Week 14 I-II Samuel
Israel was battling the Philistines. Idiotically they decided to take the ark of the covenant into battle – a kind of big, good-luck charm.
The Philistines won anyway. Even worse, they captured the ark.
The ark landed in Ashdod. Right away an epidemic began. People died. As pre-scientifically dopey as the Ashdod Philistines were they started putting two-&-two together.
They shipped the ark to Gath. Epidemic arrived in Gath.
Gath shipped the ark to Ekron. Epidemic ravaged Ekron.
It seemed pretty clear: the ark was a health hazard. But they decided to run a more definitive social scientific-type case study to test the link between the ark and the plague. They put the ark on a cart and pointed the cows toward Israel. The logic was that if the cows left Ekron then: we will know it was the Lord who brought this great disaster upon us. But if the cows did the natural thing and stayed home: we will know that the plague was simply a coincidence.
The Philistines proved to their satisfaction that the plague was not a chance epidemic. Which is all they wanted to know. Philistine theology seemed to be that geographic proximity was a factor for gods. Get far enough away and you’re safe. Which is a pretty handy idea. A god who could transcend distance would obviously be a bit more of a concern.
Note: quotes from I Samuel 6:9 (NLT version). The ark is described back in Exodus 25-27.