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“search the scriptures” John 5:39
In 1 Chronicles chapters 13 to 16 there are no less than twenty-nine references to the ark of the covenant. These chapters deal with the important subject of the establishment of the kingdom under the governorship of King David. The message lying on the surface is simple but searching - if the kingdom is to be established the Ark must be given its rightful place! In this article we will apply this principle to the local assembly.
David said, ‘let us bring again the ark of our God to us’, 1 Chr. 13. 3. An uninstructed person might ask the questions, ‘Where is it?’ and ‘How did it get there?’
We need to travel back into Israel’s history approximately one hundred years to 1 Samuel chapters 4 to 7 to obtain the answers to these questions.
Chapter 4 of 1 Samuel is one of the saddest chapters in all of the Old Testament. Israel is at war with the Philistines; 4, 000 men of Israel already lie dead in the field; things are at a critical juncture. Notice in this chapter:
In their hour of need they decide, ‘Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies’, 1 Sam. 4. 3. However, in reality the poverty of their spiritual condition was such that the mere presence of the Ark would prove to be of no avail. You see, they brought the Ark as a good luck charm. They thought that if they had the external symbol of the divine presence, they would experience the power of the divine presence. There was a noise, a commotion. There was the Ark, but there was no power with God!
How deeply searching this is. In assembly life we need to beware of the danger of high claims and low practice. We can quote ‘where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them’, Matt. 18. 20, but to experience this it is imperative that conditions be right.
This chapter is a chapter of death, 34, 004 deaths to be precise. How desperately sad and shameful it all is. There are four people singled out at the end of the chapter, Eli the weak priest, his two sons the wicked priests Hophni and Phinehas, and the wife of the latter.
Upon hearing the news of the Philistines capturing the Ark and the death of her father-in-law and husband, the wife of Phinehas gives birth to a son. She ‘[names] the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken’, 1 Sam. 4. 21, and then she dies.
The prophet Ezekiel beheld the glory of God departing in chapter 10 of his prophecy, from the holiest to the threshold to the east gate to the mount. There can surely be nothing more solemn than the departure of the Lord’s glory from amongst His people.
In the next few chapters of 1 Samuel, we see that the Ark is taken by the Philistines to Ashdod, Gath and Ekron. Eventually it arrives at the Judean city of Beth Shemesh and then on to Kirjath-jearim and into the house of Abinadab, 7. 1. This brings us to the place where the Ark was when it was brought by David up to the city of Jerusalem.
David’s deep exercise is that the Ark should be brought again and given its rightful place amongst God’s people.
There are two sides to his exercise.
There is a private side. This is revealed in Psalm 132, where we hear David’s longing expressed, ‘Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob’, vv. 3-5.
The Bible is a book replete with examples of private exercise. Gideon in the book of Judges, chapter 6, threshed wheat in a winepress to secure food for the people of God from the Midianites. Hannah would pour out her heart for a man-child to give to the Lord. Nehemiah with a broken heart went up to Jerusalem to view the broken walls. There was no fanfare, no declaration but just quiet exercise of heart. He tells us, ‘neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem’, Neh. 2. 12.
In contrast, the passage in Chronicles brings before us the public side of David’s exercise. David comes before us on this occasion as a fine example of leadership. We are told that he ‘consulted with the captains of thousands and hundreds, and with every leader’, 1 Chr. 13. 1, and he communicated with all the congregation, seeking to unite them in the matter of recovering the Ark.
While we need to be careful not to make the assembly a democracy, nevertheless it is wise on the part of leaders to try, if possible, to bring the people with them. Dictatorial rule is strictly forbidden, ‘Neither as being lords over God’s heritage’, 1 Pet. 5. 3, and obedience to God-given rule is commanded, ‘Obey them that have the rule over you’, Heb. 13. 17. Happily, on this occasion David and the nation are harmoniously at one.
On behalf of the Lord, Moses instructed Israel to ‘bring me an offering’, Exod. 25. 2. The nation gathered as one man in Nehemiah chapter 8 and requested of Ezra to ‘bring the book of the law of Moses’, Neh. 8. 1. David’s desire is that Israel should ‘bring again the ark of our God’, 1 Chr. 13. 3.
Now, bringing the Ark had proved most problematic in the past. It was one thing to want it back but there was an appropriate way to bring it.
It was essential that the Ark was brought back:
‘Then David said, None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites: for them hath the Lord chosen to carry the ark of God, and to minister unto him for ever’, 1 Chr. 15. 2.
When the Philistines sought to transport the ark of God away from their lands, they made for it a new cart, 1 Sam. 6. They knew no better and could not have been expected to.
Unfortunately, when David would bring the ark from Kirjath-jearim he simply adopted the methods of the Philistines and, likewise, placed the ark upon a new cart. God’s people should know better than to act in such a way. The shoulders of the Levites was God’s way according to Numbers chapter 4.
David doubtless meant well, great zeal and excitement marked the occasion, but obedience to God’s word was conspicuous by its absence.
Let us beware of adopting the methods of the world in the things of God. God has ways of carrying on His work and it is vital to remember that the end does not justify the means, and because something is marked by excitement and exuberance it is no guarantee that the Lord is in it.
David having learned the lesson from previous failure instructs the priests and the Levites to sanctify themselves in order to fetch the Ark, ‘So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel’, 1 Chr. 15. 14.
The prophet Isaiah instructs the remnant called out of Babylon to ‘be … clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord’, Isa. 52. 11. Paul exhorts the Corinthians, ‘let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God’, 2 Cor. 7. 1.
The lesson is clear and solemn, holiness must always accompany the things of God, there can be no compromise. God’s presence can only be experienced where purity exists.
First Chronicles chapter 15 is a chapter of song and sacrifices. The order is clear: obedience and purity lead to joy! This is the principle of the very first psalm; the truly happy person is a holy person. ‘Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly’, Ps. 1. 1.
Obedience to God’s word brings a joy that is deep and lasting, unlike the passing excitement of the flesh.
Sadly, even in these happy circumstances there was a heart that never entered into the good of it. ‘Michal the daughter of Saul looking out at a window saw king David dancing and playing: and she despised him in her heart’, 1 Chr. 15. 29. How telling that she is called ‘the daughter of Saul’ because she behaves like Saul, the fleshly man, and the flesh will never appreciate true spiritual exercise.
‘So they brought the ark of God, and set it in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it: and they offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings before God’, 1 Chr. 16. 1.
David’s exercise had come to fruition, the Ark is back and in the midst, and, moreover, accompanied by the fulness of the burnt offering and the fellowship of the peace offering.
But just in closing we desire to go back again to the private exercise of David in the book of the psalms and trace the great order that marks the ways of God.
Psalm 132 is one of fifteen songs of degrees, sometimes called the pilgrim psalms. It is from this group of psalms that we noticed David’s desire to recover the ark of God for God’s glory. The last four of these psalms set before us a pattern:
‘Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty’, v. 1.
Here we have the all-important grace of humility. If the Ark is going to be returned, it will be returned by those who are devoid of all self-importance and confidence.
This is the psalm already cited wherein David expresses his desire for the recovery of the Ark. If the previous psalm puts self last, this psalm puts the Lord first.
This familiar psalm speaks of the fragrance and freshness of true unity amongst God’s people. But it must, of necessity, be based upon the Lord being given His rightful place as seen in Psalm 132. Only then can it be said, ‘there the Lord commanded the blessing’, v. 3.
‘Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord’, v. 1. Here the climax is reached, the Lord has been exalted amongst His people and with united, worshipping hearts they bow with ceaseless praise to the One who is altogether worthy.
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