The Uzzah conundrum

And when they came to Nachon's threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. Then the anger of the LORD was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by the ark of God. And David became angry because of the LORD's outbreak against Uzzah; and he called the name of the place Perez Uzzah to this day. – 2 Samuel 6v6-8

The story of Uzzah and the ark has always bothered me a bit. I take some solace in the fact that the same thing that bothered me bothered King David.

Israel had retrieved the ark from the Philistines and were bringing it back home. These folks knew the word of God. They knew that there was only one way to transport it. It had to be carried on staves by priests. Caught up in the excitement of the moment they loaded the ark on a new oxcart. The formed a great triumphant procession to carry the ark back to Zion. It was a joyful time. They had a great musical procession and everything seemed perfect.

They soon came past a threshing floor. The oxen, perhaps distracted by the wheat, became anxious and the ark started to fall. A man named Uzzah did the natural thing; he reached out to keep it from falling. When he did God was angered and Uzzah dropped dead. We don’t know if the ark crushed him or God just struck him dead, but we do know he died.

It doesn’t really seem fair, does it? David thought the same thing. He was so displeased that he named the place The Breaking of Uzzah.

First, let me say that it is not up to us to determine God’s justice or to hold him to our standards. Saying that, there is a problem here and there is a lesson.

Though Uzzah was the one punished, the whole nation was at fault. They all knew there was one way to move the ark. They were so caught up in their excitement that they just decided to do it their own way. They had replaced God’s way with theirs. Doing that is never going to please God.

There is one more thing we can note. God sets a perfect standard. Perhaps this incident can remind us of the impossibility of keeping God’s rules perfectly. When we sin in the smallest part of the law we are guilty of violating the whole law. Even the smallest sin would be enough to condemn us. Praise God that in Christ we have hope that is otherwise impossible.