Ark of the Covenant

3 Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? 4 Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully. 5 They will receive blessing from the LORD, and vindication from the God of their salvation. (Psalm 24:3-5)

In Old Testament times the ark of the covenant was the place of God's presence. Where the ark was housed peacefully, it brought great blessing and power. In other instances the ark brought death and destruction. We are far more comfortable seeing God as loving and gentle than we are with angry, vengeful descriptions.

In 2 Samuel 6, King David and a delegation of 30,000 young men undertake the job of bringing the ark into the newly acquired territory of Jerusalem - the city of David. The journey is joyful with loud music and dancing.

David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with castanets, songs harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums and cymbals. (2 Samuel 6:5)

This happy parade was interrupted when the oxen, pulling the cart that carried the ark, stumbled and Uzzah - one of the cart handlers - reached out to steady the ark. He died instantly.

More than the bearer of goodness or wrath, God is truth. We'll never know the real reason behind Uzzah's death: was there some unmentioned sin, was God angry that Uzzah didn't trust God to ensure the ark's safety, was this punishment actually because of David's arrogance in glorifying himself.

We only know that because of Jesus we are not measured against God's righteousness, but by God's grace we are saved. Thanks be to God.

5 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8 that he lavished on us. (Ephesians 1:5-8a)