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David & His Dance:
A Dangerous Approach to a Holy God
Introduction: “Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod…And as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord…” (2 Sam. 6:14, 16).
Can we learn something from this story? Well, the NT doesn’t talk about dancing in worship, and we don’t have an ark of the covenant, so what can we learn?
- The Story of the Ark
- The story of the ark actually begins about 60 + years before this time. Picture two milk cows yoked to a crude cart pulling a treasure of the ancient world. The cloth wrappings that normally would have covered this sacred object are missing so that the sun gleams on the gold overlay and the golden wings of the cherubim that stretch over the ark, that under normal circumstances few would ever see, are laid bare.
- A huge crowd of Philistine nobles are quietly following the cows in wonder at the miracle that is taking place before their eyes. It is a miracle that is the climax of 7 months of events that had terrorized the Philistine nation.
- It started when two wicked priests, sons of Eli the priest and Judge, Hophni and Phinehas, foolishly took the ark of God into battle thinking that it would protect them against the attack of the Philistines at the battle of Shiloh. But Shiloh was destroyed, the priests killed and the ark was captured. The shouts of joy when the ark came into the battle turned to mourning.
- When the wife of Phinehas heard of the loss of the ark and the death of her husband and father-in-law, she went into labor and died as her son was being born. Possibly the only righteous person left in this priestly family, in her last breath she named her son Ichabod, “The glory has departed from Israel.” She had more concern for the loss of God’s glory than for her husband.
- As was typical of idolators in those days, they took the ark a placed it before their god, Dagon, indicating that Dagon had conquered Yahweh. But to their astonishment, the next morning Dagon had fallen on its face before the ark. They dutifully propped their god up, but the next morning he was fallen again, but this time, with his head and hands cut off. No Dagon, you have no brain and no strength.
- Over the next seven months the Philistines moved the ark from one city to the next in order to avoid the plagues God brought. Again the rejoicing over the capture of the ark turned to mourning.
- The Philistines finally decided that the Lord must be the cause. To prove their theory, they took two cows who had just given birth and never been yoked, and hitched them to a new cart carrying the ark. Under normal conditions, such cows would have rebelled under the yoke and returned to their calves. But not this time. Lowing pitifully, the cows dragged their burden straight toward the border of Israel. And as the cart crossed the border, with a host of Philistine leaders watching, we are reminded that God did not need to be rescued by the Israelites. He was quite capable of bringing His ark back home.
- Now consider the Israelites in the city of Beth Shemesh. Suddenly the hard work of the harvest was forgotten as the shouts of joy could be heard through the valley – the ark of the covenant had come home. In thanksgiving, the men immediately built an altar and sacrificed the cows to the Lord. What a sight it was; the ark of the covenant. No one but the priests had ever seen it. In their excitement, at least 70 men opened the ark and looked inside. Instantly they were dead and the rejoicing turned to mourning.
- The response of the men of Beth Shemesh was not much different from the Philistines. They said, “Who can stand before this holy God and where can we send it?” So the men of Kiriath-Jearim came and took the ark and put it in the house of Abinadab where his son took charge of it. The nation was completely bewildered and for the next 60 years, until the time of David, they lamented after the Lord.
- After David became king he conquered Jerusalem and prepared a tabernacle in order to re-establish worship in Israel. The ark was summoned from the house of Abinadab, a new cart was prepared, and Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab drove the cart. Again there was great rejoicing as David and all the house of Israel danced and sang and played music before the Lord. But just as had happened years before, the rejoicing was quickly turned to shock and silence. As the oxen pulled the cart, they stumbled and the ark rocked. Instinctively, Uzzah grabbed the ark to steady it. In a moment he was dead, struck down by the Lord. Again the nation was bewildered. David’s great project had ended in tragedy.
- David was so angry at the Lord that he sent the ark to the house of Obed-Edom where it stayed 3 months. But to his surprise, God blessed the house of Obed-Edom which caused David to take a closer look at what went wrong. After learning God’s instructions for moving the ark, David called the Levites, who carried the ark on their shoulders into Jerusalem. David and the people again rejoiced and danced before the Lord. As David danced wearing a linen ephod, his wife Michal looked out a window and saw David dancing and she despised him in her heart. God was obviously displeased with her as the scripture says she was barren till her death.
- Coming into the Presence of a Holy God
- It matters how we worship God.
- This has always been the character of God, whether in Old or New Testaments. I realize that most people cannot understand that God would be “picky” about the way people worship him – after all, they’re worshiping, right?
- Here are three principles that are not understood when the above argument is made:
- First, we must respect that God is God, and it is blasphemous to put ourselves in his position (that is where Eve went wrong). Israel was told to build a tabernacle so that God could dwell in their midst. Then he warned: “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you in the mount” (Cf. Hebrews 8:5). The tabernacle was a “pattern” that reflected the actual holy place in heaven. If we want him to dwell in our presence (blessings), we will respect what it means to approach his holy place.
- Second, God hated all man-made worship (Cf. Mark 7:6-9). Man-made worship is always idolatry and disrespects the ways of God because it reflects human desires and the imaginations of humans instead of God. When Israel worshiped God on the high places, he hated it.
- Third, there is more to worship than being sincere and zealous. David showed great zeal, as did Israel, but it was not according to knowledge – the proper way to approach God (1 Chronicles 15:12-13; Romans 10:1-2.
- Worshiping God is dangerous. When David brought the ark in the first time, he did so in complete ignorance. Here is the danger when every generation does not go back to the word of God and study fresh without consideration of the traditions established by the previous generation. The ark had been carted around the countryside off and on and housed for many years so that a generation arose that had no idea that God had legislated transporting the ark. In 1 Chron. 15:12, David admits his error – notice the words, “we did not seek the Lord according to the rule.”
- Do we appreciate the seriousness of why Uzzah died when he took hold of the ark? Consider, he died because of what we would call a “minor infraction!” But it isn’t minor. Please realize that the ark entering Jerusalem represents the holy God, King of the universe, coming into their presence. No human can approach him however they desire. But this is exactly what goes on today. The scriptures have just introduced us to the God most do not want to believe in.
- This is why it is utter foolishness when a Christian suggests that God wouldn’t condemn us for something minor like musical instruments or taking the Lord’s Supper on a different day, etc. The problem today is that many neither seek the Lord’s words concerning serving him nor believe it matters. The primary sin of Uzzah, David, and the priests and Levites.
- Serving and worshiping the Lord must include zeal and passion. “And David danced before the Lord with all his might” (2 Sam. 6:14).
- Worship has one “audience” and that is God. Our thoughts and minds are to be directed toward him and the building up of one another. Whether it was the first or second time the ark was brought into Jerusalem, David still worshiped with “all his might.”
- That brings up a simple question for us. Is our worship in a Bible class, during the Lord’s Supper, singing, praying, giving, or worshiping during a sermon, are we doing it with all our might? It is the first commandment – to love God with all our heart, soul, and might (Deut. 6:5).
- David and his linen ephod: Michal condemned David for dressing in such a common fashion and lowering himself to dance and rejoice with the common people as the ark was being brought into Jerusalem.
- Did you notice David’s reply? “It was before the Lord … and I will celebrate before the Lord. I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes. But by the female servants of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor” (2 Sam. 6:21-22).
- David didn’t have the attitude that he needed to “dress his best” wearing his kingly garments and outshine all the common people. David knew that when he was before the Lord, he was a nobody. He knew that “poor in spirit” was the way he needed to approach God. God is the one he needed to honor, not himself. (This is not to imply there is something wrong with dressing nicely for worship – but I remember a time when Christians judged one another and even visitors by how they dressed, and thus were unknowingly exalting themselves and judging others.)
- Why was Michal in that window instead of with the rest of Israel rejoicing and bringing the ark into the city?
- Michal was just like her father. Worship is nothing but a ritual. Since the ark coming into Jerusalem was not part of the required “ritual,” Michal sees no reason to be a part. After all, where did the law say she had to participate in the ark celebration?
- There is a second more significant reason. Michal isn’t impressed with God. Michal is so accustomed to worship being a ceremony by which God is appeased, that she has lost any passion to truly seek to know God.
- David expressed the reason for worship in Psalm 42, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?”
And in Psalm 63:1-4, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.” - Do you spend time with your wife or husband because he or she requires it? Wouldn’t that be sad? “Honey, I’d really rather be doing something else, but since I married you I know I should hang out with you.” Who would be happy to hear their spouse say, “Don’t you think spending three hours a week together is enough? I mean, really, I have a lot of other responsibilities and there are a lot of other things in life that interest me.”
- It matters how we worship God.
Conclusion: Have we lost our fear of the Lord? Have we lost our zeal? “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
Berry Kercheville