Why did God strike down Uzzah in 2 Samuel?
This incident is very crucial to our believing in Jesus Christ. The entire Bible is like a perfect embroidery with no loose ends, all the books, chapters and verses interconnected, making sense and giving life as a whole to all who believe and only through God’s Wisdom for all who believe - Grace Himself: Jesus Christ. So, a quick background before we address the significance and the outcome of Uzzah's action:
Remember those two disciples (Cleopas and his companion) on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24? They were sad because they felt all hope was lost since Jesus had been crucified. They did not recognize the Lord Jesus as the one who walked with them on the way. Here's what Christ did as they went:
"27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures."
It's all about Jesus.
That same evening, the two disciples went to Jerusalem to share their experience of Christ with the other disciples. Jesus appeared to them there; check out what He did in verse 45 (MSG)-
“He went on to open their understanding of the Word of God, showing them how to read their Bibles this way.”
There was no New Testament at this time. Christ taught His disciples about Himself from the Old Testament. The Old Testament comprises types and pictures of our Saviour Jesus Christ and our salvation in Him. Christ teaches us to read the Old Testament by bringing Him out of all the Scriptures.
In one of the most popular passages of the New Testament, Christ Himself made one reference to Himself in the Old Testament: the bronze serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness is a picture of Christ lifted up to save the world from sin and death. See John 3-
14 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."
Christ draws a parallel between how the Israelites that were bitten by snakes got to escape death and how we who look to Jesus for salvation from sin and death get to “not perish but have eternal life.”
The Israelites that had been bitten by snakes only had to look at the bronze serpent on the pole - for us, Christ lifted up to free us from the power, pleasure and penalty of sin, grant us everlasting righteousness apart from our puny attempts at keeping the Law and give us eternal life - every blessing in John 3:16. All of these have nothing to do with our puny attempts at keeping the law or sowing seeds, just as the Israelites only had to look at the bronze serpent in order to live. Believing this way is seeing Christ lifted up.
We'll get to Uzzah in a bit.
Imagine the Israelites trying to rid themselves the snake sting/venom, rushing off to do burnt offerings, give gifts to God or doing their best to keep the Ten Commandments and the rest of the laws in order to be free from the snake sting and escape certain death instead of looking at the bronze serpent on the pole. They would have been distracted from looking at the bronze snake with all of their futile efforts at doing what the Law commands in order to be made whole. The effects of the snake sting/venom within isn't stalled by these futile and useless activities aka law-keeping in order to be godly. Rather, it gets worse. Death is the result. The letter kills.
But this is exactly what many in the church today are doing with that false doctrine that says- “Yes we are saved by GRACE but we still have to obey the LAW in order to be godly, made whole, escape God's wrath and make it to heaven.”
1 Corinthians 15:56 says: “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.”
The Law gives sin its power over man. Try to keep it in order to be godly (be like God) and sin has dominion. Romans 6:14 says:
"For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace."
The more one tries to do things by human effort (aka obey the Law) in order to be godly and saved, the more sins that lead to death will multiply (Romans 7:4) — same way the Israelites would have died if they had opted to run around looking for how to be free from the snake sting (sin nature inherited from Adam) and its symptoms (acts of sin and their consequences) that lead to death, giving the sting time to spread, wreak havoc and produce deathly symptoms. Anyone who is keeping the law in order to get right with God rejects God's gift of righteousness and everlasting life that Christ died that we might have. It is by these that we reign in life (Romans 5:17.) The letter (Law) kills but the Spirit gives life, and with the Spirit of the Lord, it is neither by (human) might nor power. Here's more on Christ's typology of the bronze serpent that Moses lifted up as Himself:
Also see 1 Corinthians 10 which speaks of the Israelites who journeyed in the wilderness-
“3 They all ate the same heavenly manna 4 and drank water from the same spiritual Rock that traveled with them—and that Rock was Christ Himself. 5 Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their dead bodies were scattered around the wilderness. 6 Now, all these things serve as types and pictures for us—lessons that teach us not to fail in the same way by callously craving worthless things”
Also see the forbidden fruit as a picture of the law which Satan, through his ministers behind some pulpits, is still seducing people who desire to be godly (be like God) to eat of in Romans 7:8-12 - The Message. But just like the tree, the letter (law) gives the knowledge of good and evil; the letter kills.
Also see Galatians 4:21-31 for the typology of Hagar and Sarah as the two covenants of Law and Grace. Sarah (Grace) did not need Hagar (Law) to help her bear or properly raise Isaac (you and I who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.) Grace is sufficent.
In essence, the Old Testament comprises types and pictures of Christ and our salvation in Him. Christ teaches us to read the Old Testament by bringing Him out of all the Scriptures.
This brings us to Uzzah and how "Uzzah put out his hand to the Ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled" in 2 Samuel 6:6. The Ark of God was meant to be carried by the Israelite priests in a particular manner. Instead, it was being carried in a new cart that was pulled by oxen the same way as did the Philistines who didn't know any better.
The Ark of God is a picture of Christ.
When people who aren't “kings and priests in Christ” (born-again, freed from slavery to the Law and having Christ as their righteousness and strength) carry the message of Christ, they carry it wrong and when they do, they feel that they must bring some will-power or human effort-driven “balance” (law-keeping) to steady the message because it just doesn't seem right to them- 1 Corinthians 1:18-
"For the message of the cross is foolishness [absurd and illogical] to those who are perishing and spiritually dead [because they reject it], but to us who are being saved [by God’s grace] it is [the manifestation of] the power of God."
Many wrongly believe that Grace will cause believers to go on sinning sprees and live recklessly. They feel that Grace (the message of Jesus Christ) needs some balancing and try to introduce some Law (human effort at obedience) to keep believers in check. Not so. Beloved of God, Grace is a Person. His name is Jesus Christ. Titus 2:11 says of Him:
"God’s marvelous grace has manifested in person, bringing salvation for everyone."
Verse 14 of the same Titus 2 says: "He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."
Uzzah (meaning “Strength") must have had only good intentions and thought he was doing a good thing by using his strength to keep the Ark and its contents including the tablets of stone on which the Law is written from breaking, but he died from his action. The letter (Law) kills. The message of the cross - God's Grace - does not need “balancing" with some human effort (arm of flesh) at obedience aka law-keeping, just as Sarah (Grace) did not need Hagar (Law) to raise Isaac (the church) in the way of uprightness and godliness. God's Grace is sufficient for all who believe.
Uzzah and those who saw him must have thought that he was doing the right thing by putting out his arm of flesh to keep God's law from being broken. That is what the world today would describe as a good work. Not so. It is a dead work because its root is the arm of flesh. This is what dependence on human effort at keeping God's Law intact by human effort does- it kills. This way seems right to man but the end is death - Proverbs 14:12-
"There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death."
The letter kills but the Spirit gives life is a famous Bible verse. With the Spirit of the Lord, it is neither by human might nor human power.
Being in Christ without bearing “much fruit” and living in triumph over sin and death is as impossible as jumping into the sea naked without getting wet. Godliness is the “wet.” The fruit of the Spirit is the “wet.” Not perish but have eternal life is the “wet.” You do absolutely nothing in your own strength to be wet except be in the Water that is Christ, and even this is a gift of Grace says Christ in John 6:43-46 (MSG)-
"Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over Me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent Me is in charge. He draws people to Me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do My work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End."
Nothing to do with self-effort. All to do with Christ from beginning to end. Christ does it all. In Him, we can rest, “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;”Philippians 1:6.
Many churchgoers are yet to understand the weight and power of the Word of the Almighty about how we bear “much fruit" and so try to help God make His word come to pass through human striving at living an upright life aka keeping the Law or dependence on human effort at obedience. This thought has its root in the belief that God's work cannot succeed without our making it so by some forceful effort on our part, like Uzzah who thought the Ark of God would fall thereby breaking its contents (including the Law) if he didn't do something about it with his own “Uzzah” (meaning Strength in Hebrew.) But see what God's word says of that will-power that many are being led to repose confidence in- a truth that Paul experienced in Romans 7:18-
"For I know that nothing good lives within the flesh of my fallen humanity. The longings to do what is right are within me, but will-power is not enough to accomplish it."
God's word says human effort aka the arm of flesh will fail, is powerless and cannot. But Pride in the arm of flesh (human effort at obedience) that will fail causes many churchgoers to say:
"No, I can. God must be wrong. I still have some good in me. I can walk uprightly, keep the law from being broken by me and resist temptation to commit sin by my will-power and sheer determination.”
The only reason why Uzzah was existing and could lift a finger at that time was God's mercy- all have sinned. The wages of sin is death. But this Uzzah who had no good in him and was breathing only because of God's mercy presumed himself able to secure God's law from being broken by his useless arm of flesh aka human effort. Had Uzzah lived, he would have felt proud and confident in his non-existent strength, just as Peter would have felt proud had he been shielded from expressing his true human nature in his three-time denial of Christ. Peter was so confident in his non-existent will-power to obey the Ninth Commandment (You shall not bear false witness…) that he thought Christ was wrong when He told him about his then upcoming denials!
Like Peter before he fell flat on his face three times, some churchgoers feel that they are not such horrible people and can at least try to be good by themselves, not realising that God's mercy is the skeleton that restrains man from crumpling into the helpless mass of sins-ridden flesh that man is of himself. The law is not of faith. The difference between works of the law and works of faith is the mindset of the doer concerning how these works come about- is it you doing the works by your own human striving (arm of flesh) or do you believe that it is Christ in you without Whom you wouldn't even be able to lift a finger?
In Christ, we are doers of the word (of faith) and not doers of works of the Law. “The letter (law) kills but the Spirit gives life" is a very popular Bible verse. With the Spirit of the Lord, it is neither by (human) might nor by power. It is impossible for doers of works of the Law to deceive themselves in this matter: if you knew and believed that it is Christ in you doing the works and not your own might and power, it would be difficult for you to point accusing fingers at others who are still held captive by sin and threaten them with judgment if they don't change. Rather, you would see how helpless man is to overcome sins and produce good works by his arm of flesh (human effort); as Moses did with the Israelites that were showing symptoms of the sting within them, you would point such to Christ who saves from sins and transforms the sinner who truly believes to live right, as He is doing for you.
With works of faith, Christ gets all the glory for the many good works that we get to do and which the world can see. We know that without Christ our Righteousness and Strength working in us, we would all collapse into the sins-ridden and helpless mass of flesh that we are of ourselves.
Beloved of God, 1 Corinthians 10 which speaks of the Israelites of old tells us why all these things are written:
“3 They all ate the same heavenly manna 4 and drank water from the same spiritual Rock that traveled with them—and that Rock was Christ Himself. 5 Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their dead bodies were scattered around the wilderness. 6 Now, all these things serve as types and pictures for us—lessons that teach us not to fail in the same way by callously craving worthless things”
What worthless things? Righteousnesses that proceeds from self/human effort (self-righteousnesses) or that human craving for the attainment of godliness by human effort. See God's counsel to us concerning this matter in Isaiah 30:15-
“For the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, says: Only in returning to me and waiting for me will you be saved; in quietness and confidence is your strength; but you’ll have none of this.”
See the MSG-
“God, the Master, The Holy of Israel,
has this solemn counsel:
“Your salvation requires you to turn back to me
and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves.
Your strength will come from settling down
in complete dependence on me—
The very thing
you’ve been unwilling to do.”
So much more in this chapter- Bible Gateway passage: Isaiah 30:15-22 - The Message
We tend to think of being “ungodly" in terms of acts of sin alone but “ungodly" simply means “not like God.” Acts of sin, sickness, poverty, lack, bad thoughts, addictions, use of foul language- any deviation from utter perfection is ungodliness. All of these things are a product of having the sin nature that Adam passed on to all of his descendants-
“By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:19.
The key characteristic of the ungodly is that they are trying to save themselves from their situation and become godly (be like God) by human effort aka arm of flesh that will fail, just as Adam and Eve were deceived into doing in Eden. Remember the forbidden fruit is a type of the law which kills and gives the knowledge of good and evil.
The one who believes that he has Christ as his righteousness is godly/righteous in God's sight. But the spirit of the antichrist rejects the finished work of Christ in making the sinner who believes godly/righteous, even though it professes to be for God- like the religious Pharisees whose lives were all about obeying God's law; they hated and sought to quell the Message of Christ. Isaiah prophesied of Christ's suffering for us in Isaiah 53. See the result of His decease which He accomplished at Jerusalem in Isaiah 53:11-
"After He has suffered, He will see the light of life. And He will be satisfied. My godly servant will make many people godly because of what He will accomplish. He will be punished for their sins."
Romans 5:9 too tells us how God sees all who believe in His Son Jesus Christ-
"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."
Antichrist pastors love to equate receiving God's abundance of Grace and His gift of righteousness to us Christ with lawlessness and a lack of good works, as if being under Grace means we can now sit by idly and not bother to live a godly life of bearing fruit (good works) to God. Such only display their cluelessness about the message of Christ and their unbelief in Him as Saviour from sins. But beloved of God, Grace is a Person. His name is Jesus Christ. Titus 2:11 says of Him:
"God’s marvelous grace has manifested in person, bringing salvation for everyone."
Verse 14 of the same Titus 2 says: "He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.”
Also Matthew 1:21 where we see Christ's job description - “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
But wolves in sheep's clothing preach trust in the arm of flesh (human striving at being godly like God) for salvation and distrust in the power of God's saving Grace to transform even the vilest offender to godliness and to make believers “totally committed to doing good deeds.”
How can one be in Christ and be lawless or lacking in good deeds? How can the blind receive sight and continue to be blind? Christ Himself says in union with Him, we bear much fruit (John 15:5.) But false preachers deceive the branch into thinking that they can do anything apart from Christ after receiving the gift of salvation. Such lead man who has no good in him to believe that he can produce good by his arm of flesh (human effort) as well as take some credit for his non-existent effort at producing good aka be like God.
Faith without works is dead and by Grace, we who are under Grace believe this to the uttermost. There are works (much fruit) under Grace and it is not angels that do this work while us Grace children sit by idly waiting for an angel to move our arms or drop the keys to a Bugatti in our lap. It is we who are under Grace that are doing these works, yet not us but Christ in us. In Christ, we no longer live. Christ lives in us. In Him, putting no confidence in the arm of flesh (human effort,) the thoughts of the Holy Spirit become our action. It is the MINDSET or what we believe about how we are doing our works that makes the difference between doers of the law and doers of the word. Is it you or is it Christ in you?
At different times, people have tried to give me credit for being a dedicated Christian, generous, a good parent or for being a hardworking employee and even tried to say that this is why God blesses me. But I know who I am of myself and apart from Christ in me- I am the worst of sinners. The most selfish! I would be wallowing in sins and utterly lacking in good deeds were it not for the Grace of God (undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour) - Christ Himself- working in me. I cannot number the benefits that the Lord loads me with daily but by Grace and only by Grace, far be it from me to chalk His many benefits in my life down to money that I gave to the needy, my witnessing for Him, my non-existent self-effort at being a good person or my good deeds. None of these things would I be able to do by my own human effort (arm of flesh.) When your believing is right, right living will follow.
Beloved of God, this is the way of the Lord: He works in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13) AND THEN He rewards us for the good deeds that He Himself gave us the desire to do and which He did in, through and for us. He rewards us for taking refuge under His wings. His strength is made perfect in weakness.
Only by following God's counsel for us to stop our silly efforts to keep the law from being broken like Uzzah did and receiving/utterly depending on God's super-abounding Grace and His gift of righteousness do we get to live in triumph over sin and death through Jesus Christ: Romans 5:16-17:
16 “And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ.”
Right believing always produces right living.
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