2 Sam. 6 Some New Things Can't Replace Old Things

“David continues to establish his reign over Israel by “gathering all the choice men of Israel, thirty thousand” plus those he already had in his army.  As a “divine right” monarch David understood the importance of having the Presence of the Lord with he and all of Israel; purposing to relocated the Ark back to the City of David, a new cart was built and it seemed as though everything was in place for the process to be a success.

Yet there are some “new things” that CANNOT REPLACE “OLD THINGS”!

We see two things here that were contrary to the Law of the Lord concerning the Ark’s relocation.  One, there’s no record of Uzzah being a “priest”, they were the sons of Abinadab a Levite, that wasn’t permitted to touch, let alone move the ark.  Two, the Ark was on the “new cart” rather than on the shoulder of the priests.  Why this occurred, wasn’t based on rebellion or any like motive; it just “seemed” right, yet was very wrong from God’s perspective.

Leaders, I rejoice with multitudes for the new choruses, new methods and means of communicating the Gospel, new technologies that so many ministries are on the cutting edge of.  I don’t mind the lights, the fog shows; along with creating a more comforting environment for THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD.  But we can ill afford to permit all of these “new carts” be an attempt to replace His Presence; regardless of your spiritual expression, apart from His Presence there is little to offer those who are “earnest” in searching for the reality that can only be found in Christ.

As a result fear gripped David’s heart and he left the Ark with Obed-Edom (a distant relative of Edom, Jacob’s brother) for three months.  What all transpired during that time frame, there is no record; yet we do have record that Obed-Edom was abundantly blessed.  As to the time of year these months covered is uncertain; however the point being that God’s Presence made a significant and observable impact that was testimony to His goodness.

The Presence of the Lord’s blessing isn’t limited to any particular season of nature; it is limited by mankind’s response to His presence.  Obed-Edom’s name means he was a servant and undoubtedly served the Lord and kept a watchful eye on the Ark.

Upon hearing of this relatively obscure man, David determines to discover the “proper” protocol for moving the Ark and in so doing made himself a “spectacle” to all who viewed the occasion; not the least of which was Michal his wife.

Calculating the distance from Obed-Edom’s house to Jerusalem, would have required David to have had choirs every seven paces, along with the sacrifices and offerings.  Along the way there was abundance of rejoicing for Israel to see the Ark returned after having been gone for so long.

David makes a couple of prophetic acts along the way as well; including blessing Obed-Edom’s house, which normally was declared by a priest and ministering blessings to the people “among the whole multitude of Israel”, which also was typically the priest’s responsibility.  In this brief description of activities, we see that David operated in three levels of ministry that are available to us as well today; as king, as prophet and as priest.

Michal viewed her husband’s “undignified” actions and even though she didn’t verbalize them to anyone yet; she carried them in her heart.  The Word declares it is “out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks”; in Michal’s case revealed her disdain for David. David declares he would become even more “undignified than this” when confronted by Michal. Most women would relish a man to go after God with all their heart as David did; whether it was jealousy, envy, anger over her father’s demise we do not know.  But we do know this, she was literally barren from that time forward.

Could it be that many congregations are “barren” because they had disdain in their hearts for what they couldn’t explain, had never seen or experienced, didn’t have a Biblical basis to stand on?   In cases we can’t explain or have never seen it done that way; we would be wise to keep our hearts open and our mouths shut.  It could be that the Lord will do with you what you ridiculed in others.