1 Chronicles

The Holiness of God {1 Chronicles 13:1 - 16:43}

12:30 AM


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. 

 Related image

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.


Image result for 1 Chronicles 16:8

1 Samuel 4-7

Are you Serious? {1 Samuel 4:1 - 7:17}

12:30 AM



Then Samuel said to all the people of Israel, “If you are really serious about wanting to return to the LORD, get rid of your foreign gods and your images of Ashtoreth.  Determine to obey only the LORD, then he will rescue from the Philistines.”  (7:3).

I love the title for the devotional in the iworship Bible – Are You Serious?  Have you been in this predicament, where you keep trying to do something, but it just won’t work out?  You keep returning to the same job, or you keep doing the same task, or the same habit, only to become annoyed all day at work, or the task you’re working on just won’t work out, or you keep trying to lose weight, but your method just won’t work. 

These chapters really hit home for me because I’ve been living on “repeat” for a while now and I think I understand why.

In these chapters we see that Israel is not serving God alone - with a whole heart.  The Israelites keep wondering how God could allow them to suffer at the hands of the Philistines, and they conclude that it’s because they did not take the Ark of God with them into battle.  Like the Ark is some sort of good luck charm.  Instead, it leads to an even greater defeat for the Israelites.  Their irreverence and disobedience regarding the Ark results in divine judgment on them. 

The Ark is captured and taken back to Ashdod in Philistine territory.  It looks as though God is being held hostage by the Philistines and is being placed before Dagon in some symbolically subordinate position.  What a shock it must have been to see their god lying prostate in the dirt before the Ark of God.  And then the hands of men prop Dagon back up.  What do these Philistines think?  The Ark of God is a symbol of God’s presence among His people.  It plays an important role in Israel’s worship, but it is not an idol!  And yet these Philistine priests do not humble themselves and confess that the God of Israel is the only true God.  They do not give up worshipping a piece of wood.  God shows the Philistines that their idol is powerless in His hands.  I mean, the hands of Dagon have fallen off, by the “hands of God”!

I’m not sure exactly what the plague was that was sent to the Philistines, but whatever it was, the Philistines were eager to get rid of it.  They realize that the hand of God is heavy on them and the only way to rid the plague is to get rid of the Ark.  As the Ark gets passed around to different cities, the plague seems to follow.  No one seems to want God in their town.  That reminds me of the time when Jesus crosses the Sea of Galilee and casts the demons from Legion in Mark 5.  The people were terrified of what Jesus had done and asked Him to leave town.  No one wants the One who is most holy in their midst.

For seven months the Ark seems to be held in captivity and the Philistines are plagued under the heavy hand of God.  The only solution is to return the Ark to Israel so they come up with a plan to not send the Ark away empty.  Let me remind you that according to the Law of Moses, a guilt offering was a blood sacrifice – there is no blood in the Philistines golden tumors and rats.  The reason for a guilt offering is the sin of the one offering the sacrifice.  There is no acknowledgement of sin by the Philistines, but rather idolization.  The Philistines do not realize that their offering is an offense to the God of Israel and not an offering.  It is by God’s grace alone that results in the end of the plagues. 

It must have been a fun for the Jew’s in ancient times to retell the story that it took the Philistines 7 slow months to realize that these plagues were the heavy hand of God.  But hold on – the Israelites begin dying in great numbers - why?  Essentially for the same reason:  irreverence for the holy things of God and disobedience to the commands which specifically forbid what they were doing (such as looking at or into the Ark).  It seems the Israelites had no appreciation for the holiness of God and these sacred objects.  Both the Philistines and the Israelites seemed to look upon the Ark as an idol.  Both were seeking to control God, rather than to trust in Him and obey His commands. 

There’s no magical way we can manipulate God and bring Him under our control, so we can satisfy our lusts and indulge in our sinful desires.  We cannot take a symbol of God’s presence along with us, expecting that the symbol guarantees us success in life. 

Samuel is right – you are serious?!?  Are you truly wanting to return to the Lord?  What would it mean for you to get serious about your relationship with God?  What idol do you need to remove?  Or what do you need to “do”?  Or what attitude to you need to change? 

Our iworship Bible suggest this:  For one day, take an inventory of your attitudes and actions.  Look for ways you may have fallen into flippant or casual attitudes toward your relationship with God.  Then list one or two ways you might get more serious about your faith.


Image result for 1 samuel 7:6