To the house of Obed-Edom

“He did not take the ark to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.” (1 Chronicles 13:13)

 

After the death of Saul, the first king of Israel, the hearts of the people went toward David. The first matter David did after taking over the throne by being entrusted of the people was a work to bring back God’s ark of law. King Saul had wished to win by mobilizing the ark of law in the war against the Philistines earlier, but he was rather humiliated by being deprived of God’s ark was taken away by the enemy. Now for David the king, getting back the ark of law was a major task for the restoration and promotion of national sovereignty. However as David’s plan to move the ark to his city had been thwarted, it had to be stayed in the house of Obed-Edom for a while.

 

Called the Ark of the Covenant, the ark of law signifies a fact of God’s existence and His accompanying with people. There were two plates of stone written Ten Commandments in. And it is said that there were inside also Aaron’s cane and Manna. Thus the meaning the ark of law gives is the commandment of God, the salvation of power, and the promise of eternal life. If somebody is a man of faith in God, of course, the person would have to live according to the lessons of the Lord. For salvation is a blessing given to man through God’s absolute of grace. After all, the saved people in Christ can be protected in the Holy Spirit and have become take a joyful life guided by the Almighty.

At the time of Saul, the reason why the ark of law was mobilized with in the war against the Philistines was because Saul had thought of it as if look like one of idol statues of paganism without knowing what the true meaning of the ark of law is. Saul had to realize of oneself and to take an attitude obeying God’s commandments in front of the ark of law. Far from that, he had thought wrong he would win if he went to war only with the ark of law. Such a thing is an attitude commonly seen from pagans worshiping miscellaneous gods. It’s same to the foolishness thinking that the door of a cave full of treasures will open by itself if just muttering the spell of “Open, O Simsim!” as in the story ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’. Even among the church members who think themselves believing in Jesus, there are quite many people who have that kind of false consciousness. Believers must always try hard to live according to the lessons of Christ only. Christians say anyone who calls Jesus’ name can be saved. But here calling Jesus’ name does not mean a calling Jesus just like shouting slogans. If there was not contained sincerity in a cry, even shouting 10 million times will be useless. Necessarily, faith must be accompanied by the scream and practices of self-existence.

A mishap had happened while moving the ark of law to the city of David. The intention to bring back to Jerusalem the ark of law was good, and also the conditions in order to moving it were met. And yet the problem was that conscious education on the ark of law was not properly taught to them. They had made a mistake in an emergency situation because they had been prepared in the surface but lacked contents. Since oxen had suddenly stumbled in the threshing floor of Kidon, Uzzah put out his hand and held onto the ark, because of that, Uzzah was died due to the Lord’s anger. So, David was afraid to bring it and moved the ark of law to Obed-Edom’s house. After then, the ark of law had stayed at Kidon’s house for three months. Thanks to the staying of the ark, Obed-Edom’s home was greatly blessed by God.

We don’t know well who Obed-Edom is at the time, what position the person had, and how great he was. However we know clearly one fact, Obed-Edom the Gittite was blessed relating to the death of Uzzah, who had been selected for the work of bringing the ark of law. There are various kinds of people in the world, and their lives are diverse. And everyone is proud of oneself they live in one’s style. But as living on the style of their own, they sometimes trample or may hurt others when they have a chance for their own benefit. Therefore the most important thing to every person any case is that to rely upon the Lord’s hand of grace under any hard condition.

 

For us living in this era, such the blessings Obed-Edom had received are needy essential. Blessings in believing in Christ are given to man as God’s absolute grace. And yet, we must not think God’s grace is given just by lying still and looking at the sky. In order to be blessed, we need to take care of the Lord’s ark of law. If following the teachings of meaning the ark of law gives, through the word of God, we must surely realize and confess the past of sin and death. And we would have to live mighty in the Holy Spirit while eating Christ’s lessons the bread of eternal life.

 

(Written by Koonoh, Pastor of JDO Presbyterian Church in Korea, on Jan 9th 2022)