Just knowing about God doesn’t mean you belong to God. The Philistines desperately wanted to get rid of the Ark of the Covenant which they had captured in battle (I Samuel 4:11) because every city to which it had been taken had been stricken with disease (I Samuel 5:6, 9, 12).

But how could they be sure that all these plagues hadn’t just happened by chance (I Samuel 6:9)? Their priests suggested a foolproof test: take two cows who had never been used as draft animals before, and that nursing calves. Hitch these two cows to a cart and put the ark on it (I Samuel 6:7-8). Untrained as they were, their natural inclination would be to struggle against the yoke, pulling in different directions so that the cart wouldn’t go anywhere. And if they did manage to figure out how to work in tandem, they would try to head back to their pasture to find their calves. But if the two cows worked together to pull the cart away from their calves and back to the land of Israel, there could be only one explanation – the power of the Israelites’ God must be at work (I Samuel 6:9).

Well, the cows went to Israel. And this confirmed what the Philistines had learned both from history and experience – that it was the God of the Israelites Who had sent mighty plagues not only on them but on the Egyptians so many years before (I Samuel 6:6). So as the five lords of the Philistines watched the cows go to Beth-shemesh, as they saw the people there rejoicing and making sacrifices to God, they could no longer reasonably doubt His presence and His power.

But instead of going down and joining in the festival, instead of admitting that the God of Israel had truly bested them, I Samuel 6:16 simply says that they returned to Ekron. In spite of everything they knew, in spite of what they had seen with their own eyes, they refused to surrender to God.

What about us? Sure, we know a lot about God. We know about the cross of Christ and the empty tomb. History testifies that His Resurrection transformed His disciples, making them willing to die rather than to deny Him. We’ve seen God at work for 2000 years, spreading the truth and light of the gospel around the world. Moreover, we can all testify to the many ways in which God has answered our personal prayers.

But today, will we move from mere knowledge to faith? Will we turn away from our doubts and fears, from all those things that are holding us back and keeping us down? Will we trust His power and submit to His authority? It’s really the only reasonable thing to do.

I Samuel 6:6-16 (NASB)

6 “Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He had severely dealt with them, did they not allow the people to go, and they departed? 7 “Now therefore take and prepare a new cart and two milch cows on which there has never been a yoke; and hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves home, away from them. 8 “And take the ark of the LORD and place it on the cart; and put the articles of gold which you return to Him as a guilt offering in a box by its side. Then send it away that it may go. 9 “And watch, if it goes up by the way of its own territory to Beth-shemesh, then He has done us this great evil. But if not, then we shall know that it was not His hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance.”
10 Then the men did so, and took two milch cows and hitched them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home. 11 And they put the ark of the LORD on the cart, and the box with the golden mice and the likenesses of their tumors. 12 And the cows took the straight way in the direction of Beth-shemesh; they went along the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right or to the left. And the lords of the Philistines followed them to the border of Beth-shemesh. 13 Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley, and they raised their eyes and saw the ark and were glad to see it. 14 And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite and stood there where there was a large stone; and they split the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD. 15 And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD and the box that was with it, in which were the articles of gold, and put them on the large stone; and the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices that day to the LORD. 16 And when the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned to Ekron that day.