O Come To Us
Download MP3Good morning, everyone. We are continuing our study the life of David. And we will be in 2nd Samuel chapter 6 today, 2nd Samuel chapter 6. If you have not been with us as we've been making our way through 1st and 2nd Samuel in the life of David, then you're in for a doozy. This is quite the little passage that we have before us.
Jeffrey Heine:It's printed there in your worship guide. I'm gonna begin by just reading the first 4 verses of 2nd Samuel chapter 6 to start our time together. So if you would look with me and let us pay close attention, for this is God's word. 2nd Samuel, chapter 6, beginning with verse 1. David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, 30,000.
Jeffrey Heine:And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baylee, Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts, who sits enthroned on the cherubim. And they carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart, and Ahio went before the ark. This is the word of the Lord. Amen.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's pray together. Oh, Lord, we need to hear from you this morning, because you alone have the words of life. You know us, each one of us in this room better than we know ourselves. And because of Christ, we can know and can believe your love for us. So in this time, as we turn our attention to your word, would you give us the eyes to see you and the ears to hear you?
Jeffrey Heine:Would you speak, Lord, for your servants are listening? We pray these things in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Amen. It was a story told from generation to generation. Whenever someone talked about the Ark of God, they would also mention the name Uzzah.
Jeffrey Heine:They'd tell of the time that King David called for the ark of the Lord to be brought from the home of Abinadab, the border village near the Philistines, and to bring the Ark to the city of Jerusalem. This action, bringing the Ark to Jerusalem, would help to establish the city as both the epicenter for Israel's political rule and the chief location for worshiping Yahweh. Since the ark's return from being captured by the Philistines 20 years ago, the ark has been kept in the house of Abinadab in the city of Baile Judah. Thousands of Israelites came to celebrate. They gathered in a massive processional for the 9 mile journey from Abinadab's home in the hill country to Jerusalem.
Jeffrey Heine:We read in verse 5, all the house of Israel were celebrating before the lord with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. Abinadab's sons, Uzzah and Ahio, constructed and consecrated for this particular use of bringing the ark to Jerusalem. It also means that it's not the cart that had been used 20 years earlier when the Philistines returned the ark to the hill country. If you've ever encountered a wild animal, a truly wild and dangerous animal, then you know the feeling of how quickly you are reminded that they do not play by your rules. I once had an enormous brown bear casually stroll up behind me while I was fishing in Northern California.
Jeffrey Heine:Now, I had a permit and a license to fish on this pond. The bear had neither. A wild animal does not care about permits or licenses. They don't care who you think you are. They don't care about property lines on a map.
Jeffrey Heine:A wild animal is not played by your rules, And to approach a wild animal, you must contend with and submit to their rules. Yahweh had told the people of Israel how they were to approach the Ark of the Covenant. 300 years before this journey from Abinadabs in the hill country to Jerusalem, 300 years earlier, God had clearly outlined how the people of God must approach the ark. Now, the ark was just wood and gold, but God had committed a unique manifestation of his presence with the ark. And that is what made the ark so important, not just to Israelites, but anyone who encountered the ark.
Jeffrey Heine:How people treated the ark was in direct connection to how they treated Yahweh. How they regarded the ark was tantamount to how they regarded Yahweh. It was more than a symbol. The ark was a unique, particular, and extraordinary manifestation of God's presence. And in that, the ark was also a manifestation of the wildness of God.
Jeffrey Heine:When God first directed the Israelites to construct the ark, he set out rules for how it would be made and how the people would interact with it. The rules were instructive, not simply about the significance of the box of wood and gold, but the rules were an ongoing instruction for the people in the wild majesty of God. How the people handled the ark was this ongoing lesson for Israel on the might and the majesty of God. It was an object lesson that taught and shaped the hearts of generations of Israelites. I'm sure that the acacia tree, whose wood was used to make the ark, probably made other items, like tables or benches or doors.
Jeffrey Heine:It wasn't the wood or even the gold that made the ark untouchable. It was untouchable because God told the people it was untouchable. That's all it took, and that's all it needed to take. And now it was time to move the ark. I'm sure that special care and attention was paid in the construction and consecration of this new cart at Abinadab's home on the hill, but it wasn't what God had instructed them to do.
Jeffrey Heine:God had been clear. This is not how God had said the people should handle the ark. First off, the ark was supposed to be transported by Levite priests. The ark was only to be carried by these consecrated priests, and the mode of transportation by these priests, they were supposed to carry the ark on poles that went through these rings that were made on the ark. For 300 years, these instructions had been around.
Jeffrey Heine:Poles, not carts. 1 was what God had said, and the other was what these men wanted to do. One was God's rule, and the other was man's innovation. And we may ask, what's the big deal? They were in the hill country.
Jeffrey Heine:The cart would have been a better option logistically. It was more pragmatic, given the terrain. The poles would have been more challenging to handle. Sure, the cart was against what God said, but this just makes more practical sense. Does that sound familiar?
Jeffrey Heine:Anyone else use CART rationale? Like, how it it makes sense with all the commitments that you have going on right now, it makes sense to just take a break from church. Something's got to go. Something's got to be cut from the schedule. Maybe I'll ghost my home group too.
Jeffrey Heine:It just makes sense. Or how it just makes sense that, given the economy and inflation, to hold off on giving financially until maybe next year. It just makes sense. Or how it makes more financial sense for us to go ahead and live together. I mean, we're probably gonna get engaged eventually anyway.
Jeffrey Heine:It just makes sense. Everyone's sufficiently uncomfortable? Fantastic. The cart just makes sense. It was against what God said, but it was far more practical.
Jeffrey Heine:It's what anybody would have done. Right? But they weren't anybody else. They were the people of God, who by definition were the people who follow what Yahweh says, but certainly not this time. The cart was pulled by an ox.
Jeffrey Heine:Uhayo was in front of the cart and Uzzah in the back. They set off on their 9 mile journey downhill from Abinadab's house. They had only gone 2 miles when it happened. As they approached the village of Nakhon, the ox stumbled. I vividly remember driving home from the hospital with my wife and our newborn daughter, June.
Jeffrey Heine:I was pulling away from the parking lot at the hospital, and I wondered why the car was not going. I looked down, and I realized that my foot was shaking so badly that I wasn't accelerating. I can only imagine how nervous Yusa and ahiyo were trying to move this cart with the ark of God on it. I'm sure they were honored to have the task, but there was absolutely fear too. And rightly so.
Jeffrey Heine:I bet that first mile was just fear, that the people were singing and playing their instruments. So that by the second mile, they were starting to think this was going to work, this was gonna be fine, maybe even getting a little cocky. And then the worst case scenario begins to unfold right before their eyes. The ox stumbles. Massive animal slips, the cart begins to overturn, and the ark, the precious ark of God, is about to topple down the hill and smash onto the ground.
Jeffrey Heine:Uzzah, out of reflex, out of fear, out of instinct, he puts his hand on the ark to stop it from falling. And it works. Yuzah saves the ark from falling. And in the same moment that Yuzah saves the ark, the moment he puts his hand on the ark, god strikes him dead. I wanna take a moment to acknowledge the big question that this story compels us to ask.
Jeffrey Heine:So let's acknowledge it. And then I want us to consider a different question. So the first one, the reasonable first question here. How could God do this? How could God see that this man was only trying to help and then strike him down dead?
Jeffrey Heine:How could God do this? That's a reasonable first question. But here's another question, and what I would suggest might be a better question. How could all of these people ignore what God told them to do? There's so many moral and ethical questions in our world, and it can often be challenging to discern exactly what God is calling us to do.
Jeffrey Heine:But the transport of the ark was written down for these people for 300 years. They've been told precisely what they were to do. And not only that, they've been told explicitly that touching the ark at all was a direct violation of God's command. No one was ignorant of what they were supposed to do in this situation. They just didn't do it.
Jeffrey Heine:They had a better idea, a more efficient idea, a more practical idea, and they let their pragmatism, their rationale, their personal desire override God's word. And as a result of all of this disregard for God's word, Uzzah died right there by the ark. And King David? Well, David was angry, but he was not angry at Uzzah. He was not angry at the house of Abinadab for ignoring the Lord and building the cart.
Jeffrey Heine:And he was not angry at himself for disregarding the Lord's commands. David was angry at the Lord. Does that sound familiar to you? Has there ever been a time in your life when you chose to ignore the Lord, to disregard him in some way, and then when the inevitable consequences of that disregard came, you got angry at God? Me too.
Jeffrey Heine:I've gotten mad at God like He was the one who failed, not me. I've gotten angry at God, like he is the one who disobeyed, not me. Too many times to count. And that's exactly what David does here. David was angry, but David was also afraid.
Jeffrey Heine:David was afraid of what the Lord might do next, afraid of bringing the ark into Jerusalem. As you may recall, wild things happened when the ark was around. Inanimate statues of foreign idols bowed down before the ark of the Lord. Armies would fall on the battlefield because the ark was brought there. Cities would be blessed, cities would be cursed by the presence of the ark.
Jeffrey Heine:And one time, 70 men all died at once because they looked at the ark. After seeing Uzzah struck down by the Lord, David, in his reasonable fear, cries out, how can the ark of the Lord come to me? It seems like David is realizing that he's not the one in charge, that he's not the one who gets to make the rules here, that the Lord his God might be mightier and wilder than he had ever dared to imagine. And in light of all of this, David is unwilling to bring the ark of the Lord to Jerusalem. There was a man, a non Israelite named Obed Edom, and David decided to send the ark to his house because David was too afraid of bringing it into the city.
Jeffrey Heine:And so the ark would spend the next 3 months in the hill country while David waits to try and figure out what to do next. And that's where our passage ends today. That's the story of Uzzah and the ark, a classic Christmas story. I'm sure you have fond memories of being a little kid, all the grandkids gathering around grandpa on Christmas Eve, as he reads the story of Uzzah being struck down by the anger of the Lord. And it just doesn't feel like Christmas without it.
Jeffrey Heine:It is, crazy to think that we're already halfway through Advent, and the Christmas celebration is almost here. It feels like we just put up the trees, and the lights, and all the Christmas decorations. My favorite Christmas decoration that I own is a small blue light bulb. It burned out a long time ago, so it doesn't work. I keep it in a box next to my record collection.
Jeffrey Heine:My sister gave it to me several years ago. It's very special to me. And the reason it's so special, is because years ago, when it still lit up, it was one of the blue light bulbs that lined the driveway of Graceland. It was part of Elvis's Christmas decorations. And the bulb is not useful now, nor is it all that impressive to look at.
Jeffrey Heine:It's just a burned out light bulb. But its significance to me is far greater than its function. Its specialness is far beyond its material value. The ark was just wood, acacia tree, but its significance was far beyond its being, far beyond its material value. Its importance was based upon God's promised presence at the ark.
Jeffrey Heine:The ark was like a brief shadow of the almighty, a mere breath of his majesty. And coming in even the briefest contact with this shadow of God's majesty was too great for Uzzah. David was right to say, how can the ark of the Lord come to me? David, even as the king of Israel, was totally unworthy of even the shadow of God's presence. And maybe now David believed that as he asked, how can the ark of the lord come to me?
Jeffrey Heine:The great question of the season of Advent is much the same. How can the Lord come to us? When Mary held the very presence of God in her arms, when the baby Jesus, God in the flesh, grabbed hold of Mary's finger with his tiny hand, when the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in the Christ child, in that moment, the Lord came to us. How can that be? And this was no ark, no longer a mere shadow of majesty.
Jeffrey Heine:This was the fullness of God pleased to dwell in Christ. And come to us, not a box of wood and gold. Jesus came in the flesh to be Emmanuel, God with us. At Advent, we should join King David with awestruck hearts and ask, how can the Lord come to me? We must recover this awe and wonder of the incarnation, the wildness of the majesty of god.
Jeffrey Heine:To recover this awe, we have to root ourselves in the story of his coming to us. How did Mary hold in her arms the very presence of God and not be struck down? How did Joseph guide young Jesus's hands, teaching him carpentry, and not be struck down? How did the woman in Matthew 9 touch Jesus's robe and not be struck down? How did the little children come to Jesus, sit tenderly in his lap, and not get struck down?
Jeffrey Heine:How did a soldier slap Jesus across the face and not get struck down? How did the soldiers hold Jesus's arms and nail them to the cross and not get struck down? How how did Mary Magdalene embrace the risen Jesus and not get struck down? How can the Lord come to us? The joy of the people Israel singing and dancing at the ark as it was transported to Jerusalem, their joy turned to abject fear in the moment that Uzzah touched the ark.
Jeffrey Heine:Their dancing turned to mourning. How does that make sense? Joy without fear of the Lord is mere happiness, and happiness is as fleeting as the breeze. But true joy, resilient joy, is rooted in the wild majesty of Jesus. True joy bears with it a holy fear of the Lord, because true joy is rooted in and remembers the untamable, undomesticated glory of God.
Jeffrey Heine:When I imagine the moment that the ox stumbled, I picture the people, the fear gripping them, particularly those that were closest to the ark, when the ox stumbled. I imagined a sudden panic as the ark begins to almost tumble to the ground. The singing stops. The the instruments stop. The great noise continues through the people who cannot see what's happening, and then shock comes like a lightning bolt as Yuzo reaches out his hand and is struck down.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm sure it took time for the news to spread throughout the massive crowd. I imagined people making their way home. The celebratory atmosphere turned to hushed conversations, full of fear and confusion. The ark would not be coming to Jerusalem, not today. No one, especially David, wanted the ark near them or their city.
Jeffrey Heine:And who knows what might happen next? I imagine the people are asking themselves and one another, who is this Yahweh? Who is this God? Because whatever they thought God was like, it doesn't fit anymore. At the very least, he's far more worthy of their awe and their fear.
Jeffrey Heine:Like an animal presumed to be tamed, thought to be domesticated, in a flash proves itself otherwise. When God struck down Uzzah, Israel was given a necessary and shocking reminder that Yahweh is untamable, uncontrollable, and unlike them. He alone is God. And the most magnificent display of the wildness of God is seen in the story of your redemption. The display of God's wildness in the gospel unfolds from the first shocking moments in Bethlehem, When he, who is the image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation, when he who created all things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.
Jeffrey Heine:When he who is before all things and in whom all things hold together, when he who is the head of the body, the church, the beginning, the firstborn from the dead when he in whom all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell when he who reconciled to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, when he who made peace by the blood of the cross, when he took on flesh, the very presence of God came to us. Hughes's disobedience was wrong, God's punishment was right, but Yuse's death displayed the greatest truths in all creation. The presence of the living God is all consuming, and we must be reconciled if we are to approach him. We cannot approach him on our own. There was one time every year when the priest could enter the holy of holies and touch the ark, it was on the day of atonement.
Jeffrey Heine:They would enter the tabernacle, or later, the temple, and carry with them a basin full of blood. And they would go to the ark and sprinkle the sacrificial blood on the top of the ark, the top called the mercy seat. And this act of sprinkling the blood represented the covering of the people's sins, and it was the only way that the people could continue to approach God in worship. So why didn't Mary, Joseph, Simeon, Peter, the children, the ailing woman, when they encountered the untainable, all consuming presence of God in Christ, why weren't they struck down like Uzzah? It's because Jesus is the reconciler.
Jeffrey Heine:He is the sole mediator. He is the one who made peace by the blood of his cross. Jesus' blood and Jesus' blood alone can reconcile us that we might approach a holy God. And he has because Christ is the very presence of God with us. There's a French theologian named Rene Loritin who wrote an Advent devotional in the 19 sixties.
Jeffrey Heine:Sixties. You've probably seen it. But he says this, about Jesus, quote, he is the Messiah of the house of David, embodying in himself all that rich old testament background that these Advent passages evoke again and again. Beyond that, he is the unique Son of God, the very presence of God with us. Anything less is not the gospel, and any assent to anything less will not make us disciples, end quote.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus is the very presence of God with us. That is the good news of the gospel, and belief in anything less than that will not make us disciples. Like a greater ark, Mary carried the presence of God in her womb, and like the ark, she spent 3 months in the hill country outside of Jerusalem, staying with her cousin Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth saw Mary approaching, she called out and echoed the words of King David, saying, How is it that the mother of my lord should come to me? How can the presence of God come to me, when it's not because we deserve it or that we are owed it, and it's not because we are worthy or that somehow we could earn it.
Jeffrey Heine:The wild presence of God comes to us in the person Jesus Christ, not of the will of the flesh or the will of man, but of God. He wills it. He desires it. In the wildness of God's majesty, he desires to be present with you, to be near to you. And in Christ's birth, the unapproachable presence of God approaches us.
Jeffrey Heine:On our own, we are just like Uzzah, doing what is best in our own minds and failing to even begin to comprehend the majesty of God. But in the incarnation, God taking on flesh in Jesus, God comes to us. And in the wildest moment in all of existence, the creator enters his own creation to make a way to reconcile us, so he can then say to us, Now you come to me. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And in John chapter 6, it's recorded that Jesus says, whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.
Jeffrey Heine:He says, come to me, because he has come to us first. And he says to you, even now, today, come to me. And when we do, rather than being struck down as we deserve, we are embraced. We are called a child of the most high God, and we are given rest and redemption for our souls. Oh, come to us.
Jeffrey Heine:Abide with us, our lord, Emmanuel. Let's go to him in prayer. Oh, lord, by your Spirit, would you draw near to us and embolden us, strengthen us, make us able to come to you? Lord, you say that no one can come to you unless the Father draws, even drags us to you, so would you bring us to yourself, oh Lord? Lord, I pray that during this Advent season, we would get a glimpse and a sense of your presence in a new and fresh way by your Spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:Help us to avoid all the things that are trying to distract us from that. Spirit, fix our eyes on Jesus that we might behold him, the very presence of God come to us, Emmanuel. We pray these things in his name. Amen.
