Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Do not let the Kohathite clans be destroyed from among the Levites! This is what you must do so they will live and not die when they approach the most sacred objects. Aaron and his sons must always go in with them and assign a specific duty or load to each person. -- Numbers 4: 17-19 (NLT)
And so we come to the key verses for today. David is acting in complete disobedience here. His heart was in the right place but the manner in which he acted was not. The Bible says that the heart is desperately wicked above all things. So don't worry, God knows our heart. It is not enough to have pure motives. It is not enough to wrap ourselves up in the name of Jesus. We have to be obedient to what He has already said. It reminds me of one of the stories that led to the downfall of King Saul, David's predecessor. The Lord had instructed him to attack the Amalekites and destroy everything. Saul instead took the best of the spoils and spared the King. When confronted by the Prophet Samuel, Saul tried to explain that he saved the choicest cattle and sheep to make sacrifice to God. Here was the Prophet's response:
But Samuel replied: "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king." - 1Samuel 15: 22-23 (NIV)
He rejects those that reject His Word. To obey is better than sacrifice. Too often these days we get it backwards. We disobey and find religious reasons for it. We do the opposite of what God has already said in the Bible and dress it up with fancy dancing, singing with all of our might, and a brand new cart. But God is saying here that it is nothing more than arrogant idolatry before Him. The Gospel does not need to be marketed. The Gospel does not need to be made relevant. The only thing the Gospel needs is to be preached.
What was the sin of Uzzah? Was it merely in reaching out to steady the Ark? Surely his intentions were good. He was merely making sure the Ark did not tumble to the ground! It was surely a reflex action any one of us would have done in his place. We see something slipping and we naturally and instinctively reach out. No, Uzzah's sin was for being where he did not belong. He had no business guiding the cart that held the Ark of the Covenant. He had no business taking the sacred and holy things of God and making them ordinary. That is the same sin prevalent today in the church through the leaven of good intentions. It seeks to take what God has declared holy and make it ordinary. It takes the sacred Gospel of Jesus Christ and marginalizes it. Waters it down and makes it impotent.
The last lesson from this story is what happened next. Uzzah is lying dead on the ground and David, as so many today, became angry with God:
David was angry because the Lord 's anger had burst out against Uzzah. He named that place Perez-uzzah (which means "to burst out against Uzzah"), as it is still called today. -- 1Chronicles 13: 11 (NLT)
Too often we can act in disobedience to God and when He comes against it we shake our fist at the sky instead of repenting for what we did. Be careful today where you find yourself. Do not stay amongst teachings that turn the holy and sacred things of God into the ordinary. Do not stay amongst the teachings that dress up disobedience with a nice fancy cart and strained worship ceremonies designed for man. Do not settle for a fast-food, slick marketing, super-sized salvation. There is too much at stake beloved. God does not care about our intentions. He cares about our obedience.
Reverend Anthony Wade -- May 2, 2012
