And when they came to Nachon's threshing-floor, Uzzah reached after the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen had stumbled.
Israel is bringing the ark home with music and celebration, and then the oxen stumble. Why did the hand that reached out to steady the ark cost the man his life?
The trouble did not begin at the threshing floor.
This is very solemn for me, for anyone. God did not at once deal with the first departure from His word. They drove the new cart for a time without a sign of His displeasure. Then He allowed what might have seemed a mere accident. By it He was pleased to test them, and in a single instance to show clearly what He thought of their irreverence — most of all in the one who went furthest in it.
The stumble exposed what was wrong with the whole arrangement.
The Levites, the ministers of God, had carried the ark from Horeb to Jordan, and yet we have no record of any stumble. The shoulders of His servants were God's way; but the cart and oxen were man's way. And who would have thought that an Israelite would put the ark of the God of Israel on a wooden cart for oxen to pull? Yet that is always the sad effect of leaving the written Word to follow human traditions.
Nothing about Uzzah's reflex looks wrong on the surface.
On the surface of things it looked justifiable enough to guard the ark from a fall. The ark of God seemed in danger: why should a Levite not put out his hand to save it? Was not Uzzah, son of Abinadab of Gibeah, the most fitting person to do so holy an act? But the act involved going against the express word of God. The Lord had appointed who in Israel should carry the ark, and how it must be done. The Philistines knew nothing of this, and they were not responsible to obey such a command. But Israel were under the law. They had His word in their hands, and they were responsible for it.
This was not the first time God's judgment fell over the ark. His instructions had been written down long before, and they were exact.
God's judgment had fallen on the men of Bethshemesh for looking into the ark, and now His judgment fell on Uzzah for touching it. God had given clear instructions about the ark in Numbers 4. Only the priestly family were allowed to touch the ark. Aaron and his sons were to cover it before it set out on its journeys. The sons of Kohath were to carry it on poles on their shoulders. There was no need for Uzzah to touch the ark. The oxen may stumble, but God was able to look after His holy ark without the help of men. Not even the Levites were allowed to touch the holy vessels. God had written it plainly: "the sons of Kohath shall come to carry these, but they must not touch the holy things, lest they die" (Num. 4:15).
Worship arranged by human ideas becomes unsteady. Then hands reach out to hold it up.
There comes a time when man's meddling in the worship of God makes that worship limp in one way or another. "The oxen had stumbled" (v. 6). Naturally the men thought they ought to help, and they lent the support of their arms to this shaky system. They forgot that it is profane folly to want to help God. This was the problem of Uzzah, the son of Abinadab, who was the first and chief agent of this transport. He feels a completely natural need to support what he had made. He does not take into account that he is, as it were, laying his hand upon God.
The names in this account carry the lesson.
At the prepared threshing floor the oxen stumble, and Uzzah puts out his hand and takes hold of the ark to steady it. Uzzah means "strength". He had not measured himself before God, and he had not learnt where strength comes from. The act revealed what the ark was to him. It was the habit of a soul that knew neither God nor itself, yet was always occupied with itself. He is struck down. The "prepared" threshing floor becomes Perez-uzzah, the "breaking of strength."
The same anxious hand reaches out today, over people and work that belong to God.
Do we sometimes feel anxious about the future of those among whom we work? Are we inclined to make provision for them according to our own thoughts? Creature hands need not be stretched out to support the ark; God is quite able to take care of it Himself (2 Sam. 6:6).
- Departure — the first wrong step was the cart. Human ideas replaced the written Word.
- Delay — God let that step run on for a while without a sign of displeasure, so the failure was real before He exposed it.
- Test — the stumbling oxen looked like an accident. God used them to test the people and show what they were.
- Hand — Uzzah meant well, and his instinct was natural. Still, touching the ark meant laying his hand on God, against a plain command.
- Breach — the man named "strength" broke at the very spot where he offered it. God can take care of His own ark and needs no help from His creatures.
And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God.
The ark of God is on the move, with music and celebration. Then the oxen stumble. A man reaches out to keep the ark from falling, and he dies on the spot. Why would God strike a man for an act that looks protective? And what had gone wrong long before that reach of the hand?
Nothing had gone wrong for miles. God let the journey run on before He acted.
God did not at once deal with the first departure from His word. They drove the new cart for a time without a sign of His displeasure. Then He allowed what might have looked like a simple accident. He was pleased to use it to test them. In this one case He showed plainly what He thought of their irreverence — above all in the man who went furthest in it.
God had already said who could carry the ark, and how. Uzzah's hand crossed a line God had drawn long before.
If Uzzah had grasped what it meant to be near the ark of God, and how great that privilege was, he should have taken care to learn what God had said about people so privileged. He should have shrunk from touching what was so holy in God's sight. Only the high priest and his sons could touch God's ark. Anyone else who touched it risked his life, as God had warned beforehand, and as Uzzah proved.
The Philistines, Israel's enemies, had once carried the ark this same way and lived.
God bore with the Philistines when they knew no better than to put the ark on a new cart. They did their best; they did not know the mind of God. But it was not so with Israel, who knew God as the Philistines did not. Why bring oxen to carry God's ark? It should have been carried by the Lord's redeemed servants... When one of the oxen stumbled, Uzzah put forth his hand to hold the ark steady. But the Lord put forth His hand against the presumptuous man who had thought that the ark of God needed human power to hold it up. The One who made heaven and earth could hold up His own ark from falling. Uzzah forgot this. He shows the folly of trying to do God's work out of our own heads. We never glorify God, and we are never even safe, when we are not walking in obedience.
Uzzah's motive looks blameless, and that is exactly where the danger sits.
We mean well, and the thing we have in view is right in the main. That fact often stops us even feeling the need to seek the mind of the Lord, or to test everything by the word of God. If the thing sought is good in itself, why examine the methods so closely? How little we understand the irreverence that hides under the look of honest devotion! There we treat our own wisdom as fit to think for Him, and our own strength as fit to do His will.
God's blow had a purpose beyond Uzzah.
Truly, "it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God." The Lord judged David for doing what the Philistines had done without notice. The nearer a man is to God, the more solemn and swift is God's judgment of any evil in him... God meant the breach upon Uzzah to bring David back to a right understanding of His mind about the ark of His presence.
Even the name of the place carries the lesson.
Uzzah means "strength". He had not measured himself before God, and he had not learned where strength comes from... He is struck down, and the "prepared" threshing floor becomes Perez-uzzah, "the breaking of strength."
The judgment left a mark on David, but not the right one.
He was afraid of the LORD. He called the place Perez-uzzah, because the LORD had made a breach upon Uzzah. He was not in communion with God about it. He let in his own thoughts and feelings. They were wrong, because they doubted God instead of blaming man. He ought to have taken God's side and said that God struck Uzzah rightly. What greater wrong is there than to find fault with God?
- Method matters. God's work must be done in God's way. The cart, not the stumble, was the first fault.
- Strength broken. Uzzah's name means strength. He never measured himself before God, and the place became "the breaking of strength."
- Sincerity is not a licence. Honest devotion can hide real irreverence, when we treat our own wisdom as fit to think for God.
- Privilege carries responsibility. The Philistines went unpunished for the same cart. Israel knew God's mind, and God held them to it.
- God keeps His own ark. The One who made heaven and earth needs no human hand to hold up His ark. When He judges, take His side. Do not find fault with Him.