Promise Fulfilled Part 2

Good morning. This past week I hung new lights and that required rewiring and somewhat could be a dangerous activity. And so I did something that is a bit out of character for me. I read some instructions. I typically like to just go with my gut and trial and error, see what happens. But given that I was going to be on a ladder messing with electricity, I thought I should probably make sure I know what I'm doing. Thankfully, it's pretty simple. I didn't get hurt. But the danger of actually getting knocked off and potentially injured led me to want to make sure I got instructions. I even received coaching on YouTube. This morning we are thinking about instructions, and we're going to see that the more important the task, the weightier the job, the weightier the task in front of us, the more we should really make sure we know what we're doing. We're really looking at God and His holiness. We're seeing that He invites us into the most important task, the highest job. his worship. And so he gives us instructions, and they're good. We're looking at 2 Samuel 5, 2 Samuel 6 rather. Last week we looked at 2 Samuel 5, and these two chapters really go together. because God is doing something very important. He's fulfilling numerous promises from Abraham, and we see here that there's the right people in the right place. The capital city is the center. We now have the king, and today we see worship. Everything is being centralized in a way that we're hoping for the kingdom of God to come in a unique and powerful way. If you heard chapter 6 read just now, you heard over and over again, the ark of God, the ark of the Lord, ark of God, ark of the Lord. It's the main emphasis of the entire chapter. Fourteen times it's referenced. We are thinking about the ark in the event of bringing it. Well, why is this so important? Later, you can look at Exodus 25, where we actually see the instructions for what the ark is supposed to be, and the exact design, everything about it, all the details. God is very precise and clear on the things that are most important. And here, he's very clear in Exodus 25. What is the ark? What is it used for? Well, the significance of the ark is found in verse 22, specifically. The mercy seat is on top of the ark. And God says, there I will meet you. And I will speak with you. The Ark of God is where a kind, promise-making, generous, steadfast, loving God, the Creator, meets His image bearers, us, human beings, whoever bought against Him. It's very important that it's the mercy seat. It's there where He comes down so that we can again meet with Him and hear from Him. This is why the Ark of the Lord is so significant in this particular chapter and throughout the Old Testament. If we were to go back to 1 Samuel, We see that Eli and his house, they're out of order. His sons are described as worthless fellows. And when Israel is out fighting the Philistines, they decide to take the ark out there as if it's a god, not just a representation of where God's going to meet man. And they use it like a good luck charm. If we just send the ark out, then God will give us favor, and the ark's captured. And when the Philistines take the ark and they put it in their temple with Dagon, Well, that God bows down and breaks into pieces because that false God cannot be the presence of the Holy God. The Philistines get afraid, and then, and they send it back to Israel, and Israel's afraid, and so. for many years, close to 100 years, it's been sitting there in Kiriath Jerim, or as it's called here, Baal Judah. So it's been sitting away from the people of God, it's been housed inappropriately, and now David, having censured his kingdom and bringing everything to fruition of God's promises, we see it being brought to Jerusalem. If we're looking for one simple message, one simple line that would summarize our text in our sermon this morning, God invites us to worship Him, instructions included. God invites us to worship Him, instructions included. We'll look at four stages, four points. First we see sincere, but disobedient. Sincere, but disobedient. Next we see angry and afraid. Angry and afraid. Next joyful and obedient. And then honor and shame. Our text has lots of emotive language. It's very strong emotional events. Some judged by God and some blessed. First, let's look at sincere, but disappointing. David, with great enthusiasm, seeing all that God has done, giving victory and peace to all of his enemies, bringing him to a capital city, bringing him to be the king as he'd been waiting for many years, as promised, He takes 30,000 men to go get the ark. And he's the leader of the whole parade. It's a grand celebration. There's joy, there's instruments, there's music. And they take the ark and they put it on a new cart, not an old cart. And there, the household of Abinadab, they're going along with him, and the sons. And then there's one little mishap. In the midst of all the celebration, all the instruments, one little mishap. Verse 6. The ark starts to fall because an oxen stumbles. And Uzzah reaches out his hand. He tries to capture the ark. A good intention! He's trying to protect the holiness of God with his own hand. The anger of the Lord bursts forth. The name of the place has even changed to the anger of the Lord bursting forth against Uzzah. It's a significant event where God's anger is bursting forth against someone who's trying to protect the Holy Ark in the midst of a grand celebration. This leaves us somewhat perplexed. Why is God so angry? Why is God not blessing this celebration and this apparently good instinct to protect the holy ark of God? Well, as we step back and wrestle with this anger of the Lord, the first thing we need to see is God has given very explicit instructions. In Numbers 4.15, God makes it clear. The ark of the Lord is not to be carried by a beast of burden and an ox, but he is to be carried by his image bearers. And not just any image bearers, only Levites, the priests that God has ordained and set apart for the holy purposes of the carrying the ark and setting up the temple and leading Israel in worship. More than that, the way that the nations would carry their idols were on a new cart. No, you don't put it on a cart, you carry it with poles, image bearers, again, bearing the load. All these actions are sincere. You see David sincerely leading a huge caravan and a huge parade of great joy and Uzzah being a man who seems to be doing what appears right. The heart is in the right place. Except for the fact they've just not looked to listen to God's instruction. They're not doing it according to what God has said. Now a grand theme of the 1st and 2nd Samuel is God doesn't look on appearances. He looks at the heart. The heart matters. This was a key part of David's own choosing is 1 Samuel 16, 7. When Samuel looks around and sees all the brothers, the most tall and strong and attractive, that must be the king. No, God does not look upon appearances. He looks upon the heart. Our internal disposition, our sincerity, it matters, but it must be done according to what God says. I believe what we see here is God giving David a very important lesson as he is establishing his kingdom. You must worship according to God's word. Being sincere is not enough. There are clear rules where God is teaching David, I am a holy God. I have made you my holy people for us to relate together, for you to be my holy people and to recognize my holiness. There's rules. There's restrictions. There always have been. I believe one of the reasons God told Adam that one tree is not for you was to remind Adam you're not autonomous. I'm holy. You must follow instructions. Anger of God burst forth. Touching the ark was out of bounds. Carrying the ark on a cart was out of bounds. What's happening here is the judgment of a holy God coming into direct contact with sinful man. Nothing else could have happened. We lost this relationship where we could walk with God and talk with God. Now we're sinful, and God in his ark has given us an opportunity to meet him, but not the way David is leading this parade, not the way Uzzah has responded. It's actually a great blessing that God has taught us these things. He's shown us that there are things that are holy, there's things that are meant to be obeyed. Sincerity is not enough. This is why we need to be careful in the way we actually try to pursue God and the way we try to worship God. Sincerity is essential, but it's not enough. We have to actually look up to Christ and ask, what would it look like for us to love you? So we have one of the great, the great command according to Jesus Christ. Love the Lord your God with all your heart. The sincerity of the heart, the internal disposition and desires, they matter. Jesus also teaches us, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. Love by definition is binding and restricting. We want to value freedom of how we want to express. No, the best way to express true love of God is by seeking to be as bound as we can be to what he has said. The next step we see is angry and afraid. And here we're looking at David's response to God's own anger. David responds to God bursting forth with anger against Uzzah. And really bursting forth against David and the way he's leading this whole parade with David's anger. Look at verse 8. David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah. And David was afraid, verse 9, of the Lord that day. He said, how can I receive the ark? David is angry in response to God's anger. He's angry with God because he's declaring, I'm not happy with this. I'm displeased. This probably makes sense to us. There have been times where I thought I was giving God really what I thought was best and most sincere, and then all of a sudden it doesn't work out. The response is, God, why wouldn't you make everything work out the way I wanted it to? We get angry with God. The question we have to ask is, is we look at David's anger, and we look at God's anger. Is God unjust for punishing Uzzah? Well, what if he's, what if, what if, what if he's ignorant? What if Uzzah was ignorant, and he just had no idea he wasn't supposed to do that? Well, if God is unjust for this judgment, we would have to say ignorance is bliss, and it'd be better not to know anything about God. God has given us instructions because he is holy and coming into direct contact with him is dangerous because we're sinful. God is teaching David how to be a follower so that he can lead his people. God has to teach David about his own holiness so that David knows how to lead his people in trusting and obeying. Worship is first about faithfulness. Here's the good news this morning. God invites us to worship Him. That is what the Word of God always declares. God is inviting His people to worship Him. God is revealing Himself so that we would worship Him. But it must be done according to how He invites us. He's the Creator. We're the creature. He's holy. We're in rebellion. He gives us instructions. Now, That might sound limiting. It might sound hard. We have to remember something Jesus taught, and that He alone is the way. How can I see the Father? You can only see the Father in me. How can we know God? Well, it's only through me. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. Why? It's actually right there on the ark. The mercy seat. The entirety of this Old Testament teaching on the temple and the ark and the sacrifice, it's all teaching us how we can know God in and only through Jesus. Because Jesus is the perfect high priest. Who goes into the true holy of holies, not just the replicas of the ark and the temple that Israel knew. He goes into the true holy of holies, the true presence of God, and he offers the perfect sacrifice. It's his sinless, righteous life. He became like us in every way, yet without sin. And so Jesus, he is the high priest who goes into the true holy of holies and gives his own life. Why? So that we could once again meet with God. so that we can once again hear from God, not with fear and trembling, but with great rejoicing, because sin isn't just passed over in Christ. Sin is removed and washed away in Christ. This is why Hebrews exhorts us. Don't go back to what's fearful and distant. Come to what's joyful. Draw near because of what Christ has done. I met a Christian this morning. This may sound odd. To think of a God who has anger. To think of a God who would set limits. To think of God who would have us fearful. He has to teach us what our sin is. He has to teach us how we've sinned against Him, and what the consequences of our sin are. So that when we look at Christ, we actually see the good news that in Christ we can be forgiven. All this is done so that you can be invited, so that you can hear the invitation. Confess your sin to God and you can find forgiveness. Confess your, your weakness to God and that you can't help yourself, you can't cleanse yourself, you can't fix yourself. He can restore you. It means you recognize there is something internally constantly frustrating and, and wrong. And we see it out there, but do we see it in here? We look to Christ who died on the cross. He provided forgiveness. He rose again to prove He is the God who He said He is. And to prove He can give us new life. And then He's at the right hand of the Father where we can now pray. In the name of the Son, Father, forgive me. Christian, we too have to look up regularly. Look up to Christ. Do not let guilt settle in. Do not let the fears and the doubts of how God would talk to us and how God would treat us. Guilt's disabling. It's paralyzing. Look up before the throne of God where we have that sure peace of Jesus Christ who pleads for us. He's the one who gives us the assurance. You think about this ark and why this is so important? We see David's anger. And David, at some level, he has to just be angry because he is doing his best to bring God's ark back. He's doing everything he thinks he should do to bring God's ark back in, and what he's failed to do is what was instructed in Deuteronomy 17, take the word of the Lord, read it, read it to all the people, and then obey it. He seems to be just doing this on his own without inquiring how. In Proverbs 16 3, We read, commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established. Notice the sequence, commit your work, whatever you're gonna do, commit it to the Lord and then He will establish. I think we usually try to say something like this, I will establish my plans and then expect God to work it out. Significant difference there. God, what are your plans? I want to align myself with your plans so that you will work it out. Rather than, God, here are my plans, I want you to bless them all. He doesn't serve us, we serve Him. We're confusing who's God. David is angry because he's confused who's God. It's quite sad how much we expect God to bless us when we're ignoring His commands, and then how we blame God when they don't work out. God gets angry with us. It's reality. God's anger is just out of his divine, perfect character. And it's righteous anger. There is a righteous anger of humans, and I fear we probably think we have righteous anger more often than we have. But when God disciplines us, which is what he's doing right here, this is what we would call discipline. It is corrective, and it is constructive. He's disciplining out of righteous anger. Why? The same way our, same reason our parents discipline us. The same way we as parents discipline our children. Because of love. We see this expressed explicitly in Hebrews 12, in that the Father, He disciplines those He loves. He corrects us when we're going the wrong way because of His love. It is loving to say, stop. It is loving to say, no. It is loving to warn and rebuke and correct and praise God because He's so committed to His holiness, and He's so committed to us being part of that worship in His holiness. He says stop. I think we probably all know that those we love most can make us most angry. Maybe that's just me. The scary place would be is if God was indifferent. The scary place would be if God is indifferent towards you. Praise God. There is, there is no, no, no discussion of any indifference. God loves all of humanity. And so He is angry when He sees our sin. And God loves those who believe in Christ. And so for a moment He displays His anger to correct us. If you look back at Psalm 30 verse 5, David looking back and reflecting on this moment, I think. Anger is for a moment. Favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for a night, but joy comes in the morning. That's a verse worthy of memorization. That's a verse worthy of meditating upon. And when we feel the discipline, if you're right now in the midst of feeling like there's some kind of confusion, and correction, and God lining you back up, Know that whatever that distance might be felt, know whatever that correction might be felt, it's for a moment. He doesn't ever change his posture towards those whom he has chosen to love. Joy comes in the morning. If you're under discipline, praise God He loves you. Praise God He cares enough for you to correct you and to change you and to not leave you in sin. Look at verse 9, David is afraid. How can the ark come to me? You just saw a man die by touching it. This is a response, and David's responses are always interesting. He's normally responding, wow, the anger, he's not getting it yet, but he at least recognizes, I've mishandled this. I have misunderstood the ark and, and how it should be received. And here we actually see an overreaction. He wants to keep the ark away from him because of fear. No, the, the whole point of God is saying, no, receive me properly out of fear. Receive him according to his instructions. Now we need to wrestle with something else before we move on out of this, this particular point. And, and that is the whole concept of holiness. If we go into the Old Testament, we see holiness everywhere. It's, it's, there's holy space. The Garden of Eden was a holy space. Adam and Eve had to move out of that space because of their sin. The whole idea of the Ark is holy space. When Moses sees God in the burning bush, take off your shoes because you are on holy ground. Whenever God and man were coming together in any way, it was holy. Where God shows up, it's holy. Sinai, put a boundary around it. It's holy. There's so many different ways in which the Old Testament is teaching over and over again. We don't come to God haphazardly and casual. We come as sinners to a holy God, and it's to be done properly. In the New Testament, we lose a lot of this if we miss the point of the Old Testament. We see Christ died, and we see him coming, ascending to the right hand of the Father, and just inviting and inviting, and Jesus is walking among his people. We miss somewhat of that holiness. Where do we see holiness in the New Testament? First and foremost, it's in the name of Christ. He was holy. He came down to make us holy. He came down as the one who has a name above all names. And He, in His name, is to be glorified as the one who is truly holy and worthy of all praise. We're asked, what's holy now? Christian, you are. You're declared holy. It has everything to do with what God has just done to you. You've been taken out of the domain of darkness. You've been put into the kingdom of his beloved Son. That's holiness. You are now holy. First Corinthians 6 makes this argument very clear. Flee sexual immorality. Do you not know that the Holy Spirit dwells in you and that you're a temple now? In the name of Christ, you've been washed, sanctified, and justified. And by the Holy Spirit, you're now indwelt by the holiness of God. You're a temple. You are holy. Keep yourself from idols. It's not only a you are holy believer, but we are holy. The church is supposed to be the holy place of God, that when we gather, the Holy Spirit is among us, and Christ's presence is with us. And when we're committed to doing the things of Christ, it's a holy place. It means we do not permit sin among one another. That's defaming to the name of Christ, according to 1 Corinthians 5. It means we try to build up one another to know Christ and practice that holiness. You are holy. We are holy. Something else is holy? Every single second of your time. That's what Paul says, redeem the time. The days are evil. Your time is holy. Because your time, because you've been bought with the precious blood of Christ, now belongs to Him. In every precious, fragile, perishing second, an opportunity to praise God as His Holy One, or an opportunity to be selfish and sinful? How are we setting aside our lives, our priorities, our activities, our time to be holy? Our third point. Joyful and obedient. Interestingly, verse 10, David is afraid of taking the ark, and so he takes it into the house of a Gittite, and that just means a Philistine. So Israel is doing what they should be doing. They're bringing God's ark into the holy capital to bring all things together. The, the, the royal, royal rule of a king. The, the proper worship with the ark. And, and on the way this, this event happens, because they're not doing it properly, and all of a sudden the, the ark of God is with a Philistine. And so David gets it, God blessed that household abundantly. So when David hears it, he says, oh, I need to go and get the ark. Verse 12. And it was told King David, the Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom, and all that belongs to him, the ark of God. So David went and brought up the ark to the city of David with rejoicing. And so here, our third point, joyful and obedient. We see here again, there's a right heart, but it's, It's a different obedience. They're carrying it the right way. There's the priest, and they're even doing sacrifices on the way. And David danced before the Lord with all his might. He was wearing an ephod. He himself is joining in with the priest. He's wearing fine linens, like a priest, in all the house of Israel. It's one grand worship celebration with shouting and the sound of a horn. It's a joyful celebration. And then we see verse 16. A little bit of an illusion of what's going to happen in a minute. McCall, the daughter of Saul, looked and she had disdain in her. She despised. Here we see the wrong heart posture will lead to the wrong actions. But there's something wonderful here about what David's actions are. He's seeking to lead his people to right worship, in the right way, to the right God. And it's a great feast. It's a great blessing. He distributes food and, and all the people rejoice. For Psalm 30 again, verse 11. God, you turned my mourning, death happened because of disobedience, into dancing. sackcloth into gladness. There's no more silence. We're going to sing your praise. And, and here we, we don't see dancing condemned or condoned in Scripture. It's just like music, art. It's another form of art. It's, it's something that we can use before the Lord. And there was dancing and music done before the Lord. David appears to be doing what is right in joining in to the priestly dancing before the Lord. But now our final point, disdain. David goes to his own household, and on the way there, Michal, the daughter of Saul, comes to meet him, and with great sarcasm, and the key word, if you were to read 20 through 23 here, it's honor. Honor is repeated over and over again. Oh, how the king honored himself today. Uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants, female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself. Now David's wearing an avad. He's wearing the priestly garment, but he's also wearing fine linen we know from 1 Kings. He's not unclothed. He's just not wearing the royal garments, and she's mocking him for appearing in a way that's beneath the role of a king. There's something beautiful what David's doing. He wants to be among the people. He wants to be among the priests closest to God, worshiping like them, with them. And she's mocking him with sarcasm. Telling him he's being selfish. Oh, how you've honored yourself today. You're nothing worse. You're just as those vulgar fellows who shamelessly uncover themselves. What we see here is Michael is, McCall is not in love with God. We can look back at her history. She, daughter of Saul, she didn't honor her father. She was worshiping idols. She hid away David by putting an idol in bed, making it look like David. She was loved by another husband, and when David brought her back, maybe she's also now angry because she's not as loved as she was. We don't know. The main thing we see here is her heart is not aligned with God. And David is able to speak very clearly because of his clear conscience that he's worshiping God now, not only with sincerity of heart, but in full obedience. No, I will celebrate for the Lord. And if this is how you're going to look at me, I'll make myself even more contemptible before your eyes. He does not fall into a fear of man. He continues to have a strong fear of God. Now, this last verse is difficult because, well, any day of the week, but today's Mother's Day. I do not choose passages based upon Mother's Day or Father's Day or other kind of American holidays, but today is Mother's Day in verse 23. And Michael, the daughter of Saul, had no child to the day of her death. We need to wrestle with this. Every day, what this means, We do know her as an idol worshiper. She's not aligned with God in any place in Scripture. She seems to be a bit of a thorn in David's side constantly. But what does it mean that she had no child? The most obvious interpretation is that God is saying, because of her disobedience, because of her not aligning herself with God, because of her not wanting to join into the worship, because of her disdain for David's worship, consequences. She had no children. Now I need to be very clear here. It is in no way saying it's normative that if you are childless it is because of your own personal sin. This is not normative. It's a clear judgment on McCall because here's a very significant event. She's the first wife of David coming into the capital city and where worship is going to begin again for the people of God with all things in place. And so this is a significant consequence. It's not normative. Well, let's back out and think about what is normative. In Genesis 1, God said about human beings, let us make them in our image, male and female. That's what he said about us first. to set us apart as image bearers with honor and dignity, male and female. And then the first words to humans from God, He says He blessed us. It was a blessing. And the blessing was this. Be fruitful and multiply. The very design is for human beings to be fruitful and multiply, spread throughout all the earth. Image bearers. And if I think about the role of the woman here, carrying in her own womb image-bearers of God. Giving birth to image-bearers of God. It's a high position. It's a glorious gift that, that while the, the, the, that they would have this special unique role of, of, of bearing the child who is an image-bearer, of nurturing the child who is the image-bearer. But then we see a very difficult turn in Genesis 3. We rebelled against God. We refused to obey the one limit. Again, not recognizing His holiness. And everyone has a consequence. Satan is going to be crushed. David's going to have sweat. And for the woman, it's pain and childbearing. And we see how each one of those is specifically focused in on how God is bringing a consequence for some of the great blessings. I think what we see is the pain in childbearing if you've gone through a miscarriage. The pain of it. If you suffer with barrenness, if you just simply don't have the children you wish you had, or if you've had great complications in pregnancy. What you should see is it's just a consequence of the fall. It's a consequence of the fall of that we all live in this fallen world, just like the virus and the sickness and the cancer we prayed about earlier. It's a consequence of the fall that lands on some more personally more difficult than others. But it doesn't say normative that you should automatically think it's your fault. Actually, if we look at the normative pattern in Scripture, whenever there's a closed womb, God shows His power. He shows up first with Sarah. She has a closed womb. And God says, I'm going to give you the first promised child. And after waiting for years and even laughing at God, repeating the promise because they got so tired of waiting, God opened her womb and she gave birth to Isaac, the first promised child. God is showing He's sovereign even where the curse affects us most personally. And then, Rebecca, Isaac's wife, she has a clothes loom, she prays and the Lord blesses her. And then Rachel, Jacob's wife, she has a clothes loom and God blesses her. And we can even go back to the very beginning of Samuel. Hannah, she was mocked because she had no children. She prayed to the Lord and God opened her womb. We even look back to Eve, who's renamed the mother of the living, even though this curse of the consequence of sin, pain and childbearing. Finally, we see a young virgin. It doesn't just give birth to an image bearer. She gives birth to God, who's going to bear our sins. God is showing he is able to care and provide his power and to overcome the consequence of our sin precisely and personally by showing how he is powerful to care for the woman in the womb. That doesn't mean he's going to open the womb for all. It doesn't mean he's going to remove all pain and childbearing. But it gives us hope. He is helping us. where we oftentimes are most hurting. We see He has the power to restore, to renew, to bring about His kingdom in the most personal and powerful way. I was thinking about Mother's Day. Praise God for mothers. That call to give birth to image bearers, that call to care and nurture and teach, and praise God for the patience and the kindness. Moms, the lesson of anything with McCall is don't be like McCall. Promote proper worship in your home. Be like Hannah. Be encouraged to trust the Lord, to go before the Lord, who want to worship the Lord. And in all the discouragement, pray. It's frustrating, difficult work. It's hard work because the work of a mother is never done. You never feel like you can do enough. You can't. But you can take your child before the Lord and trust Him to do His good work. Trust the Lord. He will complete His work. As we conclude, all of us, If we think about our passage, we see how God is powerful to overcome our sin. We see how our sin cannot go before a holy God without His mediation. But praise be to the Lord that Jesus Christ has come. He has saved us. He has provided that once and for all sacrifice on that mercy seat. So that we can now enter boldly in His name and in His name alone. to praise the God who is worthy of all praise. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you have not left us alone. Death is what we deserve because of our sin. Not just us, Lord, all of us. We all deserve death because of our sin. Death is the consequence of our sin. Thank you that you teach us that you're holy. Thank you that you teach us that we cannot approach you on our own or in our own way, but that we can come before you in the name of Christ because of his obedience, because of his death, because he is now at your right hand and lets us come in to see you and to know you with confidence. Confidence in what he's accomplished for us. strengthen our hearts, renew us, restore us, give us a joy to approach you and worship you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.