Bede : The Levites, however, laid down the Ark of God, etc. Ministers of the word, receiving faith and examples of the lives of saints from those who have preceded in Christ, did not place these things in some base and lowly earthly breast, but in those which they saw as firm in Christ. That great stone can be not inappropriately referred to the people who glory in the law (for the law is written on stone); and the ark placed upon the stone may be understood, when the people emulating the law have received the faith of grace. — Commentary on Samuel Bede : But the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings, etc. Whosoever belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its vices and desires (Gal. V). And elsewhere: I beseech you, he says, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God (Rom. XII). — Commentary on Samuel Gregory the Dialogist : 26. The Levites are interpreted as "the assumed." Who then are the Levites, except those who are so confirmed by divine grace that they can never be forsaken by the Holy Spirit? Indeed, the Levites set down the ark when perfect preachers admonish their subjects, so that spiritual knowledge may in no way puff them up. They also set down the box with the golden vessels when they likewise address them concerning the splendor of life, so that they may think more humbly of themselves, inasmuch as each of them has learned that our Redeemer attained the reward of His exaltation because He did not vainly think lofty things of Himself. Well therefore is it recorded that the ark was set down and the golden vessels placed upon a great stone: because amid sublime gifts, those can more truly think humbly of themselves who have learned more frequently to recall the greatness and humility of the Redeemer. For he wished to set down the ark of God and place it upon a great stone, who said: "Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and found in appearance as a man; He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:5). But those who sacrifice to God a victim of love from the hearts of their subjects through the ministry of preaching also present from their own minds far more excellent gifts of offerings. Whence it is also added: "And the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed sacrifices on that day unto the Lord." 27. On what day, unless on that day on which they placed the cows as a holocaust to the Lord upon the wood of the cart? What then is that day, unless the illumination of divine preaching? For on that day the Bethshemites offer holocausts to the Lord, on that day they immolate victims when they cut the wood, when they place the cows upon it as a holocaust to the Lord; because holy preachers, by that light of the word by which they shine forth to their subjects, also furnish to themselves the office of vision for the rectitude of the heavenly journey, and despising the lowest things, through the force of love they offer themselves to almighty God all the more freely, the more they see their hearers already joined to Him in great intimacy. Because indeed the men of Bethshemesh are reported not only to have offered holocausts but also to have immolated victims, the spiritual oblation of perfect men is signified. For they offer holocausts when through the ascent of contemplation they unite themselves to almighty God with ineffable affection. But they join victims to the holocausts, because indeed they attribute the good of so great a joy not to their own merits but to divine goodness. He indeed offers a holocaust without victims who is already joined to heavenly things in great delight, yet when the movements of hidden pride arise, he by no means overcomes them through the virtue of humility. In the oblations of the perfect, therefore, holocausts and victims are described as having come together, because they are both worthy to enjoy divine sweetness, and in all that by which they already make themselves wholly heavenly, they are ignorant of pride. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 3, Chapter 4