The Filth of Human Hands

A email I sent to a friend....it is actually based on a blog posted at Challies.com

...
http://www.challies.com/archives/christian-living/the-filth-of-human-hands.php

Uzzah was touched the ark of the covenant before it falls. God struck him down instantly.

The author quoted...

Consider now the story of Uzzah. The ark of the covenant was being carried in a cart. This was not the way it was designed to be carried. It should have been on the shoulders of priests. When one of the oxen stumbled the ark looked like it was going to fall. Uzzah keeps it from tipping in the mud. God's reaction was not, "Thank you, Uzzah!" No, God killed Uzzah instantly. Uzzah believed that mud would desecrate the ark, but mud is just dirt and water obeying God. Mud is not evil. God's law was not meant to keep the ark pure from the earth, but from the dirty touch of a human hand. Uzzah presumed his hands were cleaner than the dirt. God said no.

This is true. I nevre thought it like that. The ark falling in the mud is nothing wrong. I understand it is our own arrogance who make our hands dirty (sinful).

To continue:

"Uzzah was not an innocent man. He was not punished without a warning. He was not punished without violating a law. There was no caprice in this act of divine judgment. There was nothing arbitrary or whimsical about what God did in that moment. But there was something unusual about it. The execution's suddenness and finality take us by surprise and at once shock and offend us." The reason we are shocked and surprised and offended is simply that we do not understand as we should God's holiness, justice, sin and grace. Were we to better understand the character of God we would see immediately why God had to act as He did.

I am on the last chapter of Jeremiah. It is a grim situation. God is mad and is unleashing His Army on the people. At once we can start questioning the character of God. But as I read and seeing how the King torn the scroll Jeremiah wrote (through the Word of God) and burn it, we see how rebellious His people are. We see how sinful they become. We see how arrogant and self righteous they choose.

When Jeremiah comforted the people to surrender to Babylon, they were appalled. They not only not listen to God's Word but follow their own way in doing what they think is right. And God has to put the hammer down. And He did.

Anyways..have a grateful day...

Thanks,
Cliff