Walk of Carelessness

WALKING WITH GOD. No.23

2 Sam 6:7 The LORD’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God.

There are some passages of Scripture that make you gulp, and this is one of them, especially when you consider how we sometimes think about our ‘worship services’ today. We need to get the full picture of what was happening here to appreciate this. The ark of God was a box covered in gold which had resided in the innermost part of the tabernacle. Originally it had housed the Ten Commandments and Aaron’s rod that had budded. It was in the innermost place where the presence of God was said to reside and God’s glory hovered above it. It thus came to be associated with the presence of God. In the time of Eli and Samuel it had been taken foolishly by the Israelites into battle, almost as a good luck charm, and had been captured by the Philistines. There followed a time of misfortune for whichever Philistines looked after it until it was eventually sent back to Israel. Thus the Lord conveyed a sense that it was holy and not to be messed about with. In the wilderness wanderings it had only been allowed to be carried by the Levites. When it had been brought back from the Philistines it was put in the Tabernacle which had been set up at Shiloh and there it remained until the time of King David who had made Jerusalem the capital city of Israel.

Thus we come to chapter 6 of 2 Samuel when David decides to take the ark to Jerusalem. They put it on a new cart pulled by two oxen and with a large fighting force and a big band, they set off for Jerusalem with great celebrations. In fact we read, “David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the LORD, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals.” (v.5). This was one serious celebration! The only trouble was the Lord spoilt it!   At one point in the journey to Jerusalem, the oxen stumbled and the ark looked like it would slide off the cart. To stop this happening one of the attendants, Uzzah, reached out to push it back on. Instantly he was struck dead. Suddenly the celebrations stopped.

David’s initial reaction was one of anger. Why should the Lord do this? They were, after all, celebrating with all their might and he had had a good heart in his intention to bring the ark to Jerusalem, so why has God gone this? But as he thought about it his anger gave way to fear, as he began to realize that he was dealing with a holy God. This had in fact been a walk of carelessness. Later, as he thought about it, he realised that God had said the ark should only be carried by Levites, and he hadn’t bothered with that. The ark should have been given reverence but he hadn’t done that. He had in fact, been careless about how he dealt with things pertaining to the Lord, and that left him in fear. How could he ever bring the ark to Jerusalem?

The ark had been left at the nearby home of one of the Israelites and God blessed that household. When David realised that the ark brought blessing he realised that God would in fact bless him if he handled it right. Thus we find that when David tried again to bring it to Jerusalem, he had it carried as it should have been and as they carried it, they sacrificed offerings to the Lord all along the way. In this way they showed their reverence for the Lord and in this way they came safely to Jerusalem.

Now the question must arise, how do we do things pertaining to the Lord? How do we come together, how do we pray, how do we worship? Because God is described in the New Testament by Jesus as our Father, and even daddy, we sometimes perhaps treat God as our best friend and lose something of His holiness and majesty. Do we come casually and with little preparation? Are we careless and thoughtless about how we approach the Lord? When the apostle Paul was talking to the Corinthian church about the Lord’s Supper (see 1 Cor 11) he chided them for the careless way they were coming to Communion (v.21) and pointed out to them that as a result many among them were weak and sick and some had even died! (v.30).

Now I wonder how often you have heard that preached? Some in the New Testament church were dying because of the way they were treating the Lord’s Supper! That raises a further question: are there people ill or dying in our congregations because they are casual about how they treat God? This is a serious question, and it raises a number of further questions, which we haven’t space to answer here. However, both the Old and New Testaments testify to this fact, that God deals with unrighteous and ungodly attitudes in respect of things we should consider holy. As we said at the beginning, these are passages that make one gulp. Don’t be careless with God! Realise again, that we only come into the Lord’s presence without being destroyed, because of what Jesus achieved on the Cross at Calvary.  Remember that.

We do need to hold the balance: God is our Father, a loving Father, but we do need to hold onto the truth that He is holy and pure and He knows best the way He has designed the world to be. Sometimes, to make the point, He will take people prematurely from this earth into their eternity. Always hold the bigger picture; this earth is not the end, merely a temporary staging post if you like, where part of God’s plan is that we learn that we are designed in specific ways for good and He does know best.