David
consulted with every officer who commanded a regiment or battalion.
Then he told the whole assembly of Israel, “If you approve and if the
LORD our God has consented, we will send an invitation to the rest of
our relatives in every region of Israel and to the priests and Levites
in their cities and pasturelands so that they may join us. Then we’ll
bring back our God’s ark, which we ignored while Saul was king.” The
whole assembly agreed to this because the people considered it the
right thing to do. So David gathered all Israel from the Shihor River
near Egypt to the border of Hamath in order to bring God’s ark from
Kiriath Jearim. David and all Israel went to Baalah in Kiriath Jearim,
which is in Judah, to bring God’s ark to Jerusalem. (The LORD is
enthroned over the angels on the ark where his name is used.) David and
his men put God’s ark on a new cart from Abinadab’s home. Uzzah and
Ahio guided the cart. David and all Israel were celebrating in God’s
presence with all their might, with songs, with lyres, harps,
tambourines, cymbals, and trumpets. But when they came to Chidon’s
threshing floor, the oxen stumbled. So Uzzah reached out to grab the
ark. The LORD became angry with Uzzah and killed him for reaching for
the ark. He died in God’s presence. (1 Chronicles 13:1-10 God’s Word)
Can
you picture yourself in this scene? You (yes YOU) have received a
personal invitation from the KING to witness an historic event—the
return of the Ark of the Covenant, the very symbol of God’s Manifest
Presence among all of Israel. All of Israel has joined you as together
you journey to Abinadab’s house behind King David. As befitting the
occasion, King David has a brand new ox cart built to transport “the
box” in style. And off you go. Wildly dancing and celebrating. The band
has never sounded finer. You grab your tambourine and beat it for all
you’re worth. Life is good! You are caught up in the emotion, the
passion, the ecstasy, the power of the moment. Suddenly the procession
halts. Like a poisonous fog, a silent pall envelopes the column of
humanity from the front to the back.
What’s happening?
Slowly, the word is spread. Uzzah is dead. Uzzah, who, as one of
Abinidab’s sons, had lived with “the box” for the last twenty years.
Uzzah, who along with his brother, Ahio, had been given charge of the
move from Abinidab’s house to Jerusalem. Uzzah, who saw “the box” start
to tumble as the ox stumbled, and tried to save it. Uzzah—killed by God.
King David was furious. “How dare God rain on MY parade?” And then his
anger turned to fear. “If God killed Uzzah, might He not kill me, too?”
Time to re-group. David spied a house close by. “Who owns that house?”
he thundered. Sheepishly, Obed Edom raised his hand. “Here’s the deal,”
David said. “We’re going to drop the box off at your house and I
suggest you not touch that bad boy.”
“Uh, I don’t mean to
seem impertinent,” Obed Edom stammered, “but will you be coming back
any time soon?” No doubt he was remembering that the box stayed at
Abinidab’s house for twenty years. “I’ll get back to you on that,” the
King mumbled on his way out the door.
I don’t know about you,
but I’ve always found this story troubling. It seems to fly in the face
of virtually everything that we know or have learned about a loving,
caring God… Or does it? Let’s look back a bit.
God told Moses to build the Ark. In fact He said “Build me a sanctuary [Hebrew miqdâsh—a consecrated thing or place], that
I may dwell in their midst.” “According to all which I am going to
reveal to you, the plan of the tabernacle, and the plan of all its
vessels, even so you shall do” (Exodus 25:9 LITV). And God proceeds to tell Moses exactly how to build the Ark. He goes on to say, “And
you shall cast four rings of gold for it, and shall put it on its four
feet; two rings on the one side, and two rings on the second side. And
you shall make poles of acacia wood, and you shall overlay them with
gold. And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the
ark, to carry the ark by them. The poles shall be in the rings of the ark; they shall not depart from it.
And I will meet you there, and will speak with you, above the
mercyseat, from between the two cherubs which are on the ark of
testimony, all which I shall command you concerning the sons of
Israel.” (Exodus 25:12-15, 22 LITV) He then prescribed how it was to be transported from place to place. “When
Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy things and the camp
is ready to move, the Kohathites will come to carry all the holy
articles. They must never touch the holy things, or they will die. The Kohathites will carry all the things from the tent of meeting” (Numbers 4:15 GW).
These were heady times in the life of King David. He had first been
anointed King over Judah and then all of Israel. He captured the city
of Jebus and built a fortress-city (Jerusalem) around it. 2 Samuel 5:12 says: “So
David realized that the LORD had established him as king of Israel and
made his kingship famous for the sake of Israel, the LORD’S people.” The very next verse gives us a little insight. “David
married more concubines and wives from Jerusalem after he had come
there from Hebron, and he fathered more sons and daughters” (2 Samuel 5:13).
Twice the Philistines attacked and twice David beat them back after
consulting the Lord. And yet—the scripture tells us that David
consulted everybody but the Lord about retrieving “the box.”
Now this may be pure speculation on my part, but I think that David just may have been building his kingdom and not God’s. He attempted to create an event—and cost Uzzah his life.
Three months later, David tried again. Only this time he was determined to honor God. No more ox cart. “So
the priests and the Levites made themselves holy in order to move the
ark of the LORD God of Israel. The Levites carried God’s ark on their
shoulders. They used poles as Moses had commanded according to the
LORD’S instructions” (1 Chronicles 15:14-15 GW).
But the most compelling part of the story is this: David divested
himself of his royal robes and donned the garment of a priest; a linen
ephod. He laid down king and took up priest; laid down ruler and took
up servant.
The counsel of men gave him the wisdom of the
world (use an ox cart; make a show; exalt your position). The counsel
of God made him look like a fool. But because he honored God, God
honored him.
The parallel is this: The Ark symbolizes the
manifest presence of God. Our worship ushers in the manifest presence
of God. Do we treat it like a box on a cart? Or do we truly honor God
with our worship? Are we building our kingdom or God’s?
Jesus answered, “Isaiah
was right about frauds like you, hit the bull’s-eye in fact: These
people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn’t
in it. They act like they are worshiping me, but they don’t mean it.
They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy” (Mark 7:6-7 MSG).
The
house we are renting sits on property that has horses on it. During
most of my youth, my family had horses and I really enjoy this perk. It
has been a joy having horses around. We don’t ride them, but we do keep
an unofficial eye on them. It has also been incredible to watch our
landlord’s daughter, Stacy, care and ride her horses. But recently we
had one of those days that we would like NOT to repeat.
We
are in the midst of what we call “Carolina winter weather”—cold and
rainy. As we do almost every morning, Les and I walked down the drive
(1/5 of a mile) to get the newspaper. The horse paddocks run along the
side of the drive. We noticed one of the horses lying down. As we
walked by, we yelled at her and the horse raised her head, so we
thought we would give her a few minutes before checking on her again.
Now horses do lie down, but not for long periods of time. We waited 30
minutes and were about to check on her when we noticed Stacy was out
checking on her horses. We all three went to check on this horse and
found that she was in serious crisis. The horse had colic, and at first
we couldn’t even get her up. Finally we forced her up, and because of
my experiences as a youth, I instantly KNEW she had to keep walking.
For
the next hour or so we walked this horse. One person had to be in front
to lead her, and one had to be in the back to hit her (yes, we all
hated hitting a sick horse) when she would try to lay down. It was 30
degrees, raining, and just plain miserable. During this time, Stacy
even gave the horse a shot of some colic medicine, but she was not
improving. I think we all three KNEW the situation was grave, and we
wanted to make a difference in what we were afraid the outcome would
be. We were also waiting for two things—the owner to get there, and,
more importantly, the vet to get there.
During the whole
time we were walking, the Lord was ministering to me about the
spiritual truth in what we were doing. You see when horses colic they
do what feels better to them. They lay down, and then they roll around.
This is the worst thing that they can do. Horse intestines will get
twisted when they do this. The same could be said for our Christian
lives. When we go into crisis, we want to do what “feels” good. It
doesn’t matter whether it is a physical ailment, emotional ailment, or
spiritual ailment, we usually don’t want to do “spiritual things.”
Instead we will lie down and read a good novel (usually not Christian),
or turn the TV on (not Christian) and can’t figure out why we don’t
improve. We can’t lie down and roll in whatever our symptoms are. I am
not saying that if you have the flu, you shouldn’t get extra rest, or
go to the doctor. But if we get the flu, we need to cut off the
boob-tube and either read The Word, listen to healing CDs, or listen to
praise and worship music. Yes, even if we sleep we need to have those
things playing in the background. Usually, we will find that “God
Things” are the last things we want to do. Our nature is to do what
feels best to us. But, as it is a healing thing for a horse to walk
when it colics, it is a healing thing to have God’s Word spoken to us.
I
know you want to know about the horse. Unfortunately because the horse
had been rolling for too long, the vet couldn’t do anything to help
her. The vet worked on her for two to three hours, but in the end, the
horse had to be put to sleep.
I know it is a very sad story,
but it is much sadder to see our brothers and sisters fall away from
the Lord. Sometimes we see the warning signs, but feel that it is none
of our business. Instead, we need be willing to walk with each other,
and when needed, firmly encourage one another to keep walking with the
Lord. Which would you rather? A person who will speak life to you even
when you want to lie down in your problems or someone who will let you
do what feels good, even though it may kill you?
If you
don’t have people in your life that will encourage you in the Lord,
pray today for God to send them to you. They may not be the type of
people that you have anything in common with besides the Lord; they may
not be the type of people you socialize with. But, a covenant partner
is a GREATER blessing than a friend that will let you lose site of your
walk with the Lord.
“Let’s see how inventive we can be in
encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as
some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day
approaching. If we give up and turn our backs on all we’ve learned, all
we’ve been given, all the truth we now know, we repudiate Christ’s
sacrifice and are left on our own to face the Judgment—and a mighty
fierce judgment it will be!” (Hebrews 10:24-27)
Let us teach you to walk by faith not by sight
http://www.itsyournet.com/go/17536am/index.html
Kathy Hamilton/simikathy.com