Bible in 90, Day 30: Ignorance is no excuse

1 Chronicles 10-23

*image courtesy of my buddy Billy at www.sxc.hu

There was an interesting story today that on the surface can be kind of puzzling.  In 1 Chronicles 13, we read the story of Uzzah’s death after touching the Ark.  At first glance, it appears kind of harsh.  The Ark was being carried along, and everybody’s celebrating before God.  Suddenly, the oxen stumbled, and Uzzah reached out to steady the Ark so it wouldn’t fall off the cart.  The next thing ya know, he’s been struck dead by God!

Harsh much?

So here’s the thing, this whole situation was wrong from the start.  It seems like everything was going along great and then some guy dies, right?  Wrong.  If you read down to 1 Chronicles 15, you’ll find out that David did some homework while the Ark stayed at the house of Obed-Edom and discovered why Uzzah was killed.  They had not consulted the Lord on how to transport the Ark.  Only the Levites were supposed to carry the Ark (Numbers 4:15; Deuteronomy 10:8).  No one, not even the Levites were to touch the Ark directly.  The Levites only touched the poles that were slid into rings on the side of the Ark, thus never touching the Ark itself.

If David had sought the Lord in the first place, the Ark would have been properly carried by the Levites.  It never would have sat on a cart, and thus would have never been in jeopardy of falling off.  Uzzah would have never reached out his hand to steady it, and thus would not have died that day.

This gets back to the idea of the right worship of God (see Day 8).  Combine this with the concept of God’s revealed will, and you can see what went wrong today.  There was a right and wrong way to worship God for the Israelites.  God had very specific commands on this (as we saw in Leviticus).  In addition, these commands and expectations were clearly laid out in the Law for all to see.  It was negligence of the Word of God which lead to the tragedy we read about today.

The same can happen to us today.  If we neglect God’s Word, the Bible, we can find ourselves in a mess we never saw coming.  We may find ourselves facing the judgment of God for treating something lightly which we didn’t even know about.  We may think skipping out on some taxes is no big deal since we haven’t read and heeded Romans 13:1-5.  We may come to the Lord’s Supper with no thought toward the condition of our heart because we have not read 1 Corinthians 11:27-32.

Let us not be guilty of the sin of neglect.  Much of God’s will for our lives is spelled out clearly in the pages of Scripture.  Let us make reading and study of the Word a habit, as this 90 day challenge is striving to do.  Let us seek the Lord’s instructions, and the Holy Spirit’s empowerment to live them out (Ephesians 5:8-10; Galatians 3:10).

Bible in 90, Day 20: Traders of the Lost Ark

1 Samuel 2-15

*image courtesy of bluegum at www.sxc.hu

The Philistines knew they were in trouble when they heard the commotion (1 Samuel 4-6).  They had just defeated the Israelites, but now there was a shout of triumph in their camp.  Word reached the Philistines that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp of Israel, and they were terrified.  They remembered the stories that had come to them over the miles and years about all the mighty things that the “gods” of Israel had done in Egypt generations ago.  So, they mustered their strength and defeated them again, this time capturing the ark itself!

Then the real trouble started.

It started with something subtle.  They put the ark in their temple to Dagon, and the next day Dagon’s statue had fallen down before the ark.  “Hmm… that’s funny.  Almost looks like Dagon is worshipping Yahweh.  Oh well, let’s set it back up.”  The next day, Dagon had not only fallen down before the ark, but his head and hands had snapped off!  Then, people began noticing tumors on their bodies.  Soon, there was a plague of tumors.  The Philistines play a game of hot potato with the ark through three of the chief cities, and the Lord fights against each one.

Finally, someone gets the brilliant idea to send the ark back home.  Their diviners tell them to send a guilt offering of five golden tumors and five golden rats to represent the five rulers of the Philistines and the two plagues the Lord had sent.  They hoped to trade out the ark and the offering for God’s ending of the plagues.  Then there’s the great scene with the two cows who had just calved and never been yoked (and thus should have immediately returned to their young and had no idea how to work together to pull the cart).  They go straight down the road and all the way to Beth Shemesh in Israel’s territory.

It’s interesting that the fame of the God of Israel had not only spread from Egypt all the way to the land of the Philistines, but that the stories remained for all these years.  People were still talking about the amazing things the Lord had done during the exodus event.  Israel was known for the things their God had done.

What about our lives?  Do people look at us and see the work of God in our lives?  Do people know that our homes are Christian homes?  Are people in our communities still talking about what God did at our church generations ago?  More importantly, are they talking about what God is doing there now?  They should.

We should be living lives that display the mighty works of God.  We should be attempting things so great, only He could possibly get the credit.  We should be living lives so exemplary, people will know it’s the life of Jesus living through us (Galatians 2:20).  So let us live those lives.  Let us do all to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).