1

The Cow Goes Straight to Beth Shemesh, Not Turning Left or Right

2

Bible verse : 1 Samuel 6:12 (NIV)

Then the cows went straight up toward Beth Shemesh,
keeping on the road and lowing all the way;
they did not turn to the right or to the left.
The rulers of the Philistines followed them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh.

3

High Priest Eli, who was a judge of Israel, and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, did not practice right faith before God.
God was not with Israel in the war against the Philistines because of their sins.
In the end, Israel lost the war and the Ark of the Covenant was taken.
The ark was in the land of the Philistines for 7 months.

4

During the 7 months that the Ark of the Covenant stayed in Philistia, terrible things happened there. The statue of Dagon fell and shattered into pieces.
Also, boils broke out on the skin of people there, and many people died.

5

The Philistines thought that they should no longer place the ark of God on their land. They called the fortune-tellers and sorcerers in the Philistines together and discussed how to return the ark.

6

The Philistine priests and fortune-tellers told their leaders to quickly return the ark to Israel. They feared that if they persisted in keeping the ark, they would suffer the same fate as Pharaoh of old Egypt. The leaders of the Philistines decided to do what they said and return the ark to the land of Israel.

7

They built a new wagon to carry the ark. And they made a gold guilt offering on the cart to acknowledge their fault and ask for forgiveness, and put it on the cart as an offering to God.
The guilt offerings they offered were five gold tumors and five gold rats in the form of boils on the skin of people in the place where the ark of God was staying.

8

They got a new cart ready, with two cows that have calved and have never been yoked.
Hitch the cows to the cart, but took their calves away cowshed and pen them up.

9

They decided to admit that if these oxen drove the cart right to the land of Israel, then everything that had happened was God's punishment for them because of the ark. But if these mother cows did not go the right way because they wanted to see their calves, they decided to assume that everything that had happened so far was a coincidence.

10

The cart carrying the ark started while the Philistines watched. But something amazing happened.
These cows, who had never put on a cart and had just given birth, pulled the cart and headed for the Land of Israel without straying from the road.
With that, it was proved that what had happened in the land of the Philistines was what God had done.

11

The cart went straight to the land of Beth Shemesh and stopped by a large rock in the field of a man named Joshua. When the people of Beth Shemesh saw the return of the ark of God, they rejoiced greatly.

12

People cut the wood of the cart and slaughtered the oxen and offered them as sacrifices to God. The Levites set down the ark of God on the rock and the golden rats and the golden tumors. And they offered sacrifices to God with joy.

13

The five kings of the Philistines watched all these scenes and were able to confirm that God had punished them. They then returned to their land.
God revealed what God has done through the oxen pulling the cart.

14

However, there were people from Beth Shemesh who were curious about what the Ark of God looked like. They made the mistake of looking into the ark of God out of curiosity. God was angry with them for their wrong actions.
Because of that incident, many Bethshemesh people died on the spot.

15

The people of Bethshemesh were covenant people who served God, but they could not overcome their curiosity and violated God's law, and were severely punished and died. They recklessly did what God forbade, and thus covered the glory of God.

16

The more people serve God, the more they value God's Word and take care of their hearts and actions in front of God.
That is correct faith. Rather, it is right to keep His word with an attitude of respecting and fearing God more. However, the people of Beth Shemesh committed the blasphemous sin of looking into the ark of God out of misguided curiosity, and were severely punished.

17

God showed that He is the King of the universe and the Lord of all the earth in the land of Beth Shemesh.
Everyone on earth should exalt God and serve Him. In particular, we who have received the grace of salvation by sending Jesus to this earth and bestowed upon us by the love of the cross must serve God with all our hearts, minds, and lives. We must not fall into the sin of taking the word of God lightly like the people of Beth Shemesh.
We must always seek the help of the Holy Spirit and live cautiously so that we can become people of faith who do not do anything that covers the glory of God under any circumstances.

(This is the sample conclusion provided by CTM. Please feel free to change the conclusion to best suit the listeners of your sermon.)