1 Chronicles 13

David was afraid of God that day, saying, "How can I bring the ark of God to me?"

(1Ch 13:12)

Why was David afraid of God? What was the cause of David’s change in attitude? One minute we see him full of joy, excited about what God was doing, the next we find him angry and afraid… What happened? The physical action that brought about this change was the death of a man named Uzza. David had been transporting the ark, attempting to restore it to the place it belonged… at the very center of Jewish life. The ark was a symbol of the presence of God, and so David was seeking to put the Lord back at the very center of Jewish life. This was honorable and wonderful desire… we can be assured that what David was doing was the WILL OF GOD.

So what went wrong? It wasn’t WHAT David was doing, but the WAY David was doing it. His intentions were right, but intentions aren’t everything. We need to do the Lord’s work, but we also need to be sure we are doing it the Lord’s way. God had a specific way the ark was to be carried, no one was to touch it, the priests were to carry it… the whole thing was to be a sanctified and holy endeavor. Instead of doing this the way that God had prescribed in His word, David did it the way the Philistines had done in the recent past.

In essence, David was learning about the things of God from the WORLD rather than the WORD. The world has a weird way of twisting and distorting who God is and how He works. They don’t understand Him because they don’t KNOW HIM. The WORD however is God’s declaration of who He is and it is was written specifically for us. We cannot properly understand God if we don’t listen to what He says!

So, if you find yourself confused and afraid by the things God does… then maybe it is time you turned away from the world and started looking to the Lord.