2 Samuel 6:1

DAVID BROUGHT THE ARK OF GOD TO JERUSALEM

The religious situation in Israel at this time was deplorable. Due to the divided condition of the nation, there were actually two High Priests. Abiathar, David's friend, served in that capacity during the seven years of David at Hebron, and Zadok was the High Priest at Gibeon.[1] Saul's murder of the priests of Nob, the capture of the ark of God by the Philistines, and the indifference of Saul to the true religion of the Lord had left the whole nation in a state of disastrous ignorance of God's Word!

The unification of Israel required the concentration of religious authority in one place, the unification of the two rival priesthoods and the moving of the ark of God to the nation's capital. David was not only a great warrior but a great statesman also, and his activity recorded in this chapter was one of his most important actions in the unification of Israel.

Another matter of exceedingly great importance in this chapter is that of the priestly functions exercised by David. He wore an ephod as did Samuel. David offered sacrifices. David blessed the people. This combination of the functions of the priesthood with that of the kingship was especially appropriate in David as the Type of the Christ, as prophetically stressed in Psalms 110. No other king of Israel ever served God's people in this dual capacity of priest and king. Saul had committed sin in offering a sacrifice, and David himself was permitted to do so only in the extreme situation of Israel's religious condition at the time he came to the throne.

Willis pointed out that parallel accounts of what we have in this chapter are also found in 1Chronicles;

David brought the ark to the household of Obed-Edom ... 1 Chronicles 13:1-14

David brought the ark to Jerusalem ... 1 Chronicles 15:1-16:3.[2]

DAVID REMOVED THE ARK FROM KIRIATH-JEARIM

"David again gathered all the chosen 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, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who sits enthroned on the cherubim. And they carried the ark of God upon a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab which was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart with the ark of God; and Ahio went before the ark. And David and all the house of Israel were making merry before the Lord with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals."

"Again" (2 Samuel 6:1) This word is presumably a reference to a previous gathering of David's men (2 Samuel 5:6). The parallel account explains that David had consulted all of the leaders of Israel before the journey to Baale-judah.

"David ... went ... with all the people ... from ... Baale-Judah" (2 Samuel 6:2). From 1 Chronicles 13:6 we learn that the word "from" in this verse should be "to". David and his men went to Baale-judah to get the ark where it had rested for twenty years or more following the removal of it to that place at the request of the men of Bethshemesh (1 Samuel 6:19-7:2). "Baale-judah in this verse is only another name for Kiriath-jearim."[3] It is actually the old pagan name of the place as indicated in Joshua 15:9,60.

"Called by the name of the Lord of hosts" (2 Samuel 6:2). This cannot be limited to God's being the "Lord of the armies of Israel," although it includes that. As Willis noted, "This means that God is Lord of the angelic armies of heaven, of the sun, moon and stars, of the armies of the nations of the world, and of the armies of Israel."[4]

"And they carried the ark of God upon a new cart" (2 Samuel 6:3). This was in direct violation of the rules laid down in the Pentateuch regarding the transporting of the ark of God. True, the Philistines had moved it in that manner, but they were ignorant of the Law. No such excuse was available for David. Oh yes, the scholars have often tried to diminish David's guilt in this action by declaring that, "David clearly knew of no such rules,[5] or that because, "The exact way of bearing the ark had long been dismissed from their memories, and their remembering how the Philistines had moved it in a cart would justify their also using a cart."[6] All such efforts to excuse David's sin in this are futile.

God had fully revealed that, when the ark was moved it should be carried by Levites on poles (Exodus 25:12-15; 37:1-5; Numbers 7:9); also that it should always be covered with a goatskin (Numbers 4), and that even the Levites were not to touch it lest they die (Numbers 4:15). Yes, the Philistines had moved it on a new cart pulled by milch cows; and, as Willis said, "The Israelites thought the Philistines had a better way of moving it than the Lord."

Did David know any better? Certainly! He himself admitted it. David called together the heads of the house of Levites and said, "You are the heads of the father's houses of the Levites; sanctify yourselves, you and your brethren, so that you may bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place that I have prepared for it. Because you did not carry it the first time, the Lord our God broke forth upon us, because we did not care for it in the way that is ordained (1 Chronicles 15:12-13). These words make it impossible to accept the critical dictum that, "It is now generally conceded that David shows his ignorance of the Levitical restrictions."[7]

Note that David here said that the Levites did not carry the ark the first time. Although Jamieson designated Uzzah as a Levite,[8] he could not have been a Levite because his father (or grandfather) Abinadab was "of the tribe of Judah."[9] Josephus also flatly declared that, "Uzzah was not a priest, and yet he touched the ark."[10] H. P. Smith analyzed the situation perfectly. He wrote that, "The whole transaction was contrary to the provisions of the Law which gives specific instructions for the transport of the ark."[11]

Note the words "whole transaction" in Smith's quotation. That new cart was not all that was wrong. We have already noted that there was no covering on the ark and that the Levites were not bearing it on their shoulders as commanded. In fact, as far as the record reveals, there were no Levites even present. And then there was that grand cacophony of lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets and cymbals. That was also contrary to God's will; and at a later time Amos the prophet indicated David's sin in thus introducing mechanical instruments into the worship of God. Also, the near-naked dancing engaged in by David and others was expressly forbidden, as we shall see.

Oh, but it was a "NEW cart" never contaminated by any other use. "It mended the matter very little that it was a new cart; old or new, it was not what God had appointed."[12]

"Uzzah and Ahio sons of Abinadab" (2 Samuel 6:3). "Due to the omission of Eleazar's name and the lapse of time, `sons' in this place may mean grandsons,"[13] a usage frequently found in the O.T.