Dancing Before The Lord Series

Dancing Before the Lord

II Samuel 6:

There are many examples of worship in scripture and even though we may or may not follow these examples explicitly there are principles in these examples that we must follow if we are to offer worship that God will accept.

God will not accept worship that is pretentious and full of form and not substance

God will not accept incomplete worship

God will not accept worship that cost nothing; it must involve offering and self-denial

Sometimes worship may be spontaneous or it may be planned but in either situation the worshipper must be prepared to worship

The story before us today is tailored to teach us when to worship and how to worship and how sometimes people won’t appreciate our worship

The text says that the king danced before the Lord

Dancing is considered radical worship

It is seen as unusual; out of the ordinary, extreme and for some unnecessary, but David will show us in the text that it is not

But perhaps the real question is how did we get here, what brought this on

It really begins in I Samuel chapters 5 & 6

The ark of God had been taken by people who believed that since Israel prospered with the ark so will they

But as I told you before, other people will not prosper with your blessing

Let me put a pin right

You may have lost something but the person who found it can’t enjoy it because it is your blessing

Someone may have taken something but...

Someone may have stolen something but...

Whether it was accident, coincidence , or happenstance they can’t enjoy it because it is your blessing

***Cleo told us last Sunday how to do it

Tell the devil I want my stuff back

The blessing can only be a blessing to the one to whom it was assigned

They stole the ark and put it in Ashdod where it knocked over Dagon

They move it to Gath and there he caused tumors

They moved it to Ekron it caused trouble there too

They sent the Ark back to the people it belonged too

But they had to realize that the blessing was a blessing

The Ark was out of Place

David said we must bring the Ark of God back

It is in the area but it is out of place

In the area is not good enough

Close is not good enough

God will not settle for being in the area

God will not settle for being close

Close is out of place

In the area is out of place

He must be in his rightful place

Worship cannot be authentic if He is not in place

Not only must He be in His rightful place

But He must also be approached and handled properly if I can use that term

They put the ark on a new cart

They were celebrating but it was incomplete, there were songs of celebration there was the music, but the worship was incomplete because they were not handling the Ark as God prescribed

Nowhere in the law was the Ark to be placed on a cart

This is what the Lord said when the ark is to be moved there were rings on the Ark for poles to be inserted through they were not to be moved

The priests were to carry the ark using these poles and the people were remain at a distance of at least 1000 feet

When the Ark moved then the people moved

But that’s not what happened

When they got to Nacon

The description is that the Ark stumbled and a well intentioned Uzzah reached out and put his hand on the Ark and he died right there

Worship was interrupted for three months

They put the Ark temporarily in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite

***A funny thing happened Josephus says that Obed-edom was a poor man, but as long as the Ark of God remained at his house his entire household was blessed

***Everything he had was blessed because he had the Ark of God at his house

***His house was blessed because he had God at his house

Can I tell you that if you invite God to your house your entire household will be blessed?

As long as God is a guest at your house everything that you have will be blessed

The reason is because the Guest becomes the host

David regrouped

So David went back to Get the Ark of God

But this time his approach was different

He had on a priestly garment

Look at verse 13 now when those who were carrying the Ark, no cart this time.

Six steps and then offering and sacrifice

I Chronicles 15:26 says 7 bullocks and 7 rams were sacrificed