2Samuel 6:1-8
Getting It Right
This story actually took place over two books of the Bible. It began
toward the first chapters of 1 Samuel and it is being concluded here,
toward the first chapters of 2 Samuel.
To give you a time reference, Eli was finishing his time of leading
Israel when the story began and David more than 10 years into his
reign as king when it was being completed. In between those two
rulers, were the rulers Samuel and Saul. People do not seem to be
sure of how long Samuel reigns but somewhere between 20 and 50 years.
Saul reigned for 40 years. Add all of those up and from the time the
story began to the time it ended would be at least 80 years and could
be as long as 110 years.
The kingdom now belonged to David, and he wanted to do right. He had
taken the hill of Zion to be his capital, and he wanted it to be not
only the political capital but also the religious capital. The
worship in Israel has not been right through these many years,
at least 80 years and probably longer.
Let’s see what happens with three thoughts.
I. The History of Sin
A. \\#1Sam 4:1-11\\ - This started back in the last days of Eli,
srael brought the Ark on the battlefield as a "good luck
charm." God was not impressed with their irreligious act and
the Philistines defeated Israel, confiscating the Ark.
B. That event did several things.
1. It placed the Ark of the Covenant in enemy hands.
a. The Ark represented the presence and power of God.
Exodus 25:22 And there I will meet with thee,
and I will commune with thee from above the
mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which
are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things
which I will give thee in commandment unto the
children of Israel.
b. The capturing of the Ark of Israel by the Philistines
was a symbolic message that the presence and power
of God was no longer among His people.
2. It separated the Ark of the Covenant from the Tabernacle.
a. The Tabernacle was the holy tent that Israel made to
shelter the Ark.
b. The Ark should have never been taken from the
Tabernacle, but it contained the other holy furniture
such as the brazen altar, the candlestick, the table
for the showbread, and so forth.
c. Where one was, there was to be all.
d. Once these two separated, it was impossible to worship
as God had commanded.
(1) Offerings could still be made at the Tabernacle
but God’s presence was not there.
(2) What good was it to offer a sacrifice when God
was not there?
(3) During these many years, no sacrifice was
completely acceptable to God. No Passover
sacrifices. No Day of Atonement sacrifices. No
personal sacrifices.
(4) That condition lasted for around 100 years.
C. From this point, the two travel different paths.
1. The Ark went to Philistia for seven months \\#1Sam 6:1\\,
but God cursed every Philistine city that attempted to
house it.
a. \\#1Sam 5:1-7\\ Ashdod
b. \\#1Sam 5:8-9\\ Gath
c. \\#1Sam 5:10-12\\ Then they tried to send it to Ekron
but its citizens refused to let it be brought into
the city.
d. Instead, the Philistines told their leaders to send it
back to Israel, which they eventually did.
e. After seven months, the Ark was "sent" to Bethshemesh
in Israel.
f. Listen to how the Philistines did it.
1Sam 6:10 And the men did so; and took two milch
kine, and tied them to the cart, and shut up
their calves at home:
11 And they laid the ark of the LORD upon the
cart, and the coffer with the mice of gold and
the images of their emerods.
12 And the kine took the straight way to the way
of Bethshemesh, and went along the highway,
lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the
right hand or to the left; and the lords of the
Philistines went after them unto the border of
Bethshemesh.
13 And they of Bethshemesh were reaping their
wheat harvest in the valley: and they lifted up
their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see
it.
14 And the cart came into the field of Joshua,
a Bethshemite, and stood there, where there was
a great stone: and they clave the wood of the
cart, and offered the kine a burnt offering unto
the LORD.
15 And the Levites took down the ark of the
LORD, and the coffer that was with it, wherein
the jewels of gold were, and put them on the
great stone: and the men of Bethshemesh offered
burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the
same day unto the LORD.
g. \\#1Sam 7:1-2\\ So the people of Kiriath-Jearim came
to get the Ark and keep it.
(1) That is the city where David will go fetch it
from.
(2) \\#2Sam 6:2\\ The city is called Baale of Judah
when David goes to get it.
(3) Baale means LORDS so the city was called The
Lords of Judah.
2. The Bible doesn’t tell us what happened to the Tabernacle.
a. That would mean the Tabernacle, as beautiful as it
was, was only special because it housed the Ark.
b. A building used for worship is only four walls and a
roof if God’s presence is not there!
(1) The Tabernacle apparently ceased to have
significance once God’s presence departed.
(2) A church, no matter how large, also ceases to
have significance if God’s presence has departed
from it.
c. We speculate that the Tabernacle was moved to Nob
since priests were there and they had holy bread
\\#1Sam 21:3\\.
D. What I find interesting is that these two holy icons were not
that far apart (and it really would not have mattered if they
were!)
1. Kiriath-Jearim was only 8 miles from Jerusalem.
2. Nob was about 3 miles in the other direction.
3. That is only 11 miles between them.
4. There was a road between those two cities.
5. Yet, in 80 plus years, no one ever thought to put the two
back together and return Israel to their proper and
complete form of worship.
a. Why?
b. One would just have to figure that it just didn’t mean
that much to anyone!
II. The Desire of David
A. After taking Zion, Jerusalem became the new capital of Israel,
and it is David’s desire to have the presence of God in the
capital city.
1. This was a good desire that should have been done a long
time ago.
2. This was a case of doing the right things in the wrong
way.
a. David put the Ark on a NEW cart - just like the
Philistines did.
b. He has HIS CHOSEN MEN doing the transporting.
B. The Bible gave specific commands to the children of Israel
concerning HOW to transport the Ark.
Ex 25:12 And thou shalt cast four rings of
gold for it, and put them in the four corners
thereof; and two rings shall be in the one side
of it, and two rings in the other side of it.
13 And thou shalt make staves of shittim wood,
and overlay them with gold.
14 And thou shalt put the staves into the rings
by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be
borne with them.
15 The staves shall be in the rings of the ark:
they shall not be taken from it.
C. The Bible gave specific commands as to WHO was to transport
the Ark.
Numbers 4:15 …the sons of Kohath shall come to
bear it: but they shall not touch any holy thing,
lest they die.
D. The end result is that the Ark was being transported
improperly by the wrong people and it begins to fall.
1. That is when Uzzah tried to steady it.
2. God smote Uzzah for touching the Ark.
3. Sadly, Uzzah was the son of the man who had been keeping
the Ark, Abinadab.
4. He had been blessed all those years and along comes David
and immediately his offspring dies!
III. Lessons We Learn
A. Right is always right.
1. The problem was not that David did not put effort or
grandeur into moving the Ark.
a. He had singers and musicians.
b. He had 30,000 hand-picked men there.
c. He even made a new cart.
2. The problem was he didn’t obey God. He didn’t do what was
RIGHT.
a. It does not matter if you are the king. You must do
what is right.
(1) Not just God’s anointed. Saul was anointed.
(2) He was God’s handpicked and anointed.
b. It does not matter if you are a Christian. You must
do what is right.
c. It does not matter if you a priest or a preacher. You
must do what is right.
d. Why? Because right is always right.
3. The flip side of that is always true as well.
a. Wrong is always wrong.
b. If it is wrong for one, it is wrong for all.
c. It doesn’t matter who you are. Wrong is wrong.
d. Certain people in our world either think it is all
right for them to do wrong or else they think they
will get away with it.
(1) Wrong on both counts.
(2) People with influence, wealth, and authority
seem to think they can do what they want.
(3) Friend, there is God, and He will balance the
scales.
Luke 8:17 For nothing is secret, that shall not
be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that
shall not be known and come abroad.
4. If that is true in the world, how much more so is that
true in the worship?
5. There are few things more important to God than obedience.
1Samuel 15:22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as
great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to
obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken
than the fat of rams.
a. Old Testament saints seemed to have had the notion
that sin didn’t really matter because they could
always offer another sacrifice.
b. It is something like what we who believe in eternal
security are false accused of believing.
c. But God told the Jews that He did not delight in their
sacrifices.
(1) Sacrifices were given to atone for sin but the
sacrifice is not what brought joy to the heart
of God.
(2) What brought joy to God’s heart was obedience.
(3) When there was obedience, there was no need for
the sacrifices and that is what pleased God!
B. God is not wrong for holding the righteous to right.
2Sam 6:6 And when they came to Nachon’s
threshingfloor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the
ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen
shook it.
7 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against
Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and
there he died by the ark of God.
1. When you read that (and you are thinking) you probably
say, "Well, that wasn’t fair."
a. I say you probably say that because I said it,
b. If you did, we probably had another thought in common,
i.e. He was just trying to keep God’s Ark from
falling.
2. But consider:
a. Whenever we say something is not fair, we are saying,
"God is wrong."
(1) You say, "That’s not fair," what is the "that?"
(2) God is the Force that controls and allows all
things.
(3) Whenever you say, "That is not fair," you are
actually saying "God is not fair" and when
you say "God is not fair," you are actually
saying "God is wrong."
b. God is not wrong.
(1) God was not wrong with Uzzah.
(2) God gave a command, Uzzah broke the command.
(3) The people of Israel had the Word of God and
should have known.
(4) Israel had been breaking God’s Word for more
than 100 years.
(5) How long is God supposed to allow the right
to do wrong?
(6) God is not wrong for holding the righteous
to right.
C. God is not wrong for giving mercy to the ignorant.
1. If there was a quality of God that was missing in this
account, let suggest that it is.
2. It is mercy.
a. I think what some people mean to say is that God was
not as merciful to Uzzah as he could have been.
b. Some might even say, "He was not as merciful to Uzzah
has He was to the Philistines."
3. You’d be right, but that is not wrong.
a. Mercy is an act of kindness on God’s part.
b. Anytime God wants to give it, He is right to do so.
c. Not only is it God’s right to show mercy to the wicked
and the ignorant, it is the wicked and the ignorant’s
need.
(1) God showed it to us when we were the ignorant and
the wicked.
(2) Had God not showed it to us, we would have never
become the righteous.
4. In truth, it is not wrong for God to give mercy to the
ignorant and the wicked.
a. That is God’s gift and God’s grace.
b. However, it is wrong for the righteous to deliberately
live a life that requires God’s constant mercy.
c. Sadly this was the situation in which David had placed
the troop that he gathered to welcome the Ark.
d. On that day, God’s abused mercy just ran out.
D. The righteous are wrong when they follow the world.
1. Why? Because we are His.
2. Apparently, David got the idea of how to transport the Ark
from the Philistines.
a. It would have been about 500 years since Israel came
into the Promised Land. (I don’t know that the Ark
was in the same place all of that time, but it
certainly did not get moved like it did in the days
of Moses.)
b. The nation had turned, in large part, to idols.
c. The Word of God was limited.
d. Apparently the priests and Levites weren’t doing their
jobs. (To study and teach the Word of God)
3. God allowed the Philistines to put the Ark on a cart to
return it to Israel, but He did not do that so that they
could teach the Jews how to transport the Ark back to
Jerusalem.
4. Instead of David and the people doing what God had said to
do in moving the Ark, they copied what the heathen had
done.
a. You can’t learn about God from following the unsaved.
b. God in His mercy, might actually let the lost get by
with somethings that He will not let the saved get
by with.
(1) Why?
(a) Because they are ignorant.
(b) The ignorant are so ignorant that they do
not even know there is a Book with
instructions.
(c) God’s people are supposed to know better.
(2) Mercy is to be a gift given sparingly, not a way
of life.
3. That is where the saved come in.
a. The saved are not supposed to follow the unsaved.
b. We are supposed to lead them.
(1) We lead them according to the Word of God.
(2) We lead them by example.
E. The right thing to do was the right thing to do.
1. After this tragedy happened, David did what he should have
done in the first place.
2. He either turned directly to the Word of God, or he turned
to those who knew the Word of God.
a. How do I know?
b. Because the next thing we see is David moving the Ark
correctly.
3. \\#2Sam 6:12-15\\ All of the details aren’t given, but
there is an indication that they got rid of that cart.
2Sam 6:13 And it was so, that when they that
bare the ark of the LORD had gone six paces….
a. The Bible did not say when they had gone 6 revolutions
of the cart wheel.
b. It said six paces.
c. Someone was carrying that Ark.
d. And although the Bible does not tell us, I’ll be you
a slab of heavenly payment that it was a son of
Kohath.
e. Why? Because the right thing is always the right
thing to do.
I don’t think many people are concerned with doing the right thing.
Let’s get it right. Let live so that when they lay us in the ground,
those who stand over us can honestly say, "He/She did it right."
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