David Brings The Ark Of The Covenant Into Jerusalem Series

David has gone from watching over the few sheep of his father, to be anointed as king of Israel. He was anointed, but then he waited. He waited many years, being persecuted by the ruling forces. He was on the run. He was hiding in caves. He fought battles. He dealt with foreign kings. He refused to harm his enemy king Saul. David ruled in Hebron for 7 years. Then he was made king of the entire nation.

All of it had come true, because God was with him, and made sure it would happen. David’s part in that was to obey God, trust God, and follow God’s leading.

During this time in Israel’s history they had something that represented the presence of God among them. It was called “the ark of the covenant.” It was this gold chest, with depictions of angels on it, and inside was a staff that belonged to aaron, as well as the stone slabs where the ten commandments were written. And it was said that God’s presence was there in between the two angels on the ark of the covenant.

It was a symbol of God’s presence and all he had done for them. He had used the staff to help guide them out of slavery in Egypt. He had given them the ten commandments, a design for living for them, to live rightly and to avoid evil.

It’s similar today, we have the cross as a symbol of our faith. We have the Salvation Army flag, we have different symbols to show who we are in Christ. But in the time of Israel, God would actually dwell with the ark of the covenant. His presence would be in the tent of meeting with Moses.

Today, with Jesus Christ as our savior, we have God’s presence living within us. Instead of going to a tent, or a temple, to meet God, God lives within us, by His Spirit. Think about that, what an amazing thing indeed!

That’s why our physical body is called a temple of God. And we ought to be careful with that temple. Because our body is a temple of God. God dwells within us, by faith.

So in 2nd Samuel 6 we see the Ark of the Covenant being brought to Jerusalem. David intends to bring it to the new capital of the nation.

It says, “David again brought together all the able young men of Israel—thirty thousand. 2 He and all his men went to Baalah in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim on the ark. 3 They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart 4 with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it. 5 David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with castanets, harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums and cymbals.”

This is like a parade going on, David has 30 thousand men gathered, and they are bringing the ark. But there is a problem here. They’ve set the ark on a cart and they’re using oxen to move it. This is not how the ark is supposed to be moved. It was supposed to be carried by men.

So we’re going to see something terrible happen here. It’s pretty scary, actually. And it’s a good reminder, that we should reverence God and regard God as holy, and to fear God.

It says this: (verses 6-11) "When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. 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.

8 Then David was angry because the Lord’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah.

9 David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, “How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?” 10 He was not willing to take the ark of the Lord to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. 11 The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed him and his entire household.”

David feared God that day. He was in fact angry at what happened. We should have a healthy fear of God. It helps keep me on the right track. Fear isn’t always a bad thing. Worldly fear is bad. Godly fear is good. The cool thing is, when I fear God first, I don’t have to fear anything in the world or even in myself.