Bible Lesson: Miracles Of The Old
Testament: God Slays Uzzah.
Occasion: Punishment Of Sinful
Arrogance.
Location: Perez-Uzzah.
Bible Text: II Samuel 6:6,7 NLT
II Samuel 6:1-15 NLT
1 Then David again gathered all the
elite troops in Israel, 30,000 in all.
2 He led them to Baalah of Judah to
bring back The Ark Of God, which bears the name of The Lord Of
Heaven’s Armies, who is enthroned between the cherubim.
3 They placed The Ark Of God on a
new cart and brought it from Abinadab’s house, which was on a hill.
Uzzah and Ahio, Abinadab’s sons, were guiding the cart as it left
the house,
4 carrying The Ark Of God. Ahio
walked in front of the Ark.
5 David and all the people of Israel
were celebrating before The Lord, singing songs and playing all kinds
of musical instruments—lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets, and
cymbals.
6 But when they arrived at the
threshing floor of Nacon, the oxen stumbled, and Uzzah reached out
his hand and steadied The Ark Of God.
7 Then The Lord’s anger was
aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him dead because of this. So
Uzzah died right there beside The Ark Of God.
8 David was angry because The Lord’s
anger had burst out against Uzzah. He named that place Perez-uzzah
(which means “to burst out against Uzzah”), as it is still called
today.
9 David was now afraid of The Lord,
and he asked, “How can I ever bring The Ark Of The Lord back into
my care?”
10 So David decided not to move The
Ark Of The Lord into the City of David. Instead, he took it to the
house of Obed-edom of Gath.
11 The Ark Of The Lord remained
there in Obed-edom’s house for three months, and The Lord blessed
Obed-edom and his entire household.
12 Then King David was told, “The
Lord has blessed Obed-edom’s household and everything he has
because of The Ark Of God.” So David went there and brought The Ark
Of God from the house of Obed-edom to the City of David with a great
celebration.
13 After the men who were carrying
The Ark Of The Lord had gone six steps, David sacrificed a bull and a
fattened calf.
14 And David danced before The Lord
with all his might, wearing a priestly garment.
15 So David and all the people of
Israel brought up The Ark Of The Lord with shouts of joy and the
blowing of rams’ horns.
II Samuel 6:6,7
NLT
6 But when they
arrived at the threshing floor of Nacon, the oxen stumbled, and Uzzah
reached out his hand and steadied The Ark Of God.
7 Then The
Lord’s anger was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him dead
because of this. So Uzzah died right there beside The Ark Of God.
I
Chronicles 13:9,10 NLT (Read 13:1-14)
But when they arrived at the
threshing floor of Nacon, the oxen stumbled, and Uzzah reached out
his hand to steady the Ark.
10 Then The Lord’s anger was
aroused against Uzzah, and He struck him dead because he had laid his
hand on The Ark. So Uzzah died there in the presence of God.
Does God's judgment
seem harsh? It shouldn't, for all of Israel, including it's king,
knew that only the Kohathites of the tribe of Levi (were responsible
for The Ark) were to move it, and that upon their shoulders. (Not
by cart, and not by anyone who was not a Kohathite Levite.)
Numbers 4:15 NLT
The camp will be ready to move when
Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the
sacred articles. The Kohathites will come and carry these
things to the next destination. But they must not touch the sacred
objects, or they will die. So these are the things from The
Tabernacle that the Kohathites must carry.
Numbers 7:9 NLT
But he gave none of the wagons or
oxen to the Kohathite division, since they were required to
carry the sacred objects of the Tabernacle on their shoulders.
The Ark had rested
some 20 years at Kirjath-jearim, at the house of Abinidab. Perhaps
Uzzah had grown to familiar with God's sacred chest.
Uzzah, may have
meant well, indeed, but that could hardly negate the warning of God.
King David, finally
realized this when moving The Ark again!
I Chronicles
15:1-3 NLT
1 David now built several buildings
for himself in the City of David. He also prepared a place for The
Ark Of God and set up a special tent for it.
2 Then he commanded, “No one
except the Levites may carry The Ark Of God. The
Lord has chosen them to carry The Ark Of The
Lord and to serve Him forever.”
3 Then David summoned all Israel to
Jerusalem to bring The Ark Of The Lord to the place he had prepared
for it.
Dear friend, it is
so easy, for us to show irreverence when we but become overly
familiar with the things of God!
How did you enter
your place of worship the last time you where there? Many people, who
are not Christians, remove their shoes and prostrate themselves in
their temples of worship.....what did you do?
Habakkuk 2:20
KJV
"...The Lord is in His holy
temple: let all the earth keep silence before Him.
There is an old
saying “Familiarity breeds contempt.”
It's definition is
simple, the things that you are familiar with on a regular basis,
lose your respect, and awe, because you have become overly familiar
with them.
Be it your pastor,
teacher, leader,...”Oh, we know all about him and his wife. He
starts quite, but then gets loud. Yes, we could tell you all about
him..etc..etc..etc.”
Fellow Christians,
if this is us, we will ending up losing something....the blessing of
God!
Mark 6:1-6 KJV
1 And He went out from thence, and
came into His own country; and His disciples follow Him.
2 And when the sabbath day was come,
He began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing Him were
astonished, saying, From whence hath this Man these things? and what
wisdom is this which is given unto Him, that even such mighty works
are wrought by His hands?
3 Is not this The Carpenter, The Son
Of Mary, The Brother Of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and
are not His sisters here with us? And they were offended at Him.
4 But Jesus, said unto them, A
prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his
own kin, and in his own house.
5 And He could there do no mighty
work, save that He laid His hands upon a few sick folk, and
healed them.
6 And He marveled because of their
unbelief. And He went round about the villages, teaching.
Uzzah, did
something he should not have done, well intentioned or not!
And our “well
intentions,” cannot save us, from the anger of God, if we treat
Holy Things as mere mundane.
Exodus 3:1-5 KJV
1 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro
his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the
backside of the desert, and came to The Mountain Of God, even to
Horeb.
2 And The Angel Of The Lord appeared
unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he
looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not
consumed.
3 And Moses said, I will now turn
aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
4 And when The Lord saw that he
turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the
bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
5 And he said, Draw not nigh hither:
put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou
standest is holy ground.
