David Seeks To Bring The Ark Of God Into Jerusalem And Is Eventually Successful But Is At First Thwarted By The Premature Death Of Uzzah, Which Emphasises The True Holiness Of The Living God (2 Samuel 6:1-19).
The bringing of the Ark into Jerusalem would almost certainly have occurred once he and his men were settled in Jerusalem. 1 Chronicles 15:1 tells us that it was once he had ‘made for himself houses in the City of David'. But these houses would have had to be built in readiness for David's initial settlement in the city and therefore could not be speaking of his palace of cedar which, as it was built by Hiram of Tyre, must have been built towards the end of his reign.
His action required careful thought. Israel had already learned from what had occurred in Chapter s 1 Samuel 5-7 that the Ark of God was not to be treated lightly. Thus when David planned to transfer it to Jerusalem he should possibly have been more aware of the dangers, and have recognised the unique holiness of the Ark. Not that the move was not carefully planned. We may assume that the Ark was properly covered up so that the people could not gaze on it, and that those who bore it to the new cart that had been made especially for it were suitably qualified. Abinadab was almost certainly of a priestly family, as, of course, must have been his sons, otherwise the Ark would never have functioned at his house or been watched over by his sons. And it was his sons (or grandsons) who were given responsibility for watching over the Ark on its journey. So all should have been satisfactory.
But the problem was that such a long time had passed since the Ark had been used in worship that many had forgotten just how holy it was, or what its significance was. And that comes out in the action of Uzzah. Uzzah himself should, in fact, have known better. He had had the care of the Ark for a long time. And he should have known (and did know) that he did not have to protect YHWH, and that the Ark was not to be touched under any circumstances. When moved it was always to be by means of the special carrying poles which slotted in without the need to touch the Ark, precisely so that no one would touch the Ark. And the Levites had been warned from the beginning that to touch it meant death. Thus his action in reaching out to touch it was both foolish and blasphemous. It suggested to all who saw it that YHWH was unable to care for it, while giving the impression that he, Uzzah, could. It suggested that as priest he was to be seen as having proprietary rights over the Ark as something that required his protection. But above all it took away from its sacredness. It cancelled out the ides of what it was, the very representative throne of the invisible God. It made it just another image, a tool of man. It misrepresented all that the Ark stood for.
The reinstatement of the Ark was a hugely important, almost incalculable, moment in Israel's history. It represented the reinstatement of the very invisible presence of YHWH among His people. At last His kingdom was being set up in accordance with His promises. Anything that detracted from that had to be severely dealt with because it affected how Israel would see things far into their future. Had Uzzah been able to touch the Ark and escape unharmed it would no longer have been seen as what it was. It would have lost its most important element, the fact that it was seen as genuinely representing the untouchable ‘other' world, the fact that God was really involved with His people. But when Uzzah was struck down it provided the lesson to all that the Ark was indeed wholly untouchable and did indeed represent the living presence of YHWH, the eternal God. It revealed that that was not just a symbolic presence, but that there was there among them, through the Ark, the very real if invisible presence of the living God.
(To those of us who see life on this earth as the one thing that matters what happened here may appear to have been unnecessary, even vindictive, but to the One Who sees the end from the beginning, and to Whom the spirit returns after death, and Who decides the fate of the spirits of all men, death is merely an interval, a nothing. It is what happens after death that matters. That especially comes out in Hebrews 11, where it is not the wicked, but God's favourites who die prematurely. We have to remember that to God it is not death that is important but what follows it. And there is no suggestion that Uzzah was to be punished in any way in the afterlife for what he had done. His eternal future would not depend on this incident, but on whether his faith was truly in God. Indeed in the same way God may take anyone of us whenever He will, and it is therefore incumbent on us to be ready).
Analysis.
a And David again gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand (2 Samuel 6:1).
b And David arose, and went with all the people who were with him, from Baale-judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, even the name of YHWH of hosts who sits between the cherubim (2 Samuel 6:2).
c And they set the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab which was in the hill, and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart (2 Samuel 6:3).
d And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was in the hill, with the ark of God, and Ahio went before the ark (2 Samuel 6:4).
e And David and all the house of Israel played before YHWH with all manner of instruments made of fir-wood, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with tambourines, and with castanets, and with cymbals (2 Samuel 6:5).
f And when they came to the threshing-floor of Nacon, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of YHWH was kindled against Uzzah, and God smote him there for his error, and there he died by the ark of God (2 Samuel 6:6-7).
g And David was deeply disturbed, because YHWH had broken forth on Uzzah, and he called that place Perez-uzzah, to this day (2 Samuel 6:8).
h And David was afraid of YHWH that day; and he said, “How shall the ark of YHWH come to me?” (2 Samuel 6:9).
g So David would not remove the ark of YHWH to him into the city of David, but David carried it aside into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite (2 Samuel 6:10).
f And the ark of YHWH remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months, and YHWH blessed Obed-edom, and all his house. And it was told king David, saying, “YHWH has blessed the house of Obed-edom, and all which pertains to him, because of the ark of God.” And David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom into the city of David with joy (2 Samuel 6:11-12).
e And it was so, that, when those who bore the ark of YHWH had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling (2 Samuel 6:13).
d And David danced before YHWH with all his might, and David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of YHWH with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet (2 Samuel 6:14-15).
c And it was so, as the ark of YHWH came into the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out at the window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before YHWH, and she despised him in her heart. And they brought in the ark of YHWH, and set it in its place, in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it, and David offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before YHWH (2 Samuel 6:16-17).
b And when David had made an end of offering the burnt-offering and the peace-offerings, he blessed the people in the name of YHWH of hosts (2 Samuel 6:18).
a And he dealt among all the people, even among the whole multitude of Israel, both to men and women, to every one a cake of bread, and a portion of flesh, and a cake of raisins. So all the people departed every one to his house (2 Samuel 6:19).
Note than in ‘a' David brought together the representatives of all Israel, and in the parallel all Israel take part in the celebrations. In ‘b' the Ark which represented ‘the Name of YHWH of Hosts' was to be brought up, and in the parallel David blesses the people in ‘the Name of YHWH of Hosts'. In ‘c' special preparations were made for the bringing up of the Ark., and in the parallel special offerings were made once it had reached its place. In ‘d' the Ark was brought forth out of the house of Abinadab on a new cart, and Ahio went before it, and in the parallel the Ark was brought up to its place and David danced before it. In ‘e' all kinds of instruments celebrated the movement of the Ark, and in the parallel special sacrifices celebrated the movement of the Ark In ‘f' the one who touches the Ark is smitten down and in the parallel the one who gives it shelter is blessed. In ‘g' David was deeply distressed at what had happened, and in the parallel he was so distressed that he would not allow it to continue on its journey. Centrally in ‘h' David was filled with awe at YHWH and asked, ‘How shall the Ark of YHWH come to me?' He was learning something of the awesomeness of YHWH and that He was not to be treated lightly, even by him (a lesson most of us need to learn).
‘ And David again gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand.'
The bringing of the Ark up to Jerusalem was such a special event that David ‘again' gathered together the ‘thirty thousand' chosen men of Israel. The ‘again' probably has in mind 5:3 when the ‘elders of Israel' gathered to anoint David as king. If that be so then these were the chosen men of Israel responsible before YHWH for the oversight of the tribes, sub-tribes and wider families in Israel and Judah. In their persons they represented the whole of Israel. ‘Thirty thousand' indicates a complete (multiple of three) and large number.
1 Chronicles 13:1 speaks of his consulting ‘the captains/head persons/rulers of thousands and the captains/head persons/ rulers of hundreds and every leader', which indicates very much the same thing. Compare Deuteronomy 1:15, ‘so I took the chief of your tribes, wise man and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands (the largest units), captains over hundreds (smaller units which together made up the larger units), captains over fifties (even smaller units) and captains over tens (the smallest size of unit)'.
In the end all Israel would be involved (1 Chronicles 13:2), but clearly all Israel could not accompany the Ark on its initial journey, although they would be there to welcome it into Jerusalem
‘ And David arose, and went with all the people who were with him, from Baale-judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, even the name of YHWH of hosts who sits between the cherubim.'
Then David went with the chief men of Israel from Baale-judah (to which they had made their way) in order to bring the Ark up to Jerusalem. In doing so the absolute holiness of the Ark is described, because of the One Who was invisibly present on it, and in order to prepare for what follows. It was ‘the Ark of God which is called by ‘the Name', that is, ‘by the Name of YHWH of hosts'. (For the use of ‘the Name' by itself in this way compare Leviticus 24:16 c where there is mention of ‘blaspheming the Name'). To be called by ‘the Name' was to have imputed to it the whole character and nature of the One Whose Name it bore. In other words it was to be seen as the place where the invisible God could be met with, because His Name was there, His invisible presence. And that Name was the Name of YHWH of hosts who sits between the cherubim, and thus on the Mercy Seat. YHWH ‘of Hosts' is called that because He is Lord of all the host of Heaven and earth, and also Lord of the host of His people. In other words He is the Creator and Lord of Heaven, and the God Who causes His people to triumph in battle. He is regularly seen as accompanied by, and often borne up by (compare Samuel 22:11; Ezekiel 1), cherubim (‘living creatures') who are seen as His servants and as the protectors of His holiness (compare Genesis 3:24; Exodus 25:18-22; Psalms 80:1; Psalms 99:1; Ezekiel 1; Ezekiel 10; Revelation 4-5).
Baale-judah is another name for Kiriath-jearim (‘city of the woods') which was where the Ark had been kept (1 Samuel 7:1-2). In Joshua 15:9-10 it is called Baalah, and being in Judah could thus be distinguished from other Baalah's by being called Baale-judah. In Joshua 15:60 it is called Kiriath-baal (‘city of the Lord'). The gradual tendency to get rid of or change names containing the name of Baal may help to explain the gradual change of name.
‘ And they set the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab which was in the hill, and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart.'
The Ark of God was then set on a new cart. The bearing of the Ark on a cart was an idea first conceived by the Philistines. They may well have borne their own gods on such carts. It was on such a ‘new cart' that it had been returned to Israel (1 Samuel 6:7). So this was treating God in accordance with Philistine ideas. Note that any such cart had to be new so that it had not been soiled by any earthly activity. No cart that had been used for earthly purposes was acceptable. To use a second hand cart would have been an insult, even blasphemy, for such a cart would have been seen as defiled. But the way that YHWH had prescribed for the bearing of the Ark was not by such a cart but by Levites using long travelling poles which slotted through rings on the Ark. We should therefore remember that had the correct method been used in obedience to God, all that followed would have been avoided. It stresses the need to obey God in all things.
The cart was driven by Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab. Whether Uzzah was the Eliezer mentioned in 1 Samuel 7:1 we do not know (it could easily be an abbreviation of Eli-ezer by dropping the Eli-. Compare how Jehoshuah could also be called Hoshea). For Eliezer was the one who had primarily been the keeper of the Ark. Alternatively it may be that he had died and that Uzzah as the next in line, or as his son, had taken his place.