The passage I'd like to turn to this evening is in the Old Testament, in the book of Samuel, 2 Samuel, chapter 6. And as you turn to it, you'll not be surprised, it's a well-known passage and well-known story from the Old Testament. So 2 Samuel, chapter 6. And the word of the Lord reads in chapter 6, Again David gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. And David arose and went with all the people that were with him from the valley of Judah to bring up from thence the ark of God, whose name is called by the name of the Lord of hosts that dwelleth between the cherubims. And they set the ark of God upon a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in Gebeah. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart. And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was at Gebeah, accompanying the ark of God. And Ahio went before the ark. And David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments made of firwood, even on harps and on psalteries and on timbrels and on cornets and on cymbals. And when they came to Nahon's threshing floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God smote him there for his error, and there he died by the ark of God. And David was displeased because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzzah, and he named the place Perez-Uzzah to this day. And David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, How shall the ark of the Lord come to me? So David would not remove the ark of the Lord unto him into the city of David, but David carried it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. And the ark of the Lord continued in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-Edom and all his household. And it was told the king David, saying, the Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that pertaineth unto him because of the ark of God. So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom into the city of David with gladness. And it was so, when they bare the ark of the Lord, had gone six paces he sacrificed oxen and fatlings. And David danced before the Lord with all his might, and David was girded with 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 trumpet. And as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michael, Saul's daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart. And then perhaps just, I'll move on down to verse 20 there. Then David returned to bless his household, and Michael, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David and said, how glorious was the king of Israel today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovers himself. And David said unto Michael, It was before the Lord which chose me before thy father, and before all this house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord over Israel. Therefore will I play before the Lord, and I will yet be more vile than this, and will be his base. and will be based in mine own sight, and of the maid's servants which thou hast spoken off of them shall I be had in honour. Therefore Michael, the daughter of Saul, hath no child unto the day of her death. And we just pray the Lord's blessing upon that reading together. As I say, you'd understand a very familiar passage from the Old Testament concerning David bringing the ark up into the place of Jerusalem. The Ark had an interesting history. It was made after the pattern that God had given to Moses in the Old Testament. It was that which contained the tablets of the Ten Commandments, the tablets of the law of God. And it was that place where we understand that God especially presents himself with his people. It was that place where the Shekinah glory dwelt within the Holy of Holies, that place where God met very specifically with his people, particularly in that day of atonement when the high priest would go in and sprinkle the blood there. That was where God would be met. conversed with in that holy place. But the Ark had that central place in the camp of Israel when it was designed in that And that pattern, after the pattern that God had gave, the Ark was kept in the Holy of Holies within the tabernacle. And it had that central place within the nation of Israel. The tabernacle was kept in the center, and the Holy of Holies was there, and the Ark was contained within that. And then all the tribes were positioned around the Ark. So really, this presence of God, this symbol that indicated the presence of God among his people was that that had that very central place among the people of Israel. But the Ark didn't always remain in the Israelites' possession. Just a few chapters earlier in 1 Samuel chapters 4, 5, and 6 we read of the Philistines who actually captured the Ark of God and they took it and they placed it before their god Dagon and he fell before the Ark and then they put the God back up again, day gone, half man, half fish, and then he fell again and broke. And everywhere the Philistines would take this Ark of God around their towns, they would be plagued with various plagues. And eventually it became too much for them and decided they would send the Ark back to Israel. So they put it on a cart, pulled by some oxen, and they sent the Ark then on its way back to Israel. It's where this story here breaks in. There's a lot of history that's passed here, but this was the reign of Saul. It kind of happened between that time and this time where we're reading. And it's probably at least 40 years. The New Testament tells us that Saul had reigned. So within this time, the ark had come back to Jerusalem, but it was being looked after in this place that's referred to here as Valley of Judah. The parallel passage in 1 Chronicles 15 says this place is called Kereth Jerem, which I'm led to believe, I had to do a Google search, but I'm led to believe that means a city of woods. And that's where this ark was dwelling. It had come back to the land of Israel, but it wasn't in that central place that it was supposed to have. It wasn't in that place in the middle of the camp, in the middle of the people of Israel. It was back in Israel, but it was kept in this place. If you like, it was hidden in the woods. It wasn't in that central place that it was supposed to have among the people of God. So this is where the story breaks in here, in 2 Samuel 6, where David has this desire to bring this ark that represents the presence of God back into the center, and back into the center of the worship of God's people. So just to set the context, but to turn to the passage then, work our way through it in verses one and two. I've six points. I hope I don't go on too long. But I've six points, and the first one is a good desire. And in the verses 1 and 2 of the chapter 6, we see a good desire here. We see David has gathered all these men together, all the chosen men of Israel, 30,000. And he is a resident, and he's going to go and get this ark and bring it back to the place of Jerusalem, that center of worship within the nation of Israel. And that is a good desire. It's a good motive that he wanted to see God in that central place. within the people of God. He wanted to see him in that central place as the focus of their worship. So it was a very good desire. More than that, there were 30,000 men. He managed to gather together to go with them. The parallel passage in 1 Chronicles, it says that when David discussed this with the people, they said this thing was right in the eyes of all the people. So David had a good desire. These people that he was going to Bala of Judah to bring this ark from were all in agreement with him that this was a good thing to do, to bring God and to bring the worship of God back into the center of these people. And that is a good starting point. It's good to have a good desire like that. It's good to have a... A bunch of people who have that desire to see that, a very commendable thing. Not only had they the desire, but they actually got up out of their seats, they got up out of their homes, and they went to this place to try and make it happen. We come here to pray, and we make our petitions. We make our desires known unto God. And that's a good thing. It's a good thing to have good and godly desires. We maybe pray for the community. But then there's that aspect of it as well, where that desire, we get up and we try and do something about it. We went to Portland Owen there recently to try and put tracks through the doors. So that's good and a good, commendable thing to be doing, to have that desire. to see God glorified, and then to set about to do something about it. Not just to sit there, but actually to put it into action. But we come to a bit of a snag, as you read through the story, you'll have understood there's problems within this desire. And we come to the second point, which I say is a bad design. And it says in verse 3 that they set the ark in a new cart, And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart. And David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord in all manner of instruments. And when they came to Nahon's stretching floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark and took hold of it, for the oxen shook it." An unexpected problem has arisen here. And this is where things started to go wrong for this band of people. Their desire was good, but they were about to be let down by what was a bad design. They set the Ark on a new cart. And we all like new things. We like maybe new clothes, or new shoes, or a new car, or many new things. But according to the commands of God within Holy Scripture here, this was not something that these people should have been engaging in. The Ark had specific commands on how it was to be dealt with and how it was to be looked after. It was to be covered with animal skins. Nobody was to look upon it. It was to be carried on poles that went through the rings on the sides of the Ark. And it was never to be put on a cart. It wasn't to be transported that way. It was to be transported on these poles on the shoulders of the Levites. And actually, a very specific family within the Levites, the Kohathites, were tasked with this particular piece of furniture the tabernacle to be looked after. These were rules that these people were starting to break by placing this Ark of God upon a new card. I'm gonna read an account in number seven. Moses received a gift of carts and oxen, and he was distributing these carts and oxen among all the Levites because the tabernacle furniture was heavy, it was cumbersome, it was hard to move about, and he was to take these carts and these oxen and distribute it among the families of the Levites, with one exception, and that was with this family called the Kohathites. They did not receive this gift. And Numbers 7 verse 9 says, But the sons of Kohath he gave none, because the service of the sanctuary belonging unto them was that that they should bear upon their own shoulders. This was a work that they had to carry out. These were particular men, chosen men. They were men obviously with good broad shoulders. There were certain things that these men, theirs alone to bear, and they weren't a burden to be given on to anyone else. And we see that God is a God of order. He has particular people for particular roles, not only within Israel, but within the church. He has that particular order where he has particular people to do particular tasks within his church and within the nation of Israel. But you can see that good desire, but they began to carry it out then in that bad way. But where would they get such an idea from? Well, it was quite easy. They got this idea putting it on a cart from the Philistines, because that was how the Philistines had delivered the Ark back to Israel in that day. And they had done it without incident. Nobody had come to any harm over them getting rid of the Ark. They were in harm with having the Ark in their presence, and it was good for them to get rid of the Ark. So they got this idea, I assume, for putting the ark upon this cart from the Philistines. They were following basically the pattern of the world and how they were going to carry out this work of God. It's never a good practice. It wasn't a good practice for Israel. It's not a good practice for the church to pattern itself around the way the world does things. The church is a spiritual body. The church is a spiritual organization. its means that must be used are those that are spiritual. They had neglected here to follow God's will. They'd neglected to look at God's word to find out how this should be carried out. They had just gone ahead and they had followed the way that they had seen successful in the world. And they had just followed that way. And many churches, Israel obviously suffered here, but many churches have suffered by doing good things, good ideas, good desires, but carrying them out in carnal ways. Everything carried out within a church is that which is of spiritual significance. So we have that good desire, we have the bad design, and then we come to that key passage then within this portion of God's Word in 2 Samuel, we come to a great disaster. I have a question mark after my head in this here, a great disaster. You obviously can't see my notes but I've placed a question mark there because I don't believe there really is disasters with God. God does not make mistakes in how he deals with men. God's ways are perfect, His actions are perfect, and there's no mistakes that are taking place at this particular portion of God's Word here. So it's a great disaster, obviously, for Uzzah, for this endeavor to bring the Ark to Jerusalem. It caused problems there, but it's not really a great disaster in God's eyes. He's perfectly just in what He has done here. So after Uzzah took hold of the ark to steady it, we're reading verse 7 there, that the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God smote him there for his error, and there he died before the ark. Now we come here, and Uzzah was that person, obviously, was quite familiar with this piece of furniture, this ark of the covenant, and because it dwelt in his house, that dwelt in the house of his, well, possibly his grandfather, but it certainly is his father, Benidab. And this is where the Ark dwelt. So this was a piece of furniture that Uzzah was perhaps familiar with. And we might say perhaps he was a little too familiar with it. Perhaps he thought he was going to do a good work here for God. Maybe the oxen stumbled and he thought the ark's going to fall, so he stepped in to try and save the ark from hitting the ground. He thought he was going to do something, some good work, but there's certainly not a work like that. There's no good work that's acceptable to God as a way to approach unto God. That's not acceptable to approach God in that manner. You could say perhaps Uzzah really was one where familiarity did not breed contempt but certainly complacency when it came to dealing with the things of God. And Uzzah perhaps here may have more input into this than maybe might appear from the text. I may be reading a little into this here, but because I believe us and Abinadab were probably the ones that looked after this ark in their house for all those years, perhaps he was the one that gave David the information as to this is a good way to handle the ark, put it on a new cart and we will treat it this way. He was the one that was familiar with the ark. He was possibly the one that was given David the bad advice, as it turns out, as to how he should treat the Ark, how he should transport the Ark. So there is a sense where Uzzah was perhaps not only just reaching forward to protect the Ark, but he was reaching forward to protect his reputation, to protect possibly his way, his plan of how this Ark should be transported. And God spoke very powerfully that it was a very grave error that Uzzah had committed here, and it led to his death. We read in Numbers chapter 4 and verse 15 that any one of those that are tasked to carry the ark, to carry any of these precious objects, it says they must not touch the holy things lest they die. So Uzzah has directly disobeyed a command of God here. He has reached forth. He has touched the ark. And God, in his justice, has carried out the sentence of that command, demanded that obedience from Uzzah. He touched it, and he died. But I think one of the most, to me, when I was looking at this passage and studying it, one of the most pertinent things to me in this passage was actually where this took place. Sometimes we maybe get caught up and we look at Uzzah and we think about that circumstance that happened, but the place to me is very pertinent and very important where this happened, because the threshing floor, it happened on the threshing floor of Nechon. And the threshing floor was that place where the harvest of wheat or barley, whatever it was, was placed. And it was usually in a high area, flat area, high on the top of a hill. And the winnowers would come out and they would lift the barley in their forks and they would throw it up in the air. And the heavy grain then would fall to the ground back onto the threshing floor. And then the wind would blow and blow away all the all the straw, all the chaff, all the dust would be blown off this high ground. And by the time the winnowing was finished, they would have a pile of grain and all the chaff would be blown away. It was a place of separation. It was a place of judgment, really, in many ways, where the wheat is separated from the chaff. And I think it's very important that on this threshing floor of Nacon, this is where this judgment of God fell. This is where These people are all playing their music, they're full of mirth, they're full of joy, they're full of happiness. And then God just comes into the situation and he just blows all the chaff away. You can just hear the music stopping, you can just hear the place falling into silence as it drops by the ark. And God here has just stepped into this circumstance on the threshing floor and he has just said, all this that you are doing here is chaff and he's just put his breath upon it and he's blown it away. God has that ability to step into a church. He has that ability to step into a life. He has that ability to step into a situation and just breathe his breath upon it and to clear the chaff away. It was a place of judgment, the threshing floor. It was a place of separation. And it was a good separation. It was that place, obviously, that was going to bring a brighter and a better decision, as we will see as we go through the passage. But as I made here, a decision that was made in haste, probably even, he didn't even think very much about it, he just stretched forth and did it. And we usually find in life that those are the decisions that really reveal our true heart. The things that we have time to think about, maybe, and control ourselves about, are the things that are we can kind of bluff over a wee bit. But when it comes to the decisions that we make in a snap decision, those instant responses that we make, that's where it really shows what our true heart is. That shows where our heart truly lies, because that's what's coming from our heart. It's not filtered in any way. It just comes straight out. And that's what Aziz is showing here. He's shown probably years of complacency living with this arc. And he's just reaching forth and doing what seemed automatic to him. He didn't even think of the consequences. He didn't think of the reverence. He didn't think of the command that he was breaking here. He just reached forth and he did this act. But there may be a tendency to look at a circumstance and to try and explain it away and try and say that was harsh, that was tough for us to come through that. But as I said at the beginning, it may be a great disaster in some ways, obviously for us. That had been years, probably, of building up to this point of his irreverence towards God. But it was that God has acted justly in, he has acted rightly, he has acted properly and appropriately in, and I think we could come close to almost having the same contempt towards God as us, if we would think this is something that shouldn't have happened, if we think it was harsh, because God has always acted correctly, He's acted rightly and justly. And we need to praise God just as much for His justice in these things as we do even for His mercy. But to not worry too much, this is thankfully not a sin that any of us can commit. Today the ark doesn't exist, we cannot reach forth and we can't touch it and we can't fall into this sin today. We live in a new covenant, we don't live in the old covenant. Christ has opened that way into that access that we can have into the presence of God and this is not a concern to commit this particular act. But at the same time, we still learn from the Old Testament, and we still learn from the New Testament, that obedience is important. And what Uzzah was showing here was disobedience. And we can do that as well. And that's what we carry in from this story. Although while the circumstances may not be the same, we can disobey just as much today as Uzzah did in those days. It says in the Old Testament, to obey is better than sacrifice. But then it also again says in the New Testament, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. God looks for obedience from his children and from his people. Just as much as he did for Muzza, he looks for obedience from us even today. But yes, we are thankful that we live in the new covenant and the Lord Jesus has opened that way into the presence of God that we can approach God without fear. And it says there in verse 8, it's an interesting verse, that David was displeased because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzzah. And he called the name Perez Uzzah to this day. Now Perez is that Hebrew word and it means a breach or to break through. And we read the same word, if you turn back to 2 Samuel chapter 5 and verse 20. when the Israelites were battling against the Philistines. It says in verse 20 of chapter 5, And David came to Baal-perazim, and David smoked them there, and said to the LORD, Has broken forth upon mine enemies before me at the breach of waters? Therefore he called the name of that place Baal-perazim. That's the plural of Baal-peraz here that we are looking at. And that's that word that means a breach or to break through. which is significant enough because David had learned that God was willing to break forth against his enemies, against those who were opposing the people of Israel. But the Philistines were those who were from outside. But here, this place is named after one that God has broken out against on this threshing floor, one who was from the inside of Israel, one who was to be found within the people of God. So I think that's a significant thing that God has that manner of judgment. As they say, judgment begins in the house of the Lord. He will judge those within just as much as he will judge those Philistines in the world, even from without the house of God. But then we come to a fearful deter, as I have called it in my point here, which is in verse 9. And it says here, David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, How shall the ark of the Lord come to me? Now, just as the incident we could perhaps say with Ananias and Sapphira, even in the New Testament, whenever this happened in the threshing floor, there was great fear fell upon these people. As you can imagine, the singing, the playing, the rejoicing would all come to a halt. And here we see David, the leader of these people. He begins to fear, and he begins to fear the Lord. And he says in his fear, how shall the ark come to me? He was scared to bring this object then into his presence. He was worried about how this would Maybe the same thing could happen to him. So it says there, he took the ark to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. And we read from, I've written down here, 1 Chronicles 26 verse 4, that Obed-Edom was also a Kohathite. He was also one from that tribe that was actually an ark-bearer. He was the very person that this ark needed to go to. He was an Ark-bearer and we read of Obed-Edom in this passage that God had blessed him. God blessed when the Ark arrived in his house that he became a very blessed man. Now we don't know what form this blessing took when the Ark came to him. I think at the very least we can assume that there was some kind of spiritual blessing probably brought upon his household for having the presence of God, that ark that represented the presence of God right in his house. And we can imagine there would be certainly at least a spiritual blessing. And that would be something that any of us who focus and bring the presence of God as that primary focus, that central focus into our house would be that place that would bring blessing, bring blessing to our families. But it's interesting that when we read about Abinadab and his house, we never read there of the ark bringing blessing to him. the Ark abode there for 40 years. We would think there should be some significant blessing within that household. But we read at the start of the passage, this Ark has been in the Benedab's house for all those years. There has been no blessing. And it's perhaps possible that the blessing was either due to the attitude of these men. Perhaps Abinadab was that one that kept the Ark of the Covenant. Some were safe, some were out of sight, some were maybe in a shed outside, somewhere where it wouldn't be of any threat, or certainly not in that central place within his home. But here, Obed-Edom, you could nearly picture that he has it in the middle of his living room. He wants the presence of God right in the center of his home, and God is going to bless him for it. And we could imagine that scenario in our heads But as we see the presence of God, we see different responses to it. We see the complacency of Abinadab here, and we see the complacency, the disobedience then of Uzzah. We see David fear the presence of God here, and also we see blessing come upon Obed-Edom here because of the presence of God. So people respond to the presence of God very differently in these circumstances. But David then, seeing this, Blessing that has come upon Obed-Edom then, he has what I have written down here as my point, a renewed determination. He determines to continue his plan. He's renewed with zeal to get this job done, to get this ark back in the central place of the worship of the nation, Israel. If God is blessing Obed-Edom, perhaps I can bring this ark to Israel and he will bless us all and he will bless David's household. That's not really very much information in 2 Samuel, but in the parallel passages in 1 Chronicles, there's more information given here concerning how David has done this. And David has really done his homework in these three months while the ark has been dwelling in the house of Obed-Edom. It says in 1 Chronicles 15 verse 2, then David said, none ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites. He'd done some homework and he discovered this was not something that was to be placed on a card. This was something that none should carry except the Levites. And he also discovered that they must be pure and clean and sanctified. And that's true of all the workers of God. We must have clean hands, pure hearts when it comes to doing the work of God, even within the church. So in 1 Chronicles 15 verses 11 to 13, David calls for the priests, Zadok and Abiathar, and he calls for them to sanctify themselves for this work that he wants them to do. And he says in those verses, you did it not at the first, the Lord made a breach upon us for that we sought him not after the due order. He's saying here that we did things wrong the first time, but now I have this information. Now I know what to do. And let's get this job done. So armed with the knowledge, 1 Chronicles 15, 15 says, so the children of the Levites bear the ark of God upon their shoulders with staves thereon as Moses had commanded according to the word of God. So here we see the second time around, Levites carrying the ark upon their shoulders. It's not upon the cart, and it's been carried by the proper families up to Jerusalem. David has been looking into God's word here. It says there at the end of verse 15, according to the word of the Lord, So this is where David has engaged himself. He's engaged himself in the study of God's word. Perhaps he was helped by Obed-Edom who maybe knew the scriptures in this and was saying to David, look, you need to do things properly here. This is why God has broken out against you. This is why Uzzah has been slain. It's because you have not sought. the will of the Lord from the scriptures. You haven't been seeking his will, you haven't engaged yourself in the study of the Bible. So David has been doing this and he has found out how this task should be carried out. And with fresh determination then and obviously with humility, he continues then to bring the ark to Jerusalem. And we're reading verse 15 in our passage. 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 me see here, David is very careful now to ensure. that it wasn't just good enough to have a right motive that he had at the beginning, that good desire, it wasn't just good enough to have a right motive, but he had to use the right means. He can't just use any old means, he had to use the correct means, and a good endeavor can fail by using the wrong means, but David has discovered now that he can't just rely on the right motive, he has to ensure that he has the right means, and beyond that even as well, actually, he has to have the right men and the right women involved in the task of carrying this ark up into Jerusalem. So they entered into Jerusalem with great joy, almost unanimously, unfortunately. And this is one of the sad portions, the sad parts of this. Not everyone found this a joyous occasion when David was bringing this ark that represented the presence of God into their midst. And the final point I have here is a vocal detractor, perhaps even a vicious detractor. We'll read in verse 16. And the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, and Michael Saul's daughter, and that was also David's wife, looked through the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart. And David then, in verse 20, it says, And David returned to bless his household. And Michael, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David, and she said, this is perhaps probably one of the most sarcastic statements nearly recorded in the Bible, How glorious was the king of Israel today! He uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids and servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovers himself. And then David replies with an equal bite to his comments, claiming greater authority than Saul, Michael's father. And it says, it was before the Lord. He wasn't doing this for Michael. He wasn't doing this for the handmaids. He was celebrating and worshiping and full of joy. It was before the Lord that he was doing this, not before any man, not before anybody else. And he said, it was before the Lord, which chose me before thy father and before all his house to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. Therefore I will play before the Lord, and yet I will be more vile, or more humble than thus, and will be more base in mine own sight. And of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, and here he turns a little bit prophet, and he says, of them I shall be held in honour. Therefore Michael, the daughter of Saul, had no child until the day of her death. David here, we see David had put God first here, he had humbled himself before God, he had removed his royal robes, we see him in the linen ephod, dancing before the Lord. Perhaps even in the reading of that, to say that he was wearing a linen eidfod, perhaps even we could surmise that maybe even the first time he was wearing his royal robes as he brought the Ark to Jerusalem. But here we see him put on those linen clothes, the clothes of a servant, the clothes of a priest, and we see him humble himself before the Lord. This is the king humbling himself, abasing himself before the Lord. He is recognizing that while he may be the king of this nation, while he may be the king of Israel, he is still a steward, he is still a subject, he is still a servant of the king of kings. He has a knowledge in that fact by wearing these clothes, by removing his royal robes and by dancing here before the Lord. 1 Peter 5 verse 5 could be very easily applied to this passage here. He dressed himself in humility. That's a description that's given, should be of the child of God, that their dress should be dressed in humility. We could see a real scandal there. We could understand maybe a degree of Michael's thought there. That would have been behaviour of a royal behaving like this. It would have been the front page of the news almost. But David here, that's not his intent. David here is obeying the Lord. His fear that he was experiencing earlier on the threshing floor of Nekon has now, because he is obeying the Lord, has now turned to faith and he's just overflowing here with joy. He's just bubbling over with excitement at this ark. The presence of God, what he has wished for, what he's been praying for and looking for is now coming to happen and it's going to be within the presence of the people. And he's overflowing with joy. His fear has turned to faith. But then we see Michael here and she is Unfortunately, she is opposing the presence of God. She's opposing God's anointed person. She's not expressing any desire to see the presence of God within the midst of these people. And jealousy makes a terrible master. I think she's jealous here that David is worshipping the Lord and not worshipping her. And spiritual barrenness is obviously her reward here. And it's the reward of all the proud people to be spiritually barren. But I don't believe really the spiritual barrenness probably wasn't a judgment from God. It was just the fact that there was such a wage driven between David and Michael here because their paths were so diametrically opposed that really, while she wasn't barren, there would never be a child born. She was opposing the servants of God. and the presence of God and that would make one fruitless and barren in one's Christian life. So we see this sad picture here of Michael who is not happy that the presence of God is coming about and she is opposed to the servant of God who wishes to see that accomplished. The lens of the books of Samuel, 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, there's a little verse that helps me when I'm looking through these books to study them and look at them. And it's a lens that you kind of look through these books at. And it's 1 Samuel 2 verse 30, and it says, I will honor, and those that despise me will be lightly esteemed, or God will disdain. And that's the lens that really this book works through. We see people here honor God, and God honors them in return. We see people here despise God. We see people here oppose God, and God opposes them in return. And that's really the lens that we can look at these books of 1 and 2 Samuel through. So if we take an overview of this story, We can see a carnal approach, a faithless approach here of Abinadab and his sons, Uzzah and Ahio. And it's an approach that leads them to defeat and it leads them to death. And then we see the diligent and we see the spiritual approach then of David that brings him from that place of fear to faith and then to great joy. And we see two different characters here as well. We see Obed-Edom, who has embraced the presence of God, and we see him greatly blessed within his home. And then we see Michael, who has opposed the presence of God and opposed God's servants, and she is brought to that place of dwelling in fruitlessness. and she opposed David who was that type of the Lord Jesus and that is obviously going to bring her to that place of barrenness in her life. So there's a great symmetry really when you take an overview of this passage and it kind of crosses over then at this place of judgment upon the threshing floor. up to that point. We see the carnal attempt to bring the ark to Jerusalem and then we see the faith-filled attempt, successful attempt then to bring the ark into Jerusalem. And we see at the end of that first attempt, we see somebody who is blessed but having the ark within their presence. And then at the end of the spiritual attempt, then we see somebody who is brought to that place of fruitlessness and that place of barrenness by opposing what David was trying to accomplish here. But lest I leave you in fear again with the events that unfolded on the threshing floor It is definitely that thing that we cannot really be involved in. We cannot commit here. We come tonight and we have the Lord Jesus Christ, who is that one who was that priest, who was that sacrifice. They did not approach the ark in that way on this occasion. They didn't use the priest. They didn't make sacrifices before the Lord. There was no atonement. But we have that great atonement. We have that great sacrifice. We have that great high priest who has opened that way into the very presence of God. And we as God's people then can enter into that presence. We can enter without fear, without hindrance, none daring to make us afraid. We can get into that presence of God. all made possible through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ and through the blood that he has shed for us. So as we continue on tonight, I say don't let the events of that bring you to a place of fear, but do let the words of the passage challenge us to be engaged in the work of God and to be obedient and good servants of the Lord.