And we're in 2 Samuel chapter
6 and reading from verse 1. Again, David gathered together
all the chosen men of Israel, 30,000. And David arose and went
with all the people that were with him from Baale, of Judah,
to bring up from thence the Ark of God, whose name is called
by the name of the Lord of hosts that dwelleth between the cherubims. And they set the Ark of God upon
a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that
was in Gebeah, and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove
the new cart. And they brought it out of the
house of Abinadab, which was at Gebeah, accompanying the ark
of God, and Ahio went before the ark. And David and all the
house of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments
made of firwood, even on harps, and on psalteries, and on timbrels,
and on cornets, and on cymbals. And when they came to Nahon's
threshing floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and
took hold of it, for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the
Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God smote him there for his
error, and he died by the ark of God. And David was displeased
because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzzah, and he called the
name of the place Perez-Uzzah to this day. And David was afraid
of the Lord that day, and said, How shall the ark of the Lord
come to me? So David would not remove the
ark of the Lord unto him into the city of David. But David
carried it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. And the ark of the Lord continued
in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite three months. And the
Lord blessed Obed-Edom and all his household. And it was told
King David, saying, The Lord hath blessed the house of Obed-Edom
and all that pertaineth unto him because of the ark of God. So David went and brought up
the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom into the city of
David with gladness. And it was so that when they
that bear the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed
oxen and fatlings. And David danced before the Lord
with all his might, and David was girded with a linen effort.
So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of
the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. And
as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michael Saul's
daughter looked through a window and saw King David leaping and
dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart. And they brought in the ark of
the Lord and set it in its place in the midst of the tabernacle
that David had pitched for it. And David offered burnt offerings
and peace offerings before the Lord. And as soon as David had
made an end of offering burnt offerings and peace offerings,
he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts. And
he dealt among all people, all the people, even among the whole
multitude of Israel, as well to the women as the men, to every
one a cake of bread and a good piece of flesh and a flagon of
wine. So all the people departed, every
one to his house. Then David returned to bless
his household. And Michael, the daughter of
Saul, came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the
king of Israel to-day, who uncovered himself to-day in the eyes of
the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly
uncovereth himself. And David said unto Michael,
It was before the Lord which chose me before thy father, and
before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the
Lord, over Israel. Therefore will I play before
the Lord, and I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base
in mine own sight, and of the maidservants which thou hast
spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour. Therefore Michael,
the daughter of Saul, had no child unto the day of her death. Amen. May the Lord be pleased
to bless this reading from his word. It is a long time since
we heard about the Ark of the Lord. It is also called the Ark
of God and the Ark of the Covenant because it was a symbol of God's
covenant made with the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of his
chosen elect people. We have to go back. Well, we
have to go back to the first few chapters of the book of 1
Samuel. to the time when the Philistines
had captured the Ark of the Covenant on the battlefield and taken
it to their own cities and then after a time sent it back to
Israel because it caused a lot of suffering with its presence
in their land. Perhaps you'll remember how they
put it in the temple of their god Dagon and the idol, the image
of their god Dagon toppled over. Well, I think with very few exceptions,
that's pretty much the last time that we encountered the Ark of
God. It had remained in the possession
of Levite families for decades while war and instability ravaged
Israel during the time of Saul particularly. But now with David
firmly in control, the Philistines defeated and David's throne established
in Jerusalem. The king desires to relocate
this precious symbol of God's presence to Jerusalem. Now, I hope you remember, if
not, let me remind you. The Ark of God is a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And it was of deep messianic,
that speaks about the Messiah, Jesus Christ, it was of deep
messianic and spiritual significance. It was full of pictures of the
Lord. From the time of its construction
by Moses in the wilderness, when the children of Israel came up
out of Egypt, it was revered for being the location of the
mercy seat over the box or the ark. The ark was just a box,
a container, where the tablets of stone containing the Ten Commandments
were located. And because the mercy seat and
the Ark of the Covenant represents Christ and his saving work and
the presence of God amongst men, very detailed instructions were
given to the children of Israel concerning its treatment. Now
David was a man of faith and in his desire to honour the Lord,
He wanted to bring the Ark to Jerusalem and there give it a
fixed place. Even indeed, he aspired to build
a house for it, a temple for it, which was not to be in his
gift over many years, but eventually the Ark of God would reside in
the temple that would be built by Solomon, David's son. So David wanted to bring this
ark back from where it was located amongst these Levitical families
in in the borders of Israel and the Philistines into Jerusalem. And David gathered the people
together in order to bring the Ark of God back to Jerusalem
or to Jerusalem from the house of a man called Abinadab. And this was a time of great
enthusiasm and celebration However, once again, it does appear that
David didn't consult the Lord in this matter. There's no reference
at the opening of this chapter to David speaking to the Lord
or seeking the Lord's direction or advice in the matter. He just
assumed that this was the best thing to do, it seems. And despite
all the excitement, the prayed and the music, There seems to
have been a carelessness and a neglect about the way that
the Ark is treated. Remember I said that the Lord
had given very direct and succinct instructions as to how the Ark
was to be dealt with. And there seems to have been
some neglect about the way the Ark was treated, especially about
the way in which it was transported. it's placed in a cart, a new
cart is built and the Ark of God is placed in the cart and
it is pulled by oxen. Now that was the way that the
Philistines had sent it back to Israel and maybe the children
of Israel thought, well, if it was good enough for the Philistines,
it's good enough for us. But the Lord has a higher standard
from his people. The ark ought to have been covered
over and it ought to have been carried on poles or wooden staves
by Levites as it was in the wilderness. And here's a lesson for us right
at once. We must not be thoughtless and
we must not be irresponsible with God's Word. When God speaks
and tells us something, it is our duty to hear, to obey and
to believe. During the journey from the home
of this man, Abinadab, to Jerusalem, we discover that the oxen stumble
when they get to this threshing floor. I don't know whether it
was because it was smooth and the oxen slipped, or for whatever
reason, there seems to have been a problem. And the cart is jolted. One of the men, this man was
called Uzzah, he was the son, perhaps the second or the third
son of Abinadab. He was walking by the side of
the cart and as the cart was jolted, he reached up and laid
his hand on the Ark of God. ostensibly so that it would not
fall, so that it wouldn't slip off the cart. And he was instantly
slain for doing so. We read these words, God smote
him there for his error. And there he died by the ark
of God. Now great anxiety fell on all
the people. David was both displeased and
afraid. He realised that he'd been presumptuous
and foolish in not treating the Ark with the necessary respect. And though he was grieved at
Uzzah's death, David acknowledged the fault, saying, because we
sought him not after the Jew order. And so again, let us take
that as a lesson. When the Lord tells us the way
to approach him, let us not second guess the Lord. Let us not devise
our own way, even one that seems right to us. Let us seek the
Lord after the due order. Let us seek the Lord in the way
that he has directed and specified. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the
Father but by me. And so we come to the Lord by
Christ. For three months, the Ark is
left in the home of a man called Obed-Edom. And Obed-Edom and
his household prospered as long as it remained in his house.
When David heard this, he interpreted that as God saying that his anger
had passed. And David's confidence grew that
taking proper precautions to revere so precious a symbol of
God's glory, the Ark might finally be brought to Jerusalem. And
David was very happy. at this outcome and we're told
that he danced before the procession as a mark of respect and part
of the divine worship. As they approached Jerusalem
however, Michael, David's wife and Saul's daughter, was not
so happy at what she saw. She despised David for this act,
implying, I think, that she begrudged the respect given to the emblem
of the Lord's presence and resented the worship given to God. and for this God punished her.
She was rendered barren by God and unable to bear children. Here are a couple of lessons
that I think we can take from this chapter today. The first
one is to do with Uzza's death. It might seem harsh to us that
Uzzah's life was taken for trying to protect the Ark and save it
from falling off the cart. Wasn't it a good thing to do?
Wasn't it even just a natural reaction that you see something
shift, you see something move and you want to stabilise it
and hold it in place? It would seem that that would
be the case. But this is to miss the more
important point, that these men, Uzzah included, had neglected
to give the Ark of God the due respect and honour asked by God. Indeed, we say demanded by God. we've mentioned this before.
They used a new cart when the Ark should have been carried,
borne, by Levites, themselves prohibited from physically touching
the Ark of God by carrying it on these wooden staves and supporting
it on these wooden poles. Furthermore, use a touching the
Ark implied that God needed man's help to stop the ark from falling
over. It was as if Uzzah was saying,
well, God can't keep himself stable. These oxen have knocked
God over. Because remember, this was the
picture, the symbol of the presence of God with his people. That was presumptuous on Uzzah's
part. In fact, and I hope I'm not being
disrespectful here, but forevermore, Uzzah would have been known as
the man who saved God because he had stopped God from falling
over. But I think the real significance
of Jesus' death is this. This Ark of the Lord, as we have
seen, typified the Lord Jesus Christ. The mercy seat was emblematic
of the saving work of Christ in shedding his blood on the
cross and dying for his people. Remember what we've said, we've
even read it in Luke today, how that Moses and the prophets wrote
about Christ so that as we read these Old Testament narratives,
we are looking for Christ in them and he's not hard to find.
And what we're learning here is that the mercy seat as being
a picture of the saving work of Christ, of Christ's shed blood,
of Christ dying for his people, is to reinforce that salvation
is the work of God alone and the sole responsibility of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And this incident of Jesus' death
is a clear testimony that salvation is God's work and that man can
do nothing to add or contribute to the completeness or the sufficiency
of Christ's accomplishments. Let me just make an application
here. Today, Many Christians believe in what they call, many
professing Christians let me say, believe in what they call
man's free will in salvation. Man's free will in salvation. And they teach that by dying
on the cross, Christ has done all that he can
to save people from sin and now it is left up to each individual
person, when they hear the Gospel, to decide whether they want to
be saved or not. That it's up to each individual
to make Christ's saving work complete by accepting his gift
and becoming his follower. Now this is wrong. That is not
the teaching of the Bible. And it might seem to you to be
very close to the teaching of the Bible. But that's the point.
Did it matter how the Ark of the Covenant was transported
to Jerusalem from the home of Abinadab? Yes, it mattered. Because
God had specified how it should be done. And it was presumptuous
for men to change that. The way of life is by Christ's
completed work and Christ alone is the way of salvation. Free will makes Christ's work
of salvation incomplete until man finishes the task by believing. It effectively says that no one
is saved by Christ until they choose to be so making men the
authors of their own salvation and Christ's work no more than
making salvation possible. All who preach this error are
teaching it is a man's job to enable and secure the work of
Christ from failing. and that was Uzzah's crime. That was the significance of
Uzzah's sin. He improperly imagined that he
could save the Ark of God from falling. Uzzah was a victim of
God's judgment, but he is a warning against all who fail to honour
the efficacy of Christ's saving work on the cross. That might seem a little bit
complicated, but it's important and it is a distinction that
we have to understand. Here's another point. Following
the incident with Uzzah, David would not bring the ark into
Jerusalem, but it remained in the house of Obed-Edom for three
months. And we're told that the Lord
blessed Obed-Edom and all his household. Obed-Edom was a Levite,
and we may assume that he was a man of faith. When so many,
including David, feared the Lord following this matter of Uzzah,
Obed-Edom was blessed with his house. And here's the lesson. Remember that this Ark, the Ark
of God, the Ark of the Covenant, is a picture of Christ. Obed-Edom
received Christ into his house and the Lord blessed him and
his family. When a man, when a woman, when
a boy or a girl receives the Lord Jesus Christ into the house
of their life, into their heart, into their soul, then the Lord
will bless them. Uzzah imagined the hand of flesh
could support God's salvation, while Obed-Edom received complete
salvation at the hand of an all-sufficient saviour. It's a simple but an
important difference. The Lord blesses and prospers
all who trust him completely for all righteousness, all goodness,
all grace and all mercy. There is no place for man's work
or glory in the presence of God. There is no place for presumption
or pride. And finally, let us just make
a quick reference to Michael. Michael's scorn for David and
her accusations when David finally brought the Ark to Zion were
bitter and cutting. And they also carry a spiritual
lesson for us, I think. Saul, Michael's father, never
gave the Ark the honour it deserved. And here Michael continued to
exhibit disrespect for the ways of the Lord. Now David gave as
good as he got from the sharp tongue of his wife and his reply
was equally piercing. How easy it is for even people
of faith to return like for like when we should return good for
evil. At a practical level, this shows
that David viewed the honour of the Lord to be of the highest
importance. Though as a frail and sinful
man, he often failed to uphold the principles he knew to be
true. How like us that is. But there's
another lesson here as well. Michael, we are told, as a result
of her despising David, Michael is rendered barren by the Lord. She had no children by David. She did adopt children, but they
were not her own. In this way, the Lord prevented
the bloodline of Saul being mixed with the bloodline of David in
the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Men had chosen Saul to
rule Israel. God chose David, a man after
his own heart, David too is a type of Christ and Michael's barrenness
points to the purity and the holiness of Christ and all his
spiritual children. These Old Testament narratives
are full of stories that speak of the history and the experience
of the Lord's people in days gone by. But as we look for the
Lord Jesus Christ in them, may he be pleased to open our eyes
and help us to understand what he has all the time been doing
in the covenant of grace to bring his people to that purity and
righteousness that is found in Christ. Amen.