2 Samuel 6.9 9
David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, “How can the ark of the Lord
ever come to me?” (NIV)
As emergent as
I wannabe these days, I know my more emergent friends may squirm a bit at what
I have to say (blog). David was afraid
and had every reason to be – HE SCREWED UP!!! You don’t put the Ark of the
Covenant on a new cart – I don’t care how good a deal you got on the lumber at
Home Depot. You don’t pull the cart with oxen. And you don’t allow your buddies
to be bodyguards of the Ark – that’s the Priest’s job. And David was afraid.
There have been times in my life where I have been called
into question for my actions and had that devastating pang of fear in my gut
over the mistake I’ve made and what the consequences of those actions were
going to bring. It is almost a knee-knocking-diarrhea-causing pang. I screwed
up and I was going to get it (or so I thought). I think that might describe
David’s fear of the Lord that day. It was terror.
We are to fear
the Lord – and that fear is all about respect. God is not mean, nor is He into using
clubs or weaponry against His kids; but we must never use the kid-card to excuse disrespect and
irreverence (see 2 Samuel 6.7). Uzzah done did a bad thing, and David allowed
it to happen. The Law was very specific about how the Ark was to be transported
and who was to transport it – the king isn’t mentioned in the Law regarding portage
of the Ark (See: Exodus 25.14; Deuteronomy 10:8; 31.25)
And when others suffer because of our own stupidity, disrespect,
and irreverence, we, like David, need to take that very seriously. We just might
need to be afraid too...
A time or two I’ve been afraid of God – sheer terror of
His awesome majesty and power. I have realized the like the spider in Edward’s
sermon, I’m hanging by a thread over the flames of His wrath, that I have
nothing but grace to protect me and save me because I sure don’t deserve it,
and, after all the effort and energy I’ve put into this faith thing, it may be
for naught – that I’ve somehow missed it. I don’t feel good in those moments. I
feel very afraid.
God is not a fear-broker but there are those moments in
life when I think we need to look down the barrels of faith and ask ourselves why
that Ark is so far away and if it’ll never come any closer. David was for the
most part comfortable and confident in his faith, but I can think of at least
three times when he was downright terrified, and this event was one of them.
My faith in God is never to be taken for granted nor
taken advantage of; David learned that firsthand. Fear, sheer terror of God, is
part of the package and probably deserves some attention in our lives – I sure
know it exists in mine from time to time.
Father, I am so weak and so small and yet, at the same
time, so profoundly wicked and arrogant. I have made some terrible mistakes
that have caused me more than discomfort – they have caused me seismic terror
that I am irreparably irreparable. I am grateful for grace and scared crapless
that I might drive the bus of my faith off the cliff. Save me. Forgive me. And help
me to walk as I ought: acting justly, loving mercy and humbly with You – Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment