1 Samuel 6:17-18. After capturing the ark of the covenant in battle, the Philistines are plagued with many torments, among them tumors and apparently a mouse infestation (that was probably causing the spread of the illness!) The called together their priests and diviners and asked what to do. They were told that if they sent the ark back to the Israelites, they must send it with a guilt offering of golden tumors and golden mice. So they did. This passage sets forth the number of golden tumors and mice returned with the ark, and concludes by saying the great stone beside which they had placed the ark remains as a witness to this day.

This is only a small part of the rather clever plan the Philistines came up with to return the ark and decide whether it was truly the God of the Israelites who was plaguing them. As the story goes on we see that it was clearly the right thing to do (God speaks even to the Philistines and their diviners when he wants to)! But I picture the Israelites getting back the ark along with golden tumors and mice (what does a golden tumor even look like?!) They must have been scratching their heads!

It seems almost wasteful to make gold into a tumor shape (although I guess it can always be melted down and recast), but this is what God wanted. Why? Perhaps because it shows that, as valuable as gold is to us, God's creation is even more valuable. Even tumors are a part of God's creation, as weird as that sounds. So how do you rid yourself of the parts of creation that are plaguing you due to your disrespect of the one true God? By acknowledging that you have done wrong and offering a guilt offering. The guilt offering should represent the fact that you are now giving God proper respect. Since God loves all of his creation, making valuable golden images of the "bad" things shows that you are offering your wealth as subservient to God's creation. You are giving your wealth back to God in a humble way by representing the things that you see as having no value, or even as being evil in and of themselves. You are crafting an image of the things that God has allowed to plague you.

God does not need any of this, but by doing it you are showing that you "get it," you know that God has allowed these plagues, you know that you brought them on yourself with your hubris, and you now repent and offer you wealth back to God in a humble way.