Uzzah and the Ark

They were bringing the ark back.

A great celebration.

Thirty thousand men.

Music. Harps. Tambourines. Castanets. Cymbals.

The ark was on a new cart, driven by Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab.

They were threshing at the threshing floor of Nacon.

The oxen stumbled.

Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it.

The anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah.

God struck him there because of his error.

He died there beside the ark of God.

David was angry.

He was afraid of the LORD that day.

He asked: How can the ark of the LORD come to me?

He left the ark at the house of Obed-edom for three months.

The ark was not supposed to be on a cart.

God had given specific instructions for how the ark was to be carried.

On the shoulders of the Levites. With poles.

They had copied the method of the Philistines, who had sent the ark back on an ox cart years before.

What worked for the Philistines was not the instruction given to Israel.

And the no-touch rule around the ark was also not new.

It had been stated clearly.

Uzzah's reach was instinctive.

Protective.

Human.

He saw a holy object about to fall and he grabbed for it.

What he didn't account for was that the ark didn't need his hands to protect it.

And that the method of carrying it mattered.

David later acknowledged the error when they moved the ark again.

He said the LORD had broken out against Uzzah because they had not sought him according to the rule.

The rule had been there.

Nobody had consulted it.

Share This Story