We'll turn again in God's Word, the First Chronicles, chapter 13. After a couple of chapters of showing us the military might of David and his army, we now come to a section that focuses on religious reform. And in the books of Chronicles, we'll have that. We'll have both the idea of the kingdom and the temple. And we'll constantly come back to these two themes. The first thing I want us to see from chapter 13 is there is a good intention here. A good intention. David wants to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. We've just been singing from Psalm 132. God had revealed the place where he wants to dwell, where he wants his people to come and worship him, where the tabernacle and later the temple should be, and therefore it's necessary that the Ark of the Covenant be brought to Jerusalem. And so it's a very good intention. What was the Ark of the Covenant? Well, the Ark of the Covenant was a gold-plated chest. It was simply a box. It was covered completely inside and out with gold. It was fairly large. But on it, was the mercy seat, or a covering, a lid. And over this mercy seat were golden cherubim, angels, with their wings overshadowing. And this Ark of the Covenant was a very special, indeed one of, we could say, the most special part of the furniture of the tabernacle, and then later the temple. There are chapters and chapters in Exodus where it describes for us exactly how God wants the furniture to look, the dimensions, the materials, and so on. And then once you've got through all those chapters in Exodus, do you remember there are chapters and chapters in which it describes for us how they were then made? And it almost, in a sense, repeats. We've got the directions, and then we've got the implementation of the directions. And the point couldn't be clearer. God has his plan for how he's to be worshipped. And he sets it out exactly. It must be just so. The Ark of the Covenant was one such piece of this furniture. Inside the Ark of the Covenant were three things. First of all, the two tablets of stone. That is the Ten Commandments. A reminder of God and his holiness. and a reminder of how he is the God of the covenant. I am the Lord, your God, that has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Therefore, we are to obey him and his commandments. So we have these commandments that have been written with the finger of God himself into stone. Perpetual commandments that are binding on every person throughout the whole world for all of time. The second thing inside the Ark of the Covenant was Aaron's rod. We think a lot about Moses and the rod, but Aaron's rod that blossomed, that was a picture to the people that Aaron was the valid one. He was the one that the Lord had chosen. It satisfied the quarrel there at that time. It was quite an amazing thing, and it would be for us If you saw a stick, a large stick on the ground, and you lift it up and think, that would make a good walking stick. And then if all of a sudden it began blossoming, you think, well, where did those blossoms come from? There's no root. This isn't planted in the ground. How can it therefore blossom? It's a picture of life from the dead, which is an important theme in the Bible. And then thirdly, inside the Ark of the Covenant was the pot of manna. Remember that Day by day, throughout those wilderness years, for 40 years, God provided his people with food, bread from heaven, angels' food that fell on the ground, and they simply had to gather as much as they needed. It was his provision. And how they grumbled about it. They complained. They were fed up with it. But the Lord always gave them food. And so there was to be a reminder of that, that this pot of manna was placed inside the Ark of the Covenant as a reminder. of God's provision. But all in all, this Ark of the Covenant, this golden chest with cherubim overshadowing it, was the symbol, the greatest symbol at that time, of God's presence with his people, that God was with them and that God was for them. It tells us in Exodus when God was describing exactly how he wanted this Ark to be, it says There I will meet with you. And from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you. So this is a place that's going to be very special. God is going to be with and for and speaking to his people from this mercy seat. This piece of furniture was to be housed in the Holy of Holies. It was in the place that only the high priest could go once a year, as we thought about recently. And so this symbol of God's presence is showing to us both God's holy presence and his merciful presence. And the two are completely joined together. It's not that we have to balance God's holiness with his mercy. It's not that God is sometimes holy and sometimes merciful. He is infinitely holy and infinitely merciful. He is both at the same time. But this Ark of the Covenant shows that to us. It was so holy, made out of pure gold. Highest in the holy of holies. No one could touch it or they would die. But it's also covered with a mercy seat. The cherubim above it. It's where God is enthroned on mercy as well as holiness. It was a visible picture. And any time it was moved throughout the history of God's people, for example, as the Levites would carry it through the wilderness, or as they used it in the crossing of the River Jordan, it was a picture to God's people of God arising, of God arising and moving. His presence was leading them. You see, if you've seen the movie, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, You may have some wrong ideas of what this Ark of the Covenant was. Because there the idea is that the Ark of the Covenant would make any army invincible. That's not what this Ark of the Covenant did. In fact, in some cases the opposite. In some cases having the Ark of the Covenant could be a curse against you. Because unfortunately in the days of Eli, we read about him at the start of 1 Samuel, God's people viewed the Ark of the Covenant simply as a good luck charm. They thought superstitiously about it. That if we can just bring this Ark of the Covenant to the battle with us, we will undoubtedly win. And they lost. Because God is not with sinners. God is not for sinners. And as his people had rejected him, as they were living chaotically, as they were living wickedly, God would not condone it and God would not bless it. And it was a sacrilege for them to take the ark of God's presence and try to bring God's holy presence near to their sinfulness. God wasn't going to bless that. In fact, the opposite, he curses it. And God permits the glory to depart. Do you remember the son that was born to one of Eli's children at that time, Ichabod? That's the name he was given. The glory has departed. It was a symbol that God had left his people. The glory had departed. The presence of God was gone. It was now in the Philistine camp. And remember what the Philistines did with the Ark. You can read about it in 1 Samuel. They decided that this was a great treasure that they had won. It was a symbol of their victory. So they put it inside their temple, the temple of Dagon, to celebrate. Look what we've accomplished. And of course, God would not allow the Philistines to have the victory. The next day, the statue of Dagon has fallen flat on its face. Do you remember that? This foreign God is lying prostrated before God, flat on its face. Or the next day, when they set the statue back up, not only has the statue fallen, but it's broken in pieces. You see, God is the only true God, and he was demonstrating that there for the Philistines. But over time, although the Philistines possessed the Ark of the Covenant, they weren't blessed for having it. Rather, they were cursed. And so much so that they desired to get the Ark out of their cities and to send it back to Israel. And that's what happened. But from that time, even though the Ark was back into the territory of Israel, we read in verse 3 of our chapter, It was not sought, it was not consulted. Verse 3 says, then let us bring again the ark of our God to us, for we did not seek it in the days of Saul. Saul was king, you remember, for 40 years. That's a fairly long reign. For 40 years, Saul had not been leading God's people righteously. He had not been trying to reform the religion. He had not been trying to consider God's presence or God's guidance. No, Saul had just ruled as he wanted to rule for 40 years. God's people had not really concerned themselves with the Ark of the Covenant. And so David, as he comes to the throne, has this great intention. Let's bring the Ark of the Covenant back. Let's put it where it's meant to be. Let's bring it back to the heart of who we are as Israelites, that we need God's holy and merciful presence. We need his guidance. And this ark is central to that. We need the tabernacle once again. See, David here is showing us that a good king is not simply concerned about military conquests. But a good king is concerned about religion and about religious reform. And so his good intention is to bring this ark to Jerusalem. He desires God's presence with him in what he does as king. He's desiring God's glory and God's blessing. And it's interesting, isn't it, that In doing this, in this good intention, David brings other people along with him. Look at verses 1 to 3 again, and you see that. David's king. In one sense, he can do what he likes. And yet, he consults with the commanders of thousands and of hundreds. He consults with every leader. He brings the whole assembly of the people together. He wants as many people included in this as possible. He wants this to be a unified task, not simply David as a private person doing something, nor David simply as king doing what he thinks is right, but he wants all of God's people, the whole kingdom, to be united in this purpose of bringing the ark to Jerusalem, that God's presence may be at the heart of the kingdom. It's a very admirable thing that he does here, not simply to do the right thing, but to do it with other people. Isn't there a sense in which we can learn from that? Not simply to do the right thing, but to seek to bring other people along with us to do the right thing. As I was thinking about this, we had composed the letter that you've received before I was really studying this, but it's something that we're trying to do in that letter to the congregation as we consider the way forward, and encouraging you to join us as a session in praying for what the Lord is going to do. We want to not simply do the right thing, although we are elected by Christ to lead in the congregation. We don't simply want to just go ahead and do what we think is right, but we want to come to you and say, will you not join us in it? Is there a sense in which we as a congregation can rally together to do the right thing? to seek the Lord. Whatever that may be, we don't know what the right answer is going to be. We don't know where the Lord's going to lead us in one sense, but we have his word and we have a desire in our hearts and we want to follow through with that wherever God takes us. But what we're saying here is let's do it together. Let's come together with one heart and one mind to seek the Lord's will in this regard. And that's a beautiful thing as we see here. Verse four, all the assembly agreed to do so for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people. There are times, of course, when things are right in the eyes of people and they're not right in the eyes of God. The book of Judges teaches us that, doesn't it? Everyone did what was right in their own eyes and it was chaos. But this is a case where what was right in the eyes of the people was also right in the eyes of God. As we sang in Psalm 132, God had chosen where he wished to dwell. And so they're wanting to do the right thing. And so we have here a wonderful example of a nation getting behind a religious reform. Don't we long to see that today? Don't we want to see Scotland getting behind religious reform, bringing God back into the center and the very heart of national life? Isn't that when this nation was blessed? when God was at the heart. But God has been banished. The fact is, verse 3 says, for we did not seek it in the days of Saul. How long has it been since this nation sought the Lord and his glorious presence? It's been longer than the days of Saul. It's been longer than 40 years. And it's to our shame. Is it not time that we bring back the Ark of the Covenant? Of course, there's not a a literal art of the covenant today. But isn't it time that we bring God back into the heart of public life and of church life and of all of life that we recognize that his holy and merciful presence is what guides us and leads us. So we have here a good intention. You can't fault it. There's nothing there in those four verses that you can fault at all. But then secondly, we have a terrible miscalculation. A terrible miscalculation. How did it go so wrong? When everything had been so right, when the desire of the whole nation had been behind doing something good, how does it end up that Uzzah is struck down dramatically dead? David is angry against God, and then is terrified. And he puts away this plan. And he refuses to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. How is it that the very place where this incident happens is renamed? Perez Azza, the outbreak against Azza. How can everything that seemed so good have turned into an unmitigated disaster? It just seems so strange, doesn't it? And yet there's one reason. They were mishandling God. They were mishandling God. God is not to be trifled with. And you may look at this and you may think this is excessive. Isn't this over the top? Isn't God being too angry? But the people were mishandling God, and therefore he had to teach them this lesson. Good intentions are great, but good intentions are not enough. They're not enough. It's one thing to want to do something good for God, but we have to seek to do it in the right way. See, it's only when we have the right heart and do things in the right way, that there will be God's blessing. And so David and the people ought to have followed God's clearly revealed will in this matter. The Ark of the Covenant had holes in it for poles. It had those for a reason. Poles overlaid with gold were to be used to carry the Ark of the Covenant from place to place. And God had clearly revealed that only particular Levites, the sons of Kohath, were allowed to carry the Ark. And they must carry it on these poles. So that always they, as individuals, were distant from the Ark of the Covenant itself. That they could not touch the box. Otherwise they would die. And we see that in Numbers 4, verse 15 shows that. But it was an established practice. throughout the 40 years in the wilderness, or when Joshua gets the Levites to stand in the River Jordan, or when they carried it around the city of Jericho. There are many examples in the scripture where we have the Levites carrying the Ark, exactly as they were meant to do. But when David plans this event here, what does he do? Verse seven, they carried the Ark of God on a new cart. In one sense, you can maybe see a good intention there. We're not going to use a shabby cart. We're not going to use a broken cart. We're not going to use a dirty cart. It's a brand new cart fit for the occasion. Does it really matter? Does it really matter how the Ark of the Covenant is moved as long as it arrives to its destination in one piece? Well, it does matter because God has clearly revealed how it should be moved. In fact, who was it that moved the Ark of the Covenant on a cart? It was the Philistines. The Philistines that had captured the Ark in that instant, Ichabod, the glory has departed. They moved it from place to place on a cart, an ox cart. It was the Philistines that had done this. David is acting more like the Philistines in regard to the Ark of the Covenant. And he was acting according to the instructions of God. God had commanded that only the sons of Kohath could carry it, and to do so by poles. And friends, as you see there in verse 8, David at this time may have been rejoicing, celebrating, singing with all his might, David in that moment may have been 100% devoted to God, good intentions, and a right heart. But that does not make up for this mistake of mishandling God. He should not have disobeyed the direct commandment of God. And when the oxen stumbled, and when Uzzah felt he had to put out his hand to steady the ark, Uzzah, in that moment, was overly familiar with God. This ark, which symbolizes God's holy presence, it's made out of pure gold to testify to the holiness of God. Uzzah allowed his unholy hand to touch what was holy. Uzzah, in that moment, thought that his hand was better, that it should touch the ark rather than the ark falling on the mud. Friends, Think about it for a moment. Mud is actually cleaner than the unholy hand of man. Mud may be dirty in our eyes, but mud is not sinful. But our hands have committed much sin. And so, Uzzah, in this moment of over-familiarity, touches that which was holy with unholy hands. And in that moment, God acts decisively in justice. It's not always the case. It's not always the case that God acts in a moment. Sometimes God, in his forbearance and his patience, allows sin to continue. He allows the sinner to continue for some time before he will act. Sometimes God allows the sinner to continue for the rest of their life in their particular sin. And he will only judge in the life that is to come. That's true. But friends, God will judge. That's the lesson. And here God does it in the moment to show this lesson that should have been known and understood. that God is not to be trifled with, and you should not mishandle God. Yes, this Ark of the Covenant, on the one hand, symbolizes God's mercy. It's the Ark of the Covenant, the covenant of grace. It has a mercy seat, symbolizing God's mercy to sinful men. But friends, that mercy is not at the expense of God's holiness. It's not that you go to God and say, well, you're merciful, so you'll just simply turn a blind eye to my sin and my uncleanness. No, friends, God is not to be trifled with in these ways. Leviticus 10 verse three. After God had done something similar, when he struck down the two sons of Aaron, Hophni and Phinehas, it says, Leviticus 10 verse three, among those who are near me, or those who come near me, I will be sanctified. If you're going to come near me, I must be sanctified. I must be held as holy. I must be regarded as holy. If you're going to dare come near me, don't come thinking that you're holy. Don't come thinking that you're like me, because you're not. Before all who come near me, I will be sanctified. And before all people, I will be glorified. Hebrews 10 verse 31, it shows us that this is not simply an Old Testament phenomenon. Not simply this is the way God used to be. And now that Christ has come, things have changed and it's all different. As some people think. That's not at all. The God of the Scripture. The God of the Scripture is unchanging. He never changes. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And so Hebrews 10 verse 31 says, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Matthew 10 verse 28 says, do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him. who can destroy both soul and body in hell. See friends, you can't just look at Matthew 10 and say, well, I'll take the comfort, but not the warning. I don't need to fear bad people in this world. They can only harm the external. They can only harm the body, but they can't touch the soul. That's true. Take the comfort from it. Friends, the other part of it is fear God, because he can destroy your soul and your body in hell, and that is forevermore. Hebrews 12 verse 29, for our God is a consuming fire. God hasn't changed in the New Testament. And then Psalm 76, I know technically it's the Old Testament, but it's a New Testament song put in the mouths of Old Testament saints. Psalm 76 verse 7, but you are to be feared. Who can stand before you when once your anger is roused? Friends, God is awesome in his majesty. Awesome in the truest sense of that word. Awful! He is full of awe and worthy of our awe. And no wonder David is terrified of God. as he sees God's majesty executed in justice. Friends, think about yourself honestly for a moment, and ask yourself the question, are your thoughts of God too low? Have you been guilty of making an idol of God, where you've made a God in your own likeness, that you've brought God down to your level, rather than believing in the God of the scripture? That's what's at stake here. We read an incident like this and we think, Uzzah was just trying to do the right thing. David had all these good intentions. No. They had made a God in their own likeness. They'd brought God down to their level. They were not following God's clear demands. They were thinking that they could trifle with God. But you do not mishandle God and live. Friends, are your thoughts, are my thoughts of God too low? I think in some sense they are. And if you're here today, and if you're still in your sin, that is you're not converted, do you dare to stretch out your unholy hand to the infinitely holy God without a mediator? Do you dare to stretch out your unholy hand to the infinitely holy God without a mediator. There are many ways in which you're stretching out your hand to God. If you're someone who seeks God, if you're someone who comes to church, you engage in singing. You're raising up your voice. Your lips are moving. What does Isaiah say in Isaiah 6? Woe is me, I'm a man of unclean lips. Dwelling amongst a people of unclean lips. Do you dare to use unclean lips to address holy God without a mediator? See, there is a way to approach God. There is a way to come to him. It's to come to him humbly through Jesus Christ. To come to him depending upon his grace and his mercy. That we are not worthy to stand in his presence. Because if he marks iniquity, who can stand? But yet with him there is forgiveness that he may be feared. You see, it's not there's forgiveness so that then we can trifle with him. It's not forgiveness so that then we can live as we want to live. There's forgiveness for us that he may be feared and reverenced and glorified. That our thoughts of him do not get lowered, but rather our thoughts of him get raised. He is more glorious and awesome and holy than we ever thought him to be. If you are still in your sin, unconverted to Christ, Friends, don't dare sing praise to God without coming through Christ, without coming through a mediator. That's the only way you can be acceptable to God, because all that we can offer to God is unholy when we're in our sin. If you're a believer here today, think about yourself. Do you dare to be flippant and over-familiar with God? We can be guilty of that. Couldn't we all raise our hands and say, yes, I've been guilty of that. We've been thinking in the Bible class, taking God's name in vain over the past few weeks. Isn't that the case that all of us can be so familiar with particular Psalms that we can sing it sometimes without even thinking what we're singing. And all of a sudden we've taken God's holy name in vain because we're flippant and careless. We're mishandling God. Let Uzzah be a warning to you that the Lord does not tolerate that. He wants you to worship him with your heart. Remember the Pharisees? They worshipped God with their lips, but their hearts, where were their hearts? Far from God. Don't follow in their example. Don't be flippant. Don't be over familiar, but always come humbly and always come independence on Christ. Yes, friends, if you're a believer, the Lord God is your father. And you can go to him and say, our father, Abba, father. The Lord Jesus Christ is your bridegroom, your husband, the closest friend you could have. And yes, the Holy Spirit is the one that indwells you. But friends, remember that you can grieve the Holy Spirit. Remember that you can sin against your husband so that he will depart from you for a time, as we learned in Song of Solomon a while ago. Remember that you can sin against God the Father so that he's led to discipline us and to do so severely that we may learn a lesson. Yes, there's the richness of that relationship with God, the closeness, the intimacy, but that does not lead us to trifle with God or mishandle God. He is holy, and he must be sanctified by those who come near him. Let uzzah be a lesson to us. Friends, there may not be an ark of the covenant today, but we can still mishandle God. So let humility be the lesson we learn. Well, then we see, having seen the good intention, and we've seen the terrible miscalculation, finally and briefly, We see a missed blessing. A missed blessing. Verses 13 and 14. David has been angry with God. We haven't really explored that, but that's something that we'll maybe consider some other time. And that anger against God is something that truly converted people can have. David is converted. He's a man after God's own heart, and yet he's angry with God. It's not right. It's because David's not thinking clearly. He's not believing what God's word teaches and his impulsive reactions to be angry with God. And this anger then leads to terror. He's afraid of God. And so the last thing he wants to do is to follow through with his good intention. He doesn't want to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem at all. And he puts it away. See there, verses 13 and 14, he puts it to the house of Obed-Edom, the Gittite. And that's it. David, for that moment, he's done with the Ark of the Covenant. But notice, as we see there in verse 14, God blesses, he richly blesses this household that has the Ark of the Covenant. Now again, I say, it's not that this is a superstitious lucky charm, that wherever the Ark of the Covenant is, there's blessing, as long as you possess it. It's nothing like that. I think we have to see through here, read between the lines, if there was blessing for the household of Obed-Edom, they must have rightly handled the Ark of the Covenant. They must have ensured that they did not touch it. They must have ensured that they were not flippant and over-familiar with it. They must have thought highly of God. Otherwise, there could have been no blessing for them. But there is a blessing. And that's great for the household of Obed-Edom, but it's only for the household of Obed-Edom. Where's the blessing for the nation? Where's the blessing for David's kingdom? It's absent. David misses out on the blessing. Friends, it's true that your individual household can be blessed and richly blessed by God. But the good intention here was to bless the whole nation. And it's missed out on because God has been mishandled. And surely we should pray that we ourselves in our households will think highly of God and not mishandle him. But ultimately, that this will not be the end of the story. And we'll see that. You can skim forward with your eye to chapter 15. You'll see, hopefully, Lord willing, in a couple of weeks time, We'll consider the conclusion of the story. What's going to happen? David's going to learn his lesson. But for this time period in between, David's missing out on a blessing, and all of the nation is as well. We shouldn't mishandle God. For if we do, not only can it lead to bad consequences, but it's a missed opportunity. and a missed blessing. Amen. Let's pray.