II SAMUEL
Listen to this study TH3113
Please turn in your Bibles this evening to II Samuel chapter
6 as we continue our study through the Word of God. In our last
study we saw David raised up as the king over all of
Now, when you look over the life of David, there are many things that come to mind. Maybe it is the pouring of the oil over his head as Samuel anointed him as king, long before he would ascend to the throne. Maybe it was when David slew Goliath. Maybe even those years’s he was on the run from Saul and God’s hand of protection was upon him. These are all great things in the life of David, but there is something else that I think shows the heart of David and we will see that in our studies here this evening. In fact, there are two things that I think show us that David had a heart of worship for the Lord.
What are those two things? One of them is bringing the
Ark of God to
Why does David want to go to Kirjath Jearim, also called
here Baale
The Ark of the Covenant was a small rectangular box measuring 3 feet 9 inches long, 2 feet 3 inches wide and 2 feet 3 inches high. It was made of Acacia wood (from a shittah tree and called shittim wood), and it was overlaid with gold. The Ark did not have handles on it so that you could lift it up and carry it with your hands; you were not to touch the Ark. It had rings on the four corners for which poles were inserted so that once again no one could touch it.
The mercy seat was actually the lid for the Ark of the Covenant and it was made of pure gold. And, if it were 1 inch thick, it would weigh about 750 pounds! On this mercy seat were two cherubim and as God looked down from His dwelling place, meeting with the children of Israel above the mercy seat, He met with them not by the Law but my His mercy!
Now how did the Ark of God get to Kirjath Jearim or Baale Judah? Remember during the time of Samuel the Philistines came against Israel and they defeated Israel soundly. And during the second assault Israel called for the Ark to be brought into battle. It was the sons of Eli, who was the high priest, who called for and brought the Ark into battle. They saw the Ark as a good-luck charm and it gave Israel great hope for victory. But it also fired up the Philistines to fight and they defeated Israel once again and took the Ark into their possession.
But after a series of judgments against the Philistines that occurred over a 7-month period, they decided to send the Ark back to Israel. They sent the Ark back on a cart that was carried by two milk cows that were never yoked, and they took their calves away from them. If these cows would head straight for Israel, then this judgment was of God and if they don’t, then these judgments where just a chance occurrence.
The cart carrying the Ark heads straight for Beth Shemesh, but the men of Beth Shemesh look into the Ark and many of them fall dead because of their actions. In I Samuel chapter 6 we are told that it was a “great slaughter” because of their actions, and that truly was the case. We are told that fifty thousand and seventy men died because they looked into the Ark.
Now they don’t want to keep the Ark either, and you can understand why. So they send the Ark to Kirjath Jearim, to the house of Abinadab, and his son Eleazar was to watch over it for the next 20 years. Now Saul was not a man of worship and thus he did not go after the Ark. But David was a man of worship and he goes to bring the Ark back, which represented the presence of God, the chabod or the glory of God. (Exodus 25:22). And again, David wanted to bring the Ark back so the people can experience the chabod or the glory of God, the presence of God. That they would develop a heart of worship towards God!
What a joyous celebration this was! They place the Ark of God on a cart and Uzzah and Ahio drove this new cart with the Ark on it. The music was playing and what praise and honor was given to God this day! The reality is, God did not accept it, as we will see! You see, just because there is much emotion, if there is no devotion or it is not according to God’s Word, God will not accept it. The Ark of God was not to be carried on a cart, but upon the shoulders of the priests, and specifically the Koathite’s.
What can we glean of this for our own lives? Think of it like this. A cart is nothing more than boards and big wheels and how often we have our board meetings, get the big wheels together and come up with a plan to get the church going, to bring in the presence of God and that is not what God desires. And I like what Redpath wrote regarding this, “We want God’s presence very much, don’t we? But we like to hitch His presence to some of our new carts. We like to add Him to our list of organizations, to load Him on top of the mechanics of a busy life, and then drive. How much of our service is really in the energy of the flesh, I wonder! So often we put forth our hands, but not our hearts.” And so, let’s read on and see what happens and then we will talk about what God truly desires of us.
As you read this story you may be wondering why in the world God struck Uzzah dead? First of all, isn’t this the same thing that the Philistines did when the returned the Ark, placed it on a cart? Yes it was but keep in mind that the Philistines were not instructed on the care of the Ark, they were not God’s people but Uzzah should have known better, he was a Koathite and was responsible for the transportation of the Ark. And even though the Ark remained at Kirjath Jearim, they did have the Word of God to instruct them in the correct transportation of the Ark. He was a priest, he should have known better and in Numbers 4:15 we are told, “ . . . then the sons of Kohath shall come to carry them; but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die. . . .” And that is exactly what happened to Uzzah as the cart begins to rock, as the oxen stumble, and the Ark looks like it is going to fall, he reaches out to stop it from falling and he is struck dead! And, interestingly enough this occurred at Nachon’s threshing floor or the place where the grain was separated from the chaff and I believe that is what we are seeing here in the life of Uzzah.
You see, you can come to worship God and yet come in a way that is contrary to what He has instructed us, and God will not honor that, He will put that kind of worship to death you might say! Don’t man handle God or try to carry God the way the world does. God gives us explicit instructions on how we are to come to Him and to worship Him. The world’s ways of reaching God are foolishness and lead to death. God’s way is that He reached down to sinful man and saved us. Worship Him as He deserves to be worshiped in Spirit and truth or that we are saved first of all then according to His Word!
I guess this put a stop to all the celebration and now David is angry with God. How can he now bring the Ark to Jerusalem? How can God do this to him and to Uzzah when they were only trying to do the right thing? How often we are confused regarding situations we face because we are facing them with our own assumptions, our own ideas instead of coming to God and seeing what He has to say according to His Word! There will always be confusion in your life when you seek to understand things apart from God and His Word and David was finding that out and he was angry because of it!
Since David is afraid to bring the Ark to Jerusalem, he brings it to the house of Obed-Edom and God blessed Obed-Edom and the Ark remained there for three months!
Now as we read this we may be wondering, “What did David do differently now? What made him bring the Ark to Jerusalem? Why wasn’t he fearful any longer?” Yes, David heard that God was blessing the house of Obed-Edom but I also believe that he has spent the last three months searching out the Scriptures to see what God desired and he found out. Now that is not my own idea here, listen to what we are told in I Chronicles 15:2-3 regarding this incident with the Ark, “Then David said, ‘No one may carry the ark of God but the Levites, for the Lord has chosen them to carry the ark of God and to minister before Him forever.’ And David gathered all Israel together at Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the Lord to its place, which he had prepared for it.” David was transporting the Ark the right way and there is always gladness when we serve the Lord, when we worship Him according to His Word and not apart from it!
Here in verse 12 we are told that the Ark was transported from the house of Obed-Edom to Jerusalem but there is much more that went on and we will get those details filled in for us as we read on.
Imagine, every 6 steps they stop, the sacrifice is made, and they continue on for another 6 steps and another sacrifice, and this goes on for some 8 miles or so until they get to Jerusalem! David is showing the honor, the respect that is due the Lord and if you think about it, 6 is the number of sinful man and thus, it is appropriate to stop every 6 steps. And for us, we need to take that time to put to death those fleshly ideas and seek what the Lord would have us to do. It is not always easy, it is not always as fast as we like, but in the end there is great blessing and celebration, there is great rejoicing in the Lord!
We are also told that David took off his royal robe and started to dance before the Lord. Why did he do that? Because he did not want to be above the people when he came before the Lord, he wanted to be equal with the rest of the people and not come as the king. And don’t get the idea that David was the only one dancing, I get the picture here that all were dancing and David joined in, not because he had to but because his love for the Lord, that joy just overflowed and he was just rejoicing.
Now some wonder why we don’t dance in church today? Have you ever seen me dance? If you did, you would understand! No, not really. First of all, this was a parade you might say, a grand procession. David did not dance like this on the Day of Atonement, that would have been inappropriate. And we don’t dance during a church service, because that would be inappropriate. We need to remember that when we come to worship the Lord the focus is the Lord and not us, not what we want to do, but what He desires us to do!
Remember what Paul told Timothy in I Timothy 3:14-15, “These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly; but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” How important it is to know how to conduct yourself in the church, what the church is all about, it is the fundamentals! The church, the place were God’s people gather is to be the pillar and the foundation of the truth and that truth is from the Word of God, not experience or feelings! Jesus said in John 17:17, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” The Amplified Bible puts this verse like this, “Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by the Truth; Your Word is Truth.” May we truly believe that and apply it to our lives so that as we speak, we have so much of God’s Word in our lives that it just flows forth from us!
When people look at what the church is about some like to go to I Corinthians, especially chapters 12-14, which deal with spiritual gifts. I do believe that the spiritual gifts are for today, but the mistake we make is that we use them instead of allowing God’s Spirit to give them to us as He sees fit. They are for the edification of the body of Christ and those gifts are used in our services. As I am teaching there are various gifts that are being used, God is doing it and many times I am not even aware until after the service when someone comes up to me and tells me how the study ministered to them. There is the word of wisdom, word of knowledge, and-so-on, but the focus is always God and His Word because that is how He speaks to us by His Spirit. When people are jumping up and down, speaking in tongues, doing all kinds of things, the focus is off of God and on that person!
May we not loose sight of what we are about, the Lord and His Word. You see, it is out of this that we see our lives grow in the Lord and reach out to others, but apart from the truth, there is only confusion and anger and frustration as we saw with David when he tried to do things the way he wanted. It was what needed to be done but in the wrong way. A good lesson for us to learn!
So as David comes into Jerusalem with the Ark of God, he is dancing and rejoicing along with the people, and his wife, Michal sees him and we are told that, “she despised him in her heart.” As you are on fire for God, as you are just in love with Him, there may be family or friends that will try to bring you down as we see here. “Why do you have to go to church again?” “Why are you so fanatical about Jesus?” “What is wrong with you?” And that list can go on.
David could have let this ruin his day but instead, he continued with the burnt offerings or the offerings of consecration and the peace offerings or the offerings of fellowship, and he blesses the people! The people go home with the blessings of food to continue to praise the Lord as a family. But Michal is not happy and there will always be those people that no matter what you do, they will not be happy. Spurgeon put it like this, “No doubt, there are particularly nice and dainty people who will censure God’s chosen if they live wholly to his praise, and they will call them eccentric, old-fashioned, obstinate, absurd, and I don't know what besides. From the window of their superiority they look down upon us.” They just don’t get it, they don’t understand what true worship is about. It is not about the music or the songs but about our life that we give to Him and are not embarrassed to let others see our love for Him!
Why was Michal so upset? It wasn’t that he was just dancing but that he looked like the common person now. He was not wearing his kingly garments and if you looked at David, he was just like everyone else! Tragically today we see people who try to elevate themselves above others, that they are so special or they are so important and the reality is, they are made of the dust of this earth just like everyone else, maybe a little more clay with them but dust anyway! Before the Lord we are all servants of God! May we not forget that!
I don’t believe that David is being sarcastic here but just letting Michal know that it is the Lord who has placed him in this position, as king and he will humble himself before the Lord because it will be the Lord who will lift him up! I do like the way Spurgeon puts this into perspective for us. He wrote, “David would more and more abase himself before the Lord. He felt that whatever Michal’s opinion of him might be, it could not be more humbling than his own view of himself. Brother, if any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him; for you are worse than he thinks you to be.”
And don’t think that David did this to show how spiritual he was before the people. He did this out of love and worship for the Lord; it was an outward expression of what was in his heart!
We are also told that because of this Michal was barren, she had no children, she produced no fruit in her life. Now the reason for this could be that David did not have sexual relations with her, but I also see this as a spiritual truth. You see, if you look at worship as being boring, humiliating, useless, then you too will be barren, you will find yourself in spiritual bareness. Some people can’t wait for worship to be over so we can get into the Word of God, which is important but you are missing out on something that is also important. You see, as we worship the Lord our focus comes off of self and then is placed upon Him. And as we then are focused on Him, then God speaks to us through His Word. If you see that worship is not important, you will find yourself in the place of spiritual bareness just as Michal found herself in physical bareness.
VERSES 1-3
David has come a long way from dwelling in caves and being on the run. Now he has a beautiful home to live in. And maybe he was sitting out one night in the cool of the evening looking at his beautiful home and then looking at this tent that the Ark of God was dwelling in and he felt ashamed of this. It was on his mind so much that he tells Nathan the prophet that he wants to build God a home. For over 400 years the Ark of God dwelt in a tent you might say, the tabernacle and we are not sure if it was still in existence at this time or that another tent was built to house the Ark, and David’s hearts desire is to build God a house.
Maybe David remembered what Moses wrote back in Deuteronomy 12:10-11, “But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, then there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord.” I think David feels this is the place and this building for God needs to be put up. As Nathan the prophet hears this, he encourages David to go ahead with this project, to do all that was in his heart for the Lord. It sounds reasonable. It sounds right, but listen to what transpires next!
And keep in mind that many feel that the events here in chapter 7 come after the wars spoken of in II Samuel chapter 8 for it speaks of God giving them rest from their enemies.
This tells me that the best of ideas, godly actions, still need to be brought before the Lord to see if they are His will for them to be done. It is not that it was a wrong idea, I think God is honored by the fact that David wanted to do this, but it is not what the Lord wanted him to do. And thus, God speaks to Nathan the prophet who then has to tell David that he can’t build God a house. We see the response of David in I Chronicles 28:2-3, where we are told, “Then King David rose to his feet and said, ‘Hear me, my brethren and my people: I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God, and had made preparations to build it. But God said to me, “You shall not build a house for My name, because you have been a man of war and have shed blood.”’” David was a man of war, blood was on his hands and thus, God did not want David to build Him a house, and as we will see, God is going to turn the tables on David and tell David that He will build him a house!
Now I also like this because David is not able to build God a house but he can gather the materials together so that when Solomon comes to the throne, he can build the house and he will have all the materials that he will need to do it.
In I Chronicles 29:1-9 we are told, “Furthermore King David said to all the assembly: ‘My son Solomon, whom alone God has chosen, is young and inexperienced; and the work is great, because the temple is not for man but for the Lord God. Now for the house of my God I have prepared with all my might: gold for things to be made of gold, silver for things of silver, bronze for things of bronze, iron for things of iron, wood for things of wood, onyx stones, stones to be set, glistening stones of various colors, all kinds of precious stones, and marble slabs in abundance. Moreover, because I have set my affection on the house of my God, I have given to the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house, my own special treasure of gold and silver: three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the houses; the gold for things of gold and the silver for things of silver, and for all kinds of work to be done by the hands of craftsmen. Who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the Lord?’ Then the leaders of the fathers’ houses, leaders of the tribes of Israel, the captains of thousands and of hundreds, with the officers over the king's work, offered willingly. They gave for the work of the house of God five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze, and one hundred thousand talents of iron. And whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the Lord, into the hand of Jehiel the Gershonite. Then the people rejoiced, for they had offered willingly, because with a loyal heart they had offered willingly to the Lord; and King David also rejoiced greatly.”
Meyer sums this up for us and I think he gives to us the correct perspective to have because sometimes when God shuts a work down, we shut down and that should not be. Meyer wrote, “If you cannot have what you hoped, do not sit down in despair and allow the energies of your life to run to waste; but arise, and gird yourself to help others to achieve. If you may not build, you may gather materials for him that shall. If you may not go down the mine, you can hold the ropes.” May we remember that and keep moving forward because it is not about us, but it is about Him and may we serve Him faithfully in whatever He calls us to do or not to do!
I like what the Lord does here. He reminds David how He has brought him this far, protected him, watched over him, made his name great and thus, don’t let this stop you from going forward. In fact, God tells David that he can’t build Him a house, but the Lord is going to build David a house. Now wait a minute, I thought David already has a house? He does, but this house is going to be a little different as we are told. Let’s read on and see!
Here we see the Lord telling David through the prophet Nathan that He will build David a house, now what does that speak of? The near term fulfillment is speaking of the dynasty of David and his descendants who sat on the throne for more than four centuries and then were removed because of their wickedness. But the long-term fulfillment is speaking of Jesus Christ who will sit on the throne of David and will rule and reign for eternity! It is the promise of the coming Messiah! In fact, in Acts chapter 2 Peter comments on this fact that David realized that from his linage, from his descendants, the Messiah would come and sit on the throne of David!
Now II Samuel 7:14 is a little disturbing if it is speaking of the Messiah. It says, “I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.” If this is speaking of the Messiah, and I believe it is, how can it speak of Him committing iniquity and being chastened for Jesus was without sin? That is a great question.
There is a translation that I think fits this verse perfectly. It is from Adam Clarke’s commentary and it goes like this, “I will be his father, and he shall be my son: EVEN IN HIS SUFFERING FOR INIQUITY, I shall chasten him with the rod of men (with the rod due to men), and with the stripes (due to) the children of ADAM.” You see, the focus is not on the Messiah sinning but on the Messiah bearing the sins of man and that is exactly what the Scriptures teach us. J. Vernon McGee put it like this:
The last part of verse 14 is a very strange statement. “If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men.” Bishop Horsley gives an interesting translation of this: “When guilt is laid upon him, I will chasten him with the rod of men.” That is exactly what God is saying now. God says, “When guilt is laid upon Him, I am going to be His Father, and He will be My Son.” That is the unique relationship between God the Father and God the Son. But “if he commit iniquity,” that is, when iniquity is laid upon Him—when your sin and my sin were put upon Him—it is with His stripes that we are healed. He died on the Cross for you and me. He was delivered for our offenses. That is the reason He died on the Cross. “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Pet. 2:24)—healed from sin.
Isaiah the prophet says concerning Christ, “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief …” (Isa. 53:10). The One coming in David’s line would bear the sins of the world. Isaiah continues to speak of the Lord Jesus when he says, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:4–6). “With his stripes we are healed.” Healed of what? We are healed of sin. Sin is the awful disease that afflicts mankind, my beloved. That is why God says, “I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men.”
- J. Vernon McGee, Thru The Bible, Vol. II, pp. 204-205
And thus, I believe that Jesus will sit on the throne of David forever and this will take place after his suffering for iniquity!
One more point I would like to deal with here and that is this idea of a covenant because a covenant is being established here with David. The word “covenant” literally means, “to cut”. And in the Bible we see two kinds of covenants. The first is a unilateral covenant, which is unconditional, one party covenant. It would be like a will, what you are going to receive is not based upon your actions. The second type is a bilateral covenant, which is a two party covenant. You fulfill your part of the agreement and then I will fulfill mine. It is conditional. Lets look at a couple of these covenants to give us an idea of where they fall and why.
EDENIC COVENANT - GENESIS 1:28-29, 2:15-17 - This was a bilateral or conditional covenant given to Adam. He was to populate the earth, subdue the earth, have dominion over the animals, care for the earth and not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That was the conditional part, for if they did, they would die.
ABRAHAMIC COVENANT - GENESIS 12:1-3, 15:1-21 - This was a unilateral or unconditional covenant given to Abraham and based solely on God’s faithfulness, not mans. God was to make Abraham’s descendants a great nation, they would be a blessing to all who respect them. And God was going to give them the land of Canaan.
MOSAIC COVENANT - EXODUS 20, 21-24 - This was a bilateral covenant or conditional covenant based on man’s obedience to God’s commands. If you are obedient you will be blessed, and if you are not, then you will be cursed.
DAVIDIC COVENANT - II SAMUEL 7:4-17 - This was unconditional, based upon God’s faithfulness, not mans. And through this the Messiah would come and sit on the throne of David and it would be an everlasting dominion.
THE NEW COVENANT - JEREMIAH 31:31-34 - This is not a conditional covenant, it is not based on mans faithfulness, but God’s. Thus, this covenant was cut with the blood of Christ and is freely given to us. Man has tried to make this a bilateral covenant by putting us under the Law, but God came to set us free from the Law. The Law puts us under bondage where grace sets us free. You see, it is what God has done for us and not what we are doing or are going to do. It is the new covenant cut with His blood!
VERSES
18-24
After David is told all these wonderful things that will happen to him and his descendants, it does not go to his head. He recognizes that he is still the same David and the reality was and is that God is greater. In fact, He is the greatest. Sometimes we may think we are so special because of the ways that God is blessing us, we aren’t! God is and may we not forget that. David saw his own life as well as the life of the nation of Israel all a gift from God and may we see that also! Once again listen to how Spurgeon puts this into focus for us. He wrote, “There are some professors who would do a great thing if they might, but if they are not permitted to act a shining part they are in the sulks and angry with their God. David when his proposal was set aside found it in his heart not to murmur, but to pray.”
VERSES 25-29
David’s prayer is basically this, “Lord, I know what you have promised me and I will trust you to fulfill it and be faithful to Your Word!” May we feel the same about what the Lord has promised us, that He is more than able to bring it to pass in our lives and He is faithful to His Word. Spurgeon put it like this, “God sent the promise on purpose to be used. If I see a Bank of England note, it is a promise for a certain amount of money, and I take it and use it. But oh I my friend, do try and use God’s promises; nothing pleases God better than to see his promises put in circulation; he loves to see his children bring them up to him, and say, ‘Lord, do as thou hast said.’ And let me tell you that it glorifies God to use his promises.”
A heart given over to God is a heart filled with praise and prayer unto God and that is exactly what we see here with David. You see, as we have God’s Word, His truth in our hands, in our minds, in our hearts, we then can rest in those promises He has given to us just as David did and it is out of that we see praise and prayer! What a beautiful picture we see here. And as I close this evening, let me leave you with these words from J. Vernon McGee. He wrote:
Did you know that this became David’s salvation? Listen to what he says in 2 Samuel 23:5, “Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow.” David rested upon what God had promised.
God has also made a promise to you. It is recorded in John 3:16. It says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Will you believe God? David believed God.
Also we have seen that Abraham believed God. Moses believed God. Joshua believed God. And He wants you to believe God. Whatever your name is, He is saying to you today, “Believe Me. I’ll save you if you will trust Christ as your Savior.” That is His covenant with you and with me.
- J. Vernon McGee, Thru The Bible Vol. II, p. 206