Question: Dear Greg,

I am having a difficult time understanding why God killed Uzzah for trying to steady the Ark of the Covenant (2 Samuel 6). I know no one was supposed to touch the Ark, but wasn’t Uzzah’s intent honorable and, therefore should have been pleasing to the Lord?

Thank you, and God bless!

Dave

Answer: Hello Dave,

Uzzah is a story that is easily misunderstood because of stereotypes that persist about God. The idea that God, in the old covenant, was a harsh, stern and angry God persists, and Uzzah is a story that seems to play into that preconception.

However, the story of Uzzah is not about God’s anger, but about his holiness. As humans, we are sinful, imperfect, and very much unaware of God’s holiness. Both old and new covenants tells us a great deal about God’s holiness – in the old covenant they had sacrifices, washings, purification rituals, a priesthood, the tabernacle, and finally the temple – all dedicated to helping humans understand that God is not like us, that he is holy.

The ark was holy, and special rules and precautions governed its handling. Uzzah’s was not some novice or newcomer – his family had been in charge of the ark for years. Uzzah and Ahio should rightly be seen as people who knew better.

David was also angry, but we should understand that David was blaming God when David should have understood that he, David, has overstepped his boundaries – and even though at this time he enjoyed a good relationship with God, David presumed too much upon himself in taking the ark on to Jerusalem, and by failing to ensure that the regulations laid down to safeguard respect for God’s holiness were followed.

We can see that Jesus, even though he revealed the first person of the triune God to us as "the Father", he also taught us to pray "hallowed be thy name." Privilege of knowing God as Father, and of enjoying a personal relationship with him should not become presumption. But with humans, familiarity often breeds disrespect. We should never think that God lowers himself or his standards in order to save us, to reveal himself to us, to make available a relationship with him – rather, he maintains his holiness and perfection, and in order to do that he came to us in the person of Jesus, and eventually died on the cross so that we might be forgiven, redeemed, and justified – so that God’s holiness and righteousness might be imputed to us (2 Corinthians 5:16-21), because there is no way for imperfect human beings to have a relationship with the holy and perfect God, other than the way that is available.

Hope this helps, David.

In Christ,

Greg Albrecht