Ep. 87. 2 Samuel 6, 1 Chronicles 13,15 | The Ark in Jerusalem

EPISODE 87

THE ARK IN JERUSALEM:1 CHRONICLES 13,15, 2 SAMUEL 6

The moving of the Ark to Jerusalem is such an interesting story. Though the Tent of Meeting has been at Gibeon for quite a while, the Ark of the Covenant has remained at Kiriath-Jearim since the Philistines had returned it, along with the golden tumors and mice. The Ark has not been in the holy of holies for at least twenty years. It makes me wonder how the priests were supposed to make atonement for the people in the holy of holies with the sprinkled blood on the Ark every year. Clearly, the priests were not doing their jobs. Clearly, there was no affection for the rules or regulations of the priests. In the seventh month of each year, the priests were to celebrate the Day of Atonement by walking into the holy of holies with the priestly garments and blood for the purification of all the people. We know that Saul was not a faithful God follower, but it seems even the priests at this time had neglected their duties; otherwise, wouldn't they have insisted the Ark be returned to the Tent of Meeting? But we are told in today's reading concerning the Ark, "For we did not seek it in the days of Saul."

David seems noble in his desire to bring the Ark to Jerusalem, but in that desire, we see that not even David knew the regulations of the Ark. If he had understood the writing of Moses, David would have insisted the Ark be returned to the tent, he would have insisted that only the High Priest be allowed to look upon it, he would have required only a Kohathite priest be allowed to carry it. However, David violated all of these conditions. That Uzzah was the only one struck dead on David's first attempt to move the Ark was just the grace of God.

For the three months that David abandons the moving of the Ark, we see that he is more studied than before. He used those three months to build a tent for the Ark of God, which is nice but still not correct. He also insisted that the Ark be carried by qualified priests for, "Because you did not carry the Ark the first time, the LORD our God broke out against us, because we dd not seek him according to the rule." We are told in the parallel text in Samuel that David offered an animal sacrifice every six steps on their journey into Jerusalem. He certainly wanted to make sure no one was going to die this time around.

But we are still left with the question, why did God allow David to move the Ark and allow the people to look at it without consequences? Tomorrow, David will pray before the Ark, and we will have the same sorts of questions. Seriously, it just has to be a matter of God's good grace. We can't fault God for being gracious to David when he really deserved death; after all, we, too, are beneficiaries of God's grace when we deserve death. So maybe that's a thread we don't want to pull too hard on. We will just leave that alone for today.

ADDITIONAL READING: 1 Samuel 6:21; 1 Samuel 7:1-2; Exodus 25;14-15; Exodus 35;12; Exodus 37:5; 1 Samuel 8:2; 1 Chronicles 6:28; 1 Chronicles 6:33