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Why Was Uzzah Struck Dead
Why Was Uzzah Struck Dead?
There was a man called Uzzah. He was one in a procession headed up by king David as he brought Israel's Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. The oxen that carried the Ark stumbled and it looked as though it was going to fall and Uzzah put his hand out to save it and God struck him dead. The story's told in 2 Samuel 6:1-11.
At first glance, it looks like God is too eager to take life. We might have thought that Uzzah's move to keep the Ark from toppling should have been rewarded rather than the man being killed. We're left with the impression that God is touchy and thinks more of furniture that he does of people. Why is he so stern?
Can we dig a little deeper? If we think high and glorious things of God, we might give him the benefit of the doubt, and look beyond the outward details. Surely there is a lesson of warning about violating God’s commands. But was the problem really just Uzzah’s “touching the Ark”? There's more here than meets the eye. David wants to strengthen his own position as king, and so he wants to hurry and get the Ark to Jerusalem, which would become a rallying point for all the tribes. David wanted to know, "How can the ark of the Lord come to ME?" (6:9). He was more interested in his own power rather than honor to the God of the Ark. Uzzah's death is more a message to David than it is punishment for Uzzah, and see how after this, David is afraid of the Lord (2 Samuel 6:9-10). God did not want Him OR His Ark to be used as a prop for David's throne.
The Ark of the Covenant was where God appeared enthroned above the cherubim and proclaimed the truth that God was King and sovereign over Israel. In violation of the King's express instructions that the Ark was to be covered and carried by the poles expressly made for them (see Exodus 25:10-22; 37:5; Numbers 4:15,17-19). The whole procession was out of order from start to finish and everyone who was part of it was engaged in a violation of sacred ritual. They were all worthy of death.
So we can look at this crass violation of God's instruction and think it was harsh treatment that he slew Uzzah. But maybe we should think that he was tolerant beyond measure by not slaying all of them. Maybe Uzzah’s death could be viewed as a profoundly merciful act toward David and his people, because it stopped a whole downhill slide of sinfulness in its tracks.
There is no doubt, as the text tells us, that God’s anger was kindled against Uzzah, and that Uzzah’s life was taken because of it. But it would not be the first time (nor the last) that a man died, and that from his death others took warning, and lived. For someone to put a hand on the Ark itself was just the final insult of a string of abuses of God’s holy Ark. Maybe if we understood more we'd be more inclined to speak of his mercy in this section than about his severity. His severity is real, but it is not arbitrary and impulsive. Combining the violation of express instructions with the political expediency that was going on tells us that the incident was more than a fussy God killing a man for a trifling error.
Bear in mind that there was more than sacred ritual involved here. Ordinances are not for nothing! Ordinance point beyond themselves to profoundly important truths and for people to despise them is to despise the truths they have been connected to. I'm not suggesting that people are made for ordinances. I am saying that no one has the right to despise them or to simply choose to ignore them.
This incident should open our eyes so that we'll look carefully at many other startling acts of God that on the surface appear to be overkill. I'm thinking of occasions like the deaths of Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10 or Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. We may think of God as severe in the extreme when he judges decisively, but beyond our fear and wondering, let us be sure that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ can be trusted.
Adapted from Jim McGuiggan, “Why So Stern?”, www.jimmcguiggan.com
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