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[0:00] Let's look at our Bibles, 2 Samuel, and tonight chapter 6.

[0:25] I, of course, regret that I'm not going to be able to finish 2 Samuel, not going to be able to finish 1 John, not going to be able to finish the Olivet Discourse.

[0:45] We've got three things going on, book studies and passage studies, expositional studies, and not going to be able to finish them. So you'll have to just read it on your own, study it on your own.

[0:56] But tonight we do want to look at chapter 6, and let me go ahead and read the passage, the entire chapter. And interesting part of David's story, one just as soon as we start reading, one that you're going to remember.

[1:12] So let me read it. Chapter 6, 2 Samuel. Again, David gathered all the choice men of Israel, 30,000.

[1:26] And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baal, Judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, whose name is called by the name, capital N, name, which is what?

[1:42] The Lord of hosts, Yahweh of hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. So they set the ark on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill.

[1:58] And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart. And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill, accompanying the ark of God.

[2:12] And Ahio went before the ark. Then David and all the house of Israel played music before the Lord on all kinds of instruments, and of fir wood, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on sistrums, and on cymbals.

[2:30] And when they came to Nacon's threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled.

[2:44] Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error, and he died there by the ark of God.

[2:54] And David became angry because of the Lord's outbreak against Uzzah, and he called the name of the place Perez-Uzzah to this day, which means outbreak of the Lord against Uzzah.

[3:11] David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, How can the ark of the Lord come to me? So David would not move the ark of the Lord with him into the city of David, but David took it aside into the house of Obed-Edom, the Gittite.

[3:28] The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom, the Gittite, three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-Edom and all his household. Now it was told King David, saying, The Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him because of the ark of God.

[3:45] So David went and brought up the ark of God to the city of David with gladness. And so it was when those bearing the ark of the Lord had gone six paces that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep.

[4:01] Then David danced before the Lord with all his might, and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with sound of the trumpet.

[4:15] Now as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michael, Saul's daughter, looked through the window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart.

[4:29] So they brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it. Then David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.

[4:41] And when David had finished offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts. Then he distributed among all the people, among the whole multitude of Israel, both the women and the men, to everyone a loaf of bread, a piece of meat, and a cake of raisins.

[5:00] So all the people departed, everyone to his house. Then David returned to bless his household. And Michael, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David and said, How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of his servants as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself.

[5:25] So David said to Michael, It was before the Lord who chose me instead of your father and all his house to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel.

[5:36] Therefore, I will play music before the Lord. And I will be even more undignified than this and will be humbled in my own sight. But as for the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in honor.

[5:52] Therefore, Michael, the daughter of Saul, had no children to the day of her death. Okay. I kind of as an afterthought, I kind of wish that I had selected a little bit of a different title for my message tonight.

[6:09] The title is Doing the Right Thing the Wrong Way. And, you know, I want you to know I mean no connection whatsoever with what I announced here this morning.

[6:21] And perhaps some of you are thinking, Well, you did the wrong thing, maybe the right way. But no connection with that. Clearly, I think you can gather from the story and a story that's, I'm sure, pretty familiar with most of us here, perhaps all of us.

[6:36] You can gather from the story that that's exactly what David did. He did the right thing. And not just David, but Uzzah as well. Seemingly doing the right thing by doing it the wrong way.

[6:49] And that's a pretty big deal. Pretty good lesson for us to learn. And it's at least one of the lessons, I would say the main lesson, that we can learn from this chapter in King David's life. Doing the right thing the wrong way.

[7:03] All right. So, you put it together. It really kind of boils down to this. King David certainly wanted, I think we could say, safely say, that King David certainly wanted to do the right thing.

[7:14] He wanted to do the right thing. And he set out to bring the Ark of the Lord, the Ark of the Covenant, to bring it into the capital city, into Jerusalem, into the city of David.

[7:29] So, he wanted to do the right thing, right? I mean, nothing wrong with that. And eventually, it would end up there. And that's exactly where it needed to be, where God wanted it to be. And so, David has certainly desired to do the right thing.

[7:42] But he went about it the wrong way, didn't he? And we could also say that Uzzah, this unknown person to us, really, the son of Abinadab, in whose house the Ark has been lodging, been stored, maybe so to speak, for quite a few years now.

[8:02] And Uzzah certainly, I think, wanted to do the right thing at the time. In fact, really, the only natural thing that probably any of us would do.

[8:14] He wanted to do the right thing when he reached out to keep the Ark from falling. And so, he wanted to do a good thing, we could say, as far as that goes.

[8:27] Though we need to learn more about this as we go along. But he wanted to do the right thing. He just went about it the wrong way. And so, with those two things, those two, you know, characters in the story that represent a very tragic, very tragic thing, with that in mind, we discover, I think, a very important principle.

[8:52] That is, when it comes to breaking God's word, God's law, disregarding God's law, or not remembering God's law when we should remember it, or when we, even out of ignorance, we break God's law.

[9:11] When it comes to that, what we do is always wrong, no matter how right our desires are. Now, that may not seem fair to most of us, just on the face of it.

[9:25] And yet, if you've been a student of God's word any amount of time, been a follower of Christ any number of years, then you have come to know that this is true. Whether we act like we know that all the time, that's a different matter.

[9:41] But we do know it's true that God means what he says. And when he says something, we are to obey it. And good intentions don't give us a pass with God.

[9:53] It may seem like a hard line. It may seem a little bit too dogmatic, and certainly way too dogmatic for our kind of tolerant type of society in which we live.

[10:07] A society that resists any kind of dogmatism, especially Christian dogmatism. But this is true.

[10:18] So, what we do is always wrong regardless of our intentions, regardless of how right our desires might be. Now, I think you would agree with me, thankfully, God does not always deal as severely with us when we disobey his word as he did with Uzzah.

[10:36] Aren't you glad? Glad? Thank you. Wes speaks for all of us. Amen. Amen. So, we're very grateful for the mercy of God and the long-suffering of God.

[10:52] And there are reasons sometimes, sometimes all the time, when in Scripture we read about an incident such as this one where God seems to do something that to our kind of finite minds seems unreasonable, seems maybe too extreme.

[11:12] There are reasons for that. And God does not always deal with us in exactly the same way as he did with many of the people that we read about in the Bible.

[11:25] And there's a reason for that. It's for us to learn. And there are some important things that we need to understand about this particular example of God's wrath toward disobedience.

[11:36] And I hope that we'll learn that here as we walk through this passage. So, let's get to it. The first thing we want to see is what I would call David's faithful dedication.

[11:49] By the way, Dan, I appreciated your alliteration this morning. I know you did that just for me. Didn't you? Okay. David's faithful dedication.

[12:01] Again, at least from our perspective, David wants to do the right thing.

[12:20] David wants to go after the ark. He wants to bring the ark from its resting place, kind of place of obscurity, place of no use.

[12:35] It's not being used in any way. He wants to bring it from there into Jerusalem. And he's even, as we learn later in the passage, in the chapter, he's even prepared a place for it.

[12:47] And so, this is a good thing. And so, maybe we need to understand why the ark is where it is at this time.

[12:59] And maybe you remember, according to 1 Samuel, you really have to go all the way back to the 7th chapter of 1 Samuel to find this out.

[13:12] And we find out that Samuel, then, is just a little boy at the time. And the ark of the covenant has been kept in a private home in a very small village in the region of Judah.

[13:31] And perhaps you'll remember the story. As soon as I start reciting it or reminding you, you're going to think, oh yeah, I remember that. Israel. I think, essentially in this time period, is leaderless.

[13:45] There's no king yet. God is supposed to be their king. But Eli, the priest, is serving as their leader. And yet, Eli has become old and blind and fat, if I might say.

[14:00] And the real problem is not as much, so much with Eli as it, well, it is with Eli, but the problem is with his sons, Hophni and Phinehas.

[14:11] You remember the story. Hophni and Phinehas are really taking advantage of their position and they are doing some very corrupt things, very immoral things, taking advantage of the people because of their office, because of their influence, and they are really trying to make themselves wealthy and at the same time gratify the basest elements of their flesh.

[14:41] And you remember that story. And so, what does God do? Well, God at some point has had enough of it. That's how we would put it from our perspective, though God has known all this all along.

[14:55] And God then pronounces judgment upon Eli's household, remember? And when Israel went out to battle against the Philistines, they took the Ark of the Covenant with them, thinking that, you know, we've got the Ark of the Covenant with us, then we'll be sure to win this battle.

[15:14] You know, they had some kind of secret weapon. And so, they put that out there, but the battle did not go for Israel, and they lost the battle, and the Ark of the Covenant was taken by the Philistines.

[15:31] Hophni and Phinehas were killed on the battlefield. And so, news gets back to Eli, and what happens to Eli? He falls over dead, too. So, it's a dark day for Israel, a very dark day.

[15:46] And upon news of all that had transpired, Phinehas' wife, his widow, has his child, and she names it, what?

[15:58] Anybody remember? Ichabod, which means the glory has departed. The glory has departed. Well, the Philistines now possess the Ark. And, though I don't need to go into the story, you do remember that that didn't work out so well for them.

[16:16] They suffered greatly because of that, and so did their god, Dagon, and we don't need to go into that part of the story even though it's the, you know, some of the best parts of the story. And so, the result is after seven months of possessing the Ark, the Philistines are more than willing to send it back to Israel, and you remember how they did that.

[16:38] They put it on a new cart, and they, you know, and they had a kind of a process to let it go by itself over the border and into Israel. And so, the Ark first ended up at Beth Shemesh, Beth Shemesh, but that resulted in great tragedy, right?

[16:57] Do you remember? Some of the men decided they would look inside the Ark, and what happened? God struck down 50,070 of them.

[17:11] I'm not sure why the odd number there. No round numbers there. 50,070 struck dead. Kind of makes our story here in 2 Samuel a little insignificant.

[17:23] A little less disturbing anyway, you know, because here in our story, God struck down one man. But 50,000, over 50,000 of them struck down dead because they had the audacity and the irreverence to disobey God's law and look inside the Ark, which means they had to have touched it, and they all died.

[17:44] Well, eventually the Ark was taken to Kirjath-Jerim. Kirjath-Jerim, and in 1 Samuel 7, 1, it says, Then the men of Kirjath-Jerim came and took the Ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill and consecrated Eliezer as his son to keep the Ark of the Lord, and that is where it has been all these years.

[18:12] However many years it was, you know, stored back there in Abinadab's spare bedroom. I don't know where it was, all right? But it's been in his house all these years.

[18:23] And so then we fast forward through the reign of Saul and now into the initial days, years of David's reign over all of Israel.

[18:35] And so first, you know, when David is finally anointed king of all of Israel and all Israel is unified together as one nation under his kingship, his reign, David, first of all, wants to own his city, a city to rule from.

[18:53] And so he does that, doesn't he? He takes Jerusalem and establishes that as his capital. It's dubbed the city of David. We'll forever be known as that, the city of David, Jerusalem.

[19:05] Second, David wants his own palace. You know, he's got to have a good-sized palace to keep all those wives and concubines that he's accumulating for himself. Shame on him.

[19:16] And so one's built for him. And then third, David wants to defeat the enemies of Israel and so already he has had two battles with the Philistines and he has won both those battles victoriously, gloriously.

[19:32] And now fourth, David wants to retrieve the ark of God and bring it home, bring it to its resting place there in Jerusalem.

[19:43] And so he assembles 30,000, an army of 30,000 elite soldiers to go after the ark. And so he sets out with them to secure the ark and bring it back to Israel.

[19:57] But now what, why does he need all of those soldiers? Are the people of Kirjath-Jerim his enemies? No, they're not. They're Israelites. Abinadab, the house of Abinadab, is Abinadab David's enemy?

[20:13] No, not at all. So, you know, you might wonder, well, why such a show of strength to go down there to the house of one man who lives within the borders of Israel, albeit close to the border of the Philistines?

[20:33] And so why does he need all those soldiers? Because of the Philistines. Because of his enemies. And, though we're not told, perhaps David has received some intelligence that the Philistines have a desire to, to once again, take the ark for themselves, to recapture the ark.

[20:55] David had just demoralized them, the Philistines, soundly defeated them in two battles, one right after the other.

[21:06] One could argue that the Philistines just don't get it, you know, but they kept coming back for more. But David has just demoralized their armies and perhaps he had some reason to suspect that some kind of reprisal from the Philistines.

[21:23] that they would try to recapture the ark, have that thing again. Though, you know, you kind of think they'd have to have a short memory, you know, forgetting what had happened the last time.

[21:38] But, but David is no doubt thinking about these things. But not just these things as we shall see. But the ark, see, was important to Israel's identity.

[21:50] It was important to their identity. The ark was also important to Israel's worship. Even though it has not been important to them now for a number of years, it needs to be and will be again.

[22:05] The ark now is vulnerable and I think David knows that and he has a sense of urgency and he's kind of got some of his other ducks in a row and now it's time to go out and get that ark.

[22:17] Bring it to Jerusalem. And so the bigger issue, I think, is what the ark represented to them. And you could really boil it down to this. The ark represented the very presence of God.

[22:31] Now the ark was not the presence of God. The ark was just a box. You know, the construction of it was given, all the details, the schematics, the instructions were given by God, just exactly how to build it, what kind of materials to use.

[22:48] it was completely overlaid with gold and so it was a very expensive box inside of it, certain elements, the commandments, you know, several things inside, all of it very important.

[23:02] What was on top? The mercy seat and the angels, the figures of angels there on top, the cherubim. and it represented in a sense, essentially, the throne of God.

[23:17] The very throne of God. And in fact, that's why in verse 2 it's referred to in these terms, the ark of God whose name is called by the name, the Lord of hosts who dwells or actually literally sits, sits between the cherubim.

[23:43] So, the visual, the idea is that of a throne. And so, it's figurative in a sense. I mean, God is everywhere, you know, He's everywhere present.

[23:57] I mean, He's omniscient, omnipresent. And God's throne is in the heavens. But His representative presence with the people, His chosen people, was symbolic.

[24:15] The ark was symbolic of that. His presence. God's presence. And so, all of this leads us, I think, to realize three things about David's faithful dedication.

[24:27] Very quickly, we just give these very quickly and you can see these, I think, readily from the passage. First of all, the holiness of it. The holiness of His dedication, His faithfulness.

[24:41] Why? Because David wants Yahweh, the ark represents the presence of Yahweh, David wants Yahweh placed back in the center of Israel's worship.

[24:55] So, the holiness of it. Also, the honesty of it. Because David was not here motivated by any desire for personal gain or personal glory or personal power.

[25:11] Not motivated by those things. David desired that God would be glorified among the people of Israel. And then we can say the humility of it.

[25:23] The honesty of it. The humility of it. David knew that neither he as king would prosper nor Israel would ever amount to anything without the presence and power of God at the center of their nation.

[25:45] those are great lessons for us. Great lessons for us. In regard to desiring God to be at the very center of our lives.

[25:55] Not in the form of some ark but in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Living in us and mastering us and being our Lord and being the constant object of our worship.

[26:11] The holiness, honesty, and humility of it. And so the time is right. The nation is unified. The king, David, is securely on his throne over all of Israel.

[26:30] The city of their king has been established. Jerusalem. The enemies, their enemies now have a renewed respect for them.

[26:42] Certainly they're angry with him. Want to get them. Want to destroy them. But they have a healthy respect for them now. So time is right. So let's go get the ark. Let's go get the ark.

[26:52] It's a good thing. Good thing to do. Timing's right. It's a right thing to do. David's faithful dedication. There's just one major problem.

[27:04] David went about it all the wrong way. Didn't he? David's fault. And this is the lesson of the passage. And so then second, I would have you consider David's faulty decision.

[27:18] David's faulty decision that ended in a very tragic event. It is a tragic story. Uzzah.

[27:29] Poor Uzzah. I'm saying this from our kind of emotional perspective. Poor Uzzah. One of Abinadab's sons.

[27:40] Reaches up, touches the ark, God strikes him dead. And all he did was touch it. And that's all he did. Just touch it.

[27:52] He meant no disrespect, right? And his motives were pure, seemingly. Right? Don't you think? I mean, just taking the story at face value on the surface, his motives are pure.

[28:11] In fact, you know, the oxen, they're pulling the wagon upon which the ark has been placed and that oxen stumbles a little bit, maybe a rut in the road or something.

[28:23] And so, it threatens to tip over the wagon. In fact, I think it's the, I don't know if it's the New American Standard, but literally, the idea is to upturn the wagon.

[28:39] So, we're not just talking about, you know, a little tip of the wagon and so the ark looks like it might fall over. This is a major stumble. Perhaps even the oxen stumbling all the way to the ground and wrenching that wagon so that it looks like it's going to be turned upside down.

[28:59] I mean, it's pretty serious. I mean, especially considering what it is carrying. Right? I mean, we're talking here about, if not the, certainly one of the most sacred pieces of furniture in Israel's history.

[29:19] significant. And so, we can imagine this. We can imagine seeing this happen and the ark looking like it's going to turn over and the, or the cart and look, and the ark falling out onto the ground and maybe it would break into pieces and, you know, and the contents inside spilling out.

[29:45] Can you imagine, just imagine this happening and then connecting that with the fact that this is a revered, holy artifact to Israel and we can imagine doing what Uzzah did.

[30:05] Can't you? I think, I think we all can. Nothing, nothing could be more natural and more respectful even, we might argue than to reach up there and grab onto that ark and keep it safe, you know.

[30:24] But, you know, we're thinking like the mortals that we are. The fallen creatures that we are because God's ways are not our ways and we can be upset with God about this if we want to.

[30:42] I think David was for a time. But, we need to understand something here. The principal characters in the story, the two principal characters, David, Uzzah, they're not innocent in this.

[31:02] It may seem very natural, we could argue that they have a desire for good and I think they did. but they're not innocent.

[31:14] And what they did may seem innocent to us but it was not. So, there are three things we ought to consider. This tragic event that took place here, number one, was created by a faulty decision.

[31:31] I'm talking about David. A faulty decision. Verse 3 says, so they set the ark of God on a new cart. Well, that seems okay, right?

[31:43] I mean, they did put it on a new cart. And, we're to gather from that language that it was a cart that had never been used before. They built it just for this occasion. Put it on a new cart.

[31:57] Seems! Good! At least from our ignorant perspective. putting the ark on a new cart, I think undoubtedly was a show of respect, don't you think?

[32:11] Respect, honor, reverence, a brand new cart. But the problem is, should it have been placed on a cart to begin with?

[32:25] New or old? No. How do we know that? Because God had already revealed his instructions for how the ark was to be transported and he revealed a number of places.

[32:37] I'll give you one example, Exodus chapter 37 and verse 3, and he cast for it, it's describing the God's instructions and the actual constructing of the various articles, the holy articles, and he cast for it four rings of gold to be set in its four corners.

[32:59] He made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold, and he put the poles into the rings at the sides of the ark to bear the ark. Very clear.

[33:10] That's how it was to be transported, to bear it. And actually, in another place in Numbers, I think Numbers 7, I didn't write it down, but I think it's Numbers 7, it pictures for us how it was carried, you know, not carried like this with the poles, but poles on the shoulders.

[33:30] So you'd have four people, special people assigned to this task, to transport the ark, and not just the ark, but the other pieces of furniture, holy artifacts that would go into the holy place, into the tabernacle, later into the temple.

[33:50] So they would carry it on their shoulders. This was God's word, this is how God had commanded that it be transported. So God made it pretty crystal clear, right, how he wanted the ark to be transported, and apparently David had forgotten this.

[34:08] I mean, at least we can give him that. Apparently, David was not the student of scripture that he should have been, perhaps. I don't think it's just David, but all of Israel had just kind of forgotten God's law, needed to be reminded.

[34:25] lots of years had passed. But on top of that, David did not even consult the Lord. We find examples of David consulting the Lord about nearly everything that he's about to do, to get, you know, to use the Urim and Thummim or whatever, you know, to find out what's to be my next step, God.

[34:44] But here, there's nothing said here about David coming to the Lord, inquiring of the Lord about the ark and how to transport it to Jerusalem. And the bottom line is that David, by the way, used the exact same method to transport the ark that the pagan Philistines used back there in 1 Samuel 7.

[35:08] They, too, loaded it up on a new cart. All right? That's as much as they knew. And so you could say that David's respect for the ark was at the very least no better than that of the Philistines.

[35:22] But it was worse than that because the problem is David knew better or should have. And so we could say that out of their ignorance, the Philistines' ignorance, the Philistines actually showed more respect for the ark than David did because they didn't know any better.

[35:40] But David did or should have. He's king of Israel. And so, you know, obedience matters to God. That's the lesson.

[35:50] It really does matter to God. And we sometimes will disobey and think naturally because we've gotten away with it that God doesn't really care as much about it as maybe others think he does or say he does or my mom and daddy used to tell me.

[36:12] Because his judgment is not immediate, we think we've gotten away with it. Or that maybe we live in a different dispensation and so the law doesn't apply to us anymore, which is ridiculous.

[36:28] Obedience matters to God and I always fall back to this definition of obedience that we taught our children. They didn't always get it, but when they were younger we helped them get it a little bit if you know what I mean.

[36:42] But obedience is doing exactly what God tells you to do and doing it when he tells you to do it and doing it with a right heart attitude. That's obedience.

[36:54] Obedience matters to God. So that's David, David's part in this, but what about Uzzah? Because I think you would agree with me that Uzzah paid a much higher penalty than David did.

[37:08] So what did Uzzah do? Well, the tragedy then was created by a faulty decision on David's part part and it was caused by a fatal disobedience on Uzzah's part.

[37:23] Verse 6, And when they came to Nacon's threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger, the wrath of the Lord was aroused and boiled over against Uzzah and God struck him there for his error.

[37:48] And he died there by the ark of God. Pretty severe there. And so David's faulty decision was what? Place the ark on a new cart.

[38:00] Put it on a wagon. But David did not die for his disobedience because David didn't touch the ark. Because touching it was a different matter to God, Uzzah touched it.

[38:15] He touched it. And he should have known better. And did know better. In fact, not too many years before this, in fact, around the time when the ark came to be in his household, he certainly was told the story of those guys who looked into the ark at the time.

[38:36] And 50,000 of them plus were struck by God because they touched the ark. Uzzah forgotten about that? But even if he, perhaps you could argue, was too young to know at the time and didn't know about it, you do have to go back to what God has already revealed.

[38:56] And God said in Numbers chapter 4, verse 15, when Aaron and his sons had finished covering the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, which would have included the ark by the way, of course, when the camp is set to go, this is when they're packing up the wilderness tabernacle, you know, they pack it up and move to another place, set it all up again, this is before the temple was built.

[39:21] And so they're packing it up, and so here are the instructions, and so when the camp is set to go, it's time to go, then the sons of Kohath shall come to carry them, that is these furnishings of the sanctuary, carry them, but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die.

[39:44] It's clear. You could argue, well, what's the big deal? You can argue that if you want to, you take that up with God, but this was God's law, what he said.

[39:56] And by the way, for all of those here who have watched the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, how many of you have watched that movie before? Probably multiple times.

[40:07] Entertainment, right? But contrary to what is portrayed there, the power was not in the ark, okay? It wasn't the ark or some kind of impersonal mechanism that struck Uzzah down, or these 50,000 down.

[40:27] The Bible says that God struck him there for his error. His error. God did this. And so one more thing here in point number two, this tragedy culminated in a fleshly display.

[40:47] Fleshly display. That is, David became angry. Uzzah is struck down dead right there by the ark, and David became angry. Verse 8, and David became angry because the Lord's outbreak against Uzzah, and he called the name of the place Perez Uzzah to this day, meaning Uzzah's breach, or the outburst against Uzzah.

[41:12] Called it to this day. Now some have argued, some scholars have argued, and I would say persuasively that David's anger was not toward God, it was toward Uzzah.

[41:23] And he said, look, Uzzah, you idiot, why did you do this? And he was angry with it. I don't think so. I think he was angry with God for a time. And it's typical, isn't it? Can I get a witness?

[41:38] Typical, that when we disobey God, and then we suffer the consequences, we get angry with God. We get angry with God.

[41:51] But David did not stay angry, so that leads us to the third and final thing in our story, and that is David's fresh devotion. That's number three, his fresh devotion.

[42:03] We can move through this very quickly. First place, his attitude toward God was now fixed. He had kind of, you know, lapsed into kind of a fleshly behavior, got angry with God, and now his attitude toward God is now fixed.

[42:26] fixed. And that's what we read about there in verses 10 through 12. Look at that again. So David would not move the ark of the Lord with him into the city of David.

[42:41] And why would he not do that? Well, look what happened. I think you'd be like David, afraid to take another step until we figure this out. you know.

[42:52] So he didn't take it into the city. But David took it aside, probably the closest place to where the incident happened, took it aside into the house of Obed-Edom, the Gittite.

[43:07] And what happened? Well, God blessed the house. Blessed the people. You know, I've kind of wondered, you know, did David use Obed as kind of a guinea pig, see what would happen to him?

[43:24] I don't know. I don't know. But God blessed him, blessed his household for three months. And so it says in verse 12, now it was told King David, saying the Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him because of the ark of God.

[43:42] So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the city of David with gladness. He's, you know, turned his tone has changed here, hasn't he?

[43:59] His attitude about all of this is fixed. You could argue that he put God to the test, but all now is well and he's brought the ark in to Jerusalem.

[44:12] And so his attitude was now fixed and then second his approach was now flawless. Where before it had been faulty.

[44:24] But now it's flawless. Look at verse 13, and so it was when those, what does it say? Burying. That's different, isn't it? Some versions use the word carrying, which is what they're supposed to do.

[44:41] That's what God had prescribed. So they're burying the ark of the Lord. And it says when they had gone six paces, so if you're in doubt about how they're burying it, then this clears that up.

[44:54] They took six steps. They're carrying it. And they took six steps. And after that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep, which would have been a very expensive sacrifice, you know, oxen were pretty valuable, and fatted sheep, you know, instead of eating them, they sacrificed them.

[45:17] And what's all this about? Well, it's a little difficult to know exactly, but some have said because of the numbers that they stopped. He stopped them after six steps, and they're ready for the seventh, and so he has kind of a celebration.

[45:35] A Sabbath celebration, which really, you know, boil it down, it is, it was a consecration, a sacred consecration of their journey with the ark.

[45:49] He's now doing it the way God prescribed, and they're headed to Jerusalem, probably took ten days to get there, from where they were, and they take six steps, and in a ceremonial way, David is, consecrating this journey with the ark, so he's really going even a step further than what God had prescribed.

[46:13] So, different, isn't it? Quite different. First, his attitude totally changed, fixed. His approach, flawless.

[46:27] And, finally, his actions were now free. David's free to do some very significant things. He's been freed by his obedience.

[46:39] You know, that is a principle of obedience, a principle of the liberty that comes through living according to God's word. Obeying God's law does not restrict you, it liberates you.

[46:56] I've used this illustration a number of times. Sometimes I've even done it by going up and sitting behind the piano and showing you just how poorly I can play the piano.

[47:07] In fact, I can't play it at all. I barely remember how to do chopsticks. I think I probably could pound that out, maybe. But I don't know how to play the piano.

[47:17] I could go up there and pound on it and nothing would make any sense. In fact, you'd want to leave the place. And yet, if Doylene were to get up there and sit behind the piano, she could play and it would be beautiful music.

[47:32] So what's the difference between us? Well, a lot of differences. But one primarily is that Doylene has submitted to the laws of piano playing. And when you submit to the laws of piano playing, it's liberating.

[47:48] But I have not submitted to those laws and I'm the one that's in bondage. Okay? And so David is now, liberated emotionally and in his leadership and in all of his actions.

[48:06] It's an exciting time and you can read this and sense the excitement of all of this because of what has taken place and the way it took place. So David has now finally done the right thing the right way.

[48:21] And it has given him great freedom. To do what? Well, first of all, free to celebrate before the Lord. He's pretty free to do that.

[48:31] Verse 14, then David danced before the Lord. I'm sorry, you Baptists, we Baptists. There probably are some dancing Baptists in the room here, I don't know.

[48:43] But here's David dancing before the Lord. And by the way, it's important to note before the Lord. dancing before the Lord with all of his might.

[48:57] I mean, he just oozes with, he's just totally liberated, free. And David wearing a linen ephod. And by the way, that doesn't mean he was dancing around in his underwear, okay?

[49:11] Or as some have thought, and his kind of estranged wife, Michael, suggested that he's out there dancing naked. It's not true. A linen ephod was the garment of a priest.

[49:26] And so, if there is any criticism from anyone, it would be that David is taking the role of a priest when he's not a priest. But what David is doing, and we'll see this pretty consistently with several things through this part of the story, that David is foreshadowing his descendant, his priestly descendant.

[49:48] the Lord Jesus Christ. So, he's free to celebrate before the he's free to worship before the Lord.

[49:58] Verse 15, so David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. Verse 17, so they brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it.

[50:13] Then David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. Who offered them? David did. This again is, you know, what a, this is the duty of a priest.

[50:31] Now, it's a little difficult to say, well, how could he be doing this? He's not a priest. You might remember way back that Saul got in a little bit of trouble because he went ahead and did perform the duties of the priest.

[50:44] priest. Got tired of waiting for Samuel to show up and so he just offered the sacrifice himself. Got a lot of trouble about that. There's a different kind of heart attitude here.

[50:57] And also a different person. David is foreshadowing, he's the type of the Christ who will one day come and for us has come.

[51:08] Prophet, priest, and king, the Lord Jesus Christ. So he's free to do these things and he's free and thirdly to bless the people. To bless them with gifts even.

[51:22] And so verse 18, and when David had finished offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts. That's the duty of a priest. Then he distributed among all the people, among the whole multitude of Israel, both the women and the men, to every one a loaf of bread, a piece of meat, a cake, a raisins.

[51:42] So all the people departed, every one to his house. This is the technical term is sacerdotal, the duties of the priest.

[51:57] But David, again, is foreshadowing his royal descendant, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will come, by the way, after the order of Melchizedek.

[52:10] And if you read several of the Psalms, David's lineage is attached to this very kind of mysterious person who appeared in Genesis, appeared there before Abram, you know, the king of Salem, he was called.

[52:32] Later, Jesus will be referred to as after the order of Melchizedek. And if you remember that meeting between Melchizedek and Abram and how Melchizedek offered the sacrifice, and he also gave gifts.

[52:54] It just all comes together to have us realize that God gave David the freedom to do these things as a foreshadowing of his most important descendant, the Lord Jesus Christ.

[53:10] So David's actions were now free, free to celebrate before the Lord, to worship before the Lord, to bless his people. And one thing I would tack on there, free to justify his actions before those who criticize him.

[53:26] He's free to justify his actions. And it's interesting how the story ends then, doesn't it? Because in verse 16, if you look back there, verse 16, Michael, Saul's daughter, this has the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, and David's dancing.

[53:46] Michael, Saul's daughter, looked through the window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart. You skip on down to verse 20.

[54:01] Then David, after he blessed all the people, he went home, he returned to bless his household. And Michael, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David and said, how glorious was the king of Israel today.

[54:14] Kind of snide, isn't it? How glorious. Uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of his servants.

[54:25] A little jealousy there, of course. As one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself. This is her reaction to what David was doing.

[54:39] He's been freed by the Lord to celebrate and worship and bless his people and Michael criticizes him. But he's free to justify himself.

[54:52] And he said in verse 21, so David said to Michael, it was before the Lord, who chose me instead of your father and all his house to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel.

[55:07] Therefore, I will play music before the Lord. You kind of catch this, don't you? How he's rebuking her.

[55:21] This is something I'm doing before the Lord. Lord, I'm justified by this. And I will be even more undignified.

[55:31] That's what you call it. We could insert there. If you're calling this indignity, I'll just be even more undignified than this and will be humbled in my own sight. But as for the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in honor.

[55:48] I will be held in honor. Therefore, Michael, the daughter of Saul, had no children to the day of her death. It says a lot about the relationship, but even more about God withdrawing his blessing upon her life.

[56:07] So be careful how you criticize what God is doing in a person's life. If you're going to be critical, let your criticism be based upon what God has said as God has evaluated how a person worships and what a person believes.

[56:24] But be careful how you criticize. Thank you.