As we weather these many winter months we will have many an opportunity to study the word of God. As we read from the pages of our Bible we may choose to cover ground that has been traveled many times, looking along the way at familiar sites and memories of previous journeys through the well-worn pages. These give us comfort and strength as they have many times before. We may choose to read from the stiffer pages of little known passages that rarely see the light of day, trying to learn new lessons and wisdom from those bright pages. Lastly we may choose to read a familiar story that has puzzled us for years; a story that we go back to again and again and try to make sense of only to leave us wanting to know more. One such story that has weighed heavy on my mind over the years is the story of the death of Uzzah.

2 Samuel 6:1-9 NKJ Again David gathered all the choice men of Israel, thirty thousand. 2 And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale {Baalay} Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, whose name is called by the Name, the LORD of Hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. 3 So they set the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio {akh-yo'}, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart. 4 And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill, accompanying the ark of God; and Ahio went before the ark. 5 Then David and all the house of Israel played music before the LORD on all kinds of instruments of fir wood, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on sistrums, and on cymbals. 6 And when they came to Nachon's threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. 7 Then the anger of the LORD was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by the ark of God. 8 And David became angry because of the LORD's outbreak against Uzzah; and he called the name of the place Perez Uzzah {"breach of Uzza"}to this day. 9 David was afraid of the LORD that day; and he said, "How can the ark of the LORD come to me?"

It is easy and somewhat natural to be bothered about what happened to Uzzah in the presence of his brother and father in front of his own house as he was both serving his nation and trying to save this precious ark of God. It says he Erred, not commit grave sin. 7944 lv; shal {shal} Meaning: 1) error, fault 1a) meaning uncertain Origin: from 07952 abbrev; n m Usage: AV - error 1; 7952 hl'v' shalah {shaw-law'} Meaning: 1) (Niphal) to be negligent Origin: a primitive root; v Usage: AV - negligent 1 It has always bothered me that the passage just says error. Like if you are negligent and stand in the wrong line you get the death penalty. And in this case, he is trying to help which makes it all the harder to read. David was so bothered by this and decided he could not now bring this ark to the city but left it there for a number of months. Why did this happen?

We know that the Ark was supposed to be treated a certain way and that we have the words that Moses wrote about it in Exodus. Let’s read from Exodus 25 the words that were to govern those that took care of the ark for hundreds of years since its creation. When God brought the Israelites to Mount Sinai He had rescued them from the Egyptians, freed them from harsh bondage, given them laws to live by, and promised prosperity for their worship and obedience. But what so much more astonishing than that, God was going to come down to earth and dwell among them. He would not just rule from afar and expect tribute and subjugation from His people. He would live with them. Exodus 25:8-11 8 "And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. 9 "According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it. 10 " And they shall make an ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height. 11 "And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and shall make on it a molding of gold all around. God would be their King and they would be His people. Unlike all the false idols of worship that the nations of this earth had in their midst, Israel would have the genuine article to live among them. Remembering the words of God to Moses when Moses asked who should I tell the King of Egypt who has sent me, God replied tell them “I am, has sent you”.

The name means literally I am the God who was, the God who is, and the God who will be. To have this God not just as the ruler over your people but to really live with them was truly breathtaking. God goes on to tell Moses how it should be moved. Exodus 25:12-15 "You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four corners; two rings shall be on one side, and two rings on the other side. 13 "And you shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. 14 "You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, that the ark may be carried by them. 15 "The poles shall be in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. We can read story after story that when God’s people brought the Ark of the Covenant before them into battle that God would be with them and they would prevail. The Ark was legend, it was known by Israelite and foreigner alike.

Today we easily read these words and say, why didn’t Uzzah know them. Why didn’t David? Why did the move the ark on a Cart? For something so famous, shouldn’t the people know how to take care of it? A few years ago there was a movie called National treasure where the hero has to steal the Declaration of Independence to preserve it from being destroyed by treasure hunters. That document is about 100 years newer than the ark was at the time of David. And even though the hero knew the proper way to handle the document, circumstances made him compromise and treat the document without the respect it deserved. Is that what happened to David? Did circumstances outside of his control conspire against him and he then allowed the ark to be disrespected resulting in Uzzah’s death? After studying this I began to understand what was missing during the time of David. It is a problem that plagued the people of God from the time of Moses, through the time of David and if we are not careful, can plague us as well.

Although we do not have the Ark in our midst today, we do have the presence of God among us as it tells us in: NKJ Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them." If David was to be King he would have mighty big shoes to fill. He needed to learn how lead and how to govern. But most of all, to be King, he would have to learn to follow God. The title of the sermon today is: Are you ready to be King? Even though we do not live in an earthly kingdom as David did. We are being groomed by God to one day join His Son to rule this earth. Through the story of the Ark and of Uzzah and David there is much we can learn about how to be King. David was a man after God’s own heart and because of this he had a head start over most everyone else. But he too had much to learn. This topic is too vast for one sermon so I will break it into two parts to cover it in more depth. First of all I want to cover being a subject of God. How to be ruled. We cannot rule others unless we first are willing to be ruled. It is never by our will or might that we will ever preside over others. It is only by God’s will can we be successful. In part II we will explore the qualities of being a leader. We have many positive examples of Godly leadership to look to among which is Jesus Christ, Himself. Are we ready to be King?

Let’s find out. We know that Uzzah erred in touching the ark, a clear violation of leadership given by God. But was touching the ark the whole of the crime. Was everything fine until this moment? Well no. Not only did Uzzah touch the ark, they were not properly moving the ark? We read how they were supposed to carry the ark on poles. God’s presence was with the ark. It represented his throne on earth. The King would travel being carried. A practice that has been used by royalty for thousands of years. It was not proper to put a king on a cart, like you would use for cargo. But is that the whole of the story? To really understand the story of the death of Uzzah and the role of King and His subjects, we must go back and learn from the many tales of the ark that would have been known to the people of David’s day. Why for instance was this ark being brought up to the city of David in the first place? Where was it previously and why was it there? Let’s go back about 75 years or so to the time of the Judges. Eli was judge over Israel. His sons were also judges but they were corrupt. Eli was a good man but he was not able to reign in his sons.

Samuel was born to a woman who could not previously give birth and promised God that if he gave her a child, then she would give him over for service to God. She kept her promise and so Eli raised Samuel. Although Samuel was righteous, Eli’s sons were not and God promised to punish Eli and his family for not properly looking after Israel. As a boy, God spoke to Samuel and told him that Eli and his family would be replaced as Judge over Israel. Soon it was clear to all Israel that God was with Samuel and his fame grew among the people. This is where the ark enters the story.

Turn over to 1 Samuel 4 1 Samuel 4:1-5 NKJ And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines, and encamped beside Ebenezer; and the Philistines encamped in Aphek. 2 Then the Philistines put themselves in battle array against Israel. And when they joined battle, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men of the army in the field. 3 And when the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, "Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Shiloh to us, that when it comes among us it may save us from the hand of our enemies." 4 So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from there the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. 5 And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly that the earth shook.

So the Philistines heard this and they got scared. They knew about the Ark and its power and were sorely afraid. But the mustered up their courage and went to fight anyway. And they won. Not only did the defeat Israel but they captured the Ark of the Covenant and killed the sons of Eli. When news of this reached Eli he literally fell over dead and that ended his judgeship over God’s people. But the Ark did not stay in the hands of the Philistines for very long. God punished them and everywhere they moved the ark the people started getting tumors all over their bodies. At one point they put the ark inside one of their temples next to a statue of their false god and the next morning they found their statue on its face before the Ark of God. They stood up the statue again and the next morning it was down again but this time the hands and head of the statue were torn off and scattered about. The Philistines soon got the message that this ark was not the path to happiness. After 7 months they decided to send it back. Did you ever wonder where David got the idea of moving the ark on a cart? In a parallel account in 1 Chronicles 13 we get more of the story. Before he moved the cart he consulted his people and on their council, he moved forward.

1 Chronicles 13:1-4 NKJ Then David consulted with the captains of thousands and hundreds, and with every leader. 2 And David said to all the assembly of Israel, "If it seems good to you, and if it is of the LORD our God, let us send out to our brethren everywhere who are left in all the land of Israel, and with them to the priests and Levites who are in their cities and their common-lands, that they may gather together to us; 3 "and let us bring the ark of our God back to us, for we have not inquired at it since the days of Saul." 4 Then all the assembly said that they would do so, for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people. But where did David’s people get the idea to give him that moving on a new cart was the way to go. Well, back when the ark was captured and the Philistines were suffering because of the plagues they started to ask themselves if they were not being as hard headed as pharaoh in Egypt was who would not let the people go. They decided then in 1 Sam 6:7-9: 1 Samuel 6:7-9 7 "Now therefore, make a new cart, take two milk cows which have never been yoked, and hitch the cows to the cart; and take their calves home, away from them. 8 "Then take the ark of the LORD and set it on the cart; and put the articles of gold which you are returning to Him as a trespass offering in a chest by its side. Then send it away, and let it go. 9 "And watch: if it goes up the road to its own territory, to Beth Shemesh, then He has done us this great evil. But if not, then we shall know that it is not His hand that struck us -- it happened to us by chance."

So after all the Philistines saw and suffered, they still weren’t sure that it was God who was responsible so they created this test. And God made sure the cows did just that so that the ark went home again. So this is where Israel got the idea to use a cart; from their enemies. Just like the Philistines, they made a brand new cart. Got special animals to pull the cart and hoped that was good enough. So this was a bigger problem than simply putting the Ark on a cart. But there is still more. God allowed the Ark to be captured. Not just to punish Eli and his sons. There was a deep problem with the people of God that was always there. Sometimes in the forefront, sometimes it was just under the surface. This directly affected the relationship of God’s and His people. We can see this brought out when the Ark was returned to Israel.

1 Samuel 6:21 21 So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjath Jearim, saying, "The Philistines have brought back the ark of the LORD; come down and take it up with you." NKJ 1 Samuel 7:1 Then the men of Kirjath Jearim came and took the ark of the LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill, and consecrated Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD. 2 So it was that the ark remained in Kirjath Jearim a long time; it was there twenty years. And all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD. 3 Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, "If you return to the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines." 4 So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the LORD only. 5 And Samuel said, "Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you." 6 So they gathered together at Mizpah, drew water, and poured it out before the LORD. And they fasted that day, and said there, "We have sinned against the LORD." And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah. So they were worshipping Baal and Ashtoreth. Today it is easy to condemn them for false god worship. But to really understand what is going on here you have to understand that the worship of these gods involved sexual promiscuity, temple prostitution, and if someone could go back there you would identify these practices as pornography.

This is why Israel fell into this time and time again. It was an excuse to give in to the flesh. This plagued Israel as soon as they entered the land of Canaan. It was what the judges battled and what God punished them time and again for. The practice of Idol worship was all about forsaking what God had given and intended and trading it for the baser elements of the flesh. Greed, lust, fear, and anger were fueled in their worship and power was exercised over the masses. Israel wants a different King Is it any wonder that the Israelites decided they wanted to be like the other nations? Other nations could do whatever they wanted. They could worship like the other nations. Instead of doing what is hard they could do what is easier. They could focus on the baser aspects of humanity. They would not have to worry about their enemies because a King would have an army to protect them. And this king won’t expect them to be good all the time. He would let them give in to their desires and partake of the rituals surrounding their religion like ritual prostitution.

So they go to Samuel and ask for a king. 1 Samuel 8:1-22 NKJ Now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. 2 The name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. 3 But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice. 4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, 5 and said to him, "Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations." 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." So Samuel prayed to the LORD. 7 And the LORD said to Samuel, "Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. 8 "According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day -- with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods -- so they are doing to you also. 9 "Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them."

Again, it seems natural that since the heirs of Samuel were corrupt like Eli’s sons, that Israel wanted something better. But they did not ask for honest judges. They asked for a King. But God was their king. But that didn’t matter to them. They did not like God’s terms. He was too harsh. But Samuel relayed Gods words about how harsh a human king could be. 10 So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who asked him for a king. 11 And he said, "This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. 12 "He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 "He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. 14 "And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. 15 "He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants. 16 "And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 "He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants. 18 "And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the LORD will not hear you in that day." 19 Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, "No, but we will have a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles." 21 And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he repeated them in the hearing of the LORD. 22 So the LORD said to Samuel, "Heed their voice, and make them a king." And Samuel said to the men of Israel, "Every man go to his city."

So we have to ask ourselves one question when we read these words. Are we ready to submit to our King? To do the things He commands of us? To be happy with the terms God offers. Is that deal good enough for us. For Israel, it clearly was not. So we see what was really going on with Israel when God lived in their midst. Is it any wonder that when Uzzah stepped out of line that God took this opportunity to draw a firm line and say this is not to be crossed? David realized that there was a big problem going on. He had consulted with the leadership of the different tribes and he got bad advice. Later, after God blessed the house of the family caretaking the ark that David then consulted the Levites and afterward properly brought the ark into the City. So the first question is, are we ready to submit to our King? We live in a very different world than did David and Samuel don’t we? We don’t have a government over us trying to point us to God. We live in a world that is supposed to believe in God but does nothing that God says to do. Actually, that is a lot like Israel. But we are not involved with false Idol worship lime them are we? They were stuck in idolatry but we don’t see much in the way of false god worship in the world today? Or do we?

In our modern world we have placed many things above God. In fact this world places most everything before God. People with debase themselves for fame, money, or just for kicks. Actors, musicians, and sports stars are worshipped by this world. Religion is what is now tolerated by mainstream life and not the other way around. People today seek pleasure first and foremost in their lives. They trade their future for some magic beans that promise happiness. Drugs and Sex go hand in hand in our youth who also so often worship at the altar of materialism and self-indulgence. We don’t need Ashtoreth worship because we have television and movies that tell us that morality is defined by us and not by God. The internet is a source of good but also evil. People today indulge in the same sins as ancient Israel. Life today is not actually that different when we think in terms of morality. We live in a world that accepted that God has no real place in your daily life. It’s OK if you believe in God as long as you don’t let that run your life. The book of Judges chapter 17 put it this way. Judges 17:6 6 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. It is easy to look at the Old Testament life and say, “Hey, I’m not like that. I am different.” But when you take the time to really look at those people we see a world that in many ways mirrors the world we live in. We do live in a world of idolatry and promiscuity.

We live in a culture that is focused on our primal base instincts and not the higher calling God has for us. We read that we will be Kings and Priests of God and rule with His son when He returns to this earth. If we are going to be a part of that government we have to be ready to be subject to that same government. When you read parables it is natural to identify with the heroes and not the villains. When you read the parable of the talents, do you relate to the one with 10, or the one who buried his away? When you read the parable about forgiveness, do you relate to the one who forgives or the one who would not forgive? We need to look hard at the villains to see if they resemble us in any way. Are we the bridesmaid with enough oil or the ones who had to go out and try to get more before it’s too late only to find that we waited too long? These are warnings for God’s people. They are not meant to make us feel good about ourselves. As the Pharisee that prayed in the temple and said, I thank God that I am not a sinner like this tax collector her. God wants us to help His Son lead His people. But we must first and foremost want to be led.

To willingly submit to the God of the Universe who want the best for us. He gives us all the instruction we need to check our human nature and baser instincts. We need only to read and take heed of them. Next time we are going to look at the qualities of a King so we aspire for the right qualities that God wants from us and for us. For now, we will close with where we started. The story of Uzzah. Uzzah was a victim of his time and did not count the costs for the trek ahead of him. Although there isn’t much in our bibles using that word “error” as it was used for Uzzah, the NIV lends some insight. NIV 2 Samuel 6:7 The LORD's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God. Let’s make sure we have reverence for what God is building in each one of us.