Written by: Madison Wilcox
Imagine it: The oxen lumber along; the drivers brush gnats from stinging eyes. The sun runs high and then higher. Suddenly, the right shoulder of one of the oxen lunges and dips. The ark shifts toward the corner of the cart. Uzzah leaps from his seat, reaches out. Does he touch it? Barely. He crumples to the ground. Ahio jumps too, then runs away before he turns to look again. Soon, a crowd forms wide around the tiny golden ark and the wide-eyed oxen. Uzzah never gets up. Killed by the glory of God. It’s hard to imagine it happening now.
A deaconess struck down for folding the communion tablecloths incorrectly? A pastor killed when he enters the sanctuary with unrepented sin weighing on his conscience? These things would be foreign to us, extreme.
And understandably so. As a sensitive, individualistic, emotionally oriented person typical to the 21st century, I shudder at the seeming insensitivity of a God who would appear in a bolt of lightning or a clap of thunder. Isn’t He the one I meet with privately every morning? Doesn’t He speak to me quietly when I open my Bible, pens and notebook scattered on my bedspread, the soft light of sunrise lighting the pages? Isn’t He the one I write to in my journal, “Dear Jesus …” and sign, “Love, Maddie”?
Yet, there God was, thousands of years ago, striking a man dead for touching a wooden box covered in gold. (Of course, the situation would never have happened if they had carried the ark as God originally instructed in Numbers 4:15.)
David’s reaction mirrored mine when he saw the story take place before his own eyes. 2 Samuel 6:8-9 says, “And David became angry because of the Lord’s outbreak against Uzzah. … David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, ‘How can the ark of the Lord come to me?’” This response includes two elements: anger and fear — anger that God would do such a thing in response to a “small matter” and fear that peace with a God of details would be impossible to attain.
I wasn’t content with my initial reactionary understanding of the story, so I searched the Bible for deeper insight into the ark of the covenant. What made Uzzah’s action so deadly? What did the ark represent to the Israelites, and why was God so concerned with how they approached it?
Here’s what I found. The ark was God’s dwelling place on Earth, an incredible concentration of His presence. (2 Samuel 6:2) Yet, this presence was dangerous to fallen humanity; innately destructive to sin, the ark would destroy whatever sin it encountered. Thus, when the Israelites carried the ark into battle against their pagan enemies, their enemies were destroyed. (Joshua 6) But here’s the catch: God did not oppose people groups arbitrarily. He opposed sin. If the enemy was in the heart of Israel, the ark would turn against Israel, too. (1 Samuel 7)
The principle established in the Old Testament is clear: Nearness to God requires holiness — to the utmost degree. So, what could this mean for us now? The New Testament provides an answer in Ephesians 2:13-14: “But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace.” And later, in verses 21-22, it says that we are growing into a holy temple for the Lord and are a dwelling place for the Spirit.
Think about it. The God whom the Israelites could not approach in the ark without trembling for fear of death is the same God who lives inside of us. The same presence that routed armies of thousands, that turned against any who treasured even the most microscopic sin, that blessed only those who were sanctified, is in us.
This is a testimony to the strength and surety of Christ’s blood, which is powerful enough to not only allow us entrance into God’s presence (that same holy, lightning-bolt, thunderclap presence), but to allow Him to make His home within us. (1 Corinthians 3:16)The writer of Hebrews draws the Old Testament and New Testament together in a stunning conclusion:
“Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:19-23).
