Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20061015.htm

1 AND 2 CHRONICLES: GAINING DIRECTION OUT OF THE AIMLESSNESS OF APOSTASY
Part II: Gaining Direction From God's Work In The Reign Of David, 1 Chronicles 10-29
B. Gaining Direction From God's Responses To How Seriously He And His Word Are Respected
(1 Chronicles 13:1-14)
  1. Introduction
    1. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 reveals that, in view of the brevity of this life and of the futility of its works when considered by themselves alone, man must revere the Lord and heed Him. After all, the purpose of this life is to live it so as to give an account at the end of his life for how well we have done so.
    2. However, not only at the end of life, but during it, there are blessings to be gained instead of lost by viewing and heeding God and His Word SERIOUSLY, a lesson illustrated in 1 Chronicles 13:1-14:
  2. Gaining Direction From God's Responses To How Seriously He And His Word Are Respected.
    1. David's motive and effort to move the ark of the covenant back to its proper place in the tabernacle was an outstanding, upright, wise move (as follows), 1 Chronicles 13:1-6:
      1. After David had been blessed of God to be anointed by the elders as king in fulfillment of God's promise (1 Chron. 11:1-3), he desired to bring the ark back to the tabernacle, 1 Chron. 13:1-3.
      2. This was a very wonderful, upright, moving plan on David's part for several reasons (as follows):
        1. The ark had been missing from the tabernacle for nearly 100 years since it had been initially taken by the Philistines in battle during the rule of Eli the priest, and that due to the sin of Israel and her leaders, cf. Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 605 with 1 Samuel 2:27-29, 31-33 with 4:12-18.
        2. In honor of the Lord Who had established him king over Israel, David then wanted to unite the nation spiritually under the Lord by retrieving and returning the ark to the tabernacle in Jerusalem from where it then resided in Kirjath-jearim in his own tribe of Judah, 1 Chron. 13:5-6; Ibid., p. 605.
      3. The people welcomed this plan -- it "was right in the eyes of all the people"; this response was typical toward David's leading in the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, 1 Chron. 13:3-4; 1 Samuel 16:13; 18:30.
    2. Accordingly, David made extensive plans to honor God in the process of moving the ark to Jerusalem:
      1. He summoned the whole nation of Israel from the southern (Shihor) to the northern (Hemath) borders to move the ark from Kirjath-jearim to Jerusalem, a trip of only ten miles, 1 Chronicles 13:5; Ibid.; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., map 4. This act signal that David's move was not a mere political move by him to get the ark from a residence in his own tribal property to where he had set up his nation's capital, the city of Jerusalem, but a move by all the people of all the tribes of Israel!
      2. The rightness of this move is implied by the elaborate description used to describe the ark in this move as "the ark of God the Lord, that dwelleth between the cherubim, whose name is called on it," 13:6!
    3. Yet, regardless of all the good motives, wisdom and worship involved, sufficient care to OBEY God's WORD had not been taken, and God struck a man dead for making a cavalier move in relation to the ark:
      1. David and the priests had not taken care to read in the Law that the ark was not to be carried on a cart, but by the priests on poles that were run through the ark's corner rings, 1 Chron. 15:2; Ex. 25:13-14.
      2. Thus, as God's ark had been placed on a cart, and it began to tip when its wheels hit a rough part on the way, and the man, Uzzah impulsively reached out to touch the ark and steady it in violation of the Law that forbade anyone but Levites to touch it (Num. 4:15-20), so God struck him dead, 1 Chron. 13:7-11!
    4. Conversely, when those involved revered the Lord and His Word, He richly blessed them as follows:
      1. Fearful of how to proceed any further without more insight on correctly respecting and handling the ark, David had the ark moved to the home of Obed-edom the Gittite, 1 Chronicles 13:12-13.
      2. Though Obed-edom, being a Gittite was a Philistine from Gath (Zond. Pict. Ency. of the Bible, v. Two, p. 658 with 2 Sam. 15:18), he revered God and SO did not disrespectfully mishandle the ark, and God blessed him and his family for the three months the ark remained in his home, 1 Chronicles 13:14!
Lesson: Regardless of all the good intentions, worship and praise of God involved by God's chosen people, when they failed sufficiently to RESPECT so as to HEED His Word, tragedy came in the form of divine judgment; however, when EVEN a PAGAN PHILISTINE showed REVERENCE and SO HEEDED God and His Word, God RICHLY BLESSED him and his family!

Application: May we revere and heed God and His Word, not acting carelessly in our lives before Him!