To better understand why God struck down Uzah when he tried to steady the Ark, let’s rewind the tape to Chapter 6 of 1st Samuel.
This was when the Philistines had captured the Ark.
It was in their possession for seven months, but soon, they wanted to get rid of the darn thing.
Why?
Because of all of the death and devastation it was causing.
In their desperation, they went to their priests and soothsayers for advice.
The priests told them, “Don’t be stubborn like Pharaoh in Egypt. You need to send the Ark back, but do it the right way.”
They came up with a plan: build a new cart, hitch it to two milk cows that had never been yoked, and leave their calves behind.
Then, they placed the Ark on the cart along with a box of gold objects as a guilt offering to God.
They then sent the cart off on its own to see what would happen.
Amazingly, the cows walked straight toward Israel without anyone guiding them!
The cart eventually stopped at a big rock, where the Levites carefully unloaded the Ark and the gold.
The people nearby sent a message to Kiryat-Ye’arim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the Ark of the LORD. Come and take it.”
The men of Kiryat-Ye’arim came and brought the Ark to the house of Avinadav.
They appointed his son Eleazar to take care of it, ensuring it was guarded and respected.
However, it’s what happened soon afterward that’s so telling.
“…for [Adonai] struck the people of Beit-Shemesh for looking at the ark of Adonai. He killed 50,070 of the people; the people mourned because Adonai had struck them with such a terrible slaughter.”-1 Samuel 6:19
Putting aside the fact that the 50,070 figure is inaccurate (the total number of people killed was most likely around 70), why in the world would God summarily execute a large group of Hebrew villagers in the first place?
He only made the Philistines sick with tumors and temporarily attacked their food supply for rough-handling his Ark…
But He executed 70 Israelites at Beit-Shemesh at the drop of a hat.
What gives?
Well, the first thing you need to know is that the Hebrew inhabitants of Beit-Shemesh were not just your average Hebrew citizens.
They were actually Levites.
This goes back to what I was talking about yesterday.
It’s pretty tragic and shocking that the Levites…
The very men who were supposed to know and teach the Law of Moses…
Didn’t have a clue how to handle the Ark properly.
This is something even the Hebrew Sages point out.
These were the men King David sent to move the Ark, and yet they had no idea what the proper Torah protocol was.
Fast forward 70 years to where we’re at in our study today after the Ark was returned from the Philistines.
When it came time to transport it to the City of David.
What do they do?
They imitate the pagan Philistines and place the Holy Ark on an oxcart.
And to make what they were doing seem extra righteous, they decided it should be a brand-new cart.
What they were doing might’ve looked good on the surface…
But it was NOT what God had commanded.
And that’s your takeaway for today.
This is a violation that has been committed by pretty much every religion that claims to be following the God of Israel (called YHVH).
They make up all of the pious rituals and traditions that have absolutely NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT’S ACTUALLY WRITTEN IN SCRIPTURE!
Ya feel me?
We’ll dive into this a bit more the next time we speak.
Leave a Reply