True story. A man walks up to the pharmacy and wants his prescription refilled.
Me: “Uh…Sir, this cough syrup was just filled five days ago. It should last you at least ten days. Are you taking it as the doctor prescribed? One teaspoonful, 5 milliliters, twice daily only if you need it for your cough?”
Man: “One teaspoonful? 5 milliliters? I don’t measure it. I just take a ‘swig’ whenever I need it.” (If you don’t speak Texan, ‘swig’ is slang for a large gulp)
Me: ?
Sometimes what feels right isn’t always right…especially when we fail to follow the instructions we’ve been given.
In 1 Chronicles 13, King David thought he was doing the right thing. David was excited to finally bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. He wanted to establish worship there. So he and his fellow Israelites placed the Ark on a new cart and began their trek to Jerusalem. David was pumped. The crowd was hyped. As they traveled along, verse 8 tells us “David and all the Israelites were celebrating with all their might before God.”
But then something crazy happened.
The oxen carrying the cart on which the ark was placed stumbled. In order to save the Ark from falling, Uzzah, one of the men guiding the ox, reached out his hand to steady the ark.
Then something even crazier happened.
Verse 10 states. “The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah, and struck him down because he had put his hand on the ark. So he died there before God.”
At that point, David was angry and afraid of God. Instead of taking the Ark to the City of David to be with him, the Ark took a little detour to the house of Obed- Edom.
What happened? Why was God so harsh? David had such great intentions. Everything was going so well. And Uzzah was just trying to help!
God is loving, God is merciful, God is kind, but God is also Holy…and what He says, goes.
God had very specific rules for the handling of the Ark. Rule #1 – In Exodus 25, God commanded the Israelites to carry the Ark on poles, not on a cart pulled by oxen. So when David did it his way instead of God’s way….God upset the oxcart. “Sometimes we get upset because our oxcarts have been upset. And then we find out that God is the one who’s upsetting the cart so that we will change directions and do things His way.” (Kent Crockett).
Three months and two chapters later, David must have realized God was not being unjustly harsh, He was being God. In 1 Chronicles 15:13, David admits, “We did not inquire of Him about how to do it in the prescribed way.” So David was ready to try this again…but this time, he would do things the right way, God’s prescribed way.
And so it is with our own lives…
We mean well. We want to do good things. And like David, we may even want to do good things for God. But as I told the man at my pharmacy that day… “We can’t take a ‘swig’ whenever we feel like it. It may do more harm than good. We have to follow the instructions.”
Sometimes what feels right isn’t always right. Let’s make sure we are doing things God’s prescribed way.
-Binu
