The Life and Times of

God Rains on David's Parade (6:1-11)

1 Now David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. 2 And David arose and went with all the people who were with him to Baale-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. 3 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 Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were leading the new cart. 4 So they brought it with the ark of God from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill; and Ahio was walking ahead of the ark. 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, castanets and cymbals. 6 But when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out toward the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen nearly upset it. 7 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. 8 David became angry because of the LORD'S outburst against Uzzah, and that place is called Perez-uzzah to this day. 9 So David was afraid of the LORD that day; and he said, “How can the ark of the LORD come to me?” 10 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. 11 Thus the ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months, and the LORD blessed Obed-edom and all his household.

We find what went wrong here by going back in Israel's history to the time God gave Israel the Law, when He gave them instructions concerning the construction and transporting of the ark. These are the words God spoke to Moses concerning the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant.

8 “Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them. 9 “According to all that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall construct it. 10 “They shall construct an ark of acacia wood two and a half cubits long, and one and a half cubits wide, and one and a half cubits high. 11 “You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and you shall make a gold molding around it. 12 “You shall cast four gold rings for it and fasten them on its four feet, and two rings shall be on one side of it and two rings on the other side of it. 13 “You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 14 “You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark with them. 15 “The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be removed from it. 16 “You shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you. 17 “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide. 18 “you shall make two cherubim of gold, make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat. 19 “Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat at its two ends. 20 “The cherubim shall have their wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings and facing one another; the faces of the cherubim are to be turned toward the mercy seat. 21 “You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony which I will give to you. 22 “There I will meet with you; and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel” (Exodus 25:8-22).

When the tabernacle was first set up, the Lord's presence appeared there at the tabernacle:

34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 35 Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34-35).

God gave very clear instructions about the ark of God. He not only gave specific instructions about how it should be made, He indicated who should carry it and how it should be transported from one place to another. In Numbers 5, God tells exactly how the tabernacle should be taken down and carried to its next resting place. Notice especially the words of verse 15:

15 “When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy objects and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, when the camp is to set out, after that the sons of Kohath shall come to carry them, so that they will not touch the holy objects and die. These are the things in the tent of meeting which the sons of Kohath are to carry” (Numbers 4:15; see also 7:9).

We should recall from Exodus 25:14-15 that the ark had rings, through which poles were inserted, and these poles were the means by which the Kohathites were to transport the ark.

The ark had accompanied the Israelites wherever they went while they were in the wilderness. It went before the Israelites when they crossed the Jordan River (Joshua 3:14-17). We find the ark mentioned quite often in 1 and 2 Samuel. Samuel slept near the ark as a child (1 Samuel 3:3). When the Israelites were being beaten by the Philistines, they unwisely took the ark into battle with them as a kind of magic charm. They not only lost the battle, they lost the ark as well (1 Samuel 4). The next two chapters (5-6) of 1 Samuel are the account of how God plagued the Philistines, so that they finally decided they did not want the ark among them. What is most interesting is the method they chose to transport the ark back to Israelite territory. The Philistine priests and diviners gave the Philistine leaders instructions concerning how the ark should be removed. Notice these instructions and their outcome:

7 “Now therefore, take and prepare a new cart and two milk cows on which there has never been a yoke; and hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves home, away from them. 8 “Take the ark of the LORD and place it on the cart; and put the articles of gold which you return to Him as a guilt offering in a box by its side. Then send it away that it may go. 9 “Watch, if it goes up by the way of its own territory to Beth-shemesh, then He has done us this great evil. But if not, then we will know that it was not His hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance.” 10 Then the men did so, and took two milch cows and hitched them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home. 11 They put the ark of the LORD on the cart, and the box with the golden mice and the likenesses of their tumors. 12 And the cows took the straight way in the direction of Beth-shemesh; they went along the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right or to the left. And the lords of the Philistines followed them to the border of Beth-shemesh (1 Samuel 6:7-12).

It is not surprising that the Philistines chose to transport the ark on a new cart, drawn by two cows. First, the Philistines did not possess the law, so they surely did not know how God instructed for the ark to be carried. Furthermore, where would they get the Kohathites to carry it? Most importantly to the Philistines, this method of transporting the ark provided them with a test, so that they could determine whether all their plagues were really the hand of God or simply “bad luck.” The fact that two cows would leave their calves and without a driver draw the cart into Israelite territory was too difficult to be a coincidence. This was the hand of God.

The problem is that the Israelites imitated the Philistines rather than to obey God. I believe the instructions given by God in the law were simply forgotten rather than willfully ignored or disobeyed. The ark had not been carried for many years. It had remained out of circulation, out of use, in the home of Abinidab for a good 20 years before it was put back into any kind of use (see 1 Samuel 7:2; 14:18-19). It is easy to see why no one paid any particular attention to the instructions given Israel by God for its transportation in the wilderness.

Besides all this, who would want to carry the ark by hand when it could simply be loaded on an ox cart? When I was growing up a good many years ago, my father decided to move one of the buildings he had constructed. It was made of logs and used as a kind of garage. He wanted to move it a hundred feet or so. He planned to use what we called a “stump puller,” a very heavy gearbox with a long cable attached. By pacing back and forth 16 feet, the cable could be advanced about an 1/8th of an inch. This worked very well on stumps. I can remember that stump puller suspended by a cable so tight it literally would sing -- a kind of scary thing, I might add. As a young and lazy lad, I was eager to think of a faster, easier way to move that shed, so I proposed that we hook a chain to the shed and pull it with the pickup. I would drive, of course. My dad momentarily weakened and agreed to try. I hooked the chain up to the truck and was ready to go when my dad came to his senses and changed his mind. He told me to go get the stump puller, as he had originally planned. At least I got to drive to get the stump puller. I jumped into the truck and sped off, forgetting to unhook the chain. Much to my father’s dismay, I nearly pulled the building down.

If I had been living back in those days, I would have wanted to use the ox cart too, especially if I were one of the men chosen to carry the ark on my shoulder. It made sense. It was easier. But it was not the way God prescribed. And the method God prescribed was not just a senseless rule. It was a rule which had its reasons. The reason touching the ark was such a serious matter is disclosed to us in verse 2 of our text:

2 And David arose and went with all the people who were with him to Baale-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.

In Exodus 25, God told Moses He would meet with him and speak to him from above the ark, between the cherubim (25:22). God chose to manifest His presence in the tabernacle, specifically from the ark. When God’s glory first filled the tabernacle, even Moses was not able to enter (Exodus 40:34-35). Sinful men cannot get too close to a holy God.

No wonder Uzzah was struck dead for having laid hands on the ark. The ark was holy. It could not be touched. Anyone who touched it would die. By using poles, men could transport the ark without touching the ark itself. And these men, walking in step with each other, gave the ark stability. Putting the ark on that ox cart made it susceptible to the movements of the cart and less stable, and thus more likely to fall off the cart. The only way to keep this from happening was to grab hold of the ark, as Uzzah did, and to die, as Uzzah did.

David and those involved in transporting the ark erred in several ways. First, they had already lost the awe and reverence one should have for the holiness of God. Second, they had forgotten the clear instructions God set down in the law for the transporting of the ark. And third, they had forgotten a hard lesson Israel had learned in their not-too-distant past. When the ark was returned to the Israelites by the Philistines, carelessness on the part of some Israelites cost them their lives:

19 He struck down some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the LORD. He struck down of all the people, 50,070 men, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck the people with a great slaughter. 20 The men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? And to whom shall He go up from us?” 21 So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have brought back the ark of the LORD; come down and take it up to you” (1 Samuel 6:19-21).

How ironic it is to see the Israelites imitating the Philistines. The irreverence of the Philistines brought plagues upon their cities. They came to fear the Lord and particularly His ark, and sought to send it away to others. Now, when the ark is returned to the Israelites, they are irreverent and are smitten of God so that they too wish to send the ark to someone else. The lesson of 1 Samuel 6 is already forgotten by 2 Samuel 6, and may I remind you that in the original text, these two books are really one. A few years, or a few chapters, and lessons learned the hard way are all too quickly forgotten. Why do we find it easier to relive history rather than learn from it?