Many things happened in the first three or four years of David's reign and then he began to think out the details of a plan that probably had been forming in his mind for a considerable time. It was nothing less than the transfer of the Tabernacle with all its ceremonies to Jerusalem, which would then by virtue of this association become a hallowed city to all Israel. The Ark of the Covenant had been lying in the house of Abinadab at Kiriath-jearim in Judah for nearly a century and the Leviticus ceremonies, including the annual sacrifices of the Day of Atonement, had fallen into disarray (1 Chron. 13.3). Without the Ark they could not be performed acceptably to God. David, with his zeal for God and the full observance of the Mosaic Covenant by Israel, obviously felt that this was a step he must take as soon as he had established peace and security in the land, and this was the time. So he went to his counsellors and captains and to all the people of Israel with his proposal, a proposal that was enthusiastically endorsed. "The thing was right in the eyes of all the people" (1 Chron. 13.4). A great crowd of delegates or representatives from every part of the empire, from the borders of Egypt to those of Syria, gathered together to accompany the project with all ceremony and rejoicing. And so they went to Kiriath-jearim.

Eighty years earlier, in the days of Eli, the Ark of the Covenant had been captured in battle by the Philistines and the town of Shiloh, where the Tabernacle stood, had been completely destroyed. The magnitude of that destruction is indicated by the Lord's words to Jeremiah five hundred years later. "Go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel"(Jer.7.14). The Psalmist also referred to this tragic catastrophe in Psa. 78.60 "He forsook the Tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men, and delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand". The same Psalm declares that it was then that God formally declared Judah the royal tribe; although that had been foreseen and prophesied by Jacob many centuries earlier. Now David was about to crown his royalty by re-establishing the sacred ritual of the covenant.

The Tabernacle had suffered a chequered history since the destruction of Shiloh. It is evident that after the capture of the Ark by the Philistines the remaining Levites had hurriedly dismantled and removed the structure and its furniture before the victors had reached and destroyed the town. It is probable that it was re-erected at Gilgal, where it first stood at the entry to the land, by Samuel, continuing thus during the time of Samuel's supremacy. Later on in Saul's reign it is found at Nob, with Ahimelech the great-grandson of Eli officiating, not as High Priest, but as a kind of Priest-in-charge. Saul in his jealousy of David then had the entire priestly fraternity at Nob murdered, Abiathar son of Ahimelech alone escaping, and apparently removed the Tabernacle to Gibeon, his home town which he evidently wanted to make the capital of his kingdom. Zadok of the legal High Priestly line of Eleazar was appointed by Saul to preside over the Tabernacle, which then remained at Gibeon throughout David's reign and into the reign of Solomon until the Temple had been built. There were thus two centres of worship in Israel during David's reign; the original Tabernacle constructed by Moses, without the Ark but with the altar of sacrifice, at Gibeon presided over by Zadok, and the new "tent" or tabernacle erected by David at Jerusalem as repository for the Ark which he was now about to bring to the city, presided over by Ahimelech.

This was to be the great moment of David's life, the day that he brought the Ark of the Covenant, the sacred symbol of God's abiding presence with His people, back into the sanctuary. Eli had lost the Ark, Saul had chosen to ignore it, and now he, David, was to restore it to its rightful place in the city of God's royalty. But in all his enthusiasm and zeal David quite overlooked some ritual considerations. The tent in which he proposed to place the Ark was not the one made by Moses in which God had placed His name. The great brasen Altar of Moses, on which alone the sin-offerings could be consumed, was away at Gibeon. The priest of David's choosing, Abiathar of the line of Ithamar, was not the legal High Priest. Perhaps greatest of all, the method chosen by David to transport the sacred object from its resting place in Kiriath-jearim, mounted upon an ox cart in full view of the cheering multitude. It was drawn by men who were not of the tribe of Levi and all this ran directly against the ritual laid down by the Lord and hallowed in Israel since the days of Moses. Instead of treating this whole operation as a sacred religious festival carried out with due reverence to the Lord, David made of it a political demonstration and a public holiday to enhance his own popularity with the people. Is it at all surprising that the whole thing went terribly wrong? The procession moved off, the king at its head, surrounded by musicians playing on every kind of instrument, followed by the militia and the nobility of the land. Then came representatives of the priestly fraternity and behind them the ox-cart bearing its precious load, led by Ahiah and Uzza, the sons of Abinadab in whose house it had lain for so many years. Finally came the shouting multitude of Israel.

The distance was not far; about fifteen miles of winding track climbing the rather precipitous ascent of about two thousand feet to the summit of the hills on which Jerusalem is built. The going was sure to be rather rough and the cart probably swayed a little from side to side under its load. Then one of the oxen stumbled. Instinctively Uzza, who was nearest, put out his hand to steady the Ark, which looked ready to topple over. He touched it, staggered backwards, and fell to the ground, lying motionless. Men rushed to his assistance. He was dead! The procession halted in confusion. The music stopped. The shouting died down to a deathly silence. David came rushing back, his face ashen. The Levites, from their allotted place farther along the procession, looked at him accusingly. The enormity of what he had done came home to him. He buried his face in his hands and groaned.

They waited in silence. The king lifted his head; his countenance was haggard. He looked round him; when he spoke his voice was low. "Where is there a home of a Levite near this place" he asked of the watching crowd. A hand pointed. "Obed-edom the Levite lives in yonder house" he was told. The king looked at the watching group of Levites. "The Lord has shown his displeasure with me that I allowed His sacred Ark to be carried on a cart made with men's hands and to be touched by unhallowed men not of Levi. Now take up the Ark and carry it into the house of Obed-edom the Levite that it may stay there until the Lord shall reveal to me his good pleasure." Silently, reverently, they obeyed. The chronicler of these events says that the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzza and He smote him because he put his hand to the Ark; so he died before God. Everyone knew that only the Levites were allowed to handle and carry the Ark. But the man the Lord was angry with was David. Whoever loaded the Ark on the cart at the start must have touched it; they were not struck dead. Had Uzza not acted as he did the Ark would have toppled on to the road and someone then would have had to pick it up. Uzza reacted instinctively to the apparent danger, realised suddenly in the moment his hand touched the Ark that he was committing sacrilege, and in the horror and fear of that moment, his heart stopped, and so he died. In any event, what had been intended and expected to be a joyful and triumphal celebration was turned in an instant to stark tragedy; David realised that he could not touch Divine things in other than the Divine way, and he returned to Jerusalem a dispirited and broken man.

It is not uncommon in this our day to find the things of God and the trappings of religion used as aids to secular or political advancement. The powers of this world are not above enlisting the help and support of the Church when their interests can be served thereby. The history of the Christian Era furnishes abundant evidence of the disastrous results to Christians of complicity in any such partnership. There can be no fellowship between Christ and Belial. The mission of the church lies in a completely separate province from that in which the world operates and in which its standards operate. "Separate yourselves, says the Lord, touch nothing unclean." In so many spheres today there is the manifest tendency to water down Christian ideals, practices and doctrines to accommodate what is claimed to be the 'advanced thinking' of contemporary generations. But they are in no way qualified to adjudicate or pronounce on Christian ethics but need rather to be instructed in such things. The dividing line between secular and sacred needs to be clearly defined and sharply drawn for it is a boundary that may not be crossed. One day all men will be on the sacred side of that boundary, but that will only be when the power of the returned and reigning Christ over the earth shall have put down all opposing rule and authority and power. Then the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

Three months later David was ready for a second attempt. He had probably done some very deep thinking in the interim. Perhaps he had spent some time in quiet communion with God. At any rate, according to the detailed account in 1 Chron. l5 he was meticulously careful that the proceeding was carried out with the utmost propriety and in full accord with the sacred laws. David himself stepped down from the oversight; the direction of affairs was in the hands of the two chief priests, Zadok and Abiathar, and all the minute detail of the procession was undertaken by the various classes of Levites who were ordained to the relevant services. So the procession moved off as before, with David in the lead, and this time arrived safely in Jerusalem and to the enclosing tent that David had erected for the reception of the Ark.

That was a great day for Israel. Many a devout heart must have swelled with pride on reflection that the tragedy of the loss of the Ark two generations earlier had been rectified and that the God of Israel might now be truthfully said to be dwelling in the midst of His people. The days of idolatry were in the past and under the influence of a king who, despite his shortcomings in some directions, was nevertheless a man of sterling faith and loyalty to God. There must have been many who felt that the old bad days had gone and the fulfilment of all God's promises to His people Israel was at hand. It was at this time that the 132nd Psalm was composed by David and used in the celebrations, and in addition the 96th and 105th, the latter two being recorded in full in the account in 1 Chron. 16. "The Lord has chosen Zion, desired her for his home." sang David exultantly, This is my resting place for ever; here I shall make my home, for that is what I want." (Psa. 132.13‑14). In a sense, which perhaps had not been so true since the stirring days of the Covenant at Sinai, Israel was in truth the people of God, and God was dwelling among them.

There was one discordant note. Michal, his wife, daughter of Saul, viewed from her window the triumphal procession entering Jerusalem, and watched David in his wild enthusiasm leaping and dancing among the players in reckless abandon, "and she despised him in her heart". As David returned to his house when the ceremonies were over she came out to meet him and sarcastically taunted him with his demeaning himself among the riff-raff of the people in a manner unbefitting Israel's king. Apparently irritated by her words, the king replied sharply, telling Michal that what he did was for the glory of God, and that if he could give more glory by still further demeaning himself he would do so. The chronicler adds "And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death." "Therefore" as in the AV implies that David, in his resentment, saw to it that his wife remained childless, a sore grief to any Hebrew woman but it is incorrect. Michal must have been about forty years of age at the time and had been married to David for something over twenty years. If by this time she was not a mother, it was most unlikely that she would become one now. The most likely explanation of the remark is, not that David was punishing her for her sarcasm and failure to appreciate the significance of the day's events. Rather, in the view of the writer of 2 Samuel, David's zeal for the Lord contrasted with Saul's religious failure. This marked the fact that of all David's sons, one of whom must succeed him as king, none would be of the ancestry of the rejected Saul. This, in the opinion of the historian, was a good and sufficient reason for Michal's childlessness. So David settled down to enjoy the fruits of his endeavours in the hope of a long and prosperous reign over the people of the Lord.

(To be continued). AOH