Weird Stuff in the Bible

Why did Uzzah have to Die?
I Chronicles 13

Introduction
Does God ever overreact?
I think a lot of us would say no, that God always responds to each action in an appropriate and measured way.
But what about poor Uzzah here? Uzzah is a guy who is transporting the Ark of the Covenant, it’s being carried by an ox on a cart, and the Ark almost slides off the trailer. Uzzah puts out a hand to stop it from falling, and he gets fried for touching the Ark.
II Samuel 6 even calls it an “irreverent” act in the NIV translation.
It says in verses 6-7 (NIV)
6 When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. 7 The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down, and he died there beside the ark of God.
As we’ll read in a moment, David considers this a major overreaction on God’s part.
I know the Ark is important, but why did Uzzah have to die just for trying to stop the Ark from sliding off into the dirt? Did God overreact here?
As we dive into this today, we’ll discover the answer to another question: is it possible to try to honor God but actually insult Him?
I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.
Turn to I Chronicles 13, and let’s get weird.
[theme music]

But it’s A NEW Cart
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be talking about whether it was fair for Uzzah to die.
And so let’s start with the context of Uzzah’s story. It’s told in two places in scripture: II Samuel 6 and I Chronicles 13. Let’s use the I Chronicles version today.
So what happened before this was that the Philistines had captured the Ark of God and brought it back to their temple. However, since they didn’t worship and honor God, this just basically brought a curse on the people, and they got “amrods in their secret parts.”
Now, if you aren’t sure what amrods in their secret parts are, maybe we need to do an episode on that story as well, but we sure won’t get into that today.
To get rid of the curse, the Philistines put the Ark of the Covenant on a cart and sent it traveling back to Israel. So they got their Ark back, and it remained at a town called Kiriath Jearim; but now David wants to bring the Ark to Jerusalem.
I Chronicles 13:1-4 (ESV)
David consulted with the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, with every leader. 2 And David said to all the assembly of Israel, “If it seems good to you and from the Lord our God, let us send abroad to our brothers who remain in all the lands of Israel, as well as to the priests and Levites in the cities that have pasturelands, that they may be gathered to us. 3 Then let us bring again the ark of our God to us, for we did not seek it in the days of Saul.” 4 All the assembly agreed to do so, for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people.
This is a key part to understanding this story. They are doing what seemed right in the eyes of man.
There’s a popular refrain in the book of Judges, which takes place chronologically right before David’s story: “everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” And that’s a bad thing.
We should want to do what’s right. We should want to do what we know to be right. But we should get our idea of what’s right from God, not from man.
Verses 5-8
5 So David assembled all Israel from the Nile of Egypt to Lebo-hamath, to bring the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim. 6 And David and all Israel went up to Baalah, that is, to Kiriath-jearim that belongs to Judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord who sits enthroned above the cherubim. 7 And they carried the ark of God on a new cart, from the house of Abinadab, and Uzzah and Ahio were driving the cart. 8 And David and all Israel were celebrating before God with all their might, with song and lyres and harps and tambourines and cymbals and trumpets.
So earlier the Philistines had been the raiders of the lost ark; now the Israelites are the paraders of the lost ark.
And notice what David and his men had done for transportation: they put the ark of God on a new cart. A new cart. I guess that’s better than an old cart.
And they throw God a parade. Surely God is honored with a new cart and a parade, right?
Where did they get this idea? It didn’t come from the Bible. This idea was how the Philistines treated the Ark. This idea came from man.
But how did God want the Ark to be treated? You weren’t supposed to carry it around on carts.
Numbers 4:15
After Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy furnishings and all the holy articles, and when the camp is ready to move, only then are the Kohathites to come and do the carrying. But they must not touch the holy things or they will die.
So the people had been warned: don’t touch the Ark or else you will die. So wait, how could you carry it from place to place? How were you supposed to transport it if you weren’t allowed to touch it?
Exodus 25:12-15
You shall cast four gold rings for it and fasten them on its four feet, and two rings shall be on one side of it and two rings on the other side of it. “You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. “You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark with them. “The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be removed from it.
You were supposed to have these golden hoops on the sides of the Ark, and you were supposed to slide some poles into the rings and carry it that way.
But David and his men were carrying God’s Ark around in the world’s way instead of the Bible’s way. And what happened when the world’s way didn’t work?
I Chronicles 13:9-10
9 And when they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzzah put out his hand to take hold of the ark, for the oxen stumbled. 10 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and he struck him down because he put out his hand to the ark, and he died there before God.
Uzzah got himself killed. He was trying to do a good thing. We know he probably had good intentions. But this ark was never supposed to be carried around in this way to begin with.

An Overreaction?
So David gets a bit miffed at God right here.
Verse 11
11 And David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah. And that place is called Perez-uzza to this day.
Perez-uzza means “the outbreak against Uzzah.” They named this spot after him.
Now, did God overreact by killing Uzzah? I’m going to say no. I think David and his men had made a calculated decision to carry the Ark on this cart. Now, they did it in ignorance, I think, not rebellion. I think they had good intentions.
But they didn’t consult God’s Word, the Bible. They didn’t do their homework to make sure they were doing things God’s way.
After some reflection, I think David realizes this. I’m sure somewhere, in the back of his mind, he probably knew that carrying the Ark of God like this was technically incorrect. But he had gotten sloppy and wasn’t doing things the right way. He thought since he had good intentions toward God and bringing the Ark home, that he didn’t have to worry about technicalities.
He hadn’t taken God seriously enough to search out the Scriptures and do things right.
And so God is responding appropriately here. The people had been warned back in Numbers not to touch these holy things or else they would die. Man is sinful; God is holy. These holy things carry God’s holy presence. You can’t misuse holy things and expect to get away with it.
God did not overreact anymore than an electrical socket overreacts if you stick a fork in it. Don’t try this at home, kids. If you stick a fork in an outlet, you will probably go to be with Uzzah. That’s not the outlet’s fault, and that’s not God’s fault. Doesn’t even necessarily mean you’re a bad person; just a stupid one. It’s just the consequences of your actions.
And it’s a lesson for us that there are consequences for how we treat God.
I Chronicles 13:12-14
12 And David was afraid of God that day, and he said, “How can I bring the ark of God home to me?” 13 So David did not take the ark home into the city of David, but took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. 14 And the ark of God remained with the household of Obed-edom in his house three months. And the Lord blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that he had.

The Weight of Glory
Now, let’s talk for a minute about why David wanted the Ark of the Covenant brought back to Jerusalem in the first place.
This Ark carried the presence of God. God’s presence brings blessings. If I can tie in some concepts from a previous episode, I believe the Ark of the Covenant brings a gate of heaven with it. In episodes 61-64, I studied on how spiritual gates are passageways between the spiritual realm and our physical realm.
If it’s like Jacob’s gate of heaven in Genesis, angels will ascend and descend on that spot. But the Ark was something so special, I would probably say it was a gate of heaven that God Himself used to visit our world.
The ark of the covenant sat in the place in the tabernacle called the Holy of Holies. This was a room so thick with the presence of God that nobody could even enter it without dying. It sat behind a thick veil in the tabernacle and later the Temple. And only one man was permitted to enter once per year for a certain ritual. Other than that, nobody was allowed in. And this object of the Ark of the Covenant was the only thing in that room.
If you honor God and His presence, then His presence will bring good things to you. If you don’t- as the Philistines didn’t- then His presence may well bring bad things to you. How you honor God’s presence will have a tangible effect on your life. Such as amrods in your secret parts- which, again, we’re not going to talk about. Don’t even ask. We’re not going there.
So when the Ark gets mishandled, someone dies. When that same Ark gets taken to the house of Obed-Edom, he was blessed for as long as it remained there, because Obed-Edom honored God’s presence. I don’t know who Obed-Edom was, but he must have been a good guy if David entrusted him with the Ark’s safety. Or at least someone who knows how to read an instruction manual.
So it doesn’t matter if you had good intentions. If you were trying to do something nice for God, as David was here by bringing the Ark home. God must be honored in His way, revealed in His word.
And when we have a proper fear of the Lord, we will care about honoring God the right way. That’s what was missing here. When we don’t have a healthy fear of the Lord, we tend to treat Him as casual, as common, as not something to be respected.
I mean, think about it: would David have transported his wife around in a cart pulled by an ox? No, he’s getting her a BMW! He’s not driving his wife around in a cart pulled by an ox. “But honey, it’s a new cart!” Yeah, try that one next valentines day. That’s not gonna fly. David surely wouldn’t even transport himself around in a cart.
Why would we treat God that way? Why do we so often treat God with a lesser priority than we treat the other things we care about?
No, the way we treat God, the way we treat church, the way we treat our Bibles, the way we treat our time with Him, reveals how important He actually is to us.

Next Time
Next time on this podcast, I want to talk about the Book of Ephesians. Some wonder why it starts counseling us about rulers and principalities of the spiritual realm in chapter 6. I actually consider the whole book of Ephesians the field guide on spiritual warfare.
Make sure you’re subscribed so you can get it!
And also visit the show notes and subscribe to our newsletter if you’d like to receive our weekly updates. Actually, if you want to know what “amrods in our secret parts” is all about, sign up for the newsletter. I’ll release that as a Rabbit Trails update for this week.
And in case you missed it, we have a website for the podcast now: WeirdStuffInTheBible.com. There, I will write articles on topics that I’ve covered on the show, as well as totally new topics that hopefully answer your questions about Weird Stuff in the Bible. So check out what’s new: WeirdStuffInTheBible.com.
Shoutout to one of the listeners, Nicholas Lubega, who reached out this week to offer some help with the website, and I appreciate his kind email. And speaking of the website, shoutout also to Heather who was the first person to use the contact form on the site.

Closing Thoughts
David learned his lesson. After this moment, David obviously went home and did his homework.
I Chronicles 15:1-3 say
David built houses for himself in the city of David. And he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it. 2 Then David said that no one but the Levites may carry the ark of God, for the Lord had chosen them to carry the ark of the Lord and to minister to him forever. 3 And David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the Lord to its place, which he had prepared for it.
And then later he says in that chapter:
Consecrate yourselves, you and your brothers, so that you may bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place that I have prepared for it. 13 Because you did not carry it the first time, the Lord our God broke out against us, because we did not seek him according to the rule.” 14 So the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel. 15 And the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles, as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord.
You see, when we honor God’s presence, good things happen. When we don’t, bad things happen.
I think we all want to have God’s presence in our lives. In our homes. Upon everything we do. We want the presence of God.
And I know that sounds a little weird to some Christians, but I think the Bible has enough to say about the presence of God that it’s something we should be seeking.
But when God’s presence is in the room, the next question is: how are we going to handle it?
You see, it’s possible to try to honor God and yet insult Him because we aren’t trying to honor Him in a way that He wants to be honored.
When we worship the Lord, when we spend time in prayer, when we spend time in the Word, when we go to church, when we repent and surrender ourselves to Him, these are moments that invite the presence of God into our lives.
But it’s also what we do right AFTER these moments that determines how His presence will affect us going forward. So please invite God’s presence into your life, and shepherd it carefully when you do, because His presence- when honored- brings a great blessing. Just ask Obed-Edom.
And if spending time in God’s presence sounds weird, I hope you’re a little more weird today, too. Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time on Weird Stuff in the Bible.