In The Presence of God

If you are from a “Pentecostal” church, then you are familiar with the term, “the presence of God”.  We look for it in our worship services – we want to experience the presence of God.  What does that mean??  If you sing a song seventeen times and modulate every two or three verses, and then do one verse with no music . . . maybe you will “feel” the presence of God??  What does it feel like??  Goose bumps?  A chill?  A warm fuzzy feeling?  Can the Presence of God be described in the words of men without somehow cheapening it?  Do we take it for granted?  Remember the first time you truly experienced “the presence of God”?  It overwhelmed you.  It may have made you weep.  It may have left you speechless.  But as time goes by do we still get that feeling, that intimacy that we did when we first experienced it? 

In I Samuel chapter 6 is a story featuring a man named Uzzah.  Uzzah was one of the sons of Abinidab.  Abinidab was one of the Priests who was responsible for moving the Ark of the Covenant from place to place.  The Ark was built under specific instruction from God.  It was made of gold and had two cherubim who stood facing each other on either side of the top and their wings spread across the top and touched at the tips.  Inside the area between the wings and the top of the Ark is where the tangible presence of God dwelt.  Literally, where the Ark went, the presence of God went.  There were very specific guidelines given on how to transport the Ark from place to place.  There were gold rings on the sides of the Ark where poles were to be inserted to lift and carry.  These poles could be placed on an oxen cart to help transport it. Uzzah had grown up around the Ark of the Covenant.  When he was a child, I’m sure the whole “process” of moving the Ark was fascinating to him, but as he grew older, he became more comfortable and it lost its "awe factor".  He knew what significance the Ark held, his father was a priest.  He knew that the presence of God dwelt between the wings of the angel.  It should have been  a thing of awe and respect – a holy reverence.  But to him, it had become ordinary. He had been around the Ark for so long, had seen the "ritual" so many times that he no longer thought of it as holy. So, here’s what happened. 

“David again brought together out of Israel’s chosen men, thirty thousand in all.  He and all his men set out from Baalal of Judah to bring up from there the Ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the Lord Almighty who is enthroned between the cherubim that are on the ark.  They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill.  Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinidab, were guiding the new cart with the ark of God on it and Ahio was walking in front of it.  David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all of their might before the Lord, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals.  (They were having a worship service) When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the Ark of God, because the oxen stumbled.  The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his IRREVERENT act, therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God.”

WHAT HAPPENED??

Uzzah had lost sight of who God was.  The power, the awesomeness, the sovereignty of God.

• He had become "comfortable" in the presence of God
• He didn’t feel the need to “prepare” himself to be in the presence of God, yet his father was a priest and Uzzah knew of the annual ritual of preparation for the priest to enter the Holy of Holies. He forgot the price.

Uzzah reached out to steady the Ark – now don’t you think that if God was worried about that Ark being destroyed or falling off the oxen cart, that HE would have steadied it?

• Uzzah took things into his own hands – thus removing God’s hands.
• The price to enter God’s presence for Uzzah was death, because he did not take  time to prepare.

Ok – so how does this relate to us??  Do we ever take things out of God’s hands?  Do we get so busy that we just unconsciously go through the motions of worship?  What about God’s plans for us?  Does He show you the big picture and we get so excited that we leave Him in the dust as we try to “make it happen”? OR are we going through a time of stress, overwhelm, etc. and in the midst, God is trying to get our attention so that He can lead us out, and as we hit that bump in the road, we just reach out and try to steady our Ark? 

The presence of God (His direction, His guidance, His moving in our lives) NEVER needs the assistance or guidance of man’s strength to hold its rightful place.  Nor will God ever allow the arm of flesh to glory in His presence without first tasting death.  

God broke out of His “box” and caused man’s plans to fall that day and it rocked David to the core, so much so that it took him several months to recover. The same thing happens today when we encounter God’s manifest glory. Too often when we reach out in fleshly presumption to stop the God we’ve carefully contained in a box from falling off our rickety man-made ministry program or tradition.  We shouldn’t be surprised when God’s glory breaks out of our traditional boxes and shocks us.  Something ALWAYS dies when God’s glory encounters LIVING FLESH. May we never take the presence of God for granted!  May we make preparation in our lives before we enter His presence this week.  Let us come before Him having made preparation much like a bride makes to meet her groom.