2 Samuel 6:1-21

A few things stood out to my in this section, both quite common stories within the church. The first of which was the Lord's wrath against Uzzah, the man that touched the Ark with his bare hands. As the Ark was falling, Uzzah reached out to save the Ark but disobeyed God's command by touching it. The Lord sent his wrath and killed Uzzah for his disobedience. Is that fair? The man only wanted to do something good. I think the message is very clear in this situation, however. A lot of the time, we have good intentions and may think that we are doing good things. God doesn't care about intent. He cares about our obedience and observance to His word.

Once the Ark finally returned to Israel, King David celebrated by dancing. His own wife saw this as foolishness: he king of Israel leaping and dancing over some Ark. When confronted with the idea, David did not care. His joy and relationship with the Lord could not be squelched, even by his own wife. He didn't care about her approval or her thoughts because his heart was with God. We ought to live as David did, not for the approval of others but for the Lord's approval. Live for an audience of one.