CARRY THE ARK ON YOUR SHOULDERS!

“DON’T COPY THE PHILISTINES’ PARTERN”

1 Samuel 6:7-8 NKJV
(7) Now therefore, make a new cart, take two milk cows which have never been yoked, and hitch the cows to the cart; and take their calves home, away from them.
[8] Then take the ark of the LORD and set it on the cart; and put the articles of gold which you are returning to Him as a trespass offering in a chest by its side. Then send it away, and let it go.

1 Samuel 6:10-11 NKJV
(10) Then the men did so; they took two milk cows and hitched them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home.
[11] And they set the ark of the LORD on the cart, and the chest with the gold rats and the images of their tumors.

1 Samuel 6:14 NKJV
Then the cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and stood there; a large stone was there. So they split the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD.

When the Phillistines captured the Ark of God of Israel and brought it down into the house of Dagon, the Lord struck the god of Phillistines and the people of the land all together. They were sticken with excruciating boils and unbearable tumors. The land of the Phillisties could not contain the Ark of the Lord God of Israel. So they made a right choice: they decided to bring it down to where it belonged, the land of Israel.

When they were bringing it back, they set the Ark on a brand new cart being pulled by two fat nursing cows and accompanied with offerings from the five lords of the land of Phillistines. And the cows went on their own on the way to a border town of Israel and pulled over there in Beth Shemesh. The people of Beth Shemesh called the Levites to carry the Ark off the cart, and the woods and the cows were all used for the burnt offering to the Lord to thank Him fo the arrival of the Ark back in the land.

Now, when, David wanted to convey the Ark from the place to Jerusalem, he did what he ought not to do. HE COPIED THE STYLES OF THE PHILISTINES and that was when the Lord struck.

2 Samuel 6:1-3 NKJV
(1) Again David gathered all the choice men of Israel, thirty thousand.
[2] 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, whose name is called by the Name, the LORD of Hosts, who dwells between the cherubim.
[3] So they set the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart.

2 Samuel 6:6-7 NKJV
(6) And when they came to Nachon’s threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled.
[7] Then the anger of the LORD was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by the ark of God.

WHAT WAS HIS ERROR? Putting his hand on the cart to prevent it from falling off the cart. But didn’t the Philistines do more than that? Didn’t those “Uncircumcised Philistines” carry the Ark wih their bare hands and placed it on the cart? Yet they did not die. However, an innocent young man who followed the Ark with excitement was trying to prevent the beautiful Ark from falling off the cart, and was struck dead immediately he put his hand on it. WHY THIS COUNTED AS ERROR BY GOD?

The fault was not Uzzar’s but King David’s fault who wanted to follow the styles of the Philistines. YOU DO NOT PLACE THE ARK ON A CART, NEITHER WAS IT COMMANDED BY GOD THAT A COW OR ANY ANIMAL SHOULD CARRY IT.

The Ark of God, all through the wilderness was the responsibility of the sons of Levi to carry on their shoulders between four men by two poles inserted in each side of the Ark. They were never to place it on a cart. that was why, when carts and oxens were being given to the sons of Merari and the sons of Gershon to carry the heavy boards and pillars of the tents.

The sons of Kohath who were to carry the Ark and all the holy things of the tent were instructed to carry them on their shoulders and the Ark carried by poles on their shoulders. They were never told to place the Ark on a cart. THAT WAS THE ERROR KING DAVID COMMITTED.

He ordered the Ark to be placed on a brand new cart like what the Philistines who lacked knowledge did. HE FOLLOWED THE PATTERNS OF THE HEATHENS. He copied their ways of doing things.

When the Philistines did it, God did not kill them, but when a man of God who was to know better did it, God struck out in anger. When the people who knew not God touched the Ark with their bare hand and placed it on a new cart, because they knew no better, God overlooked their error, but when His own people did it, He never hid his anger. He slew an innocent young man who committed the error of touching the Ark with his bare hand.

That is why a child of God is never under any license to commit the errors the unbelievers are committing FREELY. They embezzle in offices freely, they manipulated financial figures and judgement did not catch up with them quickly. They rush along to share greedily in the national cake without feeling any constipation. Ladies who know not the Lord move freely with young men and give out their body freely without any imminent repercussion.

However, when a child of God who should know better attempt to taste these poisoned pleasures, he or she hits a dead end and judgement which had seemed to be far from the unbelievers or the people who knew not the Lord, quickly emerge from its hiding and catch up with them fastly.

While Judgement seems to be very slow in catching up with the godless or people know not God, it seems, at times, to be very quick in catching up with God’s own people who digress from Him. When the people of the world and those who have little or no respect for God decide to put the Ark of God, on a cart, YOU MUST NEVER BE TIRED OF PLACING THEM ON YOUR SHOULDERS. You can not live your life the way the world is living their lives. God is watching every of your steps jealously.

DONT BE TIRED OF CARRYING THE ARK OF GOD ON YOUR SHOULDERS.
DON’T GO THE EASY WAY.
DON’T COPY THE WAYS OF THE WORLD.

MIKE BAMILOYE.