The Ark of the Covenant was given to the Hebrews while they were still in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. It was an ornate box lined in gold that served as the Mercy Seat for Jehovah. Here, enthroned between the cherubim, the people of Israel understood God to be especially present. The closest thing we would have today to this would be the Lord’s Supper or baptism which we understand to be physical symbols of the mercy of God who is with us. So, when David desires to bring the Ark to his new capital city, he hoped God might come along with the box because God was in the box. It is always nice to have God along – the more the merrier.

Thirty years earlier the Ark had been captured by the Philistines. The little box with the big God caused a lot of terror among the Philistines too. They eventually sent it to Beth-Shemesh, shunning the ark like a live grenade. In a game of what seems like hot potato, the ark finally came to rest in the house of Abinadab at Kireath-Jearim for twenty years. David got a few soldiers together -- thirty thousand of them – and marched off to Abinadab’s front yard to ask if he could have the Ark. What would you do? So Abinadab agreed. In addition to giving David the ark, he also gave him his two sons Uzzah and Ahio to help him get the Ark to Jerusalem. According to God’s instructions, the Ark was to be carried by the levitical priests. But not on this day. We are not sure whose idea this was, presumably Uzzah’s, but someone decided to disobey God’s instructions and carry the Ark on a brand new ox cart. Probably unknown to the Israelites, the Philistines had just been zapped a few chapters ago for doing the exact same thing. It does make sense. An ox cart was probably more stable and a whole lot less trouble -- after all, God is in the box anyway, what harm is there?

So away they go to haul the Ark of the Covenant off to the new capital of Jerusalem. They set out over the small mountains leading up to Jerusalem, Ahio and Uzzah leading the clan with hundreds of Israelites singing all the Ark songs in the hymnal -- Singing. Shouting. Blasting trumpets, shrilling tambourines, beating drums. It was a worship scene unlike you’ve ever experienced – God had come along on their nationalistic journey, or so they thought.

All the people were dancing, singing, shouting. “Hallelujah! God has blessed us and come along on our little trip!” Then --- wham! An ox stumbled, the ark tottered, and Uzzah reached out recklessly but carefully to steady the Ark. “After all, God can’t touch the dusty ground, so we better be careful and keep that little box with the big God steady,” he may have reasoned. He had even walked beside the Ark just in case something like this might happen. And when the people looked up, Uzzah lay cold dead on the ground. 

“The anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah.” David too became furious with God, saying, “Forget it! Leave God’s precious chair over there at that guy’s house. I don’t need this kind of God.” The Bible says that “David was afraid of The Lord that day.” What went wrong? For starters, they disobeyed the clear command of God. Poles, little gold rings, priests – that all seemed so cumbersome and outdated in a new world of technology where you could just put the Ark on an ox cart. What did God expect anyway's?

God does not expect us to understand or agree with His commands. He expects us to obey them.

However, I do not believe that God struck Uzzah dead because he, or David, did not fulfill the letter of the law. David had never been too good at the letter of the law – multiple wives, eating the Holy Bread just because he was hungry, lying to Abiathar – yet, God did not strike him down. So, I do not believe that just disobedience of God’s exact demands is the issue here. David and God were connected not just by the standards. They were connected at the heart, and that is precisely why God was upset. 

David thought God was in the box, but with one fatality on the trip back home, all of David’s presumption and carelessness came to a terror-filled ending. What angered God was the heart of David that rushed to grab the Ark for his own use – the presumption that he could use God to accomplish his own agenda. And David was angry that God would not play along with his game. What angered God even more than David’s presumption, though, was Uzzah’s carefulness. Uzzah had a plan to keep God safely contained on the oxcart, and if he was just careful enough, he thought, God would bless him and all the people with His Presence.

Then God came out of the box. And so they were angry. And we are too. Why should God be so picky? I am not so sure God was being picky here – if that was true, then David would have been killed off long ago. There was something much bigger at stake. God would not be used as a tool of their calculation to legitimate their selfish purposes. God is not a magician, a rabbit’s foot, or a pretty cool guy to have around just when you need Him. God’s Presence is bigger and holier than our purposes, and He will not be confined to our little box. God is wholly other – He will not be grabbed or contained. He will not be hauled around by those who have found a good use for Him. God will not be contained by those who plan to keep Him safely in a box. If you feel like you’ve got God under your thumb, He will insist on surprising you.

Poor ole Uzzah. He was just trying to be careful. Why did God’s anger burn against him and not at David who had caused this whole affair anyway? I think it is because God has never been offended as much by our impulsiveness as by our carefulness. It is ironic that a text that has been used to teach carefulness is a text which teaches quite the opposite – respect for the holiness of God that leads to carefulness is one thing; carefulness alone that pretends it can domesticate and control God is another. Our God refuses to be tamed. Eugene Peterson has written that we should put signs on the front doors of all our churches that say, “Beware of The God.” God is The Holy One whom we worship, and He will not be confined by our careful plans to keep Him contained. God’s holiness is awesome and powerful and much beyond our understanding or ability to control. God longs to show you His Holy Presence, but He will not be grabbed, only loved and worshiped.

Let’s enter into the Holy Presence of God now and sing.

In contrast with Uzzah, David was never careful with God or anyone else. He began his life fighting bears and lions. He slew a giant, toyed with the king, and hid out with the Philistines. Anytime he got disappointed, he took out his anger on God. Carefulness was not one of David’s strong points. Isn’t it interesting that God tolerated David’s anger, but God killed Uzzah for his carefulness? Why? Because anger is a result of being alive. If you live life just trying to be careful, you might as well be dead. Anger is an emotion of the heart -- you can bring your anger, your hurt, and your love to God in worship, but your careful tiptoeing and planning will always prevent you from knowing this God who wants you to love Him more than He just wants you to please Him.

You see, God did not kill Uzzah. Uzzah was dead before he touched the Ark. He died spiritually the moment he decided that he could keep God safely inside the box. Do you think you understand God because you read your Bible? That is a box. Do you think God will protect you because you come to church? That’s another box. Do you think you have God under your thumb because you go to the right church? Well, that’s another box. Do you think God will make your plans come true because you pray? That is another small box for a big God.

When you go to work tomorrow, do not pray that God makes your careful plans a success. Pray that you may become part of the unimagined plans of God for you that day. God will be doing incredible things all around you, and you may just miss Him if you are focused on the little box. Then when things do not go as planned, you will get upset because God didn’t confine Himself into the box you created for Him. We can get awfully presumptuous in our worship too. Annie Dillard wrote in Holy the Firm: “The churches come at God with an unwarranted air of professionalism, with authority and pomp, as though they knew what they were doing, as though people in themselves were an appropriate set of creatures to have dealings with God . . .. If God were to blast such a service to bits, the congregation would be, I believe, genuinely shocked. But in the low churches you expect it any minute. This is the beginning of wisdom.”

Realizing the awesome holiness of God, David asks, “How can the Ark of The Lord come into my care?” Fear. Awe. Humility. Hans Kung has written, “I am not surprised that Uzzah died but that the rest of us are still alive.” This story is not about capricious punishment – it is about a God of great patience and grace who would not allow His people to confine Him – His power, His authority or His love…. They are boundless and unfathomable. This grace has been shown to us most perfectly and completely in Jesus Christ, and now we celebrate around His table this God who has made us alive in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The history of the Ark resembled the LIFE cereal commercial, each person passing on the Ark saying, “I don’t want it. You want it. The Philistines will take it. They will take anything. Abinadab will take it.” This was no exception. David said, “I don’t want it. Obed-edom will take it.” And Obed-edom was stuck with it, like the person left with the hot potato when the timer goes off. But this hot potato wasn’t so bad – the blessing of God came to rest upon the house of Obed-edom where the Ark was parked. Taking this as a sign of God’s blessing and forgiveness, David once again called together the group together to take the Ark to Jerusalem. This time they approached things quite differently. God had not changed – God was not some Old Testament capricious, vengeful God before and now a New Testament loving God afterwards – God had not changed. David had changed. He recognized the awesome Holy Presence of a God who would not limit Himself to David’s demands.

Can you imagine who got the nerve to call the moving company up again? Imagine the Kohathites ever so cautiously taking up the golden poles, wiping their hands, then again, and again. They ease each pole gently into the rings, careful not to look at the Ark. The Ark is lifted carefully to their shoulders – easy does it. They take one step, then two, then three. Four. Five. Six. “Where is that bull?” someone whispers. And they sacrifice. Then one, two, . . . . And sacrifice again. Carefulness with the things of God is a good thing when it’s done in love for God. 

Holy silence. Then from somewhere in the crowd – it looks like it is David himself – comes a smirk, then a snicker, then an uproarious laugh. A burst of laughter and rejoicing dominoes through the crowd, then trumpets, singing, and of all things, dancing. And who was the ringleader of this Footloose worship? David himself, the royal king. The Bible says, “He danced before The Lord with all his might.” We sophisticates are not so sure what to do with this King twirling around in his Fruit of the Looms. Surely this too was Risky Business. Though we would like to own him, I suppose David did not grow up in the Church of Christ where he was told not to dance like this because it might lead to sex or tongue speaking. There he was, laughing, singing and dancing. Fully alive. Fully alive to God. No inhibitions, no decent and in order, no constraint. He celebrated in total yielding and praise to The God of holiness who was coming along in God’s awesome Presence on his journey, to his city. But now it was not in spite of God but because of God that he worshiped with abandon. The dancing continued, and the Ark of God came to rest in Jerusalem. 

Perched high in her window was David’s fundamentalist wife. She was armed with her pamphlet on “33 Reasons Why Good Jewish Boys Should Not Dance.” I suppose that her objection had little to do with the morality of dancing than it did with her embarrassment that her husband would disgrace the royal throne by dancing in his birthday suit. Saul would have never done that. She never gave birth again. This text presents two people whose worship of God consisted of carefulness and restraint – they are the bookends or brackets of a story of David who is not careful but he is alive to God. From the careful people, life is removed – Uzzah loses his life, and Michal essentially loses hers because she became barren for the rest of her life, which essentially was a sign of non-existence in the Hebrew culture. There is nothing wrong with carefulness that grows out of respect and love for God, but if your primary experience of faith and worship is carefulness you have missed it – you are not even alive. David refused her carefulness, and he said, “It is before The Lord that I dance, Who chose me (rather than your daddy is inferred). I will be even more ridiculous. I will celebrate before The LORD.” 

Michal went out of the room barren and alone – dead to the joy and freedom that could be hers if she could only know the joyful beauty of the holiness of God. She was like the Elder Brother in the Prodigal Son story. Michal’s reaction is a reminder to us that while we must take God’s holiness seriously, His grace must be received joyously. If you believe that your faith is all about the correct observance of formalities, you are already dead. You have to learn to love God – and that will require the response of your soul, mind and body - your whole self to God.

And while Michal brooded and sneered, the great King of Israel danced before The Lord with all his might, in humility and fear, but also joy and elation, celebrating The One who had come into his midst, to bless and not to curse.

So lighten up! God is not impressed with your carefulness. Give up the plans that are not working. Get on with loving and living. Quit trying to protect yourself from a worship and lifestyle where is no life, no failure, no adventure, no change. You really are just trying to put God in a box, and your efforts to contain God in His box will kill you. Let it go – you will never be able to dance with an ox. It’s time to be footloose, put on your dancing shoes, and celebrate, for The Holy One of God has come into our midst, full of grace and truth, and He has come along on your journey to set you free to be fully Alive.

We Your faithful ones, sing praise to You, O Lord,
And give thanks to Your Holy Name.
For Your anger is but for a moment, Your favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

You have turned our mourning into dancing, Lord.
You have taken off our sackcloth and clothed us with joy
So that our souls may praise You and not be silent.
O Lord our God, we will give thanks to You forever.”
(Psalm 30) Amen.

» Back to top