Give thanks to Yahweh; call on His name; proclaim His deeds among the peoples. ~1 Chronicles 16:8 HCSB
David wanted to bring the Ark of the covenant into the city of David, Jerusalem. The priest started to bring the Ark on a cart, when the oxen stumbled and Ark slipped and Uzzah reached out to keep it from falling off and God stuck him dead. David was angry because of what had happened. David feared the Lord and wondered how he could ever bring the Ark into the city. He gathered the Levites and told them to purify themselves. This time they would move the Ark the way God wanted them to move it.
I read this story and I can’t help to think about Uzzah. He was doing his best, but what he was doing was wrong in the eyes of the Lord. Everyone around him was alright with disobeying God and he paid for it with his life. He didn’t do anything wrong in reaching out to steady the Ark, but the Ark should have never been on a cart in the first place. The lesson here is we may be doing what seems right, yet are we dishonoring God? The world around us will say its “ok”, to swear, to lie, to allow garbage into our houses through the internet and television, to live our lives the way we want to live them. But in reality our lives our not our own, our lives were purchased by the precious blood of Christ. “For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from the fathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.” (1 Peter 1:18-19 HCSB)
God is holy and we are to be holy. We are called to be set apart for obedience in Christ, to bring glory to Christ. The Ark represented the covenant God made with Israel. It symbolized the people being set apart for God’s glory. When the leaders and priest took that covenant for granted and compromised, Uzzah died. The wages of sin is death, when we compromise and cut corners with the ways of God, we are setting ourselves and the people around us for pain and suffering. Sin doesn’t just hurt the one who sins, sin affects everyone around you. Sin cannot be compromised with and must be removed. The way it is removed is through the blood of Christ. Through Christ our sin is removed. Through Christ we can live a life filled with grace, mercy and forgiveness. Through Christ we are made holy and can live holy lives pleasing to God. Through Christ we are blessed and are a blessing to those around us.
