I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.
Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Chronicles 13-16.
The writer creates an interesting juxtaposition in today’s passage. The passage begins with the account of David’s initial attempt to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem with its tragic ending. We are told that this represented a renewed interest in the Ark. King Saul had paid little, if any, attention to the Ark throughout his reign. By deciding to move the Ark to Jerusalem, David was declaring that he was going to make worshiping God in Jerusalem a centerpiece of his reign. But David did not do this by royal fiat. First he consulted with the “assembly of Israel”, something which appears to have been a representative body of all of the people of Israel. We have no idea how this body was selected, but it is clearly not ALL of the people of Israel because after gaining their agreement David summoned all Israel to celebrate moving the Ark. (Wow, I just realized I have a lot more to write about this passage than I initially thought).
Having gathered the people to celebrate moving the Ark and to worship the Lord, David had the Ark placed on an ox cart for the move. When they have almost gotten to Jerusalem, the cart carrying the Ark tips and Uzzah reaches out to keep the Ark from falling. Uzzah is struck down immediately upon touching the Ark. David is angry and afraid after this happens, so he gives the Ark into the care of Obed-edom of Gath. It is at this point where the writer tells us that the Philistines attacked David as soon as they learned he had been made king over Israel. The writer wants to make sure that we connect David transporting the Ark on a cart with when the Philistines returned the Ark after capturing it in battle just before Samuel became judge over Israel. After defeating the Philistines twice, David realizes what he had done wrong. The Ark was not just a piece of luggage to be transported by cart. It was to be carried by Levites.
The point of this juxtaposition of the Philistines with David’s two attempts to bring the Ark to Jerusalem is to show that while God will honor those who are making a preliminary effort to honor Him, He will hold those who have fully dedicated themselves to Him to a higher standard. When the Philistines put the Ark on an ox cart to send it back to the Israelites, they were making a primitive effort to honor God while saying they wanted nothing to do with Him. Whereas the Israelites, including Uzzah, were proclaiming their full devotion to God. They should have known better. When people make a clumsy attempt to honor God for the first time, God will honor them for their attempt, no matter how flawed or lacking. On the other hand, when we have been worshiping God for an extended period of time, He expects us to learn how to do it right. This does not mean that there is a rigid formula for worshiping God. What it means is that God will accept the worship of someone who has just learned of Him who adapts an idolatrous worship practice, but He expects those who have known Him for years to abandon such practices as we come to know Him better.