The Rise & Fall of Worship
A Quick Question about Worship
What needs to fall in your heart and life so that worship can rise?
Indiana Jones
Like many of you, I’m excited about the new Indiana Jones movie!
I used to love watching Indiana Jones movies. Indiana Jones was always in pursuit of something, and he always found himself in the most unfortunate situations trying to find whatever treasure he was after, whatever artifact he was pursuing.
Dr. Henry Walton “Indiana” Jones, Jr., was a fictional professor of archaeology that was always up for an adventure to find lost treasure. In the 1981 movie, “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Indiana Jones was searching for the Ark of the Covenant!
Indiana Jones was trying to find it before the Nazi’s did because they believed that whoever had possession of the Ark of the Covenant would have an invincible army.
Clearly, no one pursuing the Ark had read their Bibles. The Ark of the Covenant isn’t a magic box that guarantees victory for whoever has it.
Roy Chapman Andrews
What you may not know is that the fictional character of Indiana Jones is believed by many to be loosely based on a real life person, a U.S. paleontologist and explorer by the name of Roy Chapman Andrews.
Roy Chapman Andrews was born in 1884 in Beloit, Wisconsin. In 1923, he made his most famous and most important discovery in Mongolia. There on the cliffs of the red glowing sandstone Andrews discovered dinosaur eggs.
This expedition would become part of the history of paleontology. Up to this point, only one site with one fossil dinosaur egg had been discovered. Now, Andrews had discovered evidence that dinosaurs laid several eggs at once in a kind of NEST where they would care for their young. This was a significant discovery.
Roy Chapman Andrews, just like Indiana Jones, spent his life in pursuit of things that mattered most to him.
Searching for It
We all do this. We are all in pursuit of something. And we tend to organize our lives around what matters most to us.
So what are we searching for that, if we found it, it would change everything?
How we answer that question is really important. Don’t skip over that question. The truth is, we’ve already answered that question whether we realize it or not.
We’ve already answered that question with how we spend our time. With how we spend our money. With what we choose to give the majority of our attention to. With the things in this life that we pursue.
We organize our lives around what matters most to us.
Before every expedition, every journey, every adventure, Indiana Jones just like Roy Chapman Andrews had to decide if what they were searching for was worth it.
OR… is there something more important? Something greater to go after?
Do we want to spend our lives searching for dinosaur eggs in Mongolia, or whatever it is we’re pursuing, or is there something more?
Do we need to reorganize our lives around what matters most to us?
What are we searching for that, if we found it, it would change everything?
David Didn’t Have to Search for It
David wanted to organize his life and the life of Israel around the presence of God.
For ancient Israel, this is what the Ark of the Covenant represented.
The Ark of the Covenant wasn’t a magic box that guaranteed victory for Israel in every battle. It was much more than that. It was a physical reminder of the presence of the invisible GOD.
God had given Moses instructions to build it. It contained manna, the bread from heaven that God had provided for his people every morning when they were wandering in the wilderness.
It contained the tablets of stone, the Ten Commandments, that God had given Moses on Mount Sinai, the word of God for the people of God.
And it contained Aaron’s rod, his staff that had budded, new life coming from a dead stick to prove to Pharaoh that Israel’s God was the Living God, the only God, the Sovereign God over all people everywhere for all time. (Hebrews 9.4)
But unlike Indiana Jones and Roy Chapman Andrews, King David didn’t have to go searching for the Ark of the Covenant. He knew exactly where it was.
It wasn’t buried in some distant place. He didn’t need a treasure map or a series of clues to find where it was hidden. No. The Ark of the Covenant had been abandoned for some 60 years, left in the house of a priest by the name of Abinidab. King Saul had all but forgotten about it and neglected it.
But King David understood that the Ark of the Covenant was the symbol of the presence of God with his people. And David wanted to bring the Ark to Jerusalem. David was establishing Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel. It would become the epicenter of his kingdom and ultimately, of God’s kingdom.
The problem?
David’s desire and intentions were good, but something would have to fall before worship could rise in Israel.
Here’s how the story goes…
2 Samuel 6
1 Then David again gathered all the elite troops in Israel, 30,000 in all. 2 He led them to Baalah of Judah to bring back the Ark of God, which bears the name of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, who is enthroned between the cherubim. 3 They placed the Ark of God on a new cart and brought it from Abinadab’s house, which was on a hill. Uzzah and Ahio, Abinadab’s sons, were guiding the cart 4 that carried the Ark of God. Ahio walked in front of the Ark. 5 David and all the people of Israel were celebrating before the Lord, singing songs and playing all kinds of musical instruments—lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets, and cymbals.
So far so good. David has gathered all the people of Israel along with his top 30,000 soldiers to bring the Ark to Jerusalem. There is worship and celebration, people are singing and dancing.
There’s only one problem.
The Ark of the Covenant isn’t just some relic that had been neglected for the past half century. Moses had received the instructions for how to build it on Mount Sinai. Not only that, there were specific instructions about what to put in it, who could transport it, how it should be moved from place to place. All of this pointed to the holiness of God, the distinction of the presence of God with the people of God.
Somehow, somewhere along the way, David had remembered the Ark of the Covenant but he had forgotten the Covenant.
He had the right desire to return the Ark to the center of Israel’s life, but he had neglected the instructions God had given Israel about his holiness and his presence.
Uzzah Touched the Ark
Here’s what happened and where things went wrong…
6 But when they arrived at the threshing floor of Nacon, the oxen stumbled, and Uzzah reached out his hand and steadied the Ark of God. 7 Then the Lord’s anger was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him dead because of this. So Uzzah died right there beside the Ark of God.
This passage has given many people pause for a long time because we don’t understand, how could a loving God strike Uzzah down when he was only trying to help?
That’s one way to look at what happened. Perhaps the better question would be, why didn’t Uzzah, the son of a priest, know that the Ark of the Covenant should never be transported on a cart pulled by oxen?
The Philistines had sent the Ark back to Israel on a cart because they were afraid of it and they wanted to get rid of it. But they were not the people of God. They didn’t have God’s instructions. Israel did!
Why would David, the king of Israel, neglect God’s instructions about how to transport the Ark?
Everyone knew that the Ark was to be carried by the poles that were permanently attached to it by the priests. No one was ever allowed to touch the Ark. Everyone knew this. It wasn’t a secret.
Not only did everyone know this, everyone understood that this was the way of approaching an otherwise unapproachable God. This was the way created people honored the holiness of the Holy Uncreated One.
Why in the world did they place the Ark of the Covenant on a cart, the symbol of the presence of God on a wagon to be pulled through the hills from Baalah of Judah to Jerusalem knowing the terrain was uneven at best and down right impassable at certain points by a cart?
Somehow, some way, David started believing, like so many of us have so often believed, that he knew better. That his way was better than God’s way. That his plan was better than God’s plan.
David made the same mistake Adam and Eve made in the garden, the same mistake so many of us make today.
We believe the lie that we know better than God. Our pride gets in the way of our worship. And pride always leads to death. Pride leads to separation from God.
Somewhere along the way David’s pride got the best of him.
Anger, then Fear, then Blessing
Why did God kill Uzzah?
The better question may be why didn’t God kill everyone there that day.
Everyone there knew better. Everyone there knew what the poles attached to the Ark of the Covenant were for. No one, not one single person had the courage to stand up and say… take the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of the presence of God among the people of God, off the wagon train and have the priest carry the Ark the right way.
Perhaps it was in God’s mercy that only Uzzah died that day. Perhaps it was in God’s mercy that only one man died so everyone else could be saved.
In the moment, David reacted probably the same way you reacted when you first heard what happened to Uzzah.
8 David was angry because the Lord’s anger had burst out against Uzzah. He named that place Perez-uzzah (which means “to burst out against Uzzah”), as it is still called today.
David’s first response: Anger. He was ANGRY at God. And yes, it is possible to be known as a man after God’s own heart and still get mad at God sometimes.
But, upon further reflection, David’s posture changed.
9 David was now afraid of the Lord,
In other words, David feared God. And this was an important shift for David. And it’s an important shift for you and I as well because we REVERE what we FEAR. And what David needed, perhaps what we need as well, was a little REVERANCE.
9 David was now afraid of the Lord, and he asked, “How can I ever bring the Ark of the Lord back into my care?” 10 So David decided not to move the Ark of the Lord into the City of David. Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-edom of Gath. 11 The Ark of the Lord remained there in Obed-edom’s house for three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and his entire household.
What happens when the Ark of the Covenant, the presence of God takes up residence in the house of Obed-edom? The same thing that happened at Abinidab’s house. The same thing that happened when the Ark of the Covenant, the presence of God traveled with the people of God through the wilderness, across the Jordan river, and into Canaan, the promised land.
BLESSING!
Wherever the presence of God is there is blessing. Wherever the holiness of God is revered there is blessing. Wherever the instructions of God are obeyed there is blessing.
Six Steps
12 Then King David was told, “The Lord has blessed Obed-edom’s household and everything he has because of the Ark of God.” So David went there and brought the Ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the City of David with a great celebration. 13 After the men who were carrying the Ark of the Lord…
Notice… this time, David didn’t put the Ark of the Covenant on a CART pulled by oxen. No! This time, the Ark is being CARRIED by POLES by the PRIESTS… (1 Chronicles 15)
13 After the men who were carrying the Ark of the Lord had gone six steps, David sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf.
This time is not like last time. This time is different.
Last time David attempted to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, there was worship, celebration, and music. But last time they did it David’s way, not God’s way. This time, David decides to do it God’s way.
And not only does David decide to prioritize obedience, David decides to prioritize sacrifice.
For Israel, the number seven is significant. Seven is the number of completion, perfection, and wholeness.
So David along with all of Israel and the priests carrying the Ark take six steps, then stop. The seventh step is one of sacrifice. The seventh step is one of obedience. The seventh step recognizes the holiness of God. The seventh step is significant.
And every six steps David declares that his pride has to fall so that on the seventh step the worship of God can rise. Every six steps David declares God’s ways are better than His ways.
Every six steps David wants to remind Israel that from this day forward they will organize their lives around what matters most, and what is at the center of their lives is the presence of the holiness of God.
14 And David danced before the Lord with all his might, wearing a priestly garment. 15 So David and all the people of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouts of joy and the blowing of rams’ horns.
Worship Rising
What would it look like for worship to rise in your heart and life?
I remember several years ago worshiping on a Sunday morning at church with my kids beside me. I don’t remember the song we were singing. I don’t remember what the sermon was about that day.
What I remember was being convicted by the Holy Spirit in a way that changed my life for the rest of my life.
What I remember was looking at my kids while we were singing a song of worship and praise to the Lord of Heaven and Earth and realizing that most of the time, when I worshiped, my hands were either in my pockets or my arms were crossed. And I rarely if ever smiled.
In that moment the Holy Spirit spoke to me. It wasn’t an audible voice but it might as well have been. It was as if the Holy Spirit was looking at me, at my worship, and just had one question for me: Really?
Really?
Is that how you worship the God of the Universe? With your hands in your pockets? With your arms crossed? With a frown across your face? Is that how you want your kids to see you worship the God you say loves you so much He gave His one and only Son so you could live? Really?
And I made a promise to myself that day, that I would never again worship with my hands in my pockets, my arms crossed, or without a smile on my face because I could not imagine standing in heaven one day and worshiping my God that way. So why would I worship that way now?
I don’t want to ever forget that I am worshiping a Holy God who is worthy of all my praise.
Just like David, my pride had to fall so worship could rise.
And I just wonder if the same is true for you?
You may say… Well, I’m not that way. I’m not that expressive, that charismatic.
It’s not just about the posture of your hands, it’s about the posture of your heart.
Pride Must Fall
What would it look like for your worship now to reflect the way you will one day worship in heaven?
What would it look like for you to to show your kids what it looks like for their dad, their mom, to really get lost in worship? To love God more than the approval of people and your fear of what others might think.
I don’t know about you, I’m still afraid to dance like David, but I want to get lost in worship before the Lord.
But…
For worship to rise, pride must fall.
What needs to fall for you so worship can rise?
What is holding your worship back?
How will you one day worship in the presence of the Living God seated on His Heavenly throne?
Why not start worshipping that way today?
Living in the Presence
Unlike Indiana Jones or Roy Chapman Andrews, we don’t have to search for dinosaur eggs in Mongolia or go on a quest for the Ark of the Covenant to discover what matters most. Like David, we already know where to find the presence of the LORD God Almighty.
He’s often found in the still, quiet moments. You can find him all across the pages of scripture or in peaceful moments of prayer. Jesus said wherever two or three are gathered, He is there.
What’s important is organizing our lives around what matters most. And what matters most is the presence of God.
When we approach the presence of God with obedience and sacrifice, we always experience blessing. That’s not a formula to get what you want from God, that’s the experience of living in the divine presence of the God who loves you more than you could ever know.
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