"Doing The Right Thing The Wrong Way."

Sunday Morning Manna

"Doing the right thing the wrong way."

2 Samuel 6:2 And David arose, and went with all the people that were with him from Baale of Judah, to bring up from thence the ark of God, whose name is called by the name of the LORD of hosts that dwelleth between the cherubim. ( 2 Samuel 6:1-12)

Here we see the ending of the rule of King Saul, who was chosen by his appearance, by Israel. We see Saul is killed by an Amalekite; one of the nations he spared through disobedience. Saul's son Jonathan is left dead on the battlefield as well, leaving David as the newly crowned king. King David started out good because in every move he made he inquired of God rather to go or not to go; David's life would have been far better and a whole less complicated if he would have continued inquiring on the wisdom of God. When we inquire of God and wait on His response our life will be better and a lot less complex. When we learn to go where God tells us to go and not go where He says not to go we will live a better life. When we learn to obey what God tells us to do, and not to do, our lives will be for the better as well.

First, we see David had the right idea.

King David wanted to bring the Ark of God into the presence of his people. The Ark of God represented the Son of God and His divine and human nature as we see the Ark is made of gold and shittim wood. These material represented His person as the God/Gold-man/wood, while the purpose of the mercy seat represented His work. Every child of God should yearn to be in the presence of Jesus and His benefits, which is His wisdom, His power, His protection, His righteousness, when we walk in obedience according to His Word.

Second, we see they did it man's way.

The Philistines who had control of the Ark of the Lord where men of the flesh or the natural man who receives not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. They may have handled the false idol Dagon in a fleshly manner, but they were not qualified to handle the spiritual things of a holy and living God. Therefore, putting the Ark of the Lord on a wagon that was being pulled by an ox was not God's way of handling the Ark. We see this all to often in churches today where non-spiritual people try to handle spiritual business and it never works out as God intended it to work. God doesn't want it done man's way, He wants it done His way, and He gave us His way through His Word. In verse six we see that the ox shook the wagon, but in 1 Chron. 13:9 it gives a better description of what happen, it states the ox stumbled. This is what happens when you do it man's way, we stumble and fall every time.

Third, here we see the penalty of doing it man's way.

We see Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it. This is what happens when we don't do spiritual things as God has instructed us to do in His Word. God covers all the spiritual things we deal with and how we are to deal with them as well in His Word. As long as the Ark of the Lord was carried the way God set it up to be carried by the Levites it never shook, nor stumbled as they pressed through the wilderness, crossing the Jordan river, and throughout Israel's campaign of conquering the inhabitants of the land that God gave them. As long as the Ark of the Lord was in the hands of the spiritual everything went well (Numbers chap.3, 4) . When David did not observe this there was a penalty to pay. When the ox stumbled the Ark of the Lord shook and Uzzah reached up to hold the Ark from falling over and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error ( 2 Sam. 6:7) .

IV. God's way.

What was their error, they did not sanctify yourselves, both ye and your brethren that ye may bring up the ark of the LORD (1 Chron.15:12-13). The Levites were to bare the Ark upon their shoulders, with the staves thereon, as Moses commanded, according to the Word of the Lord (2 Chron. 15:14-15). When we don't do it God's way lives will be lost, souls will be lost, saints become ineffective, our testimonies will be damaged, and the beat goes on and on. The Bible says David was displeased at what happened to Uzzah, but God taught him a lesson, and that lesson was to do it God's way. Today we as Christians oftentimes get mad when the preacher tells us something that convicts our soul, then we want to stop going to church, or go to another church instead of spiritually growing and obeying God's Word. God didn't care if David liked it or not, He was putting King David through God's leadership training program, showing him the value of the priests, showing him the value of standing, and obeying God's established Word.