The Return Of The Ark - Life and Times of David

Life and Times of David
THE RETURN OF THE ARK

2 Samuel 6 and 1 Chronicles 13 – We now follow David from the scenes of his exile to those of his government. Saul left the stage of history by the hand of the Amalekite – one of the nations he had disobediently spared. Jonathan fell with his father, Saul, on Mount Gilboa, and David lamented over both. David had treated Saul with the respect due the Lord's anointed. When informed of Saul’s death, David wept and called on others to do the same.

David did not act with unbecoming haste to ascend the vacant throne, but waited on the Lord. “David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said unto him, Go up. and David said, Whither shall I go up? And He said, Unto Hebron.”

Human nature eagerly rushes into the place of honor; but David waited on the Lord, moving only as directed by Him. It was this confidence in and dependence on God – delighting himself in Jehovah – that forms the peculiar loveliness of David’s character, “the man after God’s own heart.” If only he had continued to move forward in child-like dependence.

However, human nature is more visible during the period of David’s elevation than during the period of His rejection. A time of peace and prosperity tends to develop and bring to maturity seeds of evil which might be nipped and blighted by the keen blast of adversity. David found the kingdom more thorny and dangerous than the wilderness.

After his accession to the throne, David’s desire to have the Ark of the Lord near him in the city of Jerusalem is followed by a great error. His desire was commendable, but not the way he did it. In reference to this important matter, the Word of God was exceedingly plain and distinct. It pointed out a simple and definite way of carrying the Ark of the Lord of Hosts – on the shoulders of men set aside for that purpose (See Num. 3 and 8).

When the Philistines sent the Ark of Jehovah back to its own land and people, they knew nothing of this, so they devised a way of their own that was directly opposed to God’s way. This is to be expected, for “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” Therefore, though the plan adopted by the Philistines was decent and orderly, as men might say, yet it was not of God. Ministers of the house of Dagon were poorly qualified to arrange the order of Divine service, thinking that a wooden cart would do as well as anything else. They had once trembled at the sight of the Ark, but, because of the unfaithfulness of Israel, it had lost its solemnity in their eyes. Though it had been most solemnly and impressively vindicated in their view by the destruction of their god, they did not understand its deep significance. They did not know its wondrous contents; therefore they devised a mere lifeless ordinance for its conveyance.

But David should have known and followed God’s thoughts, instead of following the thoughts and traditions of men in the service of God. He should have drawn his directions from the lucid lines of the book of the law. It is a terrible thing when the children of God form themselves after the model of worldly men, treading in their footsteps. When this happens it causes serious damage to their own souls, at the sacrifice of God’s truth and testimony.

The Philistines constructed a cart to carry the Ark, without anything occurring to show them the error of their way; but God did not allow David to do so. And so it is today; the men of this world put forth their canons, enact their laws, and decree their religious ceremonies; but should the children of God come down from their high position and privileges, guided by the Holy Spirit and the blessed Word of God, to follow and be influenced by such things? They may do so, but they will certainly suffer loss.

David was made to learn his mistake by bitter experience, for “when they came unto the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark; for the oxen stumbled.” The weakness and inconsistency of the whole thing was here manifested. The Levites, the ministers of God, had borne the Ark from Horeb to Jordan, with no record of stumbling. The shoulders of His servants was God’s way – the cart and oxen man’s. Who would have thought that an Israelite would place the Ark of the God of Israel on a wooden cart, to be drawn by oxen? Yet such is the sad effect of departing from the Word of God to follow human traditions. “The oxen stumbled.” In the judgment of the Holy Spirit, the arrangement was “weak and beggarly.” The Ark should never have been placed in such a dishonoring position; oxen should never have been the bearers of such a burden.

“And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzza, and He smote him, because he put his hand to the ark; and there he died before God.” Truly, “judgement must begin at the house of God.” The Lord judged David (who should have known) for doing what the Philistines had done without knowledge. The nearer we are to God, the more solemnly and speedily we will he be judged for any evil. This should not give any encouragement to the unbeliever, for, as the apostle says, “If judgement first begin at us, what shall the end be of those that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”

If God judges His people, what shall become of the unbeliever. Though the Philistines escaped the judgment of God in the matter of the cart, they had to meet it in another way. God deals with everyone according to His own holy principles, and the breach on Uzza – what happened to him – was designed to restore David to a right apprehension of the mind of God in reference to the Ark of God’s presence.

Yet, at first, it did not seem to produce the proper effect. “David was displeased because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzza: wherefore the name of the place is called Perez Uzza to this day. And David was afraid of God that day, saying, How shall I bring the ark of God home to me?”

There is deep instruction in this. David was doing a right thing in a wrong way, and when God executed judgment on his way of acting, David stopped doing the thing at all. This is a common error.

We enter on some right course of acting in a wrong way, or in a wrong spirit, which God cannot approve; and then our spirit, or method of acting, is confounded by that in which we are engaged. But we must ever distinguish between what men do, and how they do it. It was right for David to bring up the Ark; it was wrong to put it on an ox-cart. The Lord approved the former, but disapproved and judged the latter.

God will never allow His children to persist in carrying on His work on wrong principles. They may go on for a time with much apparent success, as “David and all Israel played before God with all their might, and with singing, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.”

It would have been a difficult matter for anyone to raise an objection to the course of David in such proceedings. The king and all his captains were engaged in it; and the burst of music would have drowned any objection. But, all this exultation was soon checked. “The oxen stumbled” – “Uzza put forth his hand,” vainly imagining that God would allow the Ark of His presence to fall to the ground. God, who had maintained the dignity of that Ark, even in the dark solitude of the house of Dagon, would surely preserve it from dishonor amid the mistakes and confusion of His people. It was a solemn thing to come near the Ark of God – to approach that which was the special symbol of the Divine presence in the midst of His congregation.

Bearing the name of Jesus and the depositories of the truth connected with His holy person is truly a solemn thing. We should all feel this solemnity more deeply than we do. In today’s self-serving world, we are apt to regard putting our hand to the Ark – adding to God’s Word – as a light thing; but it is not; and those attempting it will suffer for their error.

Has anything been entrusted to the care and keeping of the Church that compares to the Ark? Yes; Jesus Christ, the Person of the Son of God, answers to the Ark of old. His divine and human nature answers to the gold and shittim wood of the Ark. The materials of the Ark typified His Person as the God-man; while the purposes of the Ark and mercy- seat typified His work – in life; in death. The Ark contained the tables of testimony; and the Son of God could say, in connection with the body prepared by God for Him, “Thy law is within My heart” (See Psalm 40). Again, the mercy-seat spoke of peace and pardon, of mercy rejoicing against judgment, where the sinner meets God in peace; as the apostle says, “He [Christ] is a mercy-seat for our sins.” And again, “Whom God hath set forth to be a mercy-seat.” (The word used in Rom. 3 is precisely the same as that used in Exodus 25, hilasteerion – propitiatory).

The Ark of the Covenant was a type of Jesus the Son of God. And just as Israel’s moral power was connected with the acknowledgment and preservation of the Ark among them, so the Church’s power is connected with her proper maintenance of the great and all- important doctrine of the Son. In vain we exult the work of our hands, boasting in our knowledge, our testimony, our assemblies, our gifts; our ministry, our anything. If we are not maintaining the honor of the Son, we are worthless – merely walking in the sparks of our own kindling; sparks speedily extinguished when the Lord is obliged. “David was displeased” with the mistake – the breach. It stopped all the joy and gladness of the occasion; but it was needful. A faithful eye could have detected the wrong moral condition of soul that was evident in the wooden cart; and the breach on Uzza – what happened to him – proved an effectual corrective.

“David brought not the ark of God home to himself to the city of David, but carried it aside into the house of Obed-edom, the Gittite.” This was David’s loss; he forfeited blessing and privilege by stopping short. The Ark of God brought blessing to all who were rightly connected with it; but judgment otherwise, as the men of Bethshemesh and Uzza. The blessing, though confined to the circle of Obed-edom’s house, was as real and positive, as pure and truthful, as if the whole nation had been enjoying it – because the Ark was present.

God is always true to His own principles, making happy those who walk in obedience. As God blessed Obed-edom during the three months that the Ark was in his house, even though King David was “afraid,” so He will now bless those who meet in truth and simplicity, in the name of Jesus. “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I.” The presence of Christ brings blessing. The more we feel our own weakness, emptiness, and nothingness, the more His presence will be prized and loved.

Christians should seek more of the presence of Christ in their meetings. We do not want sermons, human intellect, eloquence, or anything from man. Without the presence of Jesus, everything is cold, barren, and lifeless. Who can express the preciousness known by those on whom the dew of the divine blessing falls? Praise God, that in this day, when the sad effects of human tradition and secularism are so apparent in the Church, there is such a thing as the house of Obed-edom the Gittite, where the presence of the Ark, and the consequent blessing of God, can be known and enjoyed. Let us prize this more and more, while shadowy and unsatisfying forms and ceremonies prevail around us.

We now consider God’s gracious method of restoring the soul of His servant David. The life of faith¹ is little more than a series of failures and restorations, errors and correction; displaying, on one hand, the sad weakness of man, and on the other, the grace and power of God. This is abundantly exemplified in David.

There is a considerable difference in the way the return of the Ark is recorded in the books of Samuel and Chronicles. In one we have the simple statement of the facts; in the other, we have the moral training through which the soul of David passed during the time that he was afraid of God, laboring under the effects of his own mistake. In Samuel we read, “And it was told king David, saying, The Lord hath blessed the house of Obededom, and all that pertaineth unto him, because of the ark of God. So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom, into the city of David with gladness.”

David learned that it was really his privilege and blessing to be near the Ark.

In 1 Chronicles 14, we find David in conflict with the Philistines, obtaining victory over them. “David inquired of God, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? and wilt Thou deliver them into my hand? And the Lord said unto him, Go up; for I will deliver them into thy hand. So they came up to Baal-perazim; and David smote them there. Then David said, God hath broken in upon mine enemies by my hand, like the breaking forth of waters: therefore they called the name of that place Baal-perazim.” (i.e., a place of breaches)

There is a great difference between “a breach” and “a place of breaches.”

God made a breach on Israel because of their error pertaining to the Ark; but He made a place of breaches on the Philistines. And David realized his mistake, for in 1 Samuel 15 we read, “And David made him houses in the city of David, and prepared a place for the ark of God, and pitched for it a tent. Then David said, None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites; for them hath the Lord chosen to carry the ark of God, and to minister unto Him for ever.”

And again, addressing the chief of the fathers of the Levites, he says, “Sanctify yourselves, both ye and your brethren, that ye may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel unto the place that I have prepared for it. For because ye did it not at the first, the Lord our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought Him not after the due order.”

David learned by the “breach” on Uzza that to follow man’s thoughts was contrary to “the due order.” None can teach like God. When David was wrong, God made a breach on him by His own hand. He would not allow the Philistines to do this. No, on the contrary, He allows David to see them in a place of breaches, and enables him to smite them – to break in on them, like the breaking forth of water. In this way, God taught, and in this way David learned what was “the due order.” In this way, he learned to remove the Ark from the new cart, and place it on the shoulders of the Levites. In this way, David was taught to cast aside human traditions, and follow, in simplicity, the written Word of God, in which there was not one word about a cart and oxen to carry the Ark. “None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites.” This was very distinct. David’s entire mistake rose from forgetfulness of the Word, following the example of the uncircumcised, who had no capacity to understand the mind of God on any question, much less the solemn and important question of how to carry the Ark.

But what a wonderfully gracious way the Lord taught His servant. He taught him by victory over His enemies. In this way, the Lord frequently leads His children into the apprehension of His mind, when they vainly seek to follow in the track of worldly men. The breach taught David his mistake; the place of breaches taught him God’s due order.

By the former he learned the folly of the cart and oxen; by the latter he learned the value of the Levites, and the place which they held in the service of God. God would not allow His people to depart from His prescribed order with impunity. Had David not learned to put aside his own way, taking up God’s way, the Ark might have remained in the house of Obed-edom. “So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel. And the children of the Levites bare the ark upon their shoulders, with the staves thereon, as Moses commanded, according to the word of the Lord.”

In all this the Lord was glorified, and He could therefore give real joy and gladness, strength and energy. There was no more stumbling of oxen – no more human effort to keep the Ark from falling. God’s truth was dominant, so His power could act.

There can be no real power when truth is sacrificed. There may be the appearance or assumption of power, but no reality. How could there be? God is the source of power, but He cannot and does not associate Himself with anything at variance with His truth. Therefore, although “David and all Israel played before God with all their might,” there was no divine power. God’s order – God’s will – was shut out by human arrangement, thus producing confusion and sorrow. How different it is in 1 Samuel 15. There is real joy – real power. “It came to pass, when God helped the Levites that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, that they offered seven bullocks and seven rams. And David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, and all the Levites that bare the ark, and the singers, and Chenaniah the master of the song, with the singers.”

This was a scene with which God could consistently connect Himself. He did not help the oxen; He did not help Uzza; the oxen had not borne the Ark through the waters of Jordan; neither had they borne it round the walls of Jericho. No; God had placed it on the shoulders of the Levites, and His order – His will – is the only happy one. It may not always agree with human judgment; but it will always have the stamp of Divine approval. David was enabled to bear the sneer of contempt from Michal, the daughter of Saul, because he was acting before the Lord. Hear his fine reply to her reproach: “It was before the Lord, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel; therefore will I play before the Lord. And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight.”

May His precious determination be ours. May we be humbled in the sense of our own vileness – lifted up on high, in the sense of the grace and loving-kindness of our God.

1 Chronicles 16 is the hiding of self – setting forth the character and ways of God. In short, it is a song of praise, which one has only to read to be refreshed. We direct your attention to the last verse, where the four great characteristics of the people of God are set forth. “Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to Thy holy name, and glory in Thy praise.” The Church of our Lord is a saved company. Salvation is the basis of everything. We cannot respond to any of the other characteristics in this copious verse, until we are saved by the grace of God, through the death and resurrection of Christ.

In the power of this salvation the Church is gathered by the energy of the Holy Spirit. In other words, the true effect of the Spirit’s operation leads to fellowship all those who submit to His leading. His order – His will – is not isolation, but blessed association and unity in the truth. But if we are ignorant about salvation, our gathering together will not be to the glory of God, but rather for the promotion of our own spiritual interests. Men frequently associate and gather on religious grounds without the assurance of salvation by the precious blood of Christ. This is not the Spirit’s way of gathering – He gathers to Christ on the glorious ground of what He has accomplished. Confessing Christ, as the Son of the living God, is the rock on which the Church is built. It is not agreement of religious views that constitutes church-fellowship, but being in union with the Head in Heaven – God Himself.

Now, the more this divine unity is realized, the more we will enter into the next characteristic presented – separation: “and deliver us from the heathen.” The Church is called out of the world, though called to witness for Christ in it. Everything within the Church is to be under the Holy Spirit; everything else is under the lordship of Satan, the prince of this world. This is what Scripture teaches about the Church. So, when the apostle speaks about excommunicating an offender, he says, “deliver such an one to Satan” and again, “I have delivered such an one to Satan.” Outside of the church is a wide and dreary domain, over which Satan rules, like that desolate region into which the leper was thrust from the camp of Israel.

Finally, we have the Spirit of a worshipping people: “That we may give thanks to Thy holy name.” Salvation, association, separation, and worship are all connected together. The Church, breathing the atmosphere of God’s salvation, is led by the Spirit into holy and happy fellowship. Therefore, being separated to the Lord Jesus presents the fruit of her lips to God, giving thanks to His name.

Footnote:
¹ Not exactly the “life of faith,” but the life of saints. The conflict and trials so general in the people of God, while they testify to faith within, result from the flesh which, not having been kept under judgment, reasserts itself against the Spirit in the child of God. It is of this Galatians 5:16-25 speaks. If the “walk in the Spirit” is a constant thing with us, the lust and warnings of the flesh would be kept under – kept in the place of death, where God has assigned the flesh. Regarding himself, the apostle could say, “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our mortal flesh.” (2 Cor. 4:10)