“When they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzza put out his hand to hold the Ark, because the oxen nearly upset it. The anger of the Lord burned against Uzza, so He struck him down because he put out his hand to the Ark; and he died there before the God.” 1 Chronicles 13:9-10

David was a man after God’s own heart. He loved God’s laws and meditated on them for hours at a time. He wrote many songs of praise and sang them to God. He was courageous and defended the Army of the Lord against a Philistine giant when the rest of the army was cowering in fear.

David was honorable in that he would not lift his hand against Saul even though he knew that God had rejected Saul and had ordained him as rightful king of Israel. And David loved God so much that he wanted to build a House for Him at Jerusalem but God told him that He would not permit it until Solomon was king.

  Our text was written during a time when the Ark of the Covenant was not in Jerusalem.

The Ark represented the Throne of God, His Mercy Seat, and God’s presence would appear above the mercy seat between the out-stretched wings of the Cherubim. Because of this, the Ark was sometimes referred to as the Ark of the Presence.

David wanted desperately to bring the Ark of God’s Presence to Jerusalem. So he devised a plan to do it. First, he commissioned the building of a new cart to transport it on. Then he arranged for musicians to play and sing praises to God - these would go before the Ark. After the Ark was loaded, the journey to Jerusalem began with the praising and with David joyfully dancing before the Lord with all of his might. It is sure that David and his party believed that God was honored and pleased - but David was wrong.

When they reached the threshing floor of Chidon the Ark tilted and Uzza put forth his hand to prevent it from falling and was struck dead by God.

A threshing floor is a place where the worthless chaff is separated from the valuable grain. The grain is saved and the chaff is burned. This is where God chose to show David that what he was doing was not according to the will of God.

David learned that his worship and praise actually angered God because he was not following His will. David left the Ark and went home both afraid and angry. But when he checked the Scriptures he saw that God has commanded that the Ark of His Presence be carried only on the shoulders of His priests. 

Jesus said that God must be worshiped in Spirit and in Truth. Jesus also said that worshipers can worship in vain if they use man’s traditions instead of following the Commandments of God. In David’s case, the only people who had transported the Ark on a cart were the pagan Philistines who used this method to send it back after they had captured it.

Without inquiring the Scriptures, David had made a careless mistake and used a pagan method rather than yield to God’s Way. Let us learn from this for God has not changed and the fire is kindled.