention that ordinary people should never see the Ark. Normally it was seen only once a year by the High Priest, and even then he only saw it through the cloud of incense that enveloped him. When it was carried through the wilderness journey, it was always covered with numbers of cloths. However the Philistines knew nothing of these things, and the people of Israel had got far away from God, and were ignorant of what was written in the Law. But the Ark must have shone in all its golden glory in the sunshine as the reapers gazed at it.

The cows somehow knew that they had done the will of God, they had reached God’s end, they had brought the Ark back to its place, and to the people to whom it belonged. They stood still right beside the great stone in the field of Joshua. (The Jews believe that Abraham had built an altar on that stone centuries before). Strange men quickly surrounded them, but they never moved. Normally if a stranger enters a shed where cows are being milked, the cows immediately become upset. But these cows did not run away though approached by strangers, this was another miracle. They stood there while these strangers removed the Ark with the trespass offering from the cart, and the cart was broken up into firewood.

These poor creatures then performed their last act of devotion; they gave their lives, and stood there meekly while the Levites slaughtered them. They crowned all their devotion by allowing themselves to be offered as a burnt offering of thanksgiving.

You and I may never be asked to die for the Lord Jesus, (though many dear saints of His have done, and are doing that just that now, even as I write). But we are asked, and expected to live for Him who died for us. In Romans 12:1 & 2, Paul beseeches us to do that. He says "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God". Are we willing to do this? It is our reasonable service. There is nothing unreasonable in this that God should ask you and I to give back to Him that which He has bought for Himself with the precious blood of His only begotten Son. But if we are honest we will have to admit that mostly we are unwilling to do this. When we gather to remember the Lord Jesus in His death, it somehow (though it makes us sad), makes us feel good and even important to realize that Christ died for us. We hear Him say of the loaf, "This is My body, which is given for you". But do we ever hear the challenge from Him, "but what about your body?" We are told in Hebrews 10:10, that the will of God which He did in giving His body, sanctifies us, (the word means ‘set apart for holy purposes’). That is He set us apart for His pleasure, this is the end result of the outworking of the principle of sanctification.

May the Lord enable us to do just that, to lay ourselves upon the altar, to yield our whole lives to Him, who gave His whole life for us!

Let us then learn from the example of these poor dumb creatures. Where their example puts us to shame, then let us confess our failure in that point to our blessed Saviour Let us seek and receive His forgiveness and His cleansing. Let us cast our weakness upon His strength, so that He may be glorified in your life and mine, whatever it is that He asks us to do for Him.

May we be willing to give back to Him in total, joyful surrender, that life that He died to make His very own for eternity!

May His holy name be glorified!