Another reminder today that even though something seems right to us, it is important that we know what God expects from us. During Saul’s reign, the ark sat for 40 years at the house of Abinadab. We also know that no one inquired of it during Saul’s reign (1 Chronicles 13:3 Let us bring the ark of our God back to us, for we did not inquire of it during the reign of Saul.”), so maybe this is a deeper look into why Saul was rejected, because even though he was a religious man, he really did reject seeking God’s will and trusted in his own wisdom and reasoning.
I’m curious. We see in our reading today that David confers with each of his officers, and then he says to the whole assembly of Israel, “If it seems good to you …” Now he also says, “if it is the will of the Lord our God,” but then we read, “The whole assembly agreed to do this, BECAUSE IT SEEMED RIGHT TO ALL THE PEOPLE,” but nowhere do we read that David actually inquired of the Lord as we see he did before attacking the Philistines (2 Samuel 5:19, 23 and 1 Chronicles 14:10, 14). You’d think in something so important as the ark of God, David would have inquired of the Lord, but he didn’t.
As a matter of fact, either 40 years had passed and it slipped David’s mind or David was not aware that God had given very specific rules about who and how the ark of the Covenant could be moved. So is he mad at God because God carried out what He said would happen to anyone who wrongly touched the ark or is he mad at himself or the people around him who should have known the law? Is he frustrated that he didn’t inquire of God first?
We also see in 1 Chronicles 13:12 that David is afraid of God and wonders, “How can I ever bring the ark of God to me?” SPOILER ALERT: I read ahead a couple of chapters, and we find three months later that David now knows who and how the ark may be moved to Jerusalem, and does so God’s way and it works!
So here’s what I take from this … good intentions aren’t enough when it comes to our Christian walk. David had good intentions. He wanted to restore the ark to the temple. He wanted to be a man of God and inquire of the Lord through the ark as had been done in generations past, but we see that even though he had good intentions, he did not know what the Lord’s instructions were and it resulted in the life of Uzzah.
The practical application that can be drawn from this is simple: We are each responsible to know what the Word of God says. Trusting that the pastor of a church is teaching us the truth, trusting our parents, trusting a teacher, a friend, a spouse, a book, a blog, or even our own wisdom … because they sound “good” or what they’re teaching sounds “right” … this is not enough.
When you think about eternity and where you will spend it, would you wager your soul trusting man rather than knowing for yourself what the scriptures taught? David was appointed king of Judah and eventually king of Israel, he was in the lineage of Christ himself, he was a godly man, yet someone under his rule lost their life because of his either forgetting or not knowing what the law was!
So let’s make it practical. If you profess to be a Christian where do you stand on these topics in your own life (I am NOT suggesting you judge others, this is for personal application) ….
- Drunkenness
- Sleeping with someone outside of being married (including everything but the act of sexual intercourse)
- Living with someone before you get married, even if you’re “engaged”
- Using foul language
- Lust
- Having an affair
- Hating someone
- Getting even
- Lying
- Anger
- Looking at pornography
- Stealing (even a pen from work)
Regarding your eternity, do you know what it really takes to become a Child of God and what living as a Christian means or do you just trust what someone told you? There are many denominations within the Christian religion and it might surprise you to know there are many beliefs on what it takes to be saved, but not all of them can be right, yet they each have pretty convincing arguments if you don’t have a good understanding of the Bible.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not willing to sacrifice my eternity trusting that someone else did their homework properly!
Proverbs 16:25 There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
My Ways Are Not Your Ways 