After the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant in battle in the book of 1 Samuel, plague fell upon every city where they attempted to house it. They sent it back to Israel along with offerings to the Lord as an apology to Him so He would halt the plague. When the ark arrived in Beth Shemesh in Israel, seventy men irreverently looked into the ark and were struck dead for not regarding it as holy. Because the ark symbolized the Lord's presence among them, to violate His rules regarding touching the ark was to disrespect Him. It was a failure to award Him the honor due Him. The people of Beth Shemesh no longer wanted the ark among them, though it was man's fault and not God's fault that seventy men lost their lives, and they called for men of Kiriath-Jearim to come and get it. (See 1 Samuel 6 if you'd like to reread this account.) The Bible doesn't explain why Kiriath-Jearim was chosen by the people of Beth Shemesh when they wanted to rid themselves of the ark but it's likely because of the close proximity of these two settlements. The men of Kiriath-Jearim came immediately to get the ark and their people were honored to have it among them. This has been the home of the ark ever since.
Our passage refers to Kiriath-Jearim by it's earlier pagan name of "Baalah" but there is no doubt that Baalah and Kiriath-Jearim are one and the same because Joshua 1:9 and Joshua 1:60 specifically stated that they were. David selects thirty thousand of his top soldiers to go with him to bring the ark to Jerusalem. "David again brought together all the able young men of Israel---thirty thousand. He and all his men went to Baalah in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim on the ark." (2 Samuel 6:1-2)
There are far more than thirty thousand men able to serve in Israel's army, as evidenced by how many of them gathered together at Hebron to make David king over the whole nation. (We looked at a passage from 1 Chronicles 12 the other day that provided us with the number of men who came from each tribe.) But I think these thirty thousand are an elite force, the best of the best, because taking his very best soldiers with him is David's way of honoring the Lord as he retrieves the ark. He doesn't call up just anybody to go with him. He calls up the youngest, fittest, bravest men in his army and I suspect that perhaps in addition to having a reputation for being the best soldiers, they also have a reputation for loving the Lord and honoring Him with the way they live their lives.
David is trying to do the right thing but he misses the mark when he chooses the wrong method by which to bring the ark to Jerusalem. When the Lord told the Israelites how the ark was to be transported, He made it abundantly clear that it was to be carried by its poles resting on the shoulders of men of the Kohathite branch of the family of the late high priest Aaron. This is not how David transports the ark! "They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it." (2 Samuel 6:3-4) This mistake is going to be costly. A loss of life in tomorrow's text will be the result of not treating the ark as a symbol of the holy God.
Why does David make this mistake? I don't think it's because he doesn't care about doing it right. Could it be that he doesn't know how to do it right? If he wasn't clear about the proper procedure or if he didn't think the procedure had to be followed then I can think of a couple of reasons why and we'll talk about them below.
One: we studied the gradual spiritual decline of the nation during the era of the judges when some of the populace fell away from regular worship and descended into lawlessness, causing many to get out of the habit of observing all the Lord's instructions. Then the era of the judges was followed by the forty-two year reign of King Saul who didn't place much importance at all on following the Lord's instructions. He certainly didn't set a godly example. It could be that the general public had generally become unaware of the rules regarding the ark, especially since it sat in one place for so many decades. Two: when the Philistines sent the ark back to Israel they transported it on a new cart and the Lord didn't strike any of them dead for doing it that way. Far better they should put it on a cart than have it carried by their pagan priests! But these reasons aren't a valid excuse because even if David did not know the proper way to move the ark, the priests had no legitimate reason for not knowing, and David should have consulted the priests when planning the ark's retrieval. The fact that the Philistines moved it by cart and suffered no judgment for it is not a good reason to assume David could do the same. The Philistines didn't know any better. They couldn't be expected to follow a rule they'd never heard of, so the Lord didn't judge them for it. The Philistines didn't turn away from their false gods and make God the Lord of their lives but they did at least strive to send the ark back in a respectful manner by building a brand new cart for it and by sending valuable offerings with it. They didn't know any other way of doing it and, if this is how they normally moved their own sacred objects, it must have seemed like the best way to them.
We don't know whether David was copying the Philistine way of doing things but none of us who is a child of God has an excuse for doing things the way the world does things, not when we know better. Believe me, I've tried. I've made some messes after I tried to justify my methods by saying, "So-and-so does it this way." Or, "This is how most people would handle the problem." The Lord doesn't want or expect His children to handle their problems the way unbelievers handle their problems. We don't have to handle our problems the way unbelievers do because the Lord has shown us a better way---a way that won't land us in deep trouble of our own making. After tomorrow's disastrous result of the unsafe handling of the Ark of the Covenant, it will be three months before David makes another attempt to get it to Jerusalem. That time he will do it right because he will have learned a lesson. Some lessons can be very costly; I've made costly mistakes myself. But one thing I can say about mistakes like that is they are the ones I don't forget. They are the ones I try never to make again because I remember how painful the consequences were the first time.
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