Holiness

I am Glad that we can be here this morning. it is a good day to be in the house of the Lord.

Today we are going to talk about God’s Holiness and do we really understand what that means.

One of the challenges that comes with us trying to draw closer to God is we all come with our own thought out views of God. We have to figure out what is a good view and what might not be. Let’s look though at this mornings passage and talk about the idea of God’s Holiness.

2 Samuel 6:1–5 NIV

1 David again brought together all the able young men of Israel—thirty thousand. 2 He and all his men went to Baalah in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim on the ark. 3 They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart 4 with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it. 5 David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with castanets, harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums and cymbals.

David’s Celebration

David was excited. The Ark of the Lord was at long last returning to be among the people of Israel. This is a powerful theological idea. It helps set the stage for David and his Kingship. It let’s us see that he wants his rule to be seen as centered with God.

The Ark for those who aren’t familiar with it is not just the object that Indiana Jones was looking for in the deserts of Egypt. It was a real item but it was supposed to be the physical manifestation of God’s presence on Earth.

The Ark held important power in the worship of the Israelites at that time. We will look a little more on that later. Yet, it was not with them it had been taken and was stored away from them.

When David had the opportunity to bring it back he knew it was a time for celebration.

Celebrations are fun after all. We like to celebrate things. I mean in the last couple months we have had a few different celebrations. We got to celebrate a graduation. A coming Baby. Gender reveals. National Holidays and so much more.

We like to throw a party no differently than David.

David planned his party and they started to move the Ark back. When...

Tragedy Strikes

Sometimes when we celebrate bad things can happen. I remember shortly after I graduated from High school tragedy struck my graduating class.

A group from my high school went to a local park and in this park there is a natural water Slide. You could sit in the water and slide down the smooth rocks and enjoy your day. Hundreds of people do it every summer and as far as I know still do to this day.

This group though went and while they were sliding and celebrating graduating from High school. Eric went down and his foot got caught in a rock and he was stuck under water. Not everyone noticed right away. By time it was discovered it was too late he had lost his life.

Tragedy strikes and David experienced something similar.

2 Samuel 6:6–9 NIV

6 When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. 7 The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down, and he died there beside the ark of God. 8 Then David was angry because the Lord’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah. 9 David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, “How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?”

Tragedy Strikes

Uzzah died for what seems like a completely innocent action he stabilized the ark.

This is often a troubling passage for many people with our faith.

Why Would God do such a horrible thing to someone who just simply braced the Ark.

Well for us to properly understand it we need to really get an understanding of what the Ark is.

The Ark of the Covenant

The Ark was a wooden chest overlaid with gold that contained the tablets of the law. It served as both practical and symbolic purposes and was instrumental in both rituals and miracles.

The Israelites believed the ark of the covenant was symbolically Yahweh’s throne. It represented his very presence on earth.

But wait...

Is that really a good reason for someone to die for simply touching an item.

Let me ask this question? What would have happened to Moses if he didn’t follow the instructions given at the burning bush?

Are we okay with that one?

What do we expect happens to those who outright reject God today?

We believe that they will live in all eternity separated from God in hell?

These are truths that we need to remember.

Uzzah touched something that was sacred. It was the presence of God. It was given clear instructions on how it was to be transported. Who could touch, carry, and it is here that we see Uzzah’s failure was not only in his mistake of touching the ark but in David’s in how he was transporting it.

This joyous moment turned to one where someone died because David failed to recognize the awesome power of God. TO respect and revere the nature of God’s Holiness.

God’s Holiness

I Have to say that this was one of the most powerful things I took from this weeks passage.

We often way under estimate the importance of the concept of God’s Holiness.

God is so perfect, God is so unique, amazing, awesome, and powerful that we can’t even really begin to fully understand who he is. Our understanding is but a drop in the bucket of the knowledge of God.

We often try to attribute our humanness to God but we always must be reminded that God is not a human. We are his creation. Yes, created in his image but he is beyond who we are.

Holiness is a hard concept for us to completely nail down. Yet, we know that Holiness is a place that we encounter the divine. The creator and it needs to be treated with respect.

David wanted to do what was right. He wanted to bring the ark back to be among the people of Israel and he was going to celebrate that. In his haste though he made a mistake and didn’t treat the ark as the sacred oject that it was.

In David’s effort to do what he believed to be God’s will, in a way that violate’s God’s word is wrong, and it displeased God.

How often do we do the same thing.

How often do we think we are doing God’s will in our actions despite the fact that it violates God’s word and are surprised when we hear that it is something that displeases God.

God’s Will or Ours?

There lies the problem. David in his motivation started in the right place. Let’s honor God and bring him to the center. Yet, he didn’t follow through in recognizing the right way to do it. He set out with his own plans.

Do we do the same thing today. We know People need to come to know God. We want them to accept Jesus but we compromise on the very word of God?

God is Love…Yet, God is also power, and Judge.

God is gracious…Yet, i abuse it do what I want.

Jesus calls us to be saved through our belief....That’s enough right… Oh you mean he also calls us to change the very nature of who we are.

We could go into so many ways that people abuse this very concept. They read the words of the Word of God but ignore what it says and pursue their own pail.

We must always remember that God’s Holiness can have nothing to do with that and the consequences can be very serious if we are not careful.

Celebration returns

The good news is that the tragedy didn’t mark the end of this story. In fact the tragedy put a fear in David. He recognized that he made a mistake. He left the ark at the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. The ark was there for 3 months and in that time God blessed him and his entire household.

Of course David heard about this and he wanted to finish bringing the ark to the city of David.

I can imagine that David problably was a little more cautious this time and even in his celebration went a little over the top making sure that everyone knew that this was God’s presence becuase he was well let’s say he was very.

Excited.

2 Samuel 6:13–15 NIV

13 When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. 14 Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, 15 while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

2 Samuel 6:20–22 NIV

20 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!” 21 David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”

Undignified Dance

David got a little over zealous in his dance and at times was accidently exposing himself to people. I can see how many of us would probably say this is not a good idea. No one wants to see that in the streets right. Yet, David’s desire and passion was for worshiping God in the moment. He wanted to Honor God and his holiness.

He wanted to establish his kingdom centered around God.

He reminds us that this approach is a good one. He reminds us that when it comes to worship we are to have a singular focus.

God is the focus of our Worship

We gather together each Sunday not because we want to just see each other or socialize. We are to gather because we want to worship God.

How many of us come each week ready for worship.

How many of us come having entered into this place with a heart that is open to God’s presence.

Are we listening to him?

Are we ready to glorify him?

Are we after are own will and desires and preferences or are we focused on Worshiping God?

Do we forget that we serve a God who is not confined to objects like the Ark. He is more powerful than that.

He sent us Jesus to bring us into a new kind of relationship. One were we aren’t dependent on those objects but our hearts can worship him and focus on him and we are to be drawn to him.

We can be like David and dance in a way that we show no doubt that our focus is on the fact that we get to be here worshiping and celebrating the relationship we have with God. Yes, I will be even more undignified than this if it means I get to Honor God.