My mom came for a visit last week!

2 Samuel 6, cont.

It seemed right to David to move the ark of the Covenant, the representation of the glory of God, from obscurity to the city of Jerusalem. The ark had been taken by the Philistines in battle after defeating the Israelites. This was a low point in Israel’s history. The glory of God had departed. The Philistines eventually gave it back to Israel because of the death and disaster it caused among the Philistines wherever the ark resided. Saul took it back but left it alone and did not seek God. (If we could give Saul a middle name, it would be “did not seek God”).  David is now the anointed and recognized king of Israel and he was called to restore Israel to place of honor that glorifies the God of the nation. So, he and his chosen men go to fetch the ark.

Can’t touch this!

There were strict instructions going back to the time of Moses for transporting the ark…but it seems David’s men were a little rusty. Along the way, the ark became unsteady and one of the men, Uzzah, carrying it reached out his hand to take hold of the ark. Because of that, “the anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah, and God struck him down there for his irreverence; and he died there by the ark of God,” 6:7. This is one of those head scratchers. I mean “REALLY God???”. It seemed Uzzah was following an impulse spawned by good intentions??? I don’t get it but God’s anger doesn’t burn unjustly so there must have been more than meets the eye.

Why God?

David responded in a similar way as we would have. V8 says “David became angry because of the Lord’s outburst against Uzzah…so David was afraid of the Lord that day.” This is a difficult passage because it’s not exactly clear as to the source of God’s anger. Was it simply because Uzzah touched the ark? Was Uzzah being irreverent, making jokes, being careless while he was walking? Was God already angry because the men were careless in the other instructions of how to carry the ark and he just took it out on Uzzah? I’m not completely sure but I do know that I have enough faith in the character of God to know that His anger is always pure and justified. A skeptic, agnostic or atheist would laugh at me for such faith, but that’s okay. So whatever God’s true and faithful motives were that day, it put the fear of God into David and he needed that reverence to be rekindled. For he was now king over all of Israel and God was showing much favor toward him. His fame and wealth were growing significantly. The men and women that God blesses and uses are to be humble.

The throne of grace

In closing, let’s be thankful that in Christ, the presence of God is not in an ark. His presence is with us and in us. And when we approach the presence of God, we don’t fear the anger of God because it is the throne of grace. Hebrews 4:16 says, “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Lord, we are so thankful for Your grace and mercy toward us. May we draw near always and often with the proper balance of confidence and humility. Amen!