The Very Real Consequences of Small Disregard and Neglect
I’ve been reading for a long time about David. Today’s short bit of David’s story was about Uzzah.
Many of us know about what happens here. Saul is dead and now David is the reigning king. And he desires to move the ark of God to Jerusalem from Kirjath-jearim (about nine miles from Jerusalem). So a grand procession – 30,000 men – goes out to retrieve it. As the ark is being transported, the cart the ark was on was shaken by one of the oxen carrying it and a man by the name of Uzzah, who was attending the cart with the ark, reached out his hand to the ark to steady it. Annnnd? God strikes him dead then and there. Here’s the passage:
“They carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart with the ark of God; and Ahio went in front of the ark. David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the Lord with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen shook it. The anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God struck him there because he reached out his hand to the ark; and he died there beside the ark of God.” (2 Samuel 6:3-7, NRSV).
Honestly, this sounds kinda harsh right? The Bible says David was angry that the Lord did this (2 Samuel 6:8), and I probably would be too. And more than anger, Ellen White says David even questions the justice of God:
“David was astonished and greatly alarmed, and in his heart he questioned the justice of God.” (Ellen White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 462).
Again, honestly, I probably would question the justice of God in my heart too. They are doing this great thing to honor God’s presence by moving the ark to the capital of the nation – something good. And Uzzah puts his hand out to steady the ark so it doesn’t fall to the ground – again, something good. At least, the intentions were good. But we all know the saying about intentions, right?
The lesson here is simply that God’s commands were disobeyed. Back in the book of Numbers, we are given context that applied to the people of this story. It says:
“When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, as the camp sets out, after that the Kohathites shall come to carry these, but they must not touch the holy things, or they will die.” (Numbers 4:15, NRSV)
It seems an innocent mistake, but these men knew better. Although Uzzah’s intentions were good, he was disregarding God’s command – and that was inexcusable.
“David and his people had assembled to perform a sacred work, and they had engaged in it with glad and willing hearts; but the Lord could not accept the service, because it was not performed in accordance with His directions. [...] God can accept no partial obedience, no lax way of treating His commandments. By the judgement upon Uzzah He designed to impress upon all Israel the importance of giving strict heed to His requirements.” (Ellen White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 463)
Again, it seems very harsh. And I fully understand the questioning heart of David in this instance. But this just goes to show how incredibly important keeping God’s commands are. If we learn His teachings, and then disregard and neglect them, we will suffer the consequences. We know better and we will be judged by that which we know:
“The Philistines, who had not a knowledge of God’s law, had placed the ark upon a cart when they returned it to Israel, and the Lord accepted the effort which they made. But the Israelites had in their hands a plain statement of the will of God in all these matters, and their neglect of these instructions was dishonoring to God.” (Ellen White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 463)
I write this not to scare anyone, but so that we can take a deep look within ourselves and truly repent for the wrongs against God which we’ve done. It’s not that we should become legalistic about God’s instructions, but that we need to realize there are very real consequences for when we knowingly do something wrong – whether that be big (like murder) or small (like telling a white lie). It all goes against God’s commands, and I don’t know about you, but I’ve got some deep searching to do into the small disregards and neglect of God’s instructions in my own life.
