Uzzah and the Ark of the Covenant

Introduction

Well, good morning to everyone. What a glorious morning. A glorious day it is that we can gather like this and worship together in like mind and in like heart and like faith with one another. We welcome all who are uh visiting, and uh we always have visitors uh every Sunday. So, those of you who are visiting, uh we we are so glad that you’re here, and we uh we look forward to uh to worshiping with you today and to getting to know you better. I want to talk to you today about Uzzah and the Ark of the Covenant, the danger of ignoring the authority of Scripture. And if we’re not going up there with that, it’s okay. You’re just gonna have to listen real well if you have your little paper that you’re supposed to fill in.

Okay.

And it was meant for tabernacle worship. It was in the Holy of Holies. It was a box, more or less, uh, that contained the Ten Commandments, the tablets, and Hebrews 9 mentions a couple of other things that at some point appears to have been also kept in there. It was plated with gold, and on the top, there were these two cherubim or these spirit beings, and these were images of these beings, and their wings faced one another, and they faced one another. And God would speak to Moses, for example, from that spot. And he was symbolically enthroned above the cherubim. This is a very important item. In the days of Samuel, the Philistines were battling with the Israelites. And if you recall, Terry Francis preached on this a couple of weeks ago that the Israelites were defeated, and they thought, well, the reason we were defeated is we didn’t have the Ark of the Covenant.

So let’s go get it, and we’ll win if we have that. And they do not, they lose. And the Philistines take the ark and put it in the temple of Dagon. You remember that? And my boys love this story of in the morning, Dagon, poor Dagon, had fallen on his face. And oh, well, our God can’t get up by himself, so let’s lift him back up. Okay. Well, then the next morning he had fell fallen again and lost his head and lost his hands, and all he had was his trunk. Well, things started happening to the Philistines. Tumors started breaking out on the people. And well, we got to get rid of this thing. So they kind of passed it from one place to another and one place to another like a hot potato.

I don’t want this thing because bad things are happening when we have this thing in our possession in our city. So finally, the elders of the Philistines kind of decided we need to tell if this is really the matter of God, that all these bad things are happening or not, as a result of this ark being in our presence. And the way we’re going to do that is we are going to hook up a cart to two mama cows and take the young from the mama cows. Now, where would the mama cows want to go? To their babies. And so, if these cows go to Beth Shemesh, which is in the land of Judah, we will know that that is miraculous, because they would not do that naturally.

And we will know that all of this that has happened, all of this bad that has happened is from the Lord. And so they put the ark on a cart. And those two cows went, and they went straight to Beth Shemesh. They went to the land of Judah. And there the people were glad to have the ark, but God struck many of the people because they looked into the ark. So we don’t want it here in Beth Shemesh anymore. So we’re going to send it to Kirjath Kiriath.

It’s on my slides. And I’ll remember it later. Beli Judah. Okay. Kiriath Jiarim. And that’s about nine miles west of Jerusalem. And so this was the days of Samuel. And so there it remained for a time. Until we get to David. So this is many years. When David is now king, acting king, and it’s within his reign. And he decides what I’m going to do is I’m going to move the Ark of the Covenant, have it moved from Beli Judah to Jerusalem. And so he sets out to do that. And we begin our reading in 2 Samuel chapter 6. And verse 1. Now David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, 30,000. Picture this. And David arose and went with all the people who were with him to Beli Judah to bring up from there the Ark of God, which is called by the name, the very name of the Lord of hosts, who is enthroned above the cherubim.

See the importance of this ark. They placed the ark of God on a new cart, that they might bring it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill, and Uzzah and Ahioh, the sons of Abinadab, they were very familiar with this ark, because it had been there in the house of Abinadab. So these were his sons. Uzzah and Ahio, his sons were leading the new cart. Well, at least they got a new cart. I mean, they didn’t get an old rusty one. They didn’t get an old beat up one. They got a new one, because by the way, this is the ark. But the word of God was clear, and we’ll see in a minute, you were not to do anything but carry on the shoulders of the Levites by the poles that were on the ark to transport it.

And so they are transgressing the word of God. Verse 4. So they brought it with the ark of God, that is the cart. They brought it with the ark of God from the house of Abinadab, which is on the hill, and Ahio was walking ahead of the ark. So here goes here. Now, by the way, a cart like this typically would have two wheels. An ox cart would have one wheel on each side, typically, not always. And it’s not a very big cart. The ark itself wasn’t that large. So it’s not a very steady matter, if that’s the case, if it’s a cart with only two wheels, especially. But either way, it’s not a very steady matter. And so here you have Ahio, he is ahead of the cart, kind of leading, and you have Uzzah, and he’s back there beside the Ark as they went.

Verse 5. Meanwhile, David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord with all kinds of instruments made of fir wood and with lyres, harps, tambourines, cassanets, and cymbals. So this is worship. Now keep in mind this is the Old Testament. We don’t have the Ark of the Covenant today. We don’t have these musical instruments in worship today in the New Covenant. We don’t read about that, but this is the law of Moses. But when they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out toward the Ark of God and took hold of it. Oh no. He takes hold of the ark. That’s a big no-no. For the oxen nearly upset it, or New King James says, stumbled. So it was gonna fall.

He’s just trying to help. He grabs a hold of the ark, don’t fall. And 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. Now, what do you think happened to all the celebration? Man, it stopped. Imagine if you’re, you know, maybe on a walk and you see there’s a power line. And this thing’s down and it’s broken and it’s just sparking on the ground. And you see the crews are there and they’re working on it, and they’re all being very careful. Because that’s a that’s a sparking power line right there. That thing will kill you. But you notice one guy is not being careful. He does, he doesn’t seem to pay any attention.

And uh, as you’re watching, that man gets so close, he actually touches that sparking wire, and zap, he’s dead. And what are you thinking? Well, uh, you should have been more careful. You shouldn’t have got so close to that sparking power line. The ark was the sparking power line. It was not to be touched. God’s word was clear about that. But it was touched. And so Uzzah died. And then verse 8 says, David became angry because of the Lord’s outburst against Uzzah, and that place is called Perez Uzzah to this day, which means breach of Uzzah. So David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, How can the ark of the Lord come to me? And David was unwilling to move the ark of the Lord into the city of David with him.

But David took it aside to the house of Obed Edom the Gittite. So I’m not going to try to move this thing. I’m just going to go and we’re going to park it for a little while. I’m going to get my thoughts together, and uh, and then we’ll we’ll go from there. So it’s parked in the house of Obed Edom the Gittite, and uh we we fast forward three months, and we get to first Chronicles chapter 15. And verse 2. Then David said, No one is to carry the ark of God but the Levites. For the Lord chose them to carry the ark of God and to minister to him forever. Well, what changed before he was okay with it being on a cart? Well, he had done some introspection.

He had done some thinking on the word of God and what the word of God says. And David assembled all Israel to Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the Lord to its place, which he had prepared for it. And then we go to verse 11. Then David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priest, and for the Levites, for Uriel and Asia, Joel, Shemiah, Eliel, and Aminadab, and said to them, You are the heads of the fathers’ households of the Levites. Consecrate yourselves, both you and your relatives, that you may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel to the place I prepared for it. Because, now look at verse 13 closely of 1 Chronicles 15. Because you did not carry it at the first, the Lord our God made an outburst on us.

For we did not seek him according to the ordinance. Well, I thought, I thought Uzza was the culprit. I thought he was the problem. No, he wasn’t the only one that was wrong in this. David places the guilt on all of these Levites and places the guilt on himself as the leader as the king. And so it was everybody’s fault. And one lesson we can learn from that, brethren, is that, you know, it’s one thing to be the one who makes the false doctrine happen and who leads the effort in these false ways of the Lord. And it’s another thing to be a follower of it. But when we follow it or stand idly by and do nothing to stop it, we are actually contributing to it.

And so God’s anger is not just against the ones who are in charge, but the ones who don’t take a stand to change the matter and who support it. We did not seek him according to the ordinance. So the priests and the Levites, verse 14, consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel. The sons of the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles thereon, as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord. So now they’re doing it right. And that’s what the word of the Lord says. In Exodus 25 and verse 14, we read that the ark was to be carried by the poles. The ark had four rings, two on each side, and these poles that were covered with gold on either side, they were supposed to stay in there.

Huh? Wonder what they’re for. So we can carry them on our shoulders. That’s exactly right. We read in Numbers 7, verses 7 through 9 that it was not to just be carried by anybody, but by the Levites. Specifically the sons of a specific lineage of the Levites, the sons of Kohath, the Kohathites. That was their job, their duty, to carry it on their shoulders. And Numbers 4 and verse 15 tells us that if you touched the ark, that you would be killed. You were not to touch it. In fact, it was to be covered. What can we learn from this powerful story to apply it to ourselves today in the New Testament? Because these things are there for our learning and for our example. And we see how God works and we see how he thinks towards his word and following it.

1. Man-Made Methods Are Not God’s Methods

So what can we learn? We can learn four things at least. First thing that we’re going to learn is that man-made methods are not God’s methods. Why did they put the ark on a cart? What would you say? If we were in a small group setting and you could just think and guess. Now, do we know for sure? It doesn’t tell us why for sure, but we can guess some reasons that might have been. Why did they put this thing on a cart? Well, number one, possibly because others had done it that way before. Remember the Philistines. And so the Philistines put it on a cart. That was many years before, but that event was still known. Well, they seem to be alright. And that’s, you know, that was that was a fine way to transport it, so we can do just the same.

Maybe that was their thinking. I don’t know. But would that be good thinking? You know, you teenagers probably have at one point or another said, Momentad, I want to I want to do this or that. And they know it’s a bad idea, and they say, Well, why? Well, everybody’s doing it. All my friends are doing it. And and, you know, teenagers have have your parents ever said, Well, if your friends walk off, you know, if everybody else was walking off the side of a cliff, are you going to walk off the side of a cliff too? You’ve probably heard that before. Just because everybody else is doing it, of course, is not a good reason to do it. Especially when the people you’re imitating are like the Philistines.

Not a good example to follow, not a foundation for authority. Well, everybody else is doing it. Look at the religious world around us and what all the other churches are doing and practicing and and uh and and and participating in religiously. Well, they’re doing it, so we can do it. Is that a standard for authority? No. No. Well, maybe another reason would be it it was more convenient. I mean, nine miles was the was the distance between Kiriath and Jerusalem. Now, I’m not much of a runner. I know we have some runners in the audience. I know that Angelo runs like more than ten miles a day. Something ridiculous. A lot of miles. I don’t want to walk ten miles. I enter a mall, and the moment my feet enter and touch the floor of the mall, my feet are tired.

I don’t even, I don’t even want to walk that that much. Walking nine miles is a long way to walk for some of us. Especially if you’re carrying something. Well, well, can’t we just put it on a cart? The point isn’t how we carry it anyway, right? The point is that it gets there. So that’s what God’s really concerned about. God really doesn’t actually care how we carry it, it just needs to get there. And we’re doing this with good intentions and all that. We’ll talk about that later. So it’s okay for us to do it that way. Simply think of it this way. Sometimes convenience is allowed by God. If the thing that you are doing is already under the umbrella of something he has authorized.

So, in other words, think of an example. We are authorized, in fact, commanded to worship on the first day of the week. So, where’s the authority for the lights and the building and the bathrooms? Don’t we need a specific verse for that? It is a convenience. It is an expedience in order to carry out the general command together. Now, what if scriptures commanded us to meet under a tree? We can meet under a tree as it is, but what if the scripture specified that? Then is that general authority? Now that is specific authority. Meet under a tree. So we don’t have the right for a building if that were the case. We’d have to go find us a tree, rain or shine. And so a thing can only be followed by convenience if it is already authorized.

But was this authorized? It was outside of the specific authority, which was for the priest or the Levites, rather, to carry the ark by their shoulders. A third possible reason. Well, God never said not to. Hey, it’s true. God never said, You shall not take the Ark of the Covenant and put it on an ox cart and pull it behind animals. He never said that specific thing. He also never said don’t put it on a wheelbarrow and carry it that way. He also said, never said, uh, don’t put it on a chariot and carry it that way. There are a lot of things he didn’t say. But what did he say? He said it is to be carried by the Levites on their shoulders, by its poles.

When I was a boy, now I think it’s time for a story. I want to bring everybody in. When I was a boy, I was very young. I’d like to think I was very young when I did this. I entered the band room of my house. That was the back room that contained my brother’s band instruments. And of his instruments, one of them was a set of drums. Complete set of drums. So I headed back there as a very young child, remember that very young part, with a screwdriver in hand. And I proceeded to jam a hole through every single head of that drum set. And I was later asked by my father why I did it. Were you upset? I said, no. I just wanted to see what it sounded like.

That’s why I did it. That’s what I said, anyway. I can’t remember. Now, my mom and dad never told me not to take a screwdriver and enter the band room of our house and take that screwdriver and jam a hole into every single head of my brother’s drum set. But should I have known better? Was it authorized just because they did not say, don’t do that one specific exact thing? Because what if they had had to make a list of all of the exact things that I was not to do? That list would be very long. What if God had to make a specific list of all the things we are not supposed to do? It would have to be so big you couldn’t even fit it in the trunk of your car.

And so we could call this the law of exclusion. When God says what to do, then all else is excluded. He does not have to say, not that and not that and not this and not that. And I will just mention by way of example, this is one of the one of the reasons that many who believe that we ought to worship God with instruments in our singing and in our worship. That’s the reason why. Because God never said not to. But the point is, what does he say to do? And we want to stay within what we know God is happy with and not go beyond. And we know that God has said, do not add to or take away from his word. So that would that would include anything that is not authorized specifically by God.

Another fourth possible reason, this one’s not on your paper, is maybe ignorance. I don’t know. It’d be hard to really think that the Levites didn’t know any better. But maybe David didn’t know any better. But either way, it was still against the word of God. Oh, maybe there are other reasons we could give, you know. Hey, it was more modern, right? Than back in the days of Moses when they were commanded to carry stuff around. This is a new day. Let’s just put it on a cart. As if God’s word is going to evolve and adapt to the culture. You see how applicable this is to today. When we think of all these excuses or reasons that men might give for going outside of his authority, we are reminded, or let me remind you, that God’s ways are not our ways.

His thoughts are not our thoughts. That ways that seem right to man are often wrong. There’s a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Well, it seems right. I mean, we’re putting it on a cart, it’s getting there, and it feels good to us. We’re worshiping God, everybody else is okay with it, but we can’t trust our feelings. We have to trust the word of God only every time. We must not add to or subtract from the commands of God. We must not add to or subtract from them. God’s word does not need our help. It does not need improvement. Even if we think we have a better way, the omnipotent God of creation has given us the instructions that we need, and they work just fine the way that they are.

Jesus said in Matthew 15 and verse 9, in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. So when it’s man-made doctrine, then the worship is vain, which means it is useless. It is not going anywhere except for it might reach as high as the ceiling, but no higher.

2. It Doesn’t Matter How Good My Intentions Were

I’ll just tell you from experience.

And I slaved over that floor. I took entire days off and spent many hours cutting and measuring and installing and redoing and installing and getting it the way I thought it would. And then I had somebody come to help me who actually knew what he was doing. And I learned that, you know what, I’ve really done this wrong. I could have just built on it and it would still look decent, but it really wasn’t right. And so he didn’t tell me to do this, but I decided we’re going to rip it all up. I spent basically a week at least installing that floor. We’re going to rip it all up and we’re going to do it right this time. Well, I had good intentions the first time.

So shouldn’t that be enough? Good intentions. No, I did it wrong. It didn’t matter how good my intentions were. If religiously we lay a foundation that is flawed and that is wrong, it doesn’t matter how sincere we are in doing it, it’s still wrong. Uzzah had good intentions, I think. I mean, wasn’t he just trying to help? You feel sorry for the poor guy. He didn’t want the ark to fall. So he stops it. But no matter how good his intentions were, it made God angry. All the others involved, I think, hopefully had good intentions to do this to the glory of God, but they still sinned. It is sinful to serve God in a way that he does not authorize, no matter how sincere a person is.

3. Sin Is Serious Business

And many people who are religiously wrong, and I want to tell you that we need to look introspectively at ourselves first to make sure that we are not religiously wrong in our faith and practice. I’ve known many people that were very sincere. Some of the sweetest, most wonderful people that I know, and I love them dearly. But that doesn’t change the black and white instructions of the Word of God. Another lesson we can learn from Uzzah and the Ark of the Covenant is that sin is serious business. Sin is serious business.

That might sound kind of extreme. I mean, you just touched the ark. Death. What does that say about our God and his attitude towards sin? He hates sin. He must be regarded as holy. I mean, we must regard his holy things as holy. He hates sin. Romans 6 and verse 23 says that the wages of sin is death. That’s not physical death in that passage. That’s talking of spiritual death. And that is the consequence of sin. That’s a major consequence. Separation from the only thing that can save us our loving God and Father and His Son Jesus Christ. Sin will separate us from that. Again, we learn from that that sin is serious business. And therefore, if God hates sin because it is so terrible, then what we must learn to do is do what Romans 12 and verse 9 says, which says, Let love be without hypocrisy.

Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Amen? Abhor what is evil. Does anybody in here like rattling snakes? Please raise your hand so we can see who you are. Okay. My two sons raise their hands.

So let’s say you have a rattling snake in your yard. Not just once, but this is his home. He has made it his home, and you see him from time to time. Oh, there’s the rattling snake. What are you going to do? I will tell you what you are going to do. If you are a rational thinking person. Unlike my two sons. You will take an object that will either cut their head off, smash their head, or blow it off, and you’re going to use it and get that thing killed, or you’re going to get your husband to do it, or you’re going to get your father to do it. That’s what you’re going to do. And you’re going to have that thing dead before the day is over.

But let’s say that you’re a little crazy and you like rattling snakes. You don’t want to kill innocent animals. And so you let this thing live in your yard. And from time to time you will see it slithering out past your front door as you come out. Well, I can step around it. I can jump over it. How long is that going to last before you get bitten by that poisonous snake and die? You’re messing with death, is what you’re messing with. And sometimes, brethren, that becomes our attitude towards sin. And remember that sin is more than moral sin, it’s also religious sin. Transgressing against the things that God has said for the way that he is to be worshipped. And we treat it lightly. We treat it like Uzzah treated the ark.

4. God’s Ordinance Must Be Followed

We just walk right along beside it. Like it won’t hurt me if I touch it. Oh, it will hurt you if you touch it. Sin is dangerous. And our attitude towards it must be flee from sin. Flee from youthful lust. 2 Timothy 2 and verse 22. Flee also from idolatry. 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 14. And we could go on. That should be our attitude towards sin. Final point I want to make to you this morning is that God’s ordinance must be followed. David told the Levites after the first attempt to move the ark that resulted in Uzzah’s death, and after that three-month waiting period before it’s finally time to move the ark. In 1 Chronicles 15, 13, he said, Because you did not carry it at the first, the Lord our God made an outburst on us, for we did not seek him according to the ordinance, the proper order, the way that he has prescribed.

That’s why he made the outbreak on us. We weren’t paying attention to the word of God. We weren’t respecting it. And so the lesson for us is that we need to be careful to serve and worship God exactly as he has revealed. Precisely as he has authorized. And we need to walk in the ways of the traditions which were handed down to us by the apostles. Those traditions I’m talking about. We need to hold fast the pattern of sound words. 2 Timothy 1 and verse 13. That pattern of sound words which was handed down to us. Never ignore the word of God. Never ignore the authority of the word of God. I was door knocking once. This is my last thing, and we’ll be done. And came to a door and knocked on it, and lady answered the door, and she wasn’t particularly interested.

But she was religious. And she mentioned that her church has a woman pastor. And I thought, well, I’m never going to have another opportunity again. I might as well pursue this. And I said, Did you know that the Bible teaches that women are to remain silent in the church? In churches. And she said, No, it does not. And I turned to 1 Corinthians 14 and I read the passage in verse 34 that women are to remain silent in the churches. She said, Well, it says that in your Bible, but it doesn’t say it in my Bible. I said, Oh, yes, it does. She said, Well, I’ll bring you my Bible. She brought me her grandfather’s very precious Bible and handed that large Bible to me. And I turned to the passage, and it read almost exactly the same in that old King James Version as it did in my New American Standard.

Conclusion

And she began making excuses. Well, that applied back then, but it doesn’t apply today. What it comes down to is our attitude toward the Word of God. Are we going to look at it as authority and decide we’re going to follow that, whether it’s what we like or not? I’d be fine for a woman to come up here and preach if the Word of God allowed for it. I would have nothing against that whatsoever. I’d be fine with doing any number of things that religions might do that are not authorized, if they were authorized. But our stand must be on truth, with humility, of course, looking inward before we point fingers outward. And remember this, brethren, as I wrap up. Let us not be defined merely by whether we stay within the authority of how to worship God.

You are not saved merely because you don’t do all the things that are unauthorized. Those are absolutely important and part of our salvation and essential. But we are saved, brethren, because of the blood of Jesus Christ, and by committing ourselves to our Lord and Savior fully and completely. And he will save us by his grace and by his mercy through the blood of his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. If you are not a Christian, I urge you to become one. But don’t do it to make anybody happy except God. That is the only reason to do it. You must believe in the Lord. You must repent of your sins and commit to walking a new way of life. You must confess the name of Christ and be baptized, buried in water, risen to walk in newness of life, and continue to obey the gospel for the rest of your life, trusting in Jesus.

And through that faith, you will be saved. Won’t you become a Christian this morning as we stand and sing the song of invitation?