Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Happens Without Reverence | David in 22 | 2 Samuel 6

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. And I'm Keith Simon. Right now, we're working through the story of David's life, found in First and Second Samuel. When I was a kid, I did Boy Scouts. We had to memorize the 12 Boy Scout laws, and I could recite these things in less than three seconds during my heyday. But here's what they are. A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind.

Starting point is 00:00:34 obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. That last one's kind of funny, isn't it? Reverent. Because today we revel in irreverence. It doesn't matter if it's Saturday Night Live or the president's Twitter feed. We love to smash each other's sacred cows to deconstruct our most time-tested traditions and values. It's often done in a spirit of play because the truth is, few things seem more ridiculous. to modernize, then reverence. Reverence for traditions, systems, symbols. Now, my point here isn't that

Starting point is 00:01:13 we need to harken back to some good old days where people were reverent. Some people in the 1800s might have been very reverent about George Washington while they irreverently whipped the backs of their slaves. See, we've never done reverence well. So when we read a story like 2 Samuel 6th, it has a tendency to strike us as being strange and even a little bit unfair. Let's hop in. Verse two. David and all his men went to Bala and Judah to bring up from there the Ark of God, which is called by the name, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim on the Ark. They set the Ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinidad, which was on the hill. Usa and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were

Starting point is 00:02:04 guiding the new cart. Verse six. When they came to the threshing floor of Nacan, Uza reached out and took hold of the ark because the oxen stumbled. The Lord's anger burned against Uza because of his irreverent act. Therefore, God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God. Then David was angry because the Lord's wrath had broken out against Uza. Now, when we read the story, honestly, it's easy.

Starting point is 00:02:34 to side with David, isn't it? It feels a little bit unfair. The ox stumbles, the arc's about to fall out, Uza steadies it, and then God strikes him down. What? Three things are happening here, and they all have to do with reverence. First, no one was supposed to touch the ark. So the ark was kind of like the hot spot of God's holy presence on earth. And so it was a terrible act of Irritz. reverence for a sinful, corrupted human being to touch that holy presence. Second, the ark wasn't ever supposed to be put on a cart. The book of numbers makes it clear that the ark was always supposed to be carried by people, by Levites in particular, not irreverently lugged around by a bunch of cattle. Third, and this is actually the most important one. It's the one that

Starting point is 00:03:27 rarely gets discussed for some reason. David was using God. At this point in the story, he'd consolidated his authority over Israel, and God always intended this. But now he's taking Israel's greatest religious symbol, the Ark of the Covenant, and he's going to set it up in his city. And so he's trying to use God as a prop in this story, to prop up his own authority. And Uza, he was more than happy to go along with this, to use the Ark to elevate himself to a higher political position. This last form of irreverence is the worst form. Nothing is more disobeyed. honoring to God more irreverent than using him like a cosmic vending machine, treating him like he exists to dispense whatever goods we want. And yet, can we be honest? A few things come more naturally

Starting point is 00:04:18 to us than using God. Before I was a Christian, I remember making deals with God all the time. I just did it naturally. You know, hey, God, if I give you X, then you give me Y, okay? And I didn't really realized what I was doing, but I was haggling with the creator of the cosmos. And after I became a Christian, I wish I could say, oh yeah, I stopped. I knew better, but I didn't. In some ways, I was actually kind of worse. I thought to myself, well, hey, I'm a better person now. So don't I kind of deserve more from my cosmic vending machine than I did before? Are you trying to cut deals with God right now? are you trying to use God to get whatever it is that you want an obedient child the next promotion a girlfriend a boyfriend a spouse at the time of this recording there was a famous christian writer

Starting point is 00:05:13 and teacher his name's josh harris and he revealed that he no longer considers himself a christian now personally i hadn't really read any of his work but i knew a lot of people who were influenced by him, especially when they were teenagers, and they were influenced by the purity culture that he helped create. Now, purity culture essentially taught that if you remain sexually pure, then God would give you a happy, sexually fulfilled marriage. On the converse, if you failed, you would be permanently scarred. You lose a peace of your soul, forever harm your future marriage, forever ruin your future sex life. Now, the Bible does have a a clear sexual ethic. Sex only belongs in marriage. But you know what else? The Bible's incredibly

Starting point is 00:06:01 sober-minded. It knows that basically everybody breaks these bounds, whether it's internally or externally, we all break them. And we all experience the consequences of our sexual brokenness. But nowhere in the Bible does it say that this permanently wrecks you or that it breaks away a piece of your soul. The Bible doesn't say anything like that. The Bible doesn't say anything like that. The Bible doesn't say that Christ's forgiveness and love can't heal the wounds caused by sexual sins. Perhaps most damningly, though, the purity culture. It taught a system which was tremendously irreverent. It taught teenagers to make deals with God. If I stay pure, then you're going to give me a marriage with great sex. But God never promised that. God can't be controlled by our sexual purity. God can't be used by

Starting point is 00:06:52 our obedience. At the heart of purity culture, at the heart of any effort to use God is the belief that our work earns us God's love and God's favor. But our works can't do that. The only thing our works can earn is our own condemnation. God gives his salvation to us as a free gift. We can't manipulate our way into salvation. We can't manipulate our way into God's good graces. He gives it freely. In 2 Samuel 6, David gets so frightened by what God did to Uza that he leaves the Ark outside of Jerusalem. He gives it to a family. But he ends up seeing God bless that family tremendously. And David, he takes that as a sign that God actually wants David to take the Ark back to Jerusalem. But not on David's terms. God's. God's. God's

Starting point is 00:07:47 not going to be used by David. God's not a prop for David's power. No, God's only going to give himself to David, give himself to Jerusalem on his own terms as a free, undeserved gift. And so when they bring the ark into Jerusalem, there is a party to end all parties. David is dancing. Animals are being sacrificed every few feet so that everybody, whether they're rich or they're poor, it doesn't matter. everybody gets to enjoy a delicious feast with meat. It was a spectacular time, a spectacular time to celebrate God's amazing, free gift himself. Jesus gave himself to us as a gift. And he says that one day we'll be invited to an eternal feast, celebrating that gift forever together.

Starting point is 00:08:37 Today, let's confess the ways that we've wanted to use God. Let's let go of the ways that people have told us, maybe we can. can use God. And let's open up the hands of faith to receive God's free gift, God's free love for us in Christ. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps other people find this podcast more easily. Also, ask yourself, who could you share this podcast with?

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Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Happens Without Reverence | David in 22 | 2 Samuel 6

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