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Context No. 135 of 4322 · 1 Chronicles

Context · Reflection

1 Chronicles 15:11-15: in context

11David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites: for Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab, 12and said to them, “You are the heads of the fathers’ households of the Levites. Sanctify yourselves, both you and your brothers, that you may bring the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel, up to the place that I have prepared for it. 13For because you didn’t carry it at first, the LORD our God broke out in anger against us, because we didn’t seek him according to the ordinance.” 14So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel. 15The children of the Levites bore God’s ark on their shoulders with its poles, as Moses commanded according to the LORD’s word.

David's first attempt to bring the ark to Jerusalem had gone badly. It was loaded on a new cart, the oxen stumbled, a man named Uzzah put out his hand to steady it and died on the spot, and David left the ark in a nearby house for three months, afraid. This passage is the second attempt.

He calls the priests and the heads of the Levite families and tells them to consecrate themselves. Then he names what went wrong the first time, plainly: because you did not carry it the first time, the LORD our God broke out against us, for we did not seek him according to the ordinance. The problem was the method. The law said the ark travels on poles, on the shoulders of Levites, and the cart was how the Philistines had sent it back.

So the Levites carry the ark on their shoulders with the poles, as Moses had commanded. David had good intentions and a bad procedure, and a man died in the gap between them. The correction is not more enthusiasm. It is going back and reading how the thing was supposed to be done. What am I doing with real sincerity and real carelessness at the same time, and when did I last check the instructions?

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