After David became the King over all Israel, he made it a priority to bring the ark of God back to its rightful place. Is God’s presence a priority in your life!?
Again David gathered all the choice men of Israel, thirty thousand. And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, whose name is called by the Name, the Lord of Hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. So they set the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart. And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill, accompanying the ark of God; and Ahio went before the ark. Then David and all the house of Israel played music before the Lord on all kinds of instruments of fir wood, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on sistrums, and on cymbals.
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. 2Samuel 6:1-8
For a period of time, the ark of God was in the hands of the Philistines, and they found out that they could not use the ark as “a magic wand” and expect it to bring blessings to them. As a matter of fact, God’s presence among the Philistines brought many judgments to the point that people were afraid of it and did not want it near their town or households!
Finally, according to 1Samuel 7:1, the Israelites brought the ark of God to the house of Abinadab, and it stayed there for years. The fact that the presence of the Lord was away from the people for all those years was an indication of the spiritual condition of Saul and the Israelites. They did not make it a priority to have the ark of God among them. Instead they had left it at someone’s house.
This reminds of how some people handle their relationship with God. Sometimes people may claim that they are believers but God is not a priority to them. They may be busy with a lot of things but their relationship with the Lord is not one of them. If you ask them anything about their relationship with God, they will claim that they were raised in the church or that their father or grandfather was a bishop or a pastor. It is as if their parents relationship with the Lord or the parent’s title gives them a pass to be in relationship with the Lord!
There are also instances where parents think that their children are believers because they are happy to receive prayers in their time of need. However, the parents don’t hear their children speaking about praying and seeking the Lord for themselves. It is as if the ark is at somebody else’s house, but as long as it is nearby, the children have a false sense of security in their relationship with the Lord!
The truth is that God does not have grandchildren, and while He promises to bless the seed of the righteous, His desire is to develop a personal relationship with every person including the children of the righteous! I imagine every Christian parent desires his/her children to be successful in life, but the greatest blessing is to see them having an alive and growing relationship with the Lord! As parents of adult children, we cannot fix their spiritual lives by being a spiritual proxy for their relationship with the Lord! Instead, we should encourage them to read the Bible and pray on their own for direction and wisdom, and develop their own relationship with the Lord!
The above scripture tells us that David and his people went with joy and gladness to bring the ark out of Abinadab’s house. However, the circumstances did not turn out as they expected! I will continue with this subject in the next devotional.