The story of David bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem is an interesting one. It’s interesting to see how God works in the life of this man described as being “after God’s own heart.”

The Israelites had lost the Ark to the Philistines. Someone thought it would be a good idea to take the ark into battle, which God hadn’t instructed them to do (despite what you may have seen in Raiders of the Lost Ark). There’s not a lot of detail about how they did that; I’m curious as to whether or not they followed the instructions from the Law about how to carry the Ark.

The Israelites lost the battle and the Ark was captured. However, the Philistines soon discovered that it was a bad idea for them to keep God’s Ark, and they sent it back in a cart pulled by two milch kine (gotta love the KJV), that is, two milk cows. The Ark ended up in Kiritah Jearim, where it stayed until David decided to take it to Jerusalem.

David didn’t return the Ark to the Tabernacle; he set up a tent in Jerusalem for the Ark. He also failed to transport it as the Law said. The Ark was to be carried by the Levites, covered by a curtain. Instead the Israelites placed it on a cart, and nothing is said about it being covered.

This lack of attention to God’s instructions led to disaster, but only when Uzzah went to touch the Ark. God is slow to anger and overlooks a certain degree of ignorance. However, the actual touching of the Ark was too much. Uzzah was struck dead when he touched the Ark.

This first part of the story reminds us that God’s holiness is a serious matter. It’s not merely a question of obedience and disobedience, else many more people would have died on that day. In some ways, David was the guiltiest of all, yet he is not reprimanded; he even becomes angry with God over what happened.

What happened to Uzzah should remind us why we worship God with reverence and holy fear; our God is a consuming fire.

We’ll look some more at this story over the next few days.