BRINGING HOME THE ARK

One of the more shocking incidents (at least to me) in the Old Testament is found in 2 Samuel 6 and 1 Chronicles 13-15. King David was bringing the ark of God back to Jerusalem . . . and Indiana Jones was not involved (that’s not the shocking part).

The Philistines had captured the ark but they quickly found that Jehovah was not going to allow it to be added to their motley collection of tribal gods taken in battle. The predicament the Philistines found themselves in was actually quite hilarious. In an attempt to debase Jehovah, the Philistines took the ark into the temple of their chief idol, Dagon, and placed it at the feet of Dagon to indicate its submission and inferiority. The next morning the Philistines found Dagon had fallen prostrate in front of the ark.

The Philistines tried the same thing a second time and when they came back to the temple, they found that not only had Dagon fallen prostrate again but this time its head and hands had broken off. But that wasn’t the only thing that happened to the Philistines because they kidnapped the ark. A plague broke out among them—but not just any plague, it was a plague of hemorrhoids. Now that will get your attention!

The embarrassment of Dagon (1 Samuel 5) and the plague was enough to make the Philistines decide to return the ark before a more severe calamity befell them. In their hurry to get rid of it, they dumped it in one of the outlying villages of Israel.

David was anxious to have the ark back in Jerusalem and at the center of Israel’s worship, and we read in 2 Samuel 6 how he and his army went to retrieve it. The ark was considered to be the most important item in the tabernacle and it sat in the Holy of Holies, deep inside the portable temple. On the top of the ark was the mercy seat and once a year, the high priest would go in and sprinkle the blood of a sacrifice there. The ark was a symbol of God’s presence, a visible sign that God was dwelling in Israel’s midst.

David and his men prepared a “new cart” for the ark to ride on and the journey back home became one of celebration with singing and music. How fitting! It was shaping up to be a new day in Israel—the ark was coming home and riding in style on a new cart. However, the travelling worship service was interrupted when the oxen pulling the cart stumbled and Uzzah, one of the cart drivers, reached out to steady it and without warning was struck dead. A simple helpful gesture—and he was struck dead!

David reacted in anger, frustration and fear. “How can I ever bring the ark home?” he cried, and then he had the ark sidetracked to a nearby property. What does this mean to us? What can we learn from this story?
David was passionate about bringing the visible symbol of God’s presence back to the mainstream of Israel. Not only was the ark a symbol but God’s presence seemed to linger on the ark, as the Philistines and Uzzah had discovered. David’s intention was righteous, but somehow something had gone wrong.

David had cried, “How can I ever bring the ark home?” His frustration and anger boiled over because it seemed impossible for the nation to ever again experience the presence of God. David’s dream was dying right before his eyes.

Why had this happened? Why had Uzzah been struck dead? Who was to blame?
The answer is that David and the leadership of Israel were to blame. They did not take time to find out how the ark was to be transported so they came up with their own idea and built a “new cart” for the ark to ride on. This smacks of arrogance and sounds rather like some today who blithely declare, “We have a better way! We understand what it will take to reach this generation—we know how to be more relevant.” And so they build what they declare is a new and better cart.

David’s mistake was that he tried to implement a new methodology when God had already clearly laid out how the ark was to be moved. 1 Chronicles 15:3-15 says that the ark was to be carried on the shoulders of the priests, and that was the only way it was to be moved . . . ever! Here’s how that translates to us: We are the priests of the New Covenant (1 Peter 2:9). Our shoulders represent our worship, our praise, our sacrifice of thanksgiving and that worship and praise will usher in the presence of the Lord. It is our worship that brings the presence of the Lord, not “the new cart,” not our surroundings nor our programs. It is the praise and worship of God’s people that He responds to. “But You are holy, O You Who dwell in (inhabit) the praises of Israel” (Psalm 22:3, Amplified Bible).

The mistake of David and the leadership of Israel continues to be repeated today. Instead of inquiring of the Lord to see how we should proceed, we get busy building a new cart. After all, we reason, it’s a new day and we should have a new cart! And so with big wheels and boards, we build ourselves a new cart, only to find at the end of the day that God had a plan all along and we didn’t take time to find it. The mistakes of the past live on.

“Bringing home the ark” means understanding what God wants and making the appropriate changes.

We can “bring home the ark!”