Today’s 333 Devotional: “What Are We Hitching God’s Presence To?”

Are we hitching God’s presence to humanity’s new carts?

David desperately wanted the presence of God. After securing Jerusalem as his and Israel’s capital, David also wanted it to be the place where God’s presence resided.

For the past 70 years, the Ark of the Covenant had been residing within the household of Abinadab. It had been taken captive by the Philistines, but later they returned it when God poured out His wrath upon them.

The Ark was the symbol of God’s presence. It contained the Ten Commandments and was considered God’s mercy seat. The Lord said, “There I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat.” (Exodus 25:22a)

In his desire for God’s presence David went to get the Ark from Abinadab and bring it home to the tabernacle, which now resided in Jerusalem. But David went about securing the Ark, and hence God’s presence, the wrong way.

He assumed that since the Philistines put it on a new cart and shipped it back to Israel, then that is what he would do. He would copy the world’s way, and to his and everyone’s horror Uzzah, one of Abinadab’s sons, was struck dead (2 Samuel 6:7).

What David learned is that God cannot be pushed or driven.

In like manner we want God’s presence in our lives, but we go about it the wrong way. We hitch God up to new a cart, that is, we try to secure God’s presence in ways never prescribed by God’s word, and then we wonder why God’s presence is one of judgment and not blessing.

David learned his lesson. After three months of prayer and reading God’s word, he understood the holiness of God, and that God had ordained the way His presence was to be handled and addressed.

This is a lesson we need to learn as well if we want the presence of God in blessing and not judgment.