April 3, 2018
Have
you ever been so excited that you were dancing and singing, having a good ole
time, and suddenly someone showed up and put a halt to your celebration? Well, that’s what happens in our reading
today. David was attempting to move the
Ark of God. David was worshipping the
Lord the way he knew how, with music and dancing, only to discover he hadn’t
read up on the law and regulations.
God
had given specific instructions about how the ark was to be carried (Numbers
4:5-15), and those instructions were being neglected. The Levites were responsible to move the Ark
and it was to be carried on their shoulders with poles through the rings (Numbers
7:9). It was never to be touched. Bringing the Ark on a cart followed the
Philistines’ example in 1 Samuel 6, and although Uzzah was trying to protect the
Ark, he had to face the consequences of his sin and David was reminded that his
obedience to God’s law was more important than his enthusiasm. David consulted with his officials and not
with God reminds us that although our friends may give us godly advice, there
is no substitute for God’s direction.
I
think we can become a little too comfy with God and turn Him into our
buddy. But God is holy. R.C. Sproul makes this observation from Isaiah
6; “The Bible says that God is holy, holy, holy. Not that He is merely holy, or even holy,
holy. He is holy, holy, holy. The Bible never says that God is love, love,
love, or mercy, mercy, mercy, or wrath, wrath, wrath, or justice, justice,
justice. It does say that He is holy,
holy, holy the whole earth is full of His glory.”
What
does it mean to be holy? The primary
meaning of holy is separate. God is far
above us. Exodus 15:11 says, “Who else among the gods is like you O
LORD? Who is glorious in holiness like
you – so awesome in splendor, performing such wonders?” And 1 Samuel 2:2 says, “No one is holy like the LORD!
There is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.”
When
things are made holy, they are set apart.
They are used in a pure way. They
are to reflect purity as well as simply being apart. “Who
may climb the mountain of the LORD? Who
may stand in His holy place? Only those
whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies.” Psalm 24:3-4
We
may be upset with God and how he deals with disobedience, but remember what
happened to Moses. He was angry with
those “stiff-necked people” when they arrived at Kadesh (a place whose name meant
“holy”) and there was no water to drink and the people were protesting that
they had been misled by Moses. So Moses
and Arron went to the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord appeared to
them and God commanded Moses to take his rod and speak to the rock, from which
water would flow. Moses was so angry
with the people that when they gathered before the rock, instead of merely
speaking to the rock as commanded, in his anger, Moses struck the rock
twice. And the consequences were severe –
he never entered the Promised Land.
(Numbers 20:12).
We
may not quite understand the severity of this and question God’s anger. The act was striking the rock. But it was much more than this. Striking the rock was an act of disobedience,
of failing to follow God’s instructions.
It was identified by God as an act of unbelief.
Irreverence
is a dangerous problem. Even when our
motives are sincere and we are actively involved in worshipping God, we must be
mindful of the holiness of God and maintain reverence for Him by our obedience
to His instructions and commands. When
God struck Ananias and Sapphria dead, unbelievers did not flock to church, but
all came to fear God, and rightly so. If
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, then the holiness of God must
not be ignored. God’s holiness will
drive some away, but it will drive the elect to the cross. We should be like Isaiah and Paul and be God-pleasers
and not man-pleasers. Paul did not water
down his message and he was never irreverent in regard to the holiness of God.
As
I write this and anticipating Easter Sunday, I can’t help but think of the
attitude of all those coming to worship.
We are strongly warned about worship that fails to take the holiness of God
seriously enough. Irreverence is a serious
offense as we can see from both the Old and New Testaments. If an enthusiastic and sincere Uzzah can be
struck dead for his irreverence and Moses can be kept from the Promised Land because
of his irreverence and failure to obey God, then what about us? How well do we view God’s holiness?
I
want to add how thankful I am that Jesus followed God’s commands. If He would have listened to those taunts to
come down from the cross, He would have never risen from the grave! But
listen, His glory and holiness are no longer veiled. He is the “Holy One”. The resurrection is the seal of approval on
the holiness of Jesus Christ. The
sinless Lamb of God died in our place.
The body of the Lord, the Church, is to be holy. How well do we conduct ourselves? The holiness of God requires us to take our
worship seriously. We need to regard God’s
presence seriously. It does not mean our
worship is joyless and somber. We just
need to be cautious about offending His presence by our irreverence.
