Only Those Called To Handle The Ark Of The Covenant Could Do It And Survive
A Sermon by Elise Beatrice

May the Lord’s Jesus peace be with you. 
My sermon today is about 1 Chronicles 13 
I thank the Lord Jesus for everything He will give us. 
I thank Him for your attention.

1 Chronicles 13,
“13 David consulted with all his officials, including the generals and captains of his army. 2 Then he addressed the entire assembly of Israel as follows: “If you approve and if it is the will of the Lord our God, let us send messages to all the Israelites throughout the land, including the priests and Levites in their towns and pasturelands. Let us invite them to come and join us. 3 It is time to bring back the Ark of our God, for we neglected it during the reign of Saul.”
4 The whole assembly agreed to this, for the people could see it was the right thing to do. 5 So David summoned all Israel, from the Shihor Brook of Egypt in the south all the way to the town of Lebo-hamath in the north, to join in bringing the Ark of God from Kiriath-jearim. 6 Then David and all Israel went to Baalah of Judah (also called Kiriath-jearim) to bring back the Ark of God, which bears the name of the Lord who is enthroned between the cherubim. 7 They placed the Ark of God on a new cart and brought it from Abinadab’s house. Uzzah and Ahio were guiding the cart. 8 David and all Israel were celebrating before God with all their might, singing songs and playing all kinds of musical instruments—lyres, harps, tambourines, cymbals, and trumpets.
9 But when they arrived at the threshing floor of Nacon, the oxen stumbled, and Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the Ark. 10 Then the Lord’s anger was aroused against Uzzah, and he struck him dead because he had laid his hand on the Ark. So Uzzah died there in the presence of God.
11 David was angry because the Lord’s anger had burst out against Uzzah. He named that place Perez-uzzah (which means “to burst out against Uzzah”), as it is still called today. 12 David was now afraid of God, and he asked, “How can I ever bring the Ark of God back into my care?” 13 So David did not move the Ark into the City of David. Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-edom of Gath. 14 The Ark of God remained there in Obed-edom’s house for three months, and the Lord blessed the household of Obed-edom and everything he owned”.

Sermon:

The Lord is Great! Is God Almighty anything other than perfect love, goodness, greatness and righteousness? No. 
It is written, “No evil is found in Him.” It is true. But often, many people who don’t know Him and His beautiful characteristics get Him wrong. They read a Bible passage like this one, and without understanding it, they assume God is mean, which is unfair. It is really unfair.
So, we must understand why death came upon Uzzah for touching the Ark. He was not qualified to touch it. He wasn’t a Levite priest. They did not do things according to the ways of the Lord. The Lord’s Commandments should not be broken by anybody. 

King David was angry because the Lord’s anger had burst out against Uzzah. He was a human. At that point, he reacted like most humans would when they did not understand that situation, getting angry.  
He was also afraid of God. So he asked, “How can I ever bring the Ark of God back into my care?” 
The Lord is always hearing, whether we ask a question directly to Him or just wondering. And, if what we ask does not clash with His will, He always responds. He heard David’s question. In fact, David understood he had to take the Ark of the Lord to the house of Obed-edom of Gath, which remained there for three months until His servant David understood what they did wrong. The fact that the Lord blessed the house of Obed-edom and everything he owned was proof that He was pleased with His Ark being in the house of Obed-edom. It also means that God was happy enough with Obed-edom, for whatever righteous reason, God saw he could handle His Ark well.

The Lord said to Aaron in Numbers 18:2-3, 
“Bring your relatives of the tribe of Levi—your ancestral tribe—to assist you and your sons as you perform the sacred duties in front of the Tabernacle of the Covenant. But, as the Levites go about all their assigned duties at the Tabernacle, they must be careful not to go near any of the sacred objects or the altar. If they do, both you and they will die.”

King David was a faithful servant of God with a genuine love for God who just wanted to do something good for the Lord. 
In 2 Samuel 7, David expressed his great concern to Prophet Nathan, saying, “Look, I am living in a beautiful cedar palace, but the Ark of God is out there in a tent!”  
Well, this is an example of a true child of God who loves Him with genuine love and care for what belongs to Him. We now understand David’s good intentions.  

The Lord responded through Nathan, saying,
“Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord has declared: Are you the one to build a house for Me to live in? I have never lived in a house from the day I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until this very day. I have always moved from one place to another with a tent and a Tabernacle as my dwelling. Yet no matter where I have gone with the Israelites, I have never once complained to Israel’s tribal leaders, the shepherds of my people, Israel. I have never asked them, “Why haven’t you built me a beautiful cedar house?” 
Then, the Lord told David that it would be His son Solomon building a temple for His name.

It was a great thing David wanted to do for the Lord, like a little child who wanted to do something huge for his father. And since the Lord had always known the future and that it wouldn’t be David building a house for Him, He was pleased to see David’s love for Him and His desire to build a house for the Lord. The Lord loves it when we desire to do good things for Him. But one important thing to learn is that ‘Just because our intentions may be good and filled with love, it does not mean it is the Lord’s will. Out of the ninety times we who love the Lord God may want to do something for Him; twenty of those times may not be God’s will, though it may seem right to us. 

The Lord loved King David, just as He loves us, but He was not going to make an exception for Uzzah. God hates sins, that’s it. If He says not to sin, and we still sin, on purpose or not on purpose, we still get hurt from the adverse consequences of sins. 
Moses himself could not see God Almighty face-to-face and survive. God had to pass by, for Moses was only allowed to see Him from His Back. He respected God’s instructions, and he was fine. 
As for the Ark of the Covenant, the holiest thing among them, only the Levite priests could handle it.  

If God doesn’t call us to do something, we should not do it, or we’ll only make a mess and get ourselves into trouble with Him. But when He calls us for a task, we have His blessing and protection, for He is with us as we do His will. 


[Added by the Author for clarity]

Everything that is God’s purpose is put in our hearts by God Himself so that we can understand His will and act on it. Sometimes, God may put a desire in our hearts for someone else, when that person is not yet aware of it, for us to help them do His will. 
For example, it is God’s will for someone to do something, but then, the Lord puts the desire in another one’s heart to motivate the one whom God wants for that specific job if they are not yet experienced to understand God’s will. 
It was God’s will for Solomon to build God’s temple, but the Lord put the desire in his father David’s heart long before Solomon’s heart for David to prepare his son for it.


[Resumed Transcript]

Now, as for moving the Ark of the Lord to the city of David, was it God’s will? Let’s find out.

In 1 Chronicles 15, King David understood what he did wrong in God’s eyes and sought to make things right by the Lord. 
He commanded his people, “No one except the Levites may carry the Ark of God. The Lord has chosen them to carry the Ark of the Lord and to serve Him forever.”
Then he summoned all Israel to Jerusalem to bring the Ark of the Lord to the place he had prepared for it. 
He also summoned the priests and said to them, 
“You are the leaders of the Levite families. You must purify yourselves and all your fellow Levites to bring the Ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it. Because you Levites did not carry the Ark the first time, the anger of the Lord our God burst out against us. We failed to ask God how to move the Ark, how to move it properly.”
So, as we can see, God was never against King David bringing the Ark of the Covenant to the City of David, but how they handled it displeased the Lord. That was their problem. They failed to ask God how to move it properly, and they did it their own way, which was sinful in God’s eyes. 
Understanding this, they would now do it correctly the second time. So, the priests and Levites obeyed King David and purified themselves before they could carry the Ark of God as the Lord had always instructed them. Then King David, the elders of Israel and the generals went to the house of Obed-edom and brought the Lord’s precious Ark to Jerusalem with a great celebration. And this time, because the Lord was with them, for they followed His instructions, He helped the Levites carry His Ark of The Covenant to Judah, the City of David and placed it inside the special tent David had prepared for it. 
And now that they all acknowledged their faults, they repented and presented peace offerings to the Lord God, worshipped, praised and glorified Him. 

So, what do we learn here?

Jesus is the Ark, and the Levitical Priests carrying The Ark of the Covenant was like carrying their guidance, God, with them. Only those called to handle the Ark of the Covenant could do it and survive,’ for they were purified, ordained, anointed and cleansed from their sins, which qualified them to carry the Ark of the Covenant, which symbolised God, without risking death. So, it was not just a Box carrying the Lord’s Commandments but the Ark, Lord Jesus, among His people, protecting and leading them to safety, the Land of Canaan He had promised them. It is the Lord who leads us all to the land flowing with milk and honey. 

When the Lord says in the Book of Revelation, “My Holy Mountain, no sin will enter it,” we must understand that the ARK of the COVENANT symbolises God in His Holy dwelling, the Tabernacle. Therefore, just like God’s Holy Mountain, the Lord Jesus, who is the Word of God, dwelled there. So, no sinful person nor those who God did not anoint for the job could approach the Ark of The Covenant within less than half a mile distance and survive since the Lord Jesus had not yet come in the flesh and died on the Cross for our sins. God’s Holy Mountain is the place where God Himself will dwell. Therefore, only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will approach it. 

As the Book of Revelation states, 
“Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” 
So, when thinking of the Ark of The Covenant of God, we should look at it like the Lord Himself in His Holy Mountain. 
Now, through the Lord Jesus, the Word of God, who died on the Cross for our sins, we will enter His Holy Mountain and do all these beautiful things together with Him when He Comes Again if we listen to Him now that we are still in the body, turn from our wrong ways and do the will of His Father, our Holy Father who Is in Heaven.  
I pray we will do so, for it is good and pleasing to the Lord. And, let’s praise Him for His Holiness, perfection, righteousness and goodness forever. 
Thank you for listening. 

Thank You, Lord, for this inspiration. 
Please, Holy Father, give us Your strength, zeal and willingness to do Your perfect will in the name of Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Elise Beatrice