Fear your Sin (1 Chronicles 13)

1 Chronicles 13:12 And David was afraid of God that day.

David decided to bring the ark of the Lord to where the people were celebrating because “it seemed right in the eyes of the people (v4). Then David didn’t follow God’s specific laws for transportation of the sacred ark. Then when Uzzah touched it because the cart stumbled, it angered God and he killed Uzzah.

It seems David was trying to show off a little in front of the people. He had won great battles, and wanted all the people to celebrate together, and wanted to have the Lord with him. It was more about being in David’s presence instead of the Lord’s. And he consulted with the people, and never asked God if HE wanted the ark to be moved. It seemed right to the people to do this, so David went along with his plan. He didn’t take to heart what he had been instructed before. Like he half listened, and chose to do something else, like throwing God on a cart instead of up on their shoulders. God was already angry before Uzzah touched the ark. That was just the last straw. 

We do similar things today. Where we been God’s rules to fit our lifestyles. One of the main reasons there are so many different churches, so many different ordinal numbers or branches of churches, is because leaders didn’t like how another person rules didn’t flow with what they wanted to believe. What worked for them. So the changed rules to accommodate their opinions and started a new church. Then some people felt a few rules weren’t for them and they broke away and started a new one. Again and again, we bend what God has given us to follow. We try to keep him in a box of our life rules, instead of living our life for him. 

God gave us specific rules for a reason. Those reasons didn’t change just because the world is. In the face of these changes, we need to stick to God’s rules more than ever. We need to stop shoving him in that box and putting him on the cart. We need to stop listening to what the people say is best for our lives and start remembering God’s word. We need to worry more about our sins. Why are we trying to make God fit in a box? What are we doing in our lives that we need to reword his rules? Or modify them? If our sins are what makes God angry, we need to fix ourselves, not try to fix God.