DAVID AND THE ARK

After several unsuccessful attempts on his life, David fled from Saul and went into hiding.  He was joined by several hundred supporters, and with them he played a dangerous cat and mouse game with Saul and his army, which lasted on and off for several years, ending only with Saul's death in a battle against Israel's archenemies, the Philistines.

The prophet Samuel, acting on God's orders, had anointed David as the next king of Israel, even before his fight with Goliath; but that had necessarily been done secretly.  Most of the Israelites knew nothing of this.  When Saul died, the tribe of Judah, which was the tribe David came from, anointed David king over their tribe.  At the same time Abner, commanding general of Saul's armies, took it upon himself to appoint Ishbosheth, Saul's son, as king over Israel.

A long civil war followed, with David's forces growing steadily stronger, and Ishbosheth's growing steadily weaker.  When both Abner and Ishbosheth were assassinated, in both cases without David's knowledge or approval, the civil war was finally ended.  The leaders of all the tribes of Israel came together and anointed David king.

Shortly after this David gathered his men together and attacked Jerusalem, the stronghold of the Jebusites, some of the original inhabitants of the land.  The Jebusites were so sure of the strength of their city that they sent a message to David bragging that only the lame and the blind were needed to defend their city from him.  Nevertheless, a small group of David's soldiers infiltrated the city by means of a waterway, and the city was taken.

David built up the city, and made it his capitol.  Once he was established, he made preparations to bring the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem.

Years before, during the time of the judges, when the Israelites found themselves being soundly defeated by the Philistines in battle, the people sent to Shiloh for the ark of the covenant. When the priests returned with the ark, the Israelites cheered, confident that victory was guaranteed them because of the presence of the ark, and the Philistines trembled, fearing that all was lost.  Nevertheless they fought as best they could; and to the surprise of both armies, they defeated the Israelites with a great slaughter, and captured the ark.

The Philistines brought the captured ark home in triumph; but after their god fell apart in front of the ark, and they themselves were afflicted with a vicious plague of hemorrhoids and mice and death which seemed to follow the ark around, the Philistines placed the ark on a cart with gifts of apology, hitched to it two nursing cows, whose calves were penned up, and let them loose.  The Philistines reasoned that if these plagues were just a coincidence, the cows would follow their instincts and head for home and their calves; but if these things were the work of God, the cows would take the ark back to Israel.  The cows, of course, made their way directly back to Israel with the ark. They stopped at the border town of Bethshemesh, beside a great rock.

The people of Bethshemesh were overjoyed when they saw the ark. The Levites took the ark and the gifts sent by the Philistines, and the men of Bethshemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrifices to the Lord.

But somewhere along the line, some of the people got curious and looked into the ark.  Under the law, even those Levites responsible for transporting the ark were not allowed to look AT the ark uncovered, let alone into it, under penalty of death (Numbers 4:17-20). As a result of this sin, a large number of the men of Bethshemesh died. (The King James Version says fifty thousand were killed (I Samuel 6:19), but this is way out of line with the size of the village. The Aramaic text reads five thousand, while the Hebrew text reads one thousand, one hundred and fifty men. See note on this verse in E. W. Bullinger's Companion Bible.)

The surviving men sent messengers to the nearby town of Kirjathjearim (which had been called by the Canaanites Baale), and asked them to take the ark.  They did so, rather than return it to Shiloh, and there the ark remained for almost ninety years, until David made preparations to move it to Jerusalem.

David consulted with the officers in his army, and recommended that they gather together all the people from all over Israel, and all the priests and Levites, and together bring the ark from Kirjathjearim.  Moving the ark had a much deeper significance than is apparent on the surface.  David noted that in the days of Saul Israel did not inquire of God at the ark; clearly he did not intend to repeat this mistake.  He wanted the ark conveniently close to him, and he wanted all Israel to understand where his heart was with respect to God.

The Israelites gathered together, and the ark was placed on a new cart for the trip.  Uzzah and Ahio, two sons of Abinadab, in whose house the ark had stayed for all these years, were given the honor of driving the cart.  David and the Israelites accompanied the ark back to Jerusalem, playing music on all sorts of instruments.  Everyone was having a wonderful time...

Until, just as the journey was almost over, the oxen stumbled, the ark looked like it was about to fall, and Uzzah reached out to keep it steady, and fell down dead.

David was upset and afraid, the procession stopped, and the ark was moved into a nearby house, where it remained for three months.

David had done everything with the best of intentions, and with a pure heart before God. What he had not done was gone to God's word to find out how he was supposed to move the ark.

The ark was a wooden chest overlaid with gold, with a ring in each corner, two facing one side, and two facing the opposite side. Through these two staves, made of wood and overlaid with gold, were to be inserted. Once this was done, the ark was to be covered and borne on the shoulders of a particular group of Levites.

"And when Aaron and his sons have made and end of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear [it]: but they shall not touch [any] holy thing, lest they die. These [things] are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation." Numbers 4:15.

"And Moses took the wagons and the oxen, and gave them unto the Levites... But unto the sons of Kohath he gave none: because the service of the sanctuary belonging unto them [was that] they should bear upon their shoulders." Numbers 7:6, 9.

God had instructed that the ark was to be carried.  David didn't think to go to the word of God about something as basic as this, and did what he thought was best.  A totally innocent mistake; but as a result, a man lost his life.

The ark sat in the house of Obededom the Gittite for three months.  When David found out that the Lord had blessed the house of Obededom, and all that he had, David called all Israel together to Jerusalem, so that the people would be present when the ark was brought into the city.  This time David had done his homework.  He gathered together the priests and the Levites, and instructed that the ark was to be carried by Levites in accordance with the Law.

"To their leaders David said, 'Ye [are] the chief of the fathers of the Levites: sanctify yourselves, [both] ye and your brethren, that ye may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel unto [the place that] I have prepared for it. For because ye [did it] not at the first, the Lord our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought Him not after the due order.'" I Chronicles 15:12-13.

This time the ark was brought into the city without incident. The Levites sang and played instruments, and David danced before the Lord.

"Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." I Corinthians 10:11.

Most of us are very much aware of the danger that is incurred when a person rejects God's word: Hosea 4:6a tells us, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge..." Both the verse and the context make it clear that the lack of knowledge referred to here is the result of the rejection of God's word.

But rejecting God's word is not the only way we can get into trouble. Being unnecessarily ignorant of God's word can be just as dangerous.

"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.  For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Romans 10:1-4.

We are now in the process of reevaluating everything we've been taught about the Bible over the past few years, to determine whether or not it really agrees with what God says in His written word.  Few people ever do this in their lifetimes; our doing so reflects our desire to know as accurately as possible the will of God, so as to do it, and our unwillingness to substitute for it the commandments and doctrines of men, no matter how comfortable they may have become to us.

As workmen of God's word, it is vitally important that we safeguard the high quality of our workmanship. It might not be possible for us to guarantee that we are one hundred percent right in any or every thing that we teach; it is, however, possible for us to see to it that we have done the very best job we possibly could do in handling God's word on any given subject; and to trust God to correct us where we have made mistakes.

Years ago we were taught that man's basic spiritual problem is that he doubts the integrity of God's word.  I still believe that this is true, not only for the unbelievers and the heathen, but for those of us who are born again as well.  

God's word exhorts us in II Timothy 2:15 to: "Study to shew thyself approved before God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightlydividing the word of truth."

The word "rightlydividing" is the Greek word ORTHOTOMEO; we were taught that this word means "to make a straight or right cut", and carries with it the implication that there is only one right cut; all other cuttings are wrong.  To the extent that we rightlydivide God's word in a given area, to that extent we will accurately know the will of God in that area, so that we can carry it out.  Where we do not know conclusively what God's word says in a given area, we do not yet know God's will in that area; we should be in no hurry to take action in such areas, much less to teach doctrine, especially where spiritual matters are involved.  We should study harder, ask God for revelation anything except rush into action.

We seem to have picked up the idea that ignorance of God's word in a particular area is a harmless state of affairs, and that in such a case we can and should act confidently on what we have chosen to believe.

"This persuasion cometh not of Him that calleth you." Galatians 5:8.

What do the scriptures say about this? One would be tempted to run to Hosea 4:6, which says,

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge...",

but the context makes it clear that that passage refers to people who knew the Word of God and rejected it.  Rejecting God's word is not the only way we can get ourselves into trouble, though. Consider the testimony of God's word in Romans regarding Israel.

"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ [is] the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Romans 10:1-4.

The Israelites, though zealous of God, remained ignorant of God's provision for making them righteous; instead of seeking out God's way, they decided on their own way.  As a result, they were not saved.

NOT knowing God's will in a specific area does NOT clear the way for us to whatever we think is right in that area.  We cannot do God's will in that area until we know definitely and clearly what God's word says for us to do.  Nor can we allow ourselves to be so much in a hurry to ACT that we fail to take whatever time is necessary to seek the will of God; that course is a recipe for disaster.

When introduced to new teaching in an area, the temptation is to jump right in and try something new. But David's experience with the ark stands as a reminder and warning to us that we need to stop and take the time to find out what God's way of doing things is. Good motives are not enough. We must make sure that we are not only doing God's will, but doing it God's way.

Let us make it a habit to go to God's word systematically and diligently, with open and honest minds, and study the scriptures and pray until we are absolutely sure what the will of God is in a given area; then and only then should we take it upon ourselves to "move the ark," secure in the confidence that we are doing things God's way.