In chapter six we see that the ark suffered another removal, from the Philistines back to Israel, arriving at Beth-shemesh. After the ark of Jehovah had been in the country of the Philistines seven months, the Philistines asked the priests and diviners to make known to them how they should send the ark forth to its place (vv. 1-2).
The ark was removed by the superstitious way of the Philistines, with five golden mice and five golden tumors, as a kind of trespass offering for God's forgiveness and for God's glory (vv. 3-5). The bringing out of the ark by the elders of Israel and the returning of the ark by the Philistines both were superstitious. There is superstition in every kind of religion. In the Lord's recovery we do not have superstition—we have the revelation from God's Word.
The Philistine priests told the men to put the ark of Jehovah on a new cart to which two milch cows were tied, and in a box by the side of the ark to place the articles of gold which they were returning to Jehovah as a trespass offering. Then they told them to send the ark away that it might go and to watch to see if it went toward its own border at Beth-shemesh. If it did so, that would be a sign that it was Jehovah who had done great harm to the Philistines (vv. 7-9). The men did as they were told, and the cows went straight in the way toward Beth-shemesh. "Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. And when they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, they rejoiced to see it" (v. 13). The Levites took down the ark of Jehovah and the box that was with it, and "the men of Beth-shemesh offered up burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices that day to Jehovah" (v. 15).
God kept the holiness of His ark, so that it was taken to Kiriath-jearim and abode there for twenty years until all the house of Israel lamented after Jehovah (v. 19—7:2).
Verse 19 tells us that Jehovah "struck the men of Beth-shemesh because they looked into the ark of Jehovah; and He struck seventy men among the people" (v. 19a). Due to their looseness in dealing with the ark, these seventy men were killed. This shows us that we should not be loose in dealing with the ark. As we have pointed out, the ark is the presence of God for the purpose of accomplishing His economy. God had brought the people of Israel out of Egypt and had trained them at Mount Sinai, charging them to build the tabernacle with the ark, so that it would be made known that God was carrying out His economy. The ark was not for their prosperity, protection, safety, or healing—it was for God's economy. However, at Samuel's time the elders of Israel had no regard for this but only for their own profit and protection. They considered that everything was theirs, and they even usurped God. Nevertheless, God protected His holiness, not allowing the Philistines or the people of Beth-shemesh to do whatever they liked with the ark.
Eventually, the people of Beth-shemesh asked the people of Kiriath-jearim to come and take the ark (vv. 20-21), and the ark remained there for twenty years (7:1-2). Although the ark returned to Israel and was under the care of the proper priesthood, the ark still did not go back to the tabernacle at Shiloh. This was an abnormal situation. While Samuel grew up in the tabernacle, the ark remained in Kiriath-jearim for twenty years until all the house of Israel lamented after Jehovah (v. 2).