SERIES K --- ISRAEL’S GOLDEN AGE

BIBLE STUDY LESSON 01

BRING BACK THE ARK

THE RETURN OF THE ARK
From 2 Samuel 6:1-11; 1 Chronicles 13
“One day King David consulted with all the officers of the land who commanded the hundreds and the thousands. This included about every leader in Israel. When he found that they were in agreement with him, David then spoke to the entire assembly of Israel. ‘If you agree with me,’ he said, ‘and if we are sure that the Lord wants us to do this, let us gathers all the people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites in their cities and the surrounding lands. Then let us bring the Ark of God, which was neglected during the reign of King Saul and house it here in Jerusalem.’ The assembly of Israel agreed that this was the right thing to do, so David called for an assembly of all Israelites from Shihor of Egypt to Hemath (Hamath). When the people came together, David went with them to Baalah (Baale), which is also called Kirjath-jearim, which was in Judah, to bring the Ark of God back to Jerusalem. It was said that the Lord Himself was enthroned between the cherubim on the cover of the Ark. The Ark was carried from the house of Abinadab, which was on a hillside in Kirjath-jearim and placed on a new cart. Uzza and Ahio, Abinadab’s sons, guided the cart and Ahio walked in front of it.

Thirty thousand of Israel’s leaders were there with David that day. When the Ark began to move toward Jerusalem, David and the leaders started a celebration, waving evergreen branches and playing a number of musical instruments lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets and cymbals. When the procession arrived at the threshing floor of Nachon, the oxen pulling the cart stumbled, causing the Ark to begin to slide. Uzza put his hand on the Ark to steady it, but when he did so, the Lord was displeased and struck him down and he died on the spot. The Ark was such a sacred object that no one was allowed to touch it. David was disturbed that the Lord had done this to Uzza, so he named that place Perez-uzzah, “Wrath upon Uzza” and it kept that name until the time this was written. David was so upset by what had happened that he was afraid to bring the Ark into Jerusalem, the City of David. ‘How can I bring the Ark to Jerusalem when this kind of thing happens?’ David wondered. So he left the Ark at the home of Obed-edom, the Gittite, near Kirjath-jearim. This proved to be a blessing for Obed-edom, for during the three months that the Ark was with him, the Lord caused his entire household to prosper.

COMMENTARY

CARTS AND WAGONS OF BIBLE TIMES
Carts and wagons have been around since earliest times. Some of the first wheels were solid, usually made of wood. Later they were made with spokes, some with metal rims. The wheels of the two-wheeled carts were attached to axles which were behind the centre of the wagon body. Other carts had a driver’s seat, and in still others the driver stood, or sat in a saddle at the front. Four-wheeled wagons or chariots were used also, although they were more difficult to manoeuvre on rough land than the two-wheeled type. Sometimes the carts had covers over the tops, something like the covered wagons of the American West. Various materials were used in the construction of wagons and carts, including wood, reeds and date-palm fibres, tin, copper, bronze, iron and other metal combinations.

Axle grease was made of fish and oxen fat. The wagon which the Philistines made to carry the Ark back to Israel had a box suspended over one side to hold the gold figurines that they sent to appease the Israelites. The Philistines were familiar with carts and wagons, for they already were using them in transportation and war. For the Philistines, the wheeled vehicle was very useful in their flat lands where they lived. But the Israelites lived in the hill country, so wheeled vehicles were not so helpful to them. The Israelites had lived in Canaan for quite some time before they made much use of wheeled carts, wagons or chariots. On one occasion, David crippled some horses he captured, keeping only a few, which suggested that he had little use for them. He did use an ox cart on one occasion, when he first attempted to bring the Ark to Jerusalem, but the unstable condition of the cart almost brought disaster. The cart must have been used more commonly by the Israelites later. During the Exile, Assyrians carved pictures of the captive Israelites, carrying their goods into captivity in two-wheeled carts.

TEST YOURSELF

1.) Whose house was the Ark at, until David tried to bring it to Jerusalem for the first time?
            A) Abinadab
            B) Uzza
            C) Jonah
            D) Samuel

2.) Who did God strike down for touching the Ark?
            A) Jonah
            B) Uzza
            C) Abinadab
            D) Samuel

3.) What does Perez-uzzah mean?
            A) “Wrath upon Uzza”
            B) “The Ark is falling”
            C) “Uzza is alive”
            D) “Peril of threshing”

4.) Where was the Ark left, after God’s wrath was displayed?
            A) The threshing floor of Edom
            B) The house of Obed-edom
            C) Mount Megiddo
            D) The Valley of Perez

5.) Who had captured the Ark and then sent it back when they were struck with plagues from God?
            A) The Philistines
            B) The Edomites
            C) The Amalekites
            D) The Uzzites

6.) Which kind of cart was easier to manoeuvre on rough terrain?
            A) The two-wheeled cart
            B) The eighteen-wheeled cart
            C) The three-wheeled cart
            D) The four-wheeled cart

7.) Which of the follow wasn’t used in cart construction?
            A) Wood
            B) Bronze
            C) Reeds
            D) Palm-fibres
            E) Iron
            F) Tin
            G) Clay

8.) Why did the Israelites take so long to adopt the use of carts?
            A) The Philistines kept the technology from them
            B) The carts brought back painful memories of Egyptian slavery
            C) God prohibited the use of carts
            D) Carts weren’t much used in the hilly country of Canaan