I haven’t read any of the commentaries on this selection I just read a little earlier. These are my thoughts – going astray as they may…(The first link is to Wesley’s commentary from which you can find Matthew Henry’s as well — this link is to the passage in the New International Version of the Bible I’ll quote from.)
This is the scene where King David dances through the streets before the Ark of the Lord.
It started out as one of those Old Testament passages I don’t really get:
6When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. 7The LORD’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God.
OK…They were moving the Ark — It was getting shifted around — A man, I’d think showing concern for it, reached out to steady it, and God got angry and took his life…???…
Was it a matter of him not having enough faith that God would take care of his own Ark he commanded built? That the jostling was what God perhaps wanted???
I didn’t really get it. So I just marked the passage. Put a ? beside it. And read on.
9 David was afraid of the LORD that day and said, “How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?” 10He was not willing to take the ark of the LORD to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it aside to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.
Hmm… Just before, David had the people rejoicing and paying homage to the Lord and the Ark:
5 David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the LORD, with songs [d]and with harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals.
Then, Uzzah played his part, and God played his, and David becomes scared of what he was worshipping. — He gets scared to the point that he orders the Ark away from himself…
And what happens?
12 Now King David was told, “The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.”
Hmm. Same verse:
So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. 13 When those who were carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf.
So, seeing someone blessed for having the Ark here his household, David loses his fear, or is at least able to control it, and decides to take it out of that blessed man’s house and bring it back into his own…Interesting…
I take his sacrifice and street dance and gifts to the entire city at this point not simply trying to honor God and his Ark — but trying to make up for having put the Ark away – and thus missing his chance to have the rewards of Uzzah…
It seems to have worked – given the Michal, daughter of Saul, story that follows it – which I don’t really get…
But this reminds me of Job and the confusion I have reading it: Job, like Uzzah, gains a treatment in life I don’t really understand – like I might not be able to understand suffering in the world in contemporary times. And Job is described repeatedly as a righteous man before his trials – (like Jesus after him – but to a much higher degree – a degree of perfection and a punishment of cruxification…I just now see…)
But Job suffered all that – to prove a point to the Devil? Isn’t the Devil someone who can’t learn such points? To teach us a lesson? What lesson? At the end, Job is told, if I remember correctly, God is God. His will is totally righteous. On that alone, Job has no leg to stand on in his defense?
— After having that revolve around my head for years, I finally come to think in recent years — Yes, that is the point: Complete surrender to the will of God – even when it is far beyond our understanding or even confuses us – likely on purpose: Like God telling Abraham to sacrifice Issac.
Why was Uzzah killed? Why was Job tortured? Why was Issac challenged? — If God is perfect, there was a just reason, even if beyond my understanding…
And this leads me to think – Do you think Job is complaining about it today? about those terrible, horrific trials he faced?
Or, is he in Heaven worshiping God with complete submission and total bliss…
…He may not still get it…but he gets the benefits of complete faith in and surrender to God’s will, and he probably has a hard time remembering what the suffering was like — just like the martyrs in the Roman coliseum…
Faith & obedience…
Tags: 2 samuel chapter 6, coliseum, faith, job, martyrs, obedience, perfect, romans, samuel, uzzah
