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Moving The Ark

            David again brought together all the able young men of Israel—thirty thousand. 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. 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 with the ark of God on it,[c] and Ahio was walking in front of it. David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with castanets, harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums and cymbals. 

           When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. 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. Then David was angry because the Lord’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah…

 So David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf.  Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets. (II Samuel 6:1-8 & 12-15)

 

Round one: David tries to take the ark of God from where it was to where he wanted it to be in the most efficient, effective, labor-saving way possible. In other words, not according to what God had instructed. After all, it wasn’t a symbol of God’s relationship with oxen. It wasn’t just part of the baggage. But as usual, when people do things from a human perspective, they get it wrong.

Round 2. The ark is carried by six people. And when they had taken six steps, David stopped everything and offered up a sacrifice. I don’t know whether that process continued all the way to the city. He also danced before the Lord, and I believe that dancing may have gone on all the way to the city. The key phrase is “before the Lord.”

Usually, we’re told that the difference between rounds one and two is that David figures out how to do the right thing the right way. That’s true, but it’s not the whole truth. David danced before the Lord with all his might. His focus wasn’t on the ark. His focus wasn’t on his mission. It was on God.

This is the problem we face today. There are lots of people who have ideas about how to solve this problem or that. They want to use the cart of government to move their ideas and their authority forward. God is superfluous or even rejected. And He upsets their apple/idol cart/plans. Unlike David, they load up a new cart and try the same thing again, rather than seeking how to do it the right way. And the right way always acknowledges God and follow the rules He’s set forth, and rather than acknowledging Him at all.

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