"Being Moved!"

 "A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;" (Ecclesiastes 3:4 KJV)

  "Then David again gathered all the elite troops in Israel, 30,000 in all. He led them to Baalah of Judah to bring back the Ark of God, which bears the name of the LORD of Heaven's Armies, who is enthroned between the cherubim. They placed the Ark of God on a new cart and brought it from Abinadab's house, which was on a hill. Uzzah and Ahio, Abinadab's sons, were guiding the cart as it left the house, carrying the Ark of God. Ahio walked in front of the Ark. David and all the people of Israel were celebrating before the LORD, singing songs and playing all kinds of musical instruments - lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets, and cymbals. 

 "But when they arrived at the threshing floor of Nacon, the oxen stumbled, and Uzzah reached out his hand and steadied the Ark of God. Then the LORD'S anger was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him dead because of this. So Uzzah died right there beside the Ark of God. 

 "David was angry because the LORD'S anger had burst out against Uzzah. He named the place Perez-uzzah (which means "to burst out against Uzzah"), as it is still called today. 

 "David was now afraid of the LORD, and he asked, "How can I ever bring the Ark of the LORD back into my care?" So David decided not to move the Ark of the LORD into the City of David. Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-edom of Gath. The Ark of the LORD remained there in Obed-edom's house for three months, and the LORD blessed Obed-edom and his entire household." (2 Samuel 6:1-11 NLT)

 As I was thinking about this yesterday, I couldn't help but imagine that Solomon had thought about this story while he wrote this down. When you think about what had happened, it doesn't quite feel right that God would strike someone down, for doing what they thought was the right thing to do. Just a rather innocent reaction, which I could picture myself doing, if I was the one responsible for guiding the cart! 

 We had a Men's Retreat back in the day; I believe it was back in 1988, or there abouts. I do remember that the main focus of the retreat was David's slaying of Goliath; but there was a point during the weekend when this specific story was brought to life. To be frank, and to the point, David was the one that was responsible for this, so called mishap. Had he taken the time to ask, he might have found out that the Ark was meant to be moved by poles, which was what the rings on the sides were for. 

 That said, the first thing that popped into my mind when I had first felt God's anger was a little extreme and uncalled for, was that Uzzah was not condemned, as if he would die in his sin; but that he would be someone that I would one day meet, when I get into Heaven. God did what He did to move David, and to bring him into the understanding that He must be revered and obeyed. 

 Questions about God's actions, although they might sometimes be hard to understand, they must not be things that we treat as though He doesn't know what He is doing, or that He doesn't care! Everything that God does, He does for a reason; everything He doesn't do, He also does not do it for a reason! Even though we might think He will do this or that, just because He can; we have no right to say He should have, because He is the One that holds all of this together! 

 I watched "God's Not Dead", again, for about the seventh time. It was Kevin Sorbo's character that caught my attention last night, as he explained why he no longer believed in God, saying, 'When a 12-year-old boy pleads for his dying mother, and watches the God she serves taking her life, he has nothing more to do with Him!' (That is paraphrased.) 

 He ended up being exposed by Josh, who asked him, "Why do you hate God?" To which he answered, "I have nothing but disdain for Him!" Later, he finally reads a letter that his mother wrote before she died, realizing how much she wanted him to grow up loving God, he also realized that being with God was the most important thing that we could ever ask for...

"Then King David was told, "The LORD has blessed Obed-edom's household and everything he has because of the Ark of God." So David went there and brought the Ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the City of David with a great celebration. After the men who were carrying the Ark of the LORD had gone six steps, David sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. And David danced before the LORD with all his might, wearing a priestly garment. So David and all the people of Israel brought up the Ark of the LORD with shouts of joy and the blowing of rams' horns." (2 Samuel 6:12-15 NLT)