“Advanced Ark-eology”- 2 Samuel 6:1-11
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Did you have a tough workout this morning? Yeah, well, maybe not. New research might poke holes in your exercise pride, suggesting that both men and women tend to overestimate how intensely they're working out.
Researchers from York University in Canada asked 129 participants to walk or jog on a treadmill at speeds they felt was light, moderate, and vigorous. The study found that even after researchers described to the adults what counted as light, moderate, and vigorous activity, people tended to overrate their exercise levels. For example, people believed that they were performing vigorous physical activity at levels that would not be considered vigorous at all according to the nation's standards. Most everyone in the study nailed the easy pace. But the volunteers fell short of meeting the requirements of the vigorous pace, which is defined as raising your heart rate between 77 and 93 percent of its max. Most people in this study didn't even reach 75 percent.
The study uncovered a two-fold problem to how we approach physical exercise. First, a wealth of evidence clearly demonstrates the benefits of participating in [physical activity], but most people still don't do it. Second, if we're overestimating how much exercise we're getting, then the problem is even worse.
When it comes to our spiritual state and fruitfulness, I wonder if we tend to overestimate how well we are really doing? Over estimate how spiritual we really are. How well we are doing with the Lord? Overestimating? Now don’t get me wrong something is better than nothing…but when it comes to our Lord that “overestimated something” could end up being detrimental before a truly Holy God. Many of us would agree that our Lord Jesus is Holy, but we do see evidence that we don’t really understand what that really means. Why is this important? Did you know that understanding the full weight of the Holiness of God will help us to understand the full weight of the depravity of mankind? Knowing God better will help us to know ourselves better. Failure to understand the Holiness of God causes us to behave with certain irreverent manners. Failure to understand our place before God also cause us to behave with certain irreverent manners. We fail to know who we really are. The problem is… we don’t like seeing it. This is part of what we are seeing in our society today. Ignorance of the Holiness of God. Not a common topic to hear from our pulpits today… is it? Well let’s get a better understanding with our passage today.
David is the king of Israel with the covenant bond made with the elders of Israel. David moved the center of the kingdom to Jerusalem defeating the Jebusites who unwisely taunted the king. War began with the Philistines and David defeated them twice with all the blessing and power of the Lord. David became more and more powerful; his household grew all because the Lord was with him. And now he sets his sights on the bringing back the Ark of the Lord.
David gathered his special forces and traveled to Abinadab’s house to retrieve the Ark of the Lord to bring it to the City of David. David desired the Ark to be back in the care of the King of Israel. They placed the Ark on a brand new cart. Abinadab’s sons, Uzzah and Ahio lead the cart with the Ark down the hill. There was a great celebration with singing and dancing with all sorts of musical instrument and cymbals. But when the cart got to the threshing floor, the oxen stumbled and Uzzah reached out his hand to keep the Ark from falling to the ground. The Lord was angry at Uzzah and he struck him dead for touching the Ark. David became angry with the Lord and called that place Perez-Uzzah which means to burst out against Uzzah. Now David became afraid of the Lord and he cried out “How can I ever bring the Ark of the Lord back into my care?” He then decided not to bring the Ark to the City and left it at Obed-edom’s house. The Ark was left there for 3 months and the whole time, the house of Obed-edom was blessed.
Then David again gathered all the elite troops in Israel, 30,000 in all. He led them to Baalah of Judah to bring back the Ark of God, which bears the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, who is enthroned between the cherubim. They placed the Ark of God on a new cart and brought it from Abinadab’s house, which was on a hill. Uzzah and Ahio, Abinadab’s sons, were guiding the cart that carried the Ark of God. Ahio walked in front of the Ark. David and all the people of Israel were celebrating before the Lord, singing songs and playing all kinds of musical instruments—lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets, and cymbals.
The grass withers the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.
1. The Holiness of God
2. The Disobedience of Man
3. The Assumptions
4. The Gospel of Jesus
The first thing we will look at today is general considerations concerning the Holiness of God and how Holiness is not because of what He does, but because of who He is. The second thing we will explore is the actual disobedience of David in approaching and dealing with the presence of the Lord and how failure to understand Holiness causes disobedience. The third thing we should see is how failure to understand the Holiness of God causes us to overestimate our righteousness and lead to assumptions that cause us to touch the Ark when we are told not to. Finally, we will see how we find salvation though the our Ark… the word made flesh and dwelling among us. The blood of Jesus opening the door to approach the Father boldly.
Thesis: Though sin and the corruption of this world cause us to sometimes lose a real fear of the Lord reflected in our disobedient and assuming behavior, it is the presence of Christ that will transform our lives with the blessing of Salvation, Sanctification, and Holiness. The Word was made flesh and He dwelt among us. And now we boldly approach Father in heaven.
I. The Holiness of God
- “It is one thing to fall victim to the flood or to fall prey to cancer; it is another thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” – R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God.
A. There is no better place to recognize the full splendor of the Holiness of God than
“Who is like you among the gods, O Lord—
glorious in holiness,
awesome in splendor,
performing great wonders?
B. Many times when we hear the word Holiness, we immediately go to the moral or ethical qualities of God. But the Hebrew word – Qoh-desh. Set apart. Completely set apart from all creation. So, it is a set apart morally and ethically because of who he is not necessarily what He does. It is an unimaginable incomprehensible transcendence or beyond any of us kind of separation. His communicable attributes we understand to a point, but the incommunicable can cause our minds to explode. A Holiness so much so that if He even looks at us He will kill us. Like a giant that is so big that every time he takes a step he crushes thousands of people.
- It is not what He does, it is who He is. He is not someone who does Holy things… He is Holy. Everything He does is Holy because He is Holy.
- Being set apart… So you see. For us as Christians… when we are said to be set apart, it is not about what we do. It is about who we are. It is possible to not do the things the world does and still be apart of the world. We have to be set apart from the World, just like the Lord is apart from creation. This is Holiness. Who we are. Not what we do.
C. So when it comes to goodness…
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good.
D. He is not good because he follows the universal moral code. He is he moral code. Everything He does is good…period. He is set apart more than we can imagine. He is perfection, He is awesome, He is immense, and completely untouchable. Ahhh there it is. He is sovereign, He is just, and He will be glorified. Ask Aaron. Nadab and Abihu was killed because of strange fire and the Lord said,
Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord spoke of when he said:
“ ‘Among those who approach me
I will be proved holy;
in the sight of all the people
I will be honored.’ ”
Aaron remained silent.
E. When we come to the Lord. He is telling us that we will see Him as holy and we must Glorify Him. When we come to Him we must honor Him, give Him respect, and glorify Him. And all that we will see today… We must obey Him and we must recognize who he is… and recognize who we are. We get into serious trouble when we think too highly of ourselves and too little of God.
Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu put coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over them. In this way, they disobeyed the Lord by burning before him the wrong kind of fire, different than he had commanded.
F. I get the “no Shane God is love”… His is nothing but gentle and nothing but compassionate and we can approach Him arrogantly and we don’t have to be afraid. Where do we get this stuff? I bet Paul on the road to Damascus did not thing the Lord was Gentle. I bet Annaias and Sappharia learned something about the Holiness of the Lord. I bet Simon the Sorcerer learned about it as well. The Lord is to be feared for He is Holy… David did. And the only reason we can approach Him boldly is not because He changed His mind and changed His Holiness, but because of the work of Christ for us. (More later)
II. The Disobedience
- “Every sin is an act of cosmic treason, a futile attempt to dethrone God in His sovereign authority.” R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God.
A. First of all, the whole plan to transport the Ark (the sign presence of God) was complete transgression of the instructions that God gave us. David was well-intended, but he made a mistake that cost a man his life.
B. As far as transporting…
“The duties of the Kohathites at the Tabernacle will relate to the most sacred objects. When the camp moves, Aaron and his sons must enter the Tabernacle first to take down the inner curtain and cover the Ark of the Covenant with it. Then they must cover the inner curtain with fine goatskin leather and spread over that a single piece of blue cloth. Finally, they must put the carrying poles of the Ark in place.
C. As far as touching…
The camp will be ready to move when Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the sacred articles. The Kohathites will come and carry these things to the next destination. But they must not touch the sacred objects, or they will die. So these are the things from the Tabernacle that the Kohathites must carry.
D. This is the Word of God… it is His direction, it is His command and He is a Holy God. There is a reason for this. First of all, it is His command. Secondly, it is for our own good. How many times did He emphatically instruct concerning the Holy place and its furniture and how any lapse in reverence and fear could result in their death? We were warned.
E. Feeding a starving lion, though well intentioned, can and probably will result in death. Follow the signs that say do not feed the animals. Rules like this are not made to be broken, like we like to say today. Uzzah and David all recognized that these rules were not made to be broken, but made for their protection. It’s like the Lord is saying, “Guys I am trying to tell you that My Holiness will kill you!” You are making me angry, you won’t like me when I’m angry.
F. Do we realize and recognize how awesome He is? Do we recognize how terrible it is to fall into the hands of the living God? Do we realize the awesome majesty and glory that will vaporize us in an instant? Do we even fear the Lord today? And yet we could probably look at our lives and see blatant disobedience. We could look at the body of Christ and see such irreverence when it comes to our Lord. I said this before and I’ll say it again. Jesus is the King of kings, who’s glory lights up the universe, with all authority given in wonder, in splendor, power, and fearful holiness and we got him on t-shirts wearing shades and a giant smile thumbs up Jesus bobble-head doll.
G. We do things like this and wonder why the world has no respect or fear of the Lord! His own people does it. David was well-intentioned in what he did. And we may be well-intentioned when we come before the Lord in worship, but I am telling you… the law of God not only commands us to worship… it tells us how we are to worship. Nadab and Abihu were worshipping and giving God his due, but they did it in the wrong way and they were struck down. We must come to the Lord and treat Him as holy and give Him glory. We do not preach how we want, worship how we want, follow His commands how we want. We do not approach God however we want. He is Holy. How Holy is He… Not only is it important that we worship, it is also important How we worship.
III. The Assumptions
- “It has been said that nothing dispels a lie faster than the truth; nothing exposes the counterfeit faster than the genuine.” R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God.
A. Isaiah recognized who he was in the presence of the Lord. He could not take it and was shown devastated. This was probably absent from the mind of Uzzah and even David. The Ark dwelled with Uzzah in his house for many years and maybe he became too familiar with the Ark to truly see His place before the Lord.
B. The Oxen stumbled and the Ark rocked and Uzzah looked and saw that it might fall and he quickly rushed to it and held it in place. Well intentioned? Yes. He kept it from falling and being damaged. You would think he would receive a good job, but no. Death. Even David thought it was kinda wrong that is why he became angry with God. “I know that he was not supposed to touch it, but it was gonna fall Lord.” Uzzah was well intentioned!
-Once a little boy was playing outdoors and found a fascinating caterpillar. He carefully picked it up and took it home to show his mother. He asked his mother if he could keep it, and she said he could if he would take good care of it. The little boy got a large jar from his mother and put plants to eat, and a stick to climb on, in the jar. Every day he watched the caterpillar and brought it new plants to eat.
A. Isaiah recognized who he was in the presence of the Lord. He could not take it and was shown devastated. This was probably absent from the mind of Uzzah and even David. The Ark dwelled with Uzzah in his house for many years and maybe he became too familiar with the Ark to truly see His place before the Lord.
The little boy got a large jar from his mother and put plants to eat, and a stick to climb on, in the jar. Every day he watched the caterpillar and brought it new plants to eat.
B. The Oxen stumbled and the Ark rocked and Uzzah looked and saw that it might fall and he quickly rushed to it and held it in place. Well intentioned? Yes. He kept it from falling and being damaged. You would think he would receive a good job, but no. Death. Even David thought it was kinda wrong that is why he became angry with God. “I know that he was not supposed to touch it, but it was gonna fall Lord.”
One day the caterpillar climbed up the stick and started acting strangely. The mother explained to the boy how the caterpillar was going to go through a metamorphosis and become a butterfly. He watched every day, waiting for the butterfly to emerge. One day it happened, a small hole appeared in the cocoon and the butterfly started to struggle to come out.
The little boy was thrilled to hear about the changes his caterpillar would go through. He watched every day, waiting for the butterfly to emerge. One day it happened, a small hole appeared in the cocoon and the butterfly started to struggle to come out.
At first the boy was excited, but soon he became concerned. The butterfly was struggling so hard to get out! It looked like it couldn’t break free! It looked desperate! The boy was so concerned he decided to help. He ran to get scissors and He snipped the cocoon to make the hole bigger and the butterfly quickly emerged!
The boy was so concerned he decided to help. He ran to get scissors, and then walked back (because he had learned not to run with scissors…). He snipped the cocoon to make the hole bigger and the butterfly quickly emerged!
As the butterfly came out the boy was surprised. It had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly expecting that, at any moment, the wings would dry out, enlarge and expand to support the swollen body. But neither happened! The butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.
But neither happened!
The butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.
It never was able to fly…
As the boy tried to figure out what had gone wrong his mother took him to talk to a scientist from a local college. He learned that the butterfly was SUPPOSED to struggle. In fact, the butterfly’s struggle to push its way through the tiny opening of the cocoon pushes the fluid out of its body and into its wings. Without the struggle, the butterfly would never, ever fly. The boy’s good intentions hurt the butterfly.
C. Ah … but Uzzah’s good intentions got himself killed. Uzzah was not to touch the Ark, but he thought it better to hold it and keep it than let it fall in the mud. Why would he think that? Why would we think that God was mean to this nice well-intentioned guy? Even though it was disobedience, many think that he needed to keep the Ark from being defiled and becoming filthy in the dirt and mud. Is that not better? No…its not better and we think this because we continue to think too much of ourselves and too little of God to see the gravity of Uzzah’s touch. What?
D. The filth and disgust was not the Ark falling into the mud, it was being touched by a sinful, wretched, wicked and evil man corrupted by sin and incapable of good works before God. Uzzah did a good thing right? God says that our righteousness is as filthy rags! Think about it… if you were gonna fall in the mud and a person covered with menstral rags, vomit, excrement, and urine could catch you… what would you prefer? Mud does not commit Idolatry, Adultery, Murder, Perjury, and all forms of Wicked Licentiousness. Mud does not lie, steal, cheat, and disobey. We need to know who we are and our place before God…our righteousness is as filthy rags to the Lord!!!
E. Also, Do we think so little of God that our well-intended actions would actually be acceptable to him? Do we really think that our righteousness would be a gift acceptable to Him? We wouldn’t give filthy rags as a present to the president of the US? Do we think that little of God and that much of ourselves that we would? All the good intensions and all of the sacrifices we make means absolutely nothing without obedience. Obedience is better than sacrifice.
IV. The Gospel of Jesus
“True faith always produces real conformity to Christ.”
― R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God.
A. The Holiness of God is a scary thing and our wickedness and sin is a scary thing. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God! Have we no hope today? Yes we do. The presence of God dwelt among us. And like Obed-edom experienced the blessing of God with the Ark in his home… the greatest blessing we receive came from the Word made flesh and dwelt among us. Salvation is here.
B. Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost, He died for our sins according to the scriptures and … the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full… and here is the biggy… He became sin who knew no sin that he would cover our filthy rag righteous and become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. This is the good news of the Gospel of Jesus.
C. Because we are in Christ. His presence brings us freedom. His presence brings us joy. His presence brings us compassion and His presence brings us holiness. Now we through Christ have been made Holy.
For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.
E. And this was made possible… though Christ. Though the power of the Holy Spirit we will be made more and more like Him. Through Christ we are now the temple of the Holy Spirt… now the actual presence of God dwells within us. And where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom and who the son sets free is free indeed.
F. This is the Gospel of Jesus. If you are hearing this and feel the conviction and sting of your conscience and believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God, then you have been born again. Call to Jesus. All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If we confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord we will be saved. Salvation is here. It belongs to Christ and Christ alone.
G. Rejoice today… repent and you will be forgiven. For as high as the heavens are above the Earth, so great is our Holy and Transcendent God’s love for us. As far as the east is from the west so far He removes our sin from us.