Again, David gathered all the choice men of Israel, 30,000. And David arose and went with all the people who were with him for all Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, whose name is called by the name, the Lord of hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. So they set the Ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart. And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill, accompanying the Ark of God. And Ahio went before the Ark. Then David and all the house of Israel played music before the Lord on all kinds of instruments, of firwood, on harps, on stringed instruments, and tambourines, on cisterns, and on cymbals. And when they came to Nashon's threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it for the oxen stumbled. Then the anger of the Lord is aroused against Uzzah and God struck him there for his error and he died there by the ark of God. And David became angry because of the Lord's outbreak against Uzzah and he called the name of the place Perez Uzzah to this day. David was afraid of the Lord that day and he said, how can the ark of the Lord come to me? So David would not move the ark of the Lord with him into the city of David. But David took it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-Edom and all his household. Now it was told King David saying, the Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him because of the ark of God. So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the city of David with gladness. And so it was when those bearing the ark of the Lord had gone six paces that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep. Then David danced before the Lord with all his might, and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet." Let's pray together before we look into this. Father, we give you thanks again this morning for the privilege we have to come together as your people to study your word, to worship you. Father, truly, Your worship is the most important thing we can do as a church. And I pray that we might learn this morning more of what it is to worship as you intend for us to do. So guide us and direct our thoughts as we look into this passage this morning. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. In our last David through a series of events was firmly established on the throne of all of Israel. We read in chapter 5 and verse 12, so David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel. Now perhaps the most important The most significant event of chapter five is David's taking of Jerusalem from the Jebusites and making it his capital city, the place where he would dwell and reign, making it the royal city of David. Now it was a strategic move on David's part for a couple of reasons. First of all, Jerusalem sits right on the border of the tribes of Benjamin and Judah. And so you have then the tribe that belonged to Saul, the tribe that belonged to David, and David was very strategic in putting his throne right there between the two. It was also situated on Mount Moriah, that place where where Abraham had gone up to sacrifice his son, Isaac, only to be told by God, no, I've substituted a ram for you here. It was great of great importance, both physically and spiritually for Israel. But there was one item that was missing in terms of the worship of Jehovah in Jerusalem. The Ark of the covenant, which signified the presence of God among his people was not in Jerusalem. was at the home of Abinadab since before Saul even was anointed as king. And if you want to read what I think is a really amusing story of how it came to be at the home of Abinadab, you can read it in 1 Samuel chapters 5 through 7. And just to give you a summary, the Philistines had captured the Ark of the Covenant and had taken it to to their temple to Dagon, their god. And after placing it there, the next morning, they found the idol of Dagon face down on the floor. And after a while, they began to figure out, you know, there's something powerful here about this Ark of the Covenant. And so then tumors broke out among the Philistines. And they figured that all this had something to do with the Ark of the Covenant. And consequently then, after consulting with the diviners and the priests to Dagon, they put the Ark on a new wooden cart pulled by milk cows. They placed in on that cart offerings of gold tumors and gold rats, solid gold, these objects, as a peace offering, I guess you might say, to whoever this god was that was stronger than their god Dagon. And they took the ark to the border of Beth Shemesh, which is the border of Israel. where they let the cows and make their way. And they said among themselves that if the cows took the road straight to Beth Shemesh, they would know that this God of the Ark of the Covenant had been the one that had struck them. If those cows turned to either side, they said, we will know that it was just by chance that all of this happened. I encourage you to read the story. I think it's a really amusing story, but the cows under the providential hand of God went straight to Beth Shemesh. to let the Philistines know, yes, it was this God that inhabited the Ark of the Covenant that had done this. When the Israelites saw the Ark coming back into their own territory, they rejoiced and they sacrificed the very cows that had hauled the Ark. They sacrificed them to the Lord. Now, unfortunately, the men of Beth Shemesh looked into the Ark, and as a result, God struck down 50,000. of the Israelites at that time. They sent for them informing them that the Philistines had returned the ark, saying, who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? And to whom shall it go up for us? So the leaders of Israel came down, they placed the ark in the home of Abinadab, and it remained there throughout the entire reign of Saul. Saul never made any attempt whatsoever to bring it even to his royal palace. And it remained there until David determined then to bring it to Jerusalem. And that's where we come then this morning. Now you would think that the memory that God had struck down 50,000 Israelites Beth Shemesh. You would have thought that would have made David think very, very carefully about the matter of bringing the Ark to Jerusalem. But it seems that that memory had some time, had faded somewhat in David's mind. Now, I want to pose a question to you before we really get into this this morning, and I don't want you to answer it right now. I want you to think about it as we go through this study. When someone takes an action, with a good motive, can that action ever be considered a bad action? Now, let me toss it out to you one more time. I want to make sure you understand. When someone takes an action with a good motive, can that action ever be considered a bad action? I ask you that question because we hear today people saying, well, he meant well. He had good intentions, he had a good motive. David gathers 30,000 men, says choice men to go with him to bring the Ark of the Covenant up. Why do you think he took 30,000 men to bring up the Ark of the Covenant? And he calls them choice men. Why do you think he took that many? It wouldn't take that many to haul that ark up there. Anybody know how big the ark is? Anybody know? What's a cubit? A cubit is about 18 inches. The ark of the covenant is only about 4 feet long by 3 feet wide by 3 feet high. It's not that big of a whatever you want to call it, of an item. But 30,000 men. Why? Leonard? Was he aware of what had happened to the 50,000? Well, I'm sure he remembered that. So I would think, just recognizing that, you might go with some caution. I don't know. What could you do? I would certainly be cautious about it, yeah. I'd take 55,000. You'd take 55,000. OK. Outdo him by one. Yeah. Pardon me? To protect when it's traveling from near and far. Okay, that's a possibility. Other thoughts? Let me throw one out here to you. David had just defeated the Jebusites to take over Jerusalem. He had just defeated the Philistines in a major, major battle. He defeated them twice, in fact, with his armies, once in a head-on confrontation, and once when God told him to go around behind them, and we heard the sound of the marching in the mulberry trees. That still blows my mind. That was when he was to attack, and he did, and he literally annihilated the Philistines. It would be very easy for the people of Israel to think that central to the focus of the kingdom are all these defeats that they had inflicted upon the Jebusites and upon the Philistines. All the victories that David and his men had won. But I want to suggest to you that David is saying to these men who come from all over Israel, These victories are not the central focus of my kingdom. The worship of God is central to my kingdom. Now, I want us to think about that in terms of some of the ways that the kingdom of God today, and especially the church of God today, loses sight of this central focus, that the worship of God is the central focus of the church. I was talking with a couple some time back, and I asked them, where do you attend church? And they told me they didn't. And I asked them why. And they said, well, we wanted our pastor to be involved with this particular ministry that they were involved in. And he did not do that, and so they left that church and they didn't go anywhere. What are your thoughts about that? What would you have said to them? Yeah. Leonard? I think what we miss a lot when we start talking about God's law and his obedience, it's not about us. And we tend to focus on what we want, but God is using you for his reasons, not yours. And that's something we don't want to accept because now it takes the focus off us and then it puts some points toward Christ. We don't like that. Now, you know, when I think about what this couple told me, there was nothing wrong with this particular ministry. They were involved in it. It was a good ministry. But that's not the central focus of the church. The church gathered has as its central focus the worship of God. You know, I look back over the years that we have been a church, and various times people have tried to make evangelism outreach the central focus of the church. And again, don't get me wrong, that's not, evangelism is certainly not wrong, it's something we want to do. But I wanna ask you something. Where in the New Testament do you find an evangelism program? You see evangelism all over the New Testament, but you don't see evangelism programs. In Acts, when persecution came upon the church, they went everywhere preaching the gospel. But it wasn't an organized program because a program of any kind can take away from that central focus of the church, which is the worship of God. Counseling programs. We had a time when people want us to focus on that, but that's not the main focus of the church as good as it is and as necessary as it is. I'm involving ourselves in moral issues that have been brought into the whole political realm. Yes, we need to do that, but that's not the central focus of the church. The central focus of the church is the worship of God. And I want to suggest to you that that's what David is doing here as well. Now, I want you to note here in verse two, that they came to bring the ark of God, whose name is called by the name, the Lord of hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. Why do you think that the text emphasizes that Jehovah dwells between the cherubim? That's one thing, they are worshiping God. The cherubim and the seraphim are always engaged in the worship of God. So that's one aspect of it. What is it that the cherubim are covering? The mercy seat. I believe that the text is saying to us here that this God, though He slew 50,000 men for looking into the ark, is a God of mercy. And He wants to emphasize that to David, that God is a God of mercy. Now, they come to Abinadab's house and they set the ark then. this new cart, you may remember that the Philistines, if you go back and read chapters 5-7 of 1 Samuel, the Philistines set the ark on a new cart and they took it to the house of Abinadab, nothing happened there. They set it on the new cart here and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the cart. It says that Ahio went in front, probably walking in front of the cart, leading the cows. These cows are not like horses that'll just kind of go. You gotta lead them along. And it says that David and all the house of Israel celebrated with music and dancing. It was an exciting time. The presence of God is coming to be in Jerusalem. It's important to remember that the presence of God is never confined to a particular place, but he tells us that he dwells in a unique way in certain places, in the ark of God, in the temple. Today, where does he dwell? In the church of Jesus Christ, not a building, but among the people of of the church. And then something strange happens. And this is where I think this, this story is so interesting. When they came to Nashon's threshing floor, it says, Uzzah put out his hand to the Ark of God and took hold of it because the oxen stumbled. So they stumble, he's afraid it's going to fall. And he reaches out his arm to steady the Ark and bang. God strikes him dead. What's your immediate reaction? If you'd never read this before, and I'm sure probably most of you have read it before, what would be your immediate reaction to that? That's not fair. Pastor Devin? I was just going to say David's reaction, which is he is afraid and somewhat angry. Any other thoughts about what your reaction might be? I'm with David on that. There will be fear because you start to recognize the importance of God when you start to see what's happening. Because if you know nothing else, if you see it all in advance, you're going to start, I guarantee you, you're going to start second guessing about everything you're doing. At least I would, in light of what God wants us to do. Yeah, I wonder if David had a flashback of the 50,000 men who were slain when they looked into the Ark. Now, Uzzah's motive, I would suggest, was a good motive. He wanted to keep the ark from falling off the cart. He valued the ark. So why didn't God take that into account? Yes, Nick? and how the sin of Uzzah is a sin of presumption, that he thought that his hands were cleaner than the ground on which the ark would touch, and that he thought it was holier to touch that rather than let it hit the ground, and that God had commanded them not to touch that, and that it didn't really matter about his motives, it was what God had told him that he likes to do. You can always count on R.C. Sproul to give you some good thoughts. Yes, Pastor Marty? I was thinking the reaction was probably more of a reflex than anything, and almost like a reaction than a true motive. lack of consideration of precepts without. Okay, good thought. Mike, thank you. I'll just say that, you know, God gives us laws for a reason. And whether we presume that we know better, react when we shouldn't, and have thought about it, it's still breaking the law. And that's sin. It's like, it just goes to show how Yeah, yeah, good thought. That's how crazy we are. Yeah, yeah, we have this crazy idea that somehow our motives aren't tainted by sin. Where did we get that idea? One of the thoughts, like, what was his thinking when he was that close to the Ark and be able to do that? I can do that for you, Bill. Yeah, yeah. Bill? Wasn't the arc being improperly carried? Yeah, you're getting ahead of me now, Bill. You're right. You're right. Yeah, we'll get to that here in a little bit. Did I see someone else? Yes, Joe? Well, the thing about this is that we commit. We know something's wrong. We know it's probably going to Yeah, it's true. You know, it used to be when my kids were small, sometimes one of them would do something to the other one and I would reprimand them for it. And sometimes they would say, well, I didn't mean to do it, which of course was not true. But I would oftentimes say to them, if you're driving down the street and you hit someone, you can say, I didn't mean to do it, but they're still dead. even though your motive may not have been wrong, still the consequences of your actions matter. Maybe Uzo was thinking more about the box and not the God in the box. He didn't realize in his active thinking that God was right there. That's an excellent point. I hadn't even thought about that. When you think about even the worship within the church of Christ at large today, I wonder how many of them are thinking more about the very act of worship than the God whom we worship. We need to think about that a little bit. This particular text, strikes me as one of those texts that convinces me of the trustworthiness, the authority, the inerrancy of scripture. You know, if I were writing scripture and I wanted it to impress the world, I probably wouldn't put this particular story in there. It's not very palatable. when you stop and think about it, if you don't know really what's going on in all of scripture. I talked to a pastor one time who I felt like was kind of watering down some things in scripture and he told me, and here are his very words, I want to make the Bible palatable to the people. Yes, Susan. Yeah, put the cookies on the bottom shelf. Well, you know, this story cuts across all human preferences. It cuts across all human emotion. And we would never, ever use a story like this to convince a person of their need to trust in God, according to the thinking of the world. This God is not a marketable God. This God is a holy God. And that's why, as Nick put it, uh, R.C. Sproul put the story in the book, the holiness of God. Now, if you find yourself offended a little bit by this story, and I hope you don't, but I have to say first time I read it, I did, um, Perhaps it will soften the blow a bit to recognize that, at least in my opinion here, Uzzah's personal salvation is not at risk. If it was, and David's also would be at risk because he's the one who instigated this whole thing. But what's the problem here? Well, God had given warnings, very specific warnings concerning how the ark was to be handled. If you go back to the book of Numbers, Numbers chapter four, there's very explicit instructions as to how the ark is to be carried. Numbers chapter 4 beginning in verse 4, this is the service of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of meeting relating to the most holy things. Notice how he refers to the Ark of the Covenant, the most holy things. When the camp prepares to journey, Aaron and his son shall come and they shall take down the covering veil and cover the ark of the testimony with it. Then they shall put it on a covering of badger skins and spread over that cloth entirely of blue and they shall insert its poles on the tabernacle of showbread. They shall spread a blue cloth and put it and it goes on and on here. But notice now, who is it that's supposed to carry the ark? the sons of Kohath. Those were the only ones who were to carry the ark. Even Aaron was not allowed to carry the ark because he was not a son of Kohath. He was a son of Levi. Okay. So you get there, who it is as to carry the ark. Now, if you go on down to chapter in chapter four to verses 15 through 20, notice this, Start in verse 15, and when Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary and the camp is set to go, then the sons of Kohath shall come to carry them. But they shall not touch any holy thing lest they die. You see, that's why the poles were inserted in those rings so that they could carry them then, carry the ark on their shoulders. and they want to touch the Ark. Yeah, carry the poles, but don't touch the Ark. These are the things in the tabernacle of meeting, which the sons of Kohath are to carry. They appointed duty, the appointed duty of Eliezer, the son of Aaron, the priest is the oil for the light, the sweet incense, the daily green offering, the anointing oil, the oversight of all the tabernacle of all that is in it with the sanctuary and its furnishings. Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, do not cut off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites, but do this in regard to them that they may live and not die when they approach the most holy things. Aaron and his sons shall go in and appoint each of them to his service and his task, but they shall not go in to watch while the holy things are being covered, lest they die." Now, do you see why the men of Beth Shemesh were struck dead? Because even the Kohathites who carried the ark were not to look at the most holy things, but they did. They totally disregarded what God had said. Now, think about this for a minute. God's kindness is written all over these warnings. In Romans 11, Paul says we are to see the goodness and the severity of God. You hold them in a very, very close proximity and tension. God's kindness is written all over these warnings because he does not want them to die. I can't help but think that the church today looks at the commands of God all wrong. We look at the commands of God and they restrict us. No, the mercy of God is saying, don't do these things. I created you. I know what gives you happiness. Don't do these things because it will take away all that I have given you. We should look at the law of God as David did. Oh, how I love thy law because it is God's protection of us. Somebody who steals from another person may think he's getting what he wants, but when he's sitting in prison for the next 15 years, it ain't what he wants. God wants to protect us from our own folly. And many times we violate God's commands simply because the way we want to do things seems pragmatically useful or perhaps it appeals to the emotion. And I'm thinking again in terms of the worship of the church throughout the United States, at least today, how much of it is based upon pragmatism rather than on what the word of God says or because it appeals to emotions. I don't know how many times I've heard people say that you have to have a worship that appeals to the unbeliever. That's not the purpose of worship. The purpose of worship is that we as the church of God may realize who God is, his goodness and his severity. You know, when an unbeliever comes into our worship service and we're singing hymns that 75% of the evangelicals say should be thrown out. I want them to ask us, why do you sing those hymns? So we can say to them, because they tell us of the glory and the goodness and the greatness of God, rather than just repeating the same phrase 15 times to different chords. We need to have a better grasp of the glory of the God that we worship. You know, I'm going to use a personal example here because it's something I used to do and don't. And then for a few years now, I have not done. I used to do baby dedications during the worship service and I quit doing it. And I've had many people ask me why. Well, it's such a neat thing. Where in scripture are we told to do a baby dedication in worship? Now, J.I. Packer says that Baptists do dry baptisms and Presbyterians do wet dedications. I don't think so, with all due respect to J.I. Packer, who I have a lot of respect for. I'll do, and in fact, Marty and Kathy sent me a picture this week. Was it Liam? Yeah, of me dedicating Liam, but not in here. I did it out in the fellowship hall when we were having our Sunday afternoon lunch. I don't have a problem doing it there, but not during the worship service. We're not commanded to do that in the worship service. There are a lot of people in evangelicalism today who have gone back to Roman Catholicism or have gone back to Eastern Orthodoxy. And one of the reasons is the aesthetic appeal of what is called the smells and the bells. You know, all the incense that's being offered, all the trappings that are being offered. If I may, let me read to you something from Calvin. This is from his sermon on this particular text. He says, we must gather from this that none of our devotion will be accepted by God unless they are conformed to his will. This rule ruins all the manmade inventions in the papacy's so-called worship of God, which has so much pomp and foolishness. All of that is nothing but sheer trash before God and is in fact an abomination to him. Nobody can say it better than Calvin, let me tell you. Hence, let us hold this unmistakable rule, that if we want to worship God in accordance with our own ideas, it will simply be abuse and corruption. And so, on the contrary, we must have the testimony of his will in order to follow what he commands us and to submit to it. Now that is how the worship which we render to God will be approved. I couldn't have said it better, that's why I read it. Why do you think that God exercised such excessive severity against Uzzah? Wouldn't it have been enough just to have given him a severe reprimand, a severe admonishment? Why do you think he exercised such severity? in his judgment against Uzzah. Yes, Pastor Dabney? I think this is where Sproul probably kind of, I think the story is helpful in that way to kind of point to the holiness of God because this is the ark which would have been in the most holy place. And it is the ark to which no one is to enter even before and offer any kind of offering except the high priest, but once a year. So for this sinful man to touch the most holy instruments in the most holy place is a demonstration of like the unclean and the unholy and the profane touching something that is most an exhibition of God, a setting forth of the glory of God. And for a sinful man to approach the Lord in that way, that there's nothing but the most severe kind of repercussions that have to follow. And I think that's why this makes us so uncomfortable. It's not just that God is kind of acting out. Maybe we read it that way and we think, oh, this is kind of troublesome. God's just acting out very arbitrarily. But I think it strikes more deeply at us that we don't like being told that we're that profane and unholy, that we can't approach God in that way. And it really, it strikes at our pride. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know, we should not forget that the ark was that which sat in that place where only the high priest, once a year, could enter. And he had to have a cord wrapped around him, around his ankles, so that if he did something wrong and God struck him dead, the people wouldn't go in to get him. They'd drag him out by the cord. They could not go into that most holy place. Does that not make you thankful that we, according to the book of Hebrews, have access to the most holy place? We can enter boldly into that most holy place because of Jesus, the great high priest who has entered in before us. Debbie? I was thinking maybe another reason why he was ignored. was because he would be inconsistent, because throughout he gave very specific instructions, and then if he did something different than what he instructed, then, I mean, that's not his character. That's right, yeah, that's an excellent point, that God is being consistent with his character. You know, as parents, sometimes we say, don't do this, or. and the kid does it, we say, okay, now don't do it again, or, uh-uh, not the way God works. We need to learn to be more consistent as parents, too. But what happens is God is consistent with his character, and when you violate that, his judgments come. Nick? So whether it's Moses, who wasn't able to enter the promised land, or Constantine, you know, Geronimo, Aden, and his family bestowed that because they had took some without it, and it's like that sets an example all throughout the scripture of the role of God over man, or the idea of commandment like that, and this is what I would say that he is going to be role. And I think it shows even the kindness of God when we think of like, well why didn't he do that today? Yeah, and you know, I think of Paul's warning to the Corinthians in terms of taking the table of the Lord unworthily. He said, because of this, many of you are sick and some sleep. Wasn't just Old Testament. Susan? I was just gonna say that not just, just to piggyback, not just the consistency of his character, but of his word. Like he said in the garden in the day, you eat of it and you will die. He said very clearly, you'll die. And if they don't, well. Right. You know, rather than question God's judgments, we need to worship because of his judgments. Because they show the faithfulness of his character. They show His trustworthiness to what He has said, and it should cause us to worship. I think of, I believe it was the Song of Hannah. Ascribe greatness to our God, the Rock. His way is perfect, and all His ways are just. Oh, we need to remember that so much. You know, I would suggest as well, that Uzzah's death was a warning to the people of Israel that they are to approach God with great reverence, that he is not like the gods of the heathens around them. He is a God of great power. He is a God of justice and he is a God of mercy. And frankly, It should be a perpetual memorial to us to give more serious consideration to the manner in which we enter in to the worship of God. We should come with humility. We should come knowing what God commands and what he forbids so that we worship him. By the way, what I'm doing here is giving you an expanded view of what we call the regulative principle of worship. You do what God commands, and you don't do what he hasn't commanded, to put it very, very simply. Did I see a hand over here? Mike, okay. I mean, it gets to the depth of sin, because don't you think David, when he saw that, he was putting his own head like, wait a second, I didn't get the right people to carry this. I didn't transport this. And the people around, what about the people carrying it? You know, it's about the two-fold thing. It's like, we need to follow God's Word, but we need to know it. So, you need to read it. Well, in this case, if the Jews would have to hear it from each Sabbath reading of the law, that should be on their minds. And if they don't, they end up intending to figure out what His Word is, or they're not obeying it. Mike, you've given me a great segue into the next section, which is David's reaction to the death of Uzzah. Look at verse 8 of 2 Samuel 6. It says that, verse eight, and David became angry because of the Lord's outbreak against Uzzah. And he called the name of the place Perez-Uzzah. By the way, you might recall, and this is kind of interesting, in the chapter before, he called the place Perez-Baal, the outbreak against the Philistines, and now it's the outbreak against Uzzah. Why do you think David became angry? That seems like a, I don't know, it seems to me like kind of a strange emotion. Why do you think he became angry, Joe? He forgot who God was, yes, yeah. At that particular point, I think he had. Other thoughts? Bill? He might have been more angry at himself than at God, because it doesn't specifically say he was angry at God. He just became angry. Yeah, the closest we have is he became angry because of the Lord's outbreak against Uzzah. Now, it's interesting here that you bring that up, Bill, because I was reading two different commentators on this passage. DeGroff in his four-volume work, Promise and Deliverance, says that David was angry with himself for not following God's law with regard to the transport of the ark. Calvin argues that David was angry with God. What do you think? Who do you agree with here? I think the second part of it, I'm sorry, is that Dave was afraid of the Lord in the very next verse. So I kind of believe that he was angry with himself, because, you know, if you're going to be angry with somebody, then also afraid of them. I mean, I guess you could do that. Pastor Marty? Maybe we should have a church split over this. Yes, Susan? Well, I don't know that the Hebrew that Kim James says displeased. I just throw that out there. Thing that was displeased. Yeah, I would have to look at that a little bit more. All the other translations I have come across say angry. Yeah, that's interesting. But this is the real one. The real one, yeah, okay. Yes, Pastor Dabney. In order to keep the unity and the peace of the church, I'd like to say the following. Yeah. Well, you know, it's interesting. I'm sorry. Yes. He's realizing, oh, this is going to be more complicated than I thought. I was not getting today where I wanted to be. Yeah, well, that's true. You know, one thing that's interesting is oftentimes I have said that anger is a secondary emotion. We get angry because we are afraid or because we have been hurt. But to say, oh, I'm hurt, makes us feel vulnerable. And so we give in to anger. That could be, I'm not saying it was, but that could be one of the things going on here. If indeed, as Joe said, he had forgotten who God was, he could have been angry with God. And I'll leave it up to you to debate within yourself, within yourself, I said, as to which it was here. I think the thing we do need to realize here is that you don't trifle with the God who is real and who is holy. That's something we've got to see from all of this. Sometimes we speak of God in a very trivial manner. And I think especially when we use the Lord's name in vain, how trivial that is. And I tell you something, I hate, I just hate it. I see it on the internet, OMG. No Christian should ever, ever put that in a text. Thank you, Leonard. That is taking the Lord's name in vain. It may just be the G, but you know what it stands for, and everybody else knows what it stands for. And it's not gosh. We need to remember that God is your father. He's not your buddy buddy. We need to keep that. He's a father whom we can approach as a father, but we approach him with reverence and fear. Yes, Nick. Yeah, yeah, that's right. What are some times that we are tempted to become angry with God? When you set out to do something, and you realize God's will, then all of a sudden, the door's clanging, you turn around and say, why'd you tell me to do that? And God's had this historical life. Sounds like it's speaking from experience. Yeah, yes. When a loved one dies? Yeah, there's one. When a loved one dies. Yeah. Pastor Denny? when we sin and we feel a sense of guilt, yeah. You know, if you had asked David, do you want to be angry with God? Do you want to despise his judgments? David would probably say, no, no way do I want that. But his emotions took control here, I would suggest, so that he became angry. Now let's look at what Debbie brought up, David's overreaction. He leaves the ark in the house of Obed-Edom, and he says, how can the ark of God come to me? In other words, he was so frightened by what he saw happen, he said, I can't even let the ark get close to me. Instead, of stopping and saying, what did I do wrong here? He backs completely away from God. How can I let the ark even come into my house? You know, I think there are many people today, when they hear phrases like, our God is a consuming fire, If we sin willfully, there remains no longer a sacrifice for sin, which I think has a very specific meaning. I won't go into it now. We're thrust into despair when we hear those. We would sometimes react like, David, how can I even serve a God like this? But what had David overlooked regarding the Ark of the Covenant? What was the main feature of the Ark of the Covenant? The presence of God, and how is that presence of God most clearly shown in that Ark of the Covenant? His law was there. His mercy seat. That is probably the most significant, and David had forgot that. He's a God of mercy. He should have said, I want to do this right. God has been merciful to me. David should have said, He didn't kill me. I'm the one who instigated this whole thing. I want to go back and I want to look how God commands this to be done. And I want to bring it to Jerusalem because God is merciful to me. But I think that's what he meant when he said, how can I bring the ark to me? He was afraid. He was afraid he would get struck dead as well. So when we sin, we dare not overlook the mercy seat. Jesus is our mercy seat. He is full of mercy and compassion. Oh, that's an excellent point. His commands are not burdensome. But when we start messing around and doing things our way, instead of the way God has commanded, then we should expect consequences for that. And the consequences are not necessarily, well, they're not punishment if we're truly a believer, because the punishment's been put on Christ. But they are chastisement to point us in the right direction. Yes, Susan. Just another thought that David, you know, was so close to God, so intimately involved with God. God rescued him time and time and time and time again. And now this happened. I mean, it is natural for us to distrust and be afraid. Yeah. And never should we think that because we are walking close with God today, that tomorrow we might not fall. Well, it's true. Well, how many times, and it's a long experience too, that you have these hives, like going to church on Sunday, and it's like, oh, I really feel the presence of God. How many times the very next day you say, And you're just like, whoa, why? I thought I was in this place. It's like, no, because you start relying on your own experience and not the Word. Yeah. Let me just say this. If you withdraw from God whenever you see His justice at work in chastisement or punishment for sin, if you withdraw from God when you see that, Or maybe I should put it this way, if you see God only as a God of punishment, you will either withdraw from Him or you will begin to engage in legalistic works to try to make yourself acceptable to God. And both of those are wrong. God tells us that we approach Him boldly because we have a great high priest who has entered in before us, Jesus, whose blood covers all of our sins. When I was a boy, my mother would use a yardstick on me. And I learned that the closer I got to my mother, the less the whip of that yardstick hurt. You get out on the end of it, that thing snaps. If you get close to her, it doesn't. When we see the judgment and the justice and the punishment or chastisement of God, cause it to draw closer to him. Don't withdraw from him. Run to his mercy and his grace. All right, let's close in prayer. Father, thank you for this time this morning. Thank you for the mercy that you've extended to us. Lord, you are truly a just and a severe God, but you are also to your people a merciful and gracious God. Thank you for Jesus' work as our great high priest. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.