April 7

David is king, but not everything is automatically rosy. He has good intentions, he wants to bring the ark. He even confered with everyone to check to see if everyone was on the same page. But even though his intentions were good, he forgot to 'read the directions'. Sound like anyone you know? What could be so hard about going from point A to point B? Well, in the 'instruction manual' it says very clearly that who may carry the ark, how they must carry the ark and that they are not to touch the ark. Then David is angry at God and he is also afraid of God! I think we have all thought "my intentions were good, God knows my heart....". Sometimes we can even 'get away with' a mistake like that. But David soon found out that the instructions in this case were critical. It was not like God had kept them a secret.

After God blesses the home of the man where the ark is, David has the BIG lightbulb go off. Then he admits that it was because the Levites had not brought up the ark this first time and he has them consecrate themselves and do it in the correct way, on poles on their shoulders (it would not have tipped if it had not been on a wagon in the first place. He brought it to a tent he had pitched for it.  I assume that this must be a tabernacle type place.

By the way there is a school of thought that is intriguing. I am a little skeptical of it because I don't believe in the whole idea that Mary was sinless etc. But is intriguing none the less. Some people believe that Mary was the "new" ark of the covenant when she carried Jesus. I've even heard that her travels roughly paralell this 'old' arks journey on it's way to Jerusalem.

David unashamedly danced before the ark for joy and with all his might. During our worship time at church, I've been trying to make a consious effort to block out everyone and everything except the Lord and sing the songs to Him. David modeled uninhibited worship.