The Aim of This Series
Today, we continue a series designed to show you what happens when God shows up. All of this series is devoted to what theologians call a theophany. A theophany literally means “to show God.” These encounters are called visitations and they are almost always following a crisis of some kind. It is God coming down.
During Week One, we saw that God is beautiful and not just useful for our lives. Last Sunday, we experienced Job nearly demanding God’s presence despite his pain. And today, we witness David enjoying the music of the presence of God.
I want us to development a thirst to experience more of God’s presence. Don’t you want to see God?
I want to tell you a story today about a box, a very important box, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Now, part of our story is in the book called 1 Samuel and part of it is in 2 Samuel. There are several years in between but I think you’ll find this story as interesting as it is helpful.
Today’s Scripture
“When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2 Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. 3 And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. 4 But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. 5 This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.” (1 Samuel 5:1-5)
Back-story
Israel fought a losing battle against the Philistines around 1100 years before the time of Christ. It was a terrible time in Israel – a time of moral and spiritual decay. It was during the battle, the Israelites mistakenly thought they could manipulate God’s power by bringing the Ark to the battle. But the Ark was captured and the battle was lost. The victorious Philistines brought the Ark into their god’s temple, Dagon. Placing it there essentially said, “Our god, Dagon, is bigger than your God, Yahweh.” While there, God’s power overwhelms the Philistines’ god, Dagon so much that Dagon fell face downward and his limbs were severed. Instead of God bowing to Dagon, Dagon bows to God not once, but twice. Eventually, the Philistines get the picture and they want to get rid of the Ark. Now, I’m leaving out so many good parts of the story in interest of time. So they place the Ark as if it were a trophy before Dagon and you can hear the Philistines cheering the defeat of God even now. But their cheering is short-lived for the first night the Ark is placed in Dagon’s temple and Dagon is face down. The second night, Dagon’s arms and legs are severed.
The Philistines are relatively smart and can realize where all this is headed. The whole city of Ashdod (about 35 miles west of Jerusalem) is in a panic. So they begin to pass the Ark around from city to city within Philistia. The people of the city of Ekron see the Ark coming their way and they say, “Don’t bring that thing to our town.” So they come up with a plan that places the Ark on the back of a cart and have cows pull it away. Now, the people of Israel were harvesting their fields when they saw the Ark coming their way. They place some creative sacrifices on the cart and they make a test, in order to see if Yahweh is behind all these unusual attacks. Essentially, these two cows had just given birth to calves and their calves were not weaned. Second, the cows had never been in a yoke before. So they put together a crude test. If the young cows could work together even though they had never been trained and if the cows ignored their maternal instincts and head toward Israel, they’ll know God is behind this. In fact, this is exactly what the cows did and they did not turn left or right but headed straight toward Israel (1 Samuel 6:12). Eventually, the Ark finds its way back home to Israel to the city known as Beth-shemesh, the nearest town of Israel. Interesting note, Beth-shemesh is a city where there was a high concentration of Levites, the tribal family given responsibility of the Ark. This face will become important later in the story.
It was there that men decided to look inside the Ark and many of them were killed instantly. Because of this, the Israelites joined the Philistines by saying in essence, “No one is safe in the presence of the Lord. Who will take this Ark away from us? We want to be rid of it” (1 Samuel 6:20). And the people of Kirath-jearim took the ark and it remained there for 20 years (1 Samuel 7:1-2). It stays there until King David comes and takes it back to Jerusalem, the newly established capital city.
What Was the Ark?
The word “ark” in Hebrew simply means chest. The Ark was a wooden box overlaid with gold. It was over 4 feet long and 2.5 feet high and 2.5 feet wide, roughly speaking. On the top of the Ark there was a slab of pure gold called the mercy seat. There were two golden angels of Cherubim facing one another over the mercy seat. The Ark of the Covenant was the central piece of furniture in the Tabernacle. It was placed in the back of the Tabernacle in the Holy of Holies. It was the only piece of furniture in this room. The Ark was the throne of God on the earth.
Theophanies
When Abraham, in Genesis 15, came into the presence of God, he saw a smoking pot and a burning torch. When Moses came into the presence of God, there was a burning bush. When Jacob actually met God face to face, He was a powerful wrestler in the dark. When Job met God, there was a storm. There’s almost always some sort of physical manifestation. In other words, God connects his glory presence to something visible.
Yet, there’s only one object, however, from what I can tell, in all the history of the Bible, that God routinely attached his presence to – the Ark of the Covenant. It was over this Ark that the very presence of God appeared. Over the Ark appeared the Shekinah glory of God. It was for this reason that David sought the Ark: “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.” (Psalm 27:4) David went after the Ark because he wanted to see the beauty and splendor of God. The Ark represented the experience of God.
Sermon Preview
Again, this is a story about a box. And any good story has a moral, right? The moral of the story is this: the Strength of God, the Holiness of God, and the Mercy of God.
All three of these items are going to need to be recaptured if we are to experience a spiritual awakening: the strength of God, the Holiness of God, and the Mercy of God. Yet, what ties our story together today is a small box, called the Ark. Young children, trace the story of the Ark with me all the way.
1. The Strength of God
In times of revival, people awaken to the reality of the strength of God. An awakening or a revival is a time when sleepy Christians wake up… … when nominal Christians convert to Christ… … and when non-Christians come to faith in Christ.
In times of awakening, the strength of God is on display. Let me show you some common ways we attempt to mute the strength of God.
1.1 You Attempt to Replace God
The first way we mute the strength of God is by replacing Him with idols. Our story begins with the captured Ark placed before Dagon. It’s important to note that the god, Dagon, was on his face before the Ark. Dagon was prostrate before the presence of God. The God of the Bible defeats Dagon on Dagon’s home turf. The moral of the story is “Don’t worship idols,” right?
Don’t confuse idols as mere statues. An idol is anything that takes the place of God.
Money can be a spiritual addiction (Colossians 3:5). Consider yourself for a moment: what idols are you pursuing? An idol is anything that takes the place of God. An idol can be anything from family to money. An idol is something that when you lose it, you don’t feel like life is worth living. Just about anything in life can serve as alternative to God.
Think of major league ball players in recent days. In order to play at a high level, they have taken steroids. Now the dangers of steroids aren’t new; everyone knows that long-term steroid use will jeopardize your long-term health. Yet, because some men had built their happiness on athletic achievement, they risked their long-term health.
Think again to our story. We laugh at a people who have to set their idols back into their place as they did Dagon in our story (1 Samuel 5:3).
Here’s how to test if you are worshipping an idol: Do you have to feed your god? Do you have to set your god back in his place? Does your god need your protection? Do your gods need crazy glue to keep all their pieces together? Do you worry about your god?
Think of a husband/father who sacrifices everything to “give his kids a little more than he had.” He puts in countless hours at work for the pursuit of greed and his family life is stressed. You’re feeding your idol of money and starving your personal life.
Again, in times of an awakening, your idols are exposed. You see, a revival is the ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit (I’m not speaking of signs and wonders here) when the Spirit convicts of sin, brings assurance of salvation, and makes the sense of Jesus Christ intensely real.
If your life is experiencing undue stress, then it’s possible your centering your life on an idol. No idol possesses the strength necessary to support a life. No idol can support your life without severe stress over time. For an idol will wrap you over time; an idol will lessen your personal attractiveness (maybe even your physical attractiveness). When you worship an idol, its weakness soon becomes your weakness. Only God can support the weight of your life. When you worship God, He heals you. His strength becomes your strength.
The first way we minimize the strength of God is when we replace Him…
1.2 You Attempt to Manipulate God
God’s strength in our story is paradoxical – think about this for a moment. One day the Ark of the Covenant goes out with thousands of soldiers surrounding it to defend it, to fight for it, and it falls into enemies’ hands. Yet within a few days later, the Ark is laying waste to an entire nation without any help at all, without a single Israelite soldier around.
Israel’s success always hinged on their response to the grace of God. And these were faithless times, times of moral and deep spiritual decay. They felt God could be manipulated and so when the Ark was brought out to the battlefield, the Philistines routed the Israelites and captured the Ark. They had remembered years before when they brought the Ark with them into the battle of Jericho and the walls came tumbling down. They thought, “We can guarantee victory again by bring the Ark into battle.” And before they knew, the Ark was in the hands of their enemies.
What does it mean to manipulate God? It means you’re trying to get control of Him. You are attempting to manage His power for your purposes. There is nothing we can do to manipulate God or to force God to move in our lives.
Look at the irony of the story for a moment. One day, a hundred thousand Israelite soldiers attempt tp protect the Ark and it is taken by heathens. The next day, no Israelite soldiers, and the Ark is completely powerful.
Today, the Ark is not with us, but God’s presence is focused in the Holy Spirit. As Jesus said, the movement of God’s Spirit is mysterious, like the wind (John 3:8). We cannot tell where His Spirit comes from or when His Spirit is coming. While we cannot make God move, we can set our sails up for when God Spirit moves. “Do not quench the Spirit.” (1 Thessalonians 5:19) Recognize the strength of God is great and you cannot manipulate His power for your purposes. Instead, you must align your life with His purposes.
2. The Holiness of God
The story of the Ark continues in 2 Samuel.
Let’s pick up reading there: “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 from Baale-judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who sits enthroned on the cherubim. 3 And they carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart, 4 with the ark of God, and Ahio went before the ark.
5 And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. 6 And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. 7 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God. 8 And David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah.” (2 Samuel 6:1-8a)
Revival and awakening is a time when people awaken to the holiness of God.
David is now firmly the king of Israel and he brings the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. The Ark represented the presence of God and it needed to be at the center of Israel’s worship.
Why Did Uzzah Die? When Uzzah put out his hand, it showed he did not understand the gospel in the slightest. He did not understand there was this enormous gap that could only be bridged by some kind of radical grace and sacrifice and atonement. That attitude toward God is lethal.
Some people say, “But I still don’t know why he died.” All He was trying to do was to prevent Ark from hitting the floor?
Years before our story, God tells Moses these words: “ ‘Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat.’” (Leviticus 16:2b). God gave rules for the transportation of the Ark in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. What were those rules? First, it had to be covered. People were not to look upon it. Second, it had to be carried. There were golden rings on the side of the Ark where you would place poles through it. Here four men were to carry it. Third, the Ark had to be carried by Levites. God especially consecrated the Levites for this work. Fourth, the Ark could not be touched.
Why did Uzzah die? Everyone of these rules was disregarded. Uzzah was not a Levite. They were not carrying it as they placed it on a cart. And Uzzah touched it. They broke the rules, all the rules. The rules teach us that the Ark was treated differently than other artifacts of other religions.
Holy Relics
When I was in Chennai off the east coast of India in 2016, I visited the site where the Apostle Thomas was martyred. There at the top of the hill was a church of sorts but really it was more of a religious tourist stop. Essentially, the place was supposedly filled with relics of the Apostle Thomas, including bones from his feet. History tells us that Thomas traveled all the way to southeastern India, sharing the gospel along his way. Prominently displayed in Chennai, under glass cases were the stories of people whose prayers were answered because they prayed there by Thomas’ bones. It was thought the goodness of Thomas allowed their prayers for children to be born and others to be healed.
During the 1500s and 1600s, it was reported there were enough pieces of the “true cross” floating around Europe to build a large ship. People think they will be blessed by touching holy relics. The Ark’s rules were the exact opposite of this. The rules of the Ark were not only to not touch it but the Ark could only be accessed by the high priest. Once a year, on Yom Kippur, the high priest would go before the Ark and make a sacrifice on behalf of the people. Not only was the Ark not to be touched, but you had to make a sacrifice to even see it and then only one day a year, by only one person. The Ark was so different from religion’s holy relics. You had to come to the Ark and a blood sacrifice to be sprinkled on the Mercy Seat, which was atop of the Ark. In other religions, you can reach out with your efforts to touch God. The Ark tells us that there is a chasm between God and you and you cannot cross it. There has to be a sacrifice, a debt has to be paid.
Again, Uzzah died because he broke the rules. Uzzah thought the dirt of the ground would defile the Ark more than he would. He thought the soil was dirty but his hand was holy. No one can come before the presence of God without radical grace. Revival and awakening is a time when scores of people wake up to the reality that God is infinitely holy.
3. The Mercy of God
God had the Ark constructed for two reasons. The first reason was teach us that there exists a chasm between God and us. God is infinitely holy and we are not. The Ark was constructed so that we would know that our problem is far worse than we ever imagined.
Someone reads this story and says, “I cannot believe in a God who does this to good people like Uzzah.” “I cannot believe in a God where you break just one rule and you are killed instantly.” But that’s not the case. There wasn’t just one rule that was broken. Numerous rules were broken. Let me show you.
How did they get the Ark on the cart? Did not multiple men touch the Ark to place it on the cart? Why were they then not killed? Why wasn’t David killed; who lead the entire parade where each of these four rules was broken? Why was only Uzzah killed? Why was Ahio, Uzzah’s brother killed, who also was there guiding the Ark? You see, God had profound mercy upon the people, in that many were not killed. Only one was killed. God was merciful even in His wrath.
Yet, there is a second reason why the Ark was constructed. This second reason is powerful and it is observed in how David brings the Ark into Jerusalem. And David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” 10 So David was not willing to take the ark of the Lord into the city of David. But David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. 11 And 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” (2 Samuel 6:9-11). Take note of the nationality of “Obed-edom the Gittite,” for he was not a Hebrew. Perhaps they left the Ark with “a foreigner” because everyone else the Ark had come into contact with died. Certainly, they left it in the house of Obed-edom because this is essentially where Uzzah died and the parade of joy stopped.
Think about this Ark for another moment. Foreign temples were destroyed when they came into contact with the Ark. The people of foreign cities saw tumors by the dozens when they came into contact with the Ark. And even curious people of Israel had died when they came into contact with the Ark. But instead, the Bible says that “the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household.” (2 Samuel 6:11) Instead of death and destruction, God blessed Obed-edom.
And it was told King David, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing. 13 And when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal. 14 And David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod. 15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn. (2 Samuel 6:12-15)
If we’re angry with someone, we might say, “Say that to my face.” Or, “Don’t go behind my back.” We know that the face of someone is where you really get to know a person. If I hear your voice but don’t see your face, can I really know what you’re saying? It’s your face that really tells me something about you: your eyes and your expression. Now, it’s true that God is everywhere and God does not have a physical body. Yet, God’s face is something that is tantalizing to us – we want to encounter Him and really know Him. Don’t you want to experience His face, the very presence of God Himself?
Conclusion
The Ark tells us about forgiveness as well as destruction. On top of the Ark was a mercy seat that looks forward to the cross. Again, the mercy seat was the place where blood sacrifice was required for people to cross the chasm between God and man. Now, the cross is the perfect picture of the mercy seat. Christ is the wide avenue of mercy offered to sinners. You see, the cross teaches us that we are far worse than we ever imagined but we are far more loved than we can comprehend.
