WHEN GOD OPPOSES YOUR WAY
Then they came to the threshing floor of Nacon. And Uzzah reached out toward the ark of God and took hold of it, because the oxen nearly upset it. And the anger of Yahweh burned against Uzzah, and God struck him down there for his irreverence; and he died there by the ark of God. And David became angry because of Yahweh’s breaking out against Uzzah; and that place is called Perez-uzzah to this day. So David was afraid of Yahweh that day; and he said, “How can the ark of Yahweh come to me?” And David was unwilling to move the ark of Yahweh into the city of David with him; but David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. 2 Samuel 6:6-10
Why would God be so harsh on Uzzah? After all, he was just trying to steady the cart so that nothing bad happened to the ark of the covenant. One lesson from this event is: Good intentions do not equal obedience to God. God had specifically told Israel that if they touched the holy objects when moving them that they would die (Num. 4:15). Consequently, I am amazed that David was angry at God, but not at Uzzah! Bad directions based on good intentions can equal disaster, and that is what happened. We also see in 2 Samuel 6:11 that the ark ended up in the house of Obed-edom for 3 months. So, the intended result of moving the ark in order to honor God and receive His blessing was short-circuited by presumption and wrong orders. There is important truth for us here. The means do not justify the end. If I do something that God has told me not to do and rationalize by thinking that it will end up good, then I am not exercising faith, but presumption as David did.
Now, let’s give David credit because repentance can bring blessing. Read the account in 1 Chronicles 15:1-15. David repented of his sin and did an about-face. After this event, God comes to David in 2 Samuel 7 and makes what we call the Davidic Covenant with David; namely, that he would always have a descendant to sit on his throne. As you know, this turned out to be none other than our Lord Jesus Christ as Gabriel told Mary in Luke 1:32-33.
Ike Graham