This week’s Pastor to Person is written by Pastor Rich Cathers.
And the children of the Levites bore the ark of God on their shoulders, by its poles, as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord. (1 Chronicles 15:15)
David meant well, but good intentions aren’t always enough. David wanted to bring the Ark of the Covenant into his newly conquered capitol, Jerusalem. The big day came and there was quite a parade. The people lined the road leading to Jerusalem as the band played and the Ark slowly moved forward, carried on an oxcart. The oxen hit a rough patch, the cart began to wobble, and a man named Uzzah reached out to keep the Ark from falling. And that’s when David and the nation realized something was wrong. God struck Uzzah there for touching the Ark, and he died.
Initially David was angry and confused. It’s not until several months later that David decided to do some research and he found written in God’s Word that the Ark was only to be carried on the shoulders of the Levites. No oxcarts allowed. Putting the Ark on a cart had been a Philistine idea (1Sam. 6), not God’s idea. When David corrected the way things were done, the Ark was safely transported on Levitical shoulders to Jerusalem.
Sometimes God cares about how we do things, not just that we do them. The Ark was designed to be a model of God’s throne in heaven. God cares about how we represent Him before the world. God wants the world to see that He sits on the throne of our heart. When we interact with people, do we display God’s character, or the character of the world? The Bible tells me that God is gracious and compassionate (Ex. 34:6). It tells me that as His servant, I should be too (2Tim. 2:24-25).
May we toss the attitudes of world’s “oxcarts” and grow to represent our Great King, enthroned in our hearts.