2 Samuel 6 Devotional
by Pastor Lawrence Bowlin

          By bringing the Ark of God into Jerusalem, David was ushering the Lord himself into the city to take his rightful place as the true king over Israel with David as his viceroy.  The only problem is that he did not treat the Lord as king in obeying his every command, for the Lord had given very explicit instructions on how the Ark of the Covenant was to be handled and by whom.  Only the Levites were to carry the ark on the poles of acacia word overlaid with gold just as the Lord had dictated.  Instead, David allowed two men who were not Levites to carry in God’s holy throne on an oxcart.

              As David and Israel were celebrating before the Lord in song the oxen stumbled and Uzzah grabbed hold of the ark to steady it.  Immediately the Lord, in his anger, struck Uzzah down for his presumption and his sin, and he died.  Consequently, David’s joy also, immediately, turned to anger because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah, and then it turned to fear when he considered the holiness of the throne he was ushering into the city.  And David changed his mind when he realized that he himself was a sinner in the hands of an angry God.  So instead, he sent the ark to Obed-edom’s house, and the Lord blessed him with many blessings.  And again, David had a change of heart and decided to bring the Ark to Jerusalem.

              But on the second occasion, he made sure to do it just as the Lord commanded.  In 1 Chronicles 15 we learn that David had the Levites carry the ark with the golden acacia poles.  And again David led the people in celebration as they brought the ark into Jerusalem.  He also assisted the priest in offering sacrifices to the Lord and even wearing the linen ephod, something that kings would not do ordinarily.  But he was full of the Spirit of the Lord and ready to give him the glory.  His wife, Michal, on the other hand was not quite in the right frame of mind during this time of worship and celebration and despised David for his freedom of expression and rejoicing.  But her derision did not hinder David’s joy in the Lord.  Like a true son of God, he didn’t care how contemptible he seemed in the eyes of the world or how abased he was in her eyes, it was the eyes of the Lord that he was living under and it was his pleasure and approval that he was seeking, especially after the incident with Uzzah.

              It’s interesting that when the Son of David came into the city of Jerusalem, the people were celebrating wildly at his arrival, just as David did years before.  And like David, Jesus would come into the city in order to offer a priestly sacrifice and to be despised and abased in the eyes of the world.  But instead of bearing the Ark of the Covenant, Jesus was the fulfilment of the Ark.  He was the holy and angry God who overturned the tables of the moneychangers in his holy temple.  But he was also the Lamb of God who would lay down his life to appease the anger of our holy God.  Of course, within hours, the peoples’ celebration was replaced with the mob crying out ‘crucify him.’  And they would even put a crown of thorns on his head to mock the fact that he was king.

              But now, through the power of the Lord in resurrecting his Son from the dead, he has proven forever that Jesus is the Messiah, the king of Israel, the Son of David.  And now all God’s people praise him and celebrate with that same inexpressible joy as David, for the Lord has come to reign over us as king, and we don’t care what anyone else thinks of our exuberance.