Bible Reading: Samuel (The Ark is Moved...)

2 Samuel 6: 1-10 [The Ark is Brought to Jerusalem]

David again assembled all the picked men of Israel, thirty thousand in number. Then David and all the people who were with him set out for Baala of Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which bears the name of the Lord of hosts, enthroned above the cherubim. The ark of God was placed on a new cart and taken away from the house of Abinadab on the hill. Uzzah and Ahlo, sons of Abinadab, guided the cart, with Ahlo walking before it, while David and all the Israelites made merry before the Lord with all their strength, with singing and with citharas, harps, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals. When they came to the threshing floor of Nodan, Uzzah reached out his hand to the ark of God and steadied it, for the oxen were making it tip. But the Lord was angry with Uzzah; God struck him on that spot, and he died there before God. And David was displeased, because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzzah, and he called the name of this place Perez-uzzah to this day. And David feared the Lord that day and said, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” So David would not have the ark of the Lord brought to him in the City of David, but diverted it to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.

[Comments: Notice the difference between the extreme care that Moses exercised when in the physical presence of the Lord on the numerous times of their meeting, and the parade that David makes of carrying the ark of the Lord. Only a few chosen were trained in how to handle the ark, yet thousands of people danced before it while it was being pulled by oxen over rough roads. This is a foreshadowing of St. John the Baptist who is called to make “straight the way of the Lord,” who would be Jesus Christ. Here no one made straight the way of the ark. It bumped along on a road pulled by oxen while people danced and pranced, instead of straightening the road. So when the cart bearing the ark is jostled, one of those who is trained in its handling forgets himself and puts hand to the ark, incurring death. Instead of using some of those thirty thousand able bodied men to make a smooth way for the ark, they let a few newly trained men fuss with oxen dragging the cart. And then, who is annoyed? David is actually annoyed with God for the death of Uzzah. David could have had a few thousand men spend maybe a little less time dancing and a little more time planning a smooth way for the oxen to tow, and thus the inexperienced Uzzah would not have forgotten the prohibition against touching the ark, and he would still be alive. Another point is the lack of trust in God. The cart was jostling but it’s not clear that it would have tipped. Uzzah’s instinct was to forget his priest given training and grab for the ark in reflex that it would have fallen. This is an aside just to give you some nuance to the symbolic significance of this event. But the main point is that David becomes annoyed with God, when David is the one who did not devote anyone from their festivities to ensure safe transport of the ark and men. And then what does David do? He leaves the ark in the private home of a man Obed-edom and goes to Jerusalem without the ark! By the way a Gittite was a person of Gath, a Philistine city. Interestingly a Gittith is a musical term, for an instrument that Psalm 8 is played upon. So after all that celebrating, when the way becomes bumpy because David did not ensure a straight way, he abandons the ark of the Lord in the house of a Philistine.]

The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and his whole house. When it was reported to King David that the Lord had blessed the family of Obed-edom and all that belonged to him, David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom into the City of David amid festivities.

[Comment: Oh ho! So David leaves the ark with this man Obed-edom and his family, who are then blessed and filled with all goodness as they tend to the ark in a way David and the Israelites did not. And then David overcomes his annoyance with God and fear of him when he observes that this Philistine man and his family and all that belonged to him were blessed! Then David hurries back to reclaim the ark, when it has brought goodness upon the house in which it was abandoned. So with this reading you can see a lot about human nature, and how the priestly class is far from perfect, even from those times. It’s also a timely story as we ponder infrastructure investment and transportation investment. Are not our families and friends our treasure to guard, and to make straight and safe the way of? I think so. And if so, how much more so should the signs of the Lord’s presence and blessings upon the men and their families who tend to him be protected and encouraged?]