When you mention the name David from God's Word, most people will immediately make the connection between David and Goliath. Others may think of David and Bathsheba. Some may think of the young shepherd boy who would go on to become king. Others may remember him as the sweet songwriter of Israel while others remember him and his friendship with Jonathan.
What's amazing is that when it comes to what God remembers about David, none of those things are what He remembers. According to Acts 13:22, God remembers David "as a man after my own heart." It wasn't "what a warrior," or "what a great king, or "what a faithful shepherd." The Lord makes it crystal clear that He remembers David as being a man with a heart that beats in sync with His. In plain words, David cared about the stuff God cares about.
We find ourselves now in the life of David when he is secure as king, following the rule of Saul. Although Saul is now dead, his neglect of the things of God has led the people to a place where they have drifted from the tabernacle being central in their lives. David realized there was no ark of the covenant and no central place of worship. He knew that for revival to come and for people to return, they needed to "bring back the ark." Without getting too deep into all the symbolism surrounding the ark and its contents, the big idea is that the ark represents the very presence of God. It's where the Lord would meet His people and where the glory of God resides. For revival to come, the ark of the covenant must be brought back.
What happened to the people of Israel has happened throughout the ages, where people have drifted from the Lord for various reasons. It's so important to note that this drifting from the Lord can happen not only to an individual, but to a church and a nation.
When Paul wrote to the church in Galatia, he wrote in Galatians 1:6, "I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to Himself through the loving mercy of Christ." Later in Galatians 3:3, Paul writes, "How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?"
We see this again in Revelation 3:3 in the letter to the church in Sardis. The Lord instructed them to "Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to me again."
This drifting from the Lord should be nothing that surprises us. In 1 Timothy 3:1 Paul writes, "Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith..."
We learned this week that not only must the ark be brought back, but that it's absolutely vital that we do it God's way and not ours. We see in 2 Samuel 6 how tragic it can be to ignore God's instructions and to presume that we can do things our way. There are great lessons we can learn from David's first attempt to bring back the ark.
- His motives were good but his methods were wrong
- His methods were the same as the worldly Philistines
- He failed to pray before he acted
- He pays a high price for disobedience
After becoming angry at God after the death of Uzzah, David sends the ark away to the house of Obed-edom. It was after hearing how the Lord was blessing the household of Obed-edom that David went and brought the ark back. This time though, he did it God's way! No longer angry, lost, and empty, we see David free, dancing before the Lord with all his might!
The good news for all of us is that we serve a God who loves us and who relentlessly pursues us. He longs for us to desire Him to be the center of our lives. When we begin to drift...he wants us, like King David, to come to the place where we realize that we must "bring back the ark."