Monumental Moments: God Will Not Be Propped Up by Human Hands!

God Will Not Be Propped Up by Human Hands!

Let’s turn to 2 Samuel 6. David is the new king of Israel and one of the first things he wants to do is move the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem where it belongs. Many years earlier the Jews had carried the ark of the covenant into battle against the Philistines thinking that having it would give them victory even though they were spiritually in a bad place, but the Philistines defeated the Israelites and captured the ark.

They took the ark to their temple in Ashdod and put it right next to their god Dagon but in the morning Dagon was lying face-first on the floor. So they set Dagon back up and the next day Dagon was lying on the floor in front of the ark, and it’s head and hands were cut off. At the same time the people of Ashdod were suffering from painful tumors and many were dying and they knew it was the God of Israel doing it so they moved it but every city they moved it to the people got tumors and were dying so finally they put it on a cart, pointed it towards Israel, and sent it back. It ends up at the home of Abinidab where it stays for about 20 years. 

Now King David wants to move the ark to the center of Israel, Jerusalem as a statement that they are putting God back at the center of their nation and their lives. 

6 David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. ² 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 of the Lord of hosts who sits enthroned on the cherubim. ³ And they carried 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, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart, ⁴ with the ark of God, and Ahio went before the ark.

⁵ And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. 2 Sam 6:1-5

It starts out as a day of singing and celebration but then a good thing goes bad:

⁶ And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. ⁷ And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God. ⁸ And David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah. And that place is called Perez-uzzah to this day. ⁹ And David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” ¹⁰ So David was not willing to take the ark of the Lord into the city of David. But David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. 2 Sam. 6:6-10

The oxen pulling the cart with the ark on it stumble, and Uzzah simply reaches out to steady the ark to keep it from falling…and God kills him! Kills him simply for touching the ark.

Moments like these in the OT make some people question the character of the God of the Bible. They’re trying to do a good thing and God kills a man! Some people try to explain this by saying the God of the OT is different from the God of the NT. In the OT God is harsh and judgmental and extreme but the God of the NT is loving and forgiving and patient. The only problem there’s only one God – and God is immutable meaning He doesn’t change. God is perfect in all His attributes – He doesn’t improve with time, He doesn’t learn new information, He doesn’t evolve or mature. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever because Jesus is God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Heb. 13:8)

David is angry and frightened and discouraged. He’s done trying to move the ark to Jerusalem so they leave it at the house of a man named Obed-Edom in Gath. And David is expecting Obed-Edom’s life to start falling apart, but God begins to bless Obed-Edom’s house. 

Three months later David asks has God’s hand broken out against Obed yet? They say, God’s hand has broken out in Obed’s home but not against him – God is blessing him! Everything he does is blessed. Everything he touches turns to gold! The same God who killed Uzzah is blessing Obed.

And that makes David do what he should have done in the beginning. He asks the question, “what went wrong? What did I do wrong?” After looking into it he realizes he disobeyed God’s instructions about how to transport the ark of the covenant. David put it on a cart drawn by oxen but God commanded it be carried by Levites using poles that slipped through rings on the side of the ark. 

So David tries again, only this time doing it God’s way.

¹³ When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. 2 Sam. 6:13

Three quick lessons that we can take from this amazing story:

1. Jesus came to make it possible for us to touch God and be blessed!

When the oxen stumbled, Uzzah thought he was doing a good thing by reaching out to prop God up. Keep God from falling to the ground and getting dirty. Uzzah made the mistake of thinking his hands were cleaner than the dirt on the road. Dirt is not morally impure but Uzzah’s hands were. Our hands are. God is holy and our hands aren’t. We can’t touch God’s holiness with impure hands. 

But when we come to the NT we find we can touch God. John opens his letter describing Jesus

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands…1 John 1:1

The NT calls attention to how many times people touched Jesus. Thomas touched the nail scars on Jesus’ hand…and believed! The woman with the bleeding infirmity touched the hem of Jesus …and was healed. 

Often Jesus touched people. He touched the blind man and gave him sight. He touched the lame man and caused him to walk. He touched the leper – something the law said would make a man unclean, but touching the leper didn’t make Jesus unclean, it made the leper clean. Uncleanness didn’t travel from the leper to Jesus, cleanness traveled from Jesus to the leper.

That’s what Jesus came to do. He came to make it possible for us to touch God not by making God less holy but by making us more holy. Jesus touching sinners didn’t make Jesus unclean, it made sinners clean! On the cross Jesus took our uncleanness so we could have his cleanness. So we could touch God and be blessed!

2. We should be careful to honor God’s word and do things His way

¹³ When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. 2 Sam. 6:13

David went six steps – six steps! – and stopped everything to make a sacrifice to God. It must have been a surprise to everyone to take six steps – 5, 10 seconds – and stop! Back when I was young I was part of a Messianic ministry and every Friday we’d drive into NYC to give out tracts and share the gospel. One Friday morning we have a string of about 8 or 9 vehicles waiting to leave for the city. I’m sitting in a pickup truck between the driver and a woman I didn’t know. All of a sudden the lead vehicle starts to move so we started to move but we only moved forward about six fee and the car in front of us stopped suddenly, so we stopped suddenly. But the girl sitting next to me didn’t stop. It was like I watched it in slow motion – her head kept going right into the windshield and she hit it so hard it cracked the windshield. I never saw anything like it before or since. We weren’t going more than 5 miles an hour. We only went a few feet. Now we had a girl with a headache and the guy had a cracked windshield.

I’ll bet when David stopped everything after six feet they all jerked forward too. But David was making a statement that he wasn’t going to make the mistake of taking God’s word lightly again. He wasn’t going to assume he was doing it right – he was going to honor God and God’s word. Just six steps in, he’s asking am I doing this right God? Am I going in the right direction God?

It concerns me how many people who once claimed a strong faith in God and the Bible are moving away from it so easily. Assuming their thoughts and perspectives, guided more by worldly ideologies and trending streams of thought than by the truth of scripture, are making their own paths rather than following the ancient ways. We need to stop often and ask ourselves, am I honoring God? Am I obeying God’s word with my life, my words, my actions? Or am I doing what they did in a spiritually sick time of Judges when “everyone did what was right in their own sight”?

Anyone of us are capable of doing that. We need to be careful we don’t become over familiar with God – assuming what we think, what we believe, and how we are living is ok with God cause it’s ok with us. We should stop regularly as David did and check: am I obeying God’s word? Is this attitude, belief, or action honoring to God? Am I doing this God’s way or my way? 

We need to stop frequently and seek God’s heart. Go to the cross. Bow our will and our knee at the feet of Jesus. Is the direction I’m going in moving me towards Jesus, towards this Bible, or away from the Bible and Jesus of the Bible? When we read the Bible we don’t read it to confirm our opinions, we read it to speak truth to our souls. Every six steps, we stop and make sure we’re moving towards this book and our gracious and holy God. 

3. God will not be propped up by human hands but with Christ we can carry God’s presence in our hearts

When the oxen that were pulling the cart stumbled, Uzzah thought he’d reach out and keep God from falling. Kind of like the Philistines set their god Dagon back up. Uzzah was the son of Abinadab which meant he had the ark of the covenant in his home for 20 years. Maybe he got too familiar with it, maybe he genuinely thought it was going to fall. 

The name Uzzah means “strength”. Oxen in the bible often represent strength. The oxen pulled God by their strength but when they stumbled, Uzzah sought to prop God up by his strength. God is not a God who needs our strength. He will not be propped up by human hands and Uzzah learned that the hard way. 

I have no doubt that Uzzah is with the Lord. He is in the presence of the One he thought he could prop up and he is worshipping the God of all creation. But God had a strong lesson: He isn’t looking for our strength to prop Him up. God doesn’t take out a “help wanted” ad – ever! But He has sent us a “help available” message. Jesus is the help we need. He wants to prop our lives up with grace. 

When sin beats us down, God wants to prop us up with forgiveness. When our needs bend us to the point of breaking God wants to prop us up with mercy. When discouragement gets us down, God wants to prop us up with hope. God meets us where we are through His word, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, through the mercies of Jesus and does more than prop us up – He blesses and strengthens us with His strength at the very point we are weakest.

His grace is made perfect in our weakness. 

He will not be propped up by human hands, but He is ready and eager to make us stand in the day of trouble when we call on Him from sincere hearts.

• If you’ve moved away – today’s the day to move back towards Him. 
• If you’re struggling or stumbling or falling, God is eager to hold you up.