In 2 Samuel Chapter 6, we learn about a man who touched the ark of the covenant and died instantly. God struck him down. Many people struggle with this. Why did poor Uzzah have to die? Wasn’t he simply trying to help?
But the truth is, Uzzah’s death was a warning. It was a reminder that there are consequences for our actions and we must always be mindful of what we do.
Uzzah may have had good intentions. However, you know what they say about good intentions… Uzzah took matters into his own hands instead of trusting God. You need to remember, to trust God completely. Your life depends on it.
In life, there are rules and boundaries that should not be crossed. We may think that we know better or can handle things on our own, but sometimes it takes a tragic event like this to wake us up to reality.
So let us learn from Uzzah’s mistake and take heed in all areas of our lives. Let us strive to follow the rules set before us and respect the boundaries put in place for our safety.
We owe it to ourselves and those around us to make wise decisions and avoid unnecessary risks. Let Uzzah’s story serve as a cautionary tale so that his death will not have been in vain.
Referenced Verses:
2 Samuel 6:6-7
1 Chronicles 13:9-12
Numbers 4:15
Exodus 6:16
Deuteronomy 31:9
Numbers 7:9
Exodus 34:33
Matthew 8:24-27
Proverbs 3:5-6
Video Transcript
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If you are familiar with the story of the Ark of the Covenant, it is a really holy piece that was created and built long ago in the days of Moses in the wilderness, and when they were traveling around, they had the Ark of the Covenant, and it is a sacred item. In fact, it is so sacred that the only people who were ever instructed to touch it or to carry it or to handle it were the Levites.
Now the Levites were set apart; they were to be the caretakers of the temple, of God’s tabernacle. The priests, they were the group of people that God chose to handle His business. Now over time, the Ark ended up in the enemy’s hands, through wars and different things like that. There was a period of time where the Ark would be in a city and under enemy captivity and all kinds of bad things would happen to that city.
Then the people in the city would say, “Send it somewhere else,” and then it would go somewhere else and bad things happened. Finally, these people said, “Get that thing out of here, send it back to where it came from.
Send it back to Israel. Get it out of here.” So they got it on a cart and with a couple cows and sent it on its way saying, “Well, we have to believe that it is just gonna go where it is supposed to go,” and so eventually it came where it needed to be.
As it was getting back to friendly territory, some men noticed that it was there and, “Oh my goodness the Ark is coming!” Now at some point, something happened and this man named Uzzah reached out and touched the Ark and God struck him down right there.
So the question is, why did Uzzah die? You say, “Well it is really simple, he touched the Ark. You just said no one could touch it except Levites, it is very simple.” But I am going to give you a little more detail and then you are going to say, “Wait a minute, it might not be so simple.”
2 Samuel 6, Verses 6 and 7, if you have your Bibles, turn with me, if not, please come back and read these verses later. We have got a lot of Scripture today so be prepared. “When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. 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.”
Now you say, “All right, well he touched the Ark, that is why.” Okay, because the oxen stumbled, he tried to steady it. Now you say, “Wait a minute, if he was doing something that might have been okay, why did he die?” He touched the Ark. That is it.
Now there are a couple things that go with this. Remember I said that it was to be Levites only that would touch the Ark of God. We can go to Deuteronomy 31:9, like I said we have got a lot of verses today. Deuteronomy 31:9 says, “So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel.”
So Levites carried the Ark of the Covenant. How did they carry it, like a suitcase, down here? Did they sling it over like Santa Claus? Well, we can go to Numbers Chapter 7 Verse 9 and you will see how they are to carry the Ark. Verse 9 says, “But Moses did not give any to the Kohathites, because they were to carry on their shoulder the holy things, for which they were responsible.”
The Ark is a big box with decorations on the top, winged cherubs, and there were some rings on each side and then some special shittim poles that went right through there and everything was all beautiful gold.
These rings on the sides had poles that went through them and they were to hoist it up and carry it on their shoulders with those poles, and so that is how they were to carry the Ark. It should never have been transported on a cart by oxen.
Now of course, that was an evil, let’s say, or an enemy town that put it on there to send it out of there. But you see, part of this story of when they went to get the Ark, when Uzzah ended up dying, King David sent men, he sent some warriors to go pick up the Ark. He should have sent Levites because it was the Levites’ job. So that was a King David error right there.
God set forth very specific instructions. We can check out Exodus 6:16 for some more detail. Exodus 6:16 says, “These were the names of the sons of Levi according to the records: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Levi lived 137 years.” So Kohath, remember the Kohathites were the ones carrying the ark, it is specifically a certain part of the sons of Levi. That is Exodus 6:16.
If we go to Numbers 4:15, it says, “After Aaron and his sons finished covering the holy furnishings and all the holy articles, and when the camp is ready to move, the Kohathites are to come and do the carrying. But they must not touch the holy things or they will die. The Kohathites are to carry these things that are in the tent of meeting.”
Those are the only people who are supposed to carry the Ark, but they were not even to touch the Ark, they were to carry it with poles because that is how holy it was. They were not really supposed to touch it or they would die.
The Ark was an embodiment of God. It was holy; it was way too powerful for humans to touch. We have one more story about this instance of Uzzah and what happened to him in 1 Chronicles 13:9-12. Let’s check that out.
It says, “When they came to the threshing floor of Kidon, Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark, because the oxen stumbled. The LORD’s anger burned against Uzzah, and he struck him down because he had put his hand on the ark. So he died there before God.
“Then David was angry because the LORD’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez-Uzzah. David was afraid of God that day and asked, ‘How can I ever bring the ark of God to me?’”
We are going to stop there, but I encourage you to keep reading because it has some great stories there, some great context that you will get with that. But now that we have kind of set the stage with all of the Scripture, let’s dive into it.
The Ark was something that only Levites were instructed to handle, along with the Ark and all the other holy things inside the tent of meeting, specifically one of Levi’s sons, the line of Kohath. Now his line was the ones—the people who are supposed to take care of this. How did we get all these years later from Moses to David?
The Ark is gone, it is in enemy hands, it is coming back, people are rejoicing, they are very happy, it is coming on a cart, David sends men to go and help with this and Uzzah ends up touching it and dying.
In two different accounts, in 2 Samuel 6:6-7 that we read right in the beginning and then, of course, 1 Chronicles 13:9-12. Both of those accounts have Uzzah touching the Ark and they both say because the oxen stumbled, he touched it and he died and King David was upset because he did not know why he should have died. Well, King David should have sent Levites and then that might not have happened.
The Ark is too powerful for humans to touch, to endure, it is like if God looked at you. If God looked at us, we would be dead. There are some times in the Bible where Moses and other people have the chance to see a part of God but they never see Him. It is always like His shoulder or they see Him walking away from them, because if they saw His face it would just be way too powerful.
This also happened with Moses when he spent all that time up on the mountain, the Israelites became afraid of him because he was soaking up so much of God’s radiance, God’s light, that Moses was glowing. Really, he was glowing, like he was radiating light. He was really the light of the world. We have a chapter here, they asked him to wear a veil and cover his face because it was glowing so much.
Exodus 34 Verse 33, if you have not read this, you need to read Chapter 34 specifically like the last few paragraphs about how Moses’ face was just radiating. “When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face,” because his face was so glowing that the Israelites were scared.
So the Ark of the Covenant was not to be touched by the masses because it was holy. No exceptions. No exceptions. But wait a minute, Uzzah touched it because the oxen stumbled and so he was helping, he should not have died, he did something good. But think about this, the Ark was on a wooden cart. Those things are strong. We believe two oxen are pulling this thing.
They are strong. It could have been more, but two, let’s see because the oxen is plural. These oxen are strong. Now if they stumbled, it just says they stumbled, the oxen did not fall, break a leg—the accident did not become detached, nothing major happened, they just stumbled and of course, stumbling does not mean falling, stumbling, they are okay.
Also, the verse does not say anything about the cart breaking or the cart coming apart or the Ark tipping over or the Ark moving even at all. It is possible that the oxen stumbled and so did Uzzah and he maybe reached out to steady not only the cart and the Ark but also himself.
We do not know. But the point is he had good intentions, he did. He had good intentions of preventing the Ark from falling, but it was not falling yet. God was in control and Uzzah took matters into his own hands.
What do they say about good intentions? Uzzah died because he took matters into his own hands. He did not trust God. He said, “I got this,” boom, dead. What is the lesson here? The lesson is never take matters into your own hands. You need to trust God. Have faith. The second you break the faith, bad things happen. We have learned this before in other verses.
There is a verse we have talked about a couple of times on if you fail to leave an inheritance for your children and your children’s children, you have denied the faith. Why? Because you denied the faith because you do not believe that God could continue to provide. Just like Uzzah, he has denied the faith. He tried to take matters into his own hands and he died because of it. He should have trusted God and let the Ark be. Just let it be.
How do we know that the oxen stumbling and the cart not breaking, was it really a big deal? Uzzah should have let it be. Think about Jesus in the New Testament in Matthew Chapter 8 Verses 20 to 24. I am not going to read it but Matthew Chapter 8 Verses 20 to 24, I will put it down in the description below.
This was a time when Jesus and His disciples were out on the water and they were in a boat and a huge storm came up and Jesus is sound asleep and all the disciples are scared. They are terrified. The wind and the waves, the boat was rocking and they wake Him up. “How can you sleep at a time like this? We are about to die. Don’t you care?”—in essence.
He says, “You guys have such little faith,” and He says, “Calm down, be still.” Boom, instantly no storm and they are amazed. Even the wind and the waves obey Him. They did not have faith. Just like when Peter was walking on the water. He had faith until he got scared—boom. [He] Sunk.
Jesus grabbed him and picked him up. Faith is what makes it all possible. Two things, have faith, [and] never take matters into your own hands by denying the faith. That is what Uzzah did. They were all going fine, everything was good, oxen started to stumble just like the boat started to rock.
The oxen did not fall, the cart did not break, nothing bad happened just like the boat. The boat did not tip over, nothing bad happened but Uzzah did not trust God. He did not have the faith. He took matters into his own hands and so died. He should have trusted God and let the Ark be.
Proverbs 3:5 and 6, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Uzzah leaned on his own understanding. He relied on his own strength and attempted to save the Ark that was not in danger.
The lesson here is that you must rely on God. There is a bracelet “frog”—Fully Rely On God. You gotta do it. Fully rely on God; never take matters into your own hands. Always have faith. Those are three points that you got to take away from this. When you take matters into your own hands, you are setting yourself up for failure every time. Every time.
Think of people with addictions. If they trusted that it was going to be okay, that when they take matters into their own hands, “I need some stress relief,” “Let me have another cigarette,” “Let me drink another shot,” “Let me—” whatever the case may be, they need some type of tension release.
Some people watch pornography on the computer; they are taking matters into their own hands. Some people are drinking; they are taking matters into their own hands. Smoking—into their own hands. They are taking matters into their own hands. If they stop and trust God and have faith, everything will work out.
Now I am not saying if you want to be smoking normally and it is not causing problems it is fine. You can have social drinks, that is fine. There are things within reason. What I am saying here is that the second you stop trusting God and start thinking that you can do it.
That you are righteous enough to handle it, that your understanding is good enough to handle it, that you can do it without God, you are denying the faith and that is when problems happen. Uzzah died because of it. Remember God is in control. God is always in control.
Let’s pray.
Lord, thank You so much for this lesson today, this teaching. I ask that people would understand that Uzzah died because he took matters into his own hands. He denied the faith. Lord, I ask that You inspire each and every person listening and watching today. Inspire them to keep the faith.
That they would lean on Your understanding. That they would follow You and that they would realize that their thoughts, that their deeds, their powers are not good enough. That they need You. They need to keep the faith and rely on You, and the second they start to take matters into their own hands is when things go wrong.
Lord, I pray in Jesus’ name that if there are any people out there who are starting or who are doing, if they are taking matters into their own hands, that You would reveal that to them. That they would see it.
Open their eyes so that they see that they are taking matters into their own hands in whatever case it may be, and Lord, allow them to trust in You to make that change and have the faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
I hope you enjoyed this message. Remember to keep the faith, trust in God, He has got you. He will take care of you 100%. Have a great week. God bless.