Why do people pray to God in Heaven if they are unbelievers? Just something interesting to think about. Incidentally, the answer is; because He is so undeniable, and the fear of the Lord is the only hope of humankind ... He IS their maker. Even people who claim not to believe, still have the instinct ... The understanding that He is REAL, though they may deny it consciously, but again ... Instinctively, the human creature knows that GOD EXISTS, because we are created by Him. Take a look at what is written in the book Isaiah:

In modern English ... Anguish will come to those who try and hide their plans from the Lord, and secretly they think that nobody knows their intents. Their backward thinking is viewed as potter's clay (of which form the potter can change, any time HE pleases), after all, can any object say concerning HIM that made it, HE didn't make me? or can a thing that is formed say concerning HIM that formed it, HE didn't know what HE was doing?

Another thing to remember, is that many people are believers in God, just not worshippers of Him ... Like the Philistines. Very sad, but true.

Now, back to our story.

For seven months, the Ark was in the country of the Philistines, and there was uncertainty among them as to what they should do with the Ark, because some believed that their misfortune was of the hand of the Lord, and others credited it all to happenstance, so they called together their priests and diviners (those who they thought had special intuition or supernatural power of understanding), to ask what to do, and how they should go about returning the Ark to the Israelites. Their advice was to send the Ark back to the people of Israel. They advised not to send it back empty, but with a trespass offering. Again, why would the Philistines send an offering to God if they didn't believe in Him?

What was this offering that their "prudent" men and priests advised the Philistines to send? Five golden emerods (honestly), and five golden mice (representing an offering for each of the five Philistine lords and their people). They also suggested that just as the plagues of the Egyptians departed when God's people were freed, perhaps the plagues of the Philistines would vanish likewise, once they returned the Ark. 

So the Philistines followed the advice of their counselors and made a new cart on which to return the Ark. They made their golden emerods and mice and laid them in a chest upon the cart with the Ark, and sent the Ark of God on it's way, being driven of two milk cows, separating their calves from them as not to encourage them in any way. Their conclusion was that if the cows led the Ark up to Bethshemesh, then all the evil that befell them was of God's hand, but if not, they would surmise that all that had happened was purely by chance. (Why Bethshemesh? Because it would be the obvious route to take when departing the countries of the Philistines, if one's destination was an Israelite city.)

Well, guess what. Those cows went straight on to Bethshemesh, just a lowing as they went, and didn't stray to the right or to the left. The Philistines followed, of course, to the border of the town to see if they would change course, but they did not.

For the people of Bethshemesh (which was a town of Judah, by the way), this was a sight to see ... Their beloved Ark of God, returning to them as they were harvesting wheat in the valley! The milk cows brought the Ark to the field of one Joshua, where it stood still, and there was a great stone there. The people split the wood of the cart and offered the milk cows as a burnt offering to the Lord, and the people of Bethshemesh offered sacrifice. When the five lords of the Philistines saw all of this, they returned to Ekron that same day.