The answer is: It was carried on a cart pulled by cows

1 Samuel 6:10-12 - The cows pulled the cart along the road to Beth Shemesh

Pretend you're living back in ancient Israel during a pretty kooky moment in history! The Philistines had captured the Ark of the Covenant, a symbol of God's presence and divine guidance to the Israelites. After some really bad luck, plagues, and a good bit of panic, they decided it was time to send the ark back home. Here's where it gets even more interesting—how it was returned!

When the Philistines needed a way to transport this sacred item, they went for a method that might just make you scratch your head: a cart drawn by cows! And these weren’t just any cows. The story records that they selected two milking cows that had just calved. Typical cow behavior says they'd want to go back to their calves, so it was quite a leap of faith or divine intervention that these cows stayed the course all the way to Beth Shemesh! Sticking their noses toward the destination where the Israelites were longing to see their prized possession again, these cows seemed to have a compulsion from beyond themselves.

This story resonates strongly with the old saying that God can use even seemingly unqualified elements of creation to fulfill divine purposes. It tells us that God’s ways aren’t always linear or what we might expect—think of all that funky noise and the commotion that brought the profound return of this cherished symbol back to the people! Now that’s what you call divine delivery service!