04.01. Part 1

In the second book of Samuel, chapter six, (2 Samuel 6:1) we read from verse one:

"Again David gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand.

"And David arose, and went with all the people that were with him from Baale of Judah, to bring up from thence the ark of God, whose name is called by the name of the Lord of hosts that dwelleth between the cherubims. And they set the ark of God upon a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in Gibeah: and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drave the new cart. And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab which was at Gibeah, accompanying the ark of God: and Ahio went before the ark. And David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments made of fir wood, even on harps, and on psalteries, and on timbrels, and on cornets, and cymbals. And when they came to Nachon’s threshingfloor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God."

Israel had never had any covering in the sense of a tabernacle. They had been nomads. They had no priests. They had the heavens for the ceiling of their church. And now, suddenly, they are contracted to a small space that has been called the tabernacle in the wilderness. And God gives specific instructions to this amazing man Moses about the building. It’s very interesting that he had no choice in this. He obeyed every commandment God gave to him. He had no more choice in the thing than Noah had the choice of what kind of a rainbow he wanted. And it says in verse eight of the twenty-fifth chapter of Exodus,

"Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle..." (Exodus 25:8) Come down to verse seventeen:

"Thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold... and the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings. And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee." (Exodus 25:13)

That’s the first piece of furniture mentioned as regards the tabernacle. This ark was roughly fifty-four inches long, three feet high, and three feet wide. And it was a visible presence of an invisible power. It was a kind of a earthly resting place where God put His power between those awesome cherubims. Remember how often the Psalmist cries, "Oh, Thou that dwellest between the cherubims shine forth"?

Now, here is the ark,it’s measurements, and verse twenty-two says, "There will I meet with thee." AND THAT WAS THE SUPREME DESIRE OF GOD.
IT’S THE SUPREME DESIRE OF GOD TODAY:
THAT WHEN WE COME TOGETHER,
WE MEET WITH HIM. As I usually ask people somewhere in a meeting, "Did you come here tonight to meet God or did you come to hear a sermon about Him?"

I talked with somebody today, an internationally known figure, who said, "You know, I’m realizing how little I know of God". And, I’ve offered someone a writing, talking about Jesus laying His glory by and being wrapped in our clay, the most profound thing I’ve ever heard, and this person said, "I feel as though I don’t want to preach anymore." I said, "Well, that’s how I felt when I heard it and the depths that this man has." Oh God, pity us. We are so commercialized, so regulated by circumstances. We get up with the clock, the clock runs our lives, we lose sight of eternity. We lose sight of the wonder of God’s salvation. The whole tabernacle was marvelous. There’s to be a place in it, a holy place, not only a holy place but the Holy of Holiest, and this ark was put in the Holy of Holiest and it had the chief place in the Holy of Holiest. Inside of it you have the rod that budded, and a sample of the manna that fell from heaven, and also the tables of stone. This testimony of God had to be preserved. And the ark was an abiding place for God on earth - that is, He manifested Himself there.

You see, this isn’t some little bit of furniture that’s tucked away in a corner that has no meaning. It’s the abiding place, it’s a seat, it’s a dwelling place. You have the ark and on top of the ark you have the mercy seat. The Salvation Army never used to talk about coming to the altar. I can remember that years ago, sixty, seventy years ago, the Army used to sing ,
"Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel,
Here bring your wounded heart, here tell your anguish,
Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal."
There is a mercy seat, a blood-sprinkled mercy seat.

Look now in the first book of Samuel chapter five. The Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. When the Philistines took the ark of God they brought it into the temple of Dagon and set it by the image of Dagon. Now, when Ashdod rose up early in the morning the idol Dagon had fallen upon his face on the earth before the ark of God. And they took Dagon and set him on his place again. They rose early in the morning, and he was fallen on his face again, and his head and his hands had broken off. Now you see, here the peril of toying or playing with holy things.

There’s a verse that talks about the iniquity of holy things. Now that’s something to really turn over, isn’t it? How in the world can you have the iniquity of holy things? These people have captured the ark of God. They thought it would do them good. Instead it did evil. They put it at the side of their god, this monstrous god Dagon. The upper part of his body was a man, and the lower part a fish, something like a mermaid we would say today. And there the idol stood in a temple where people worshipped him... but as soon as they put the ark of God there, without anybody doing anything, Dagon fell down on his face. So they stood him up again. They went in the next morning and he was worse off. See what happened further in the chapter,

"When they rose early in the morning, behold Dagon was fallen upon his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord. And the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off, upon the threshold, only the stump of Dagon was left to him. Therefore, neither the priests of Dagon nor any that came into Dagon’s house, tread on the threshold of Dagon to this day!" (1 Samuel 5:3-5)

You see, just that one visitation, that one movement of God, terrified them... in a sense Dagon had to go out of business. Verse six,

"The hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod and he destroyed them and smote them with emerods... And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us, for his hand is sore upon us and upon Dagon, our god." Going to the end of the eighth verse they carried the ark of the God of Israel to Gath,... "and so after they had carried it out, that the hand of the Lord was against the city." (1 Samuel 5:6-8)

Now, here you are again, you see the peril!
I want to emphasize this:
The peril of having these holy things and misusing them.
This peril is, obviously, the opposite to the power. If we touch it with
unholy hands it will bring destruction to us.

Remember the children of Israel? In one of their marvelous escapades, they walked round the city of Jericho seven times. What did they do? They carried the ark of God. To them, that was the very presence of God. Can you imagine people on the walls looking down and saying, "Who are these lunatics?" I mean, what were they doing? They walked round in silence. They were not allowed to speak... that must have been tough on some of them. "What do they have there? Is it a coffin? What is it? It’s a casket." When Moses was sharing out some of the property of Israel, he gave various things to various people, but the sons of Kohath were not allowed to have any cattle or any of the possessions: They were separated to carrying the ark of God.

Second Samuel six and verse six, "When they came to Nachon’s threshing floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it for the oxen shook it, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah." (2 Samuel 6:6)

Why? Because they’d made a new cart for it. God said the ark never had to be on a cart. But they made a new cart. And these people thought they were doing God a favor by modernizing this thing. Now, isn’t it really awesome? They didn’t decide to paint it another color. They didn’t decide to put a second deck on it. They didn’t disfigure it in any way. The man didn’t go in front of it and start blaspheming. The man somehow thought he’d do God a favor... "Oh, look! The ark is going to topple over! Oh I’ll hold it."

Somebody once asked Mr. Spurgeon if he would join a society for the defense of the Bible. He said, "You don’t usually walk before a lion with a sword". Why do you need to defend the Bible?

All this man did was to put his hand up to stay the ark and immediately he was smitten! What do you think we are doing with the gospel today? Dressing it up? Painting it up?

Someone told me this week of a Christian group, a rock band. Christian rock band!? But anyhow, whatever they are, they goaround. And now they’ve got sequins on their coats. Well, why not? All the other guys have them. I mean, if the world could have them, can’t we? Glitter? I mean, if we’ve no other glitter, we might as well stick it on the outside. It’s not on the inside anyhow.