Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Let us remain standing. And here
are king's words from first chronicles, chapter
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thirteen, first chronicles thirteen. Here
the word of the Lord. David consulted
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with the commanders of thousands and of
hundreds, with every leader, and David
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said to all the assembly of Israel, if it seems good to you and
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from the and from Jehovah, our
God, let us send abroad to our
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brothers who remain in all the lands
of Israel, as well as to the
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priests and Levites in the cities that
have pasture lands, that they may be
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gathered to us. Then let us
bring again the Ark of our God to
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us, for we did not seek
it in the days of Saul. All
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of the assembly agreed to do so, for the thing was right and all
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in the eyes of all the people. So David assembled all Israel, from
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the Nile of Egypt to Libo Hamof
to bring the Ark of God from Kiriaf
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Je Jerim, and David and all
Israel went up to Bah Allah, that
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is to Curryaf Jerreim, that belongs
to Judah, to bring up from there
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the Ark of God, which is
called by the name of Jehovah, who
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sits enthroned above the Cherubim and they
carried the Ark of God on a new
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cart from the house of a Mindab, and Zah and Ahio were driving the
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cart and David and all Israel were
rejoicing before God with all their might,
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with songs and liars and Harps and
tambourines and symbols and trumpets. And when
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they came to the threshing floor of
Chidam Zah put out his hand to take
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hold of the Ark, for the
oxen stumbled and the anger of Jehovah was
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kindled against USA and he struck him
down because he put out his hand to
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the Ark and he died there before
God. And David was angry with Jehovah,
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or in David was angry because Jehovah
had broken out against Uza, and
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the place is called Perez Azah to
this day. And David was afraid of
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God that day and he said,
how can I bring the Ark of God
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home to me? So David did
not take the Ark of Ark home into
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the city of David, but took
it aside to the house of Obed Edom
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the Gittite, and the Ark of
God remained with the household of Obed Edom
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in his house three months and Jehovah
blessed the House of Obed Edom and all
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that he had. You may be
seated on the Bible. We have these
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great stories of heroes of the faith, men of Valor, men of integrity,
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of righteousness. David is certainly one
of them, and one whom we
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have seen in a very positive light
thus far, a one who has been
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contrasted with Saul, and even is
here as well. But here we are
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reminded that men are always men,
that no one is perfect. No,
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not one, not even David.
David ends this story angry at God and
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refusing unknowing, confused about what to
do with the ARC. David has a
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lesson that he needs to learn,
and he will learn it, as we
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will see in the coming chapters.
But right now we see that David,
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on the one hand, has this
really good intention, but ultimately it fails
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and one of the men of his
kingdom, Aza even, dies for these
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failures. If you want to understand
first chronicles thirteen, you have to understand
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something about the ARC. You have
to have understand the ARC. Understanding the
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ARC is key to understanding why David
was right to want to bring it back
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to Jerusalem. It took into Jerusalem. Understanding the ARC as the key to
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understanding why saul was wrongful in neglecting
it, why as it was wrong to
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touch it, why God was right
to put us a to death. But
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understanding the ARC does more than help
us explain the characters in this story.
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Understanding the ARC does more than help
us to understand David and as a Saul
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Israel. Understanding the ARC helps us
to understand God. The ARC is one
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of God's ways that he teaches us
about himself all throughout the Old Testament and
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this is one of its important places. God uses the Ark, for else,
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to for us, as a way
to know him, to fear him,
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to love him, to trust him. He also uses the ARC as
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a way to teach us about Jesus, his presence among us, the kinds
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of things that God does for us
in saving us. So we're going to
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consider the Ark this evening so that
we can perhaps be not so surprised as
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I think most of us are when
we first read this story or hear it
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about us as death. My hope
is that by the time we get to
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the end, US as death is
something that you might have even expected,
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or will expect the next time you
read it, to understand that God is
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not being irrational or emotional or something
like that, but that God is acting
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righteously and well in putting us a
to death. So let's consider the Ark.
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First of all, when we talk
about the Ark, you have to
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understand that this is not the normal
arc that I think most people know and
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are is famous. This is not
Noah's Ark. You don't want to be
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confused between those two things. It's
also not the ARC that Moses was put
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in. Sometimes, the basket that
his mother put him in and sent him
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down the water is called an arc. It's not that arc either. This
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arc is called the Ark of God
or the Ark of the Covenant or the
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Arc of testimony, of the testimony. I'll give you a description of it.
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I'm not only so you can picture
it, but you'll see that in
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the description of it, I'm we
begin to understand what it is, what
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God intends to communicate to us through
the ARC. The ARC is about what
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I was about four feet long,
about three and three quarters feet I'm so
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not a huge thing, but you
know like so it was about two and
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a half or two and in a
quarter feet wide and also deep. It's
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essentially a box, a box made
out of ACACIA. Would I have a
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salad bowl made out of ACACIA?
Would I see other kinchin utensils made out
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of this wood? It's very pretty, it's got beautiful patterns and it's somewhat
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expensive kind of wood, at least
it can be. So you have this
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beautiful box of good size, large
box made out of Acacia Wood. But
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then the box, the ARC,
is overlaid with gold. These instructions,
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by the way, are found in
exodus twenty five and I believe, at
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least one other place as well.
You have this box and it's it's covered
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with gold on on all sides and
then each corner of the arc there are
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these rings that are made through which
a pull is to go through. The
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reason for that is that the ARC
is to be carried in a very specific
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way. It is not to be
touched by anyone when it is carried and
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moved around, which itself was to
end when the temple was made, but
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as long, but for a while, the arc was on the move,
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and when it was on the move
it was to not be touched but to
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be carried by these poles that would
go through those rings on either side.
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One way you might picture the arc
or the caring of the ARC, is
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like you see, and maybe you've
seen in a movie, where you have
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servants carrying someone through the streets,
like a king, for example, people
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walking with long poles with a kind
of platform on which the king sits.
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This is not an inappropriate analogy for
the ARC, because indeed it is called
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the footstool of God. It is
described in scripture as his throne. In
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a sense, he is said to
have his presence there. With the ARC,
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this is part of his place where
he sits and rules and dwells.
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And so not only was it beautiful, but it was also holy, and
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that is why it was to not
be touched. You approach a king in
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a particular way. You don't come
around from the back and tap him on
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the shoulders Ay Hey, can we
talk? You come from the front,
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you come low, you come according
to Proto Call, you come to respect
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and honor the king. You don't
just touch his throne, you don't just
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touch him or his robes. You
give reverence and awe to the king.
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If this is true of human kings, how much more so with the King
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of Heaven and earth, the King
of the world, even God himself.
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Well, not only is the ARC
described in this way as God's Footstool,
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with the Tabernacle and the temple being
his his house and his throne room,
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but we also see it pictured in
the Ark. Thus far I've described a
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box, a gold box or a
wood box overlaid with gold, these poles
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on the sides, but I haven't
described to you yet the top. The
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top of the ARC was a piece
of gold that went across the top and
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on either ends were two angels,
Cherubu. These angels stretched out their wings
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so that the tips of the wings
nearly touched one another and they're the gaze
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of the angels was downwards, so
toward the ARC. Why would these angels
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be there? Well, there are
a number of places in scripture that God
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describe God's relationship to the angels in
this way. So second kings one thousand
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nine hundred and fifteen, for example, says that God is enthroned above the
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Cherubean there's the sense in which he
rests his throne on them, or are
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they are around him? On very
close in revelation, for we have these
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these kinds of pictures. The Throne
Room of God has this is great clouds
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surrounding it. There as these the
sense of gleaming metal and flashes of lightning.
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Than there are these angels, angels
surrounding His throne. These throne is
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sometimes described as a chariot. I'm
it's described in various ways in these visions
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that God gives to the Prophets.
Sometimes it seems to be pictured as a
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somewhat stationary thing, other times it's
on the move, and there is this
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sort of conglomeration of images of fire
and angels and wheels, all moving forward
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as God rides in His Majesty and
judgment. The images are terrifying. The
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images are unbelievable in a sense,
they are difficult to imagine and full of
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power or and mystery. Psalm sixty
eight seventeen says the chariots of God are
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twice ten thousand thousands. The Lord
is among them and goes on to describe
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his angels as ministers of fire,
flaming fire. We also have these pictures
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in Ezekiel with these wheels upon wheels
turning and spinning as God sits on His
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throne. Well, all of this, these images that come and are.
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God expresses to us through various visions
that he gives his prophets are here pictured
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in a very physical form in the
Ark, with these two angels described in
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a similar way that we see in
these visions, reaching out their wings,
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casting their gaze downward in humility,
as the Lord God sits between them and
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he rules as in his presence there. The last thing to mention about what
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the ARC looked like was what was
inside the box. What was inside the
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arc? Not only was it beautiful, not with the only was it holy
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and symbolizing all of these things,
picturing this throne of God, but inside
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we're placed the ten commandments, very
significant because God is known to us in
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his word. It debt that ten
commandments being placed in the arc shows that
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the shows how connected the word is
with God's rule. They are not to
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be separated, they are not to
be, I'm seen as a part.
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I'll just mention that. It other
there seems to be a suggestion in Hebrews
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Nine, the errands Rod, which
blossomed in numbers, a testimony to Arran's
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priesthood and also a jar of manner, were perhaps in the arc at some
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point or beside it or near it. So this is the description of the
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ARC, and I hope that as
you hear this, you get a real
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sense of the Majesty and Power of
God, and God rules his people in
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this particular way. Now, not
only do you see this in the design
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of the ARC, but you also
see it in the movement of the Ark.
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You remember, I told you that, as the visions of God's prophets
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describe the throne of God, it
is sometimes seems to be stationary and sometimes
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on the move. This was,
of the true of the ARC as well.
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You've can to consider its placement in
Israel. God had very specific commands
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when the ARC was placed in Israel. It is to be put in the
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center. God was to be in
the center of his people. The ARC
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and the Tabernacle that surrounded it was
to be in the center of the camp,
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with the tribes of Israel spreading out
in every cardinal direction. It was
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a way of showing God again,
God's importance and his centrality, but sometimes
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it was on the move. The
ARC was to be the the thing which
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led God's people into battle, and
in this way we see that God is
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not only to be at their center, but he is also their divine warrior.
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They it is God who leads the
charge, it is God who rides
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out on his chariot, and this
was all pictured as the arc went forward.
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So when you think about the arc, you should be thinking about God,
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His throne and what and his designs
for that. We are to consider
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God as holy, as powerful,
as majestic, as ruler overall, as
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center of the people, as one
who is to remain, who draws close
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to us and promises to be with
us and yet is always separate, is
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never to be touched. And so
we see why Saul in Israel failed so
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greatly. When, as David says
in first chronicles thirteen three, then let
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us bring again the Ark of God
to us, for we did not seek
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it in the days of Saul.
Can you imagine, given all that God
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has said and promised to do in
connection with the Ark, that you would
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ever let it out of your sight, that you would ever simply lose it
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or lose or or or do anything
that God had commanded or prohibited against it?
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And yet that's what Saul and the
people did. In fact, Saul's
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whole kingship, as we seen,
has been characterized by this kind of thing,
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neglect of God. He's failed.
Oh he failed over and over again
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to seek after God. He failed
over and over again to let God be
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the one who would send him into
battle, let God be the one who
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would be a divine warrior first people. Instead, Saul was continually saying,
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I've got this one, I'll do
it, I'll take care of it.
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Of course he didn't, though.
He hid in caves and stayed in his
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palace and was on the run,
refused to go into battle. This is
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what happens, of course, when
we neglect the Lord, when we put
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God away from our center, when
we don't seek after God, when we
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don't desire to lead or, I'm
sorry, follow him in his leadership,
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we find ourselves, as Saul did, anxious, weak, frustrated scared because
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we're we are seeking to live and
and rule in our own strength and not
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the Lord's. So David is very
much on the right track here when he
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says we did not seek it in
the days of the Lord, let's go
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get it. Well, you'll have
to go and read and read in the
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histories what happened to the ARC.
I'm all the details of it, but
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to put it shortly it had wound
up in the hands of the Philistines and
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basically been moving around their land terrorizing
them. It would it would come into
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a particular place and all kinds of
curses would come upon the people, and
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so they'd send it somewhere else and
send it somewhere else, until finally they
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sent it off and it went to
this place to carry off Jerem and landing
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there, I'm David decides to go
get it, but he makes an important
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mistake. Maybe it's not even a
mistake, because later on, in believe
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it's chapter sixteen, he's going to
confess that he the knowledge that the Levites
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are the ones that are to be
carrying the ARC. Eventually he's going to
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get this right. But here,
for some reason, they decide to put
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it in a cart. Now they
give it they they put it in a
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cart with these animals, these oxen, and what happens? The Oxen Stumble
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in. US A puts out his
hand and he touches the throne of God.
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He reaches out to touch the Ark. Now we're, of course,
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sympathetic with us a. What would
you do? What would be better?
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Touching the ARC, doing that thing
you're not supposed to do or letting the
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Ark of God fall into the dirt. It's a hard call, but the
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sin of Uza and of David didn't
happen just when he touched it. The
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sin happened when they put it into
the cart. And we do this in
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our lives. We put ourselves into
these compromised situations where we end up with
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two bad options, two options in
which we say this is bad and this
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is bad, this one is evil
and that one is evil. We have
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to be careful and guard our hearts
and the ways that we move and live
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and think and act wisely and follow
God's commands from the beginning, not just
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when things get difficult down the road. Uzza didn't do that, David didn't
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do that, Israel didn't do that. Here we're also reminded of another important
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lesson concerning God's law. You have
this wonderful picture of the people praising and
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worshiping God, and the text seems
to read in a way that it was
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very genuine. David goes out with
good motives to get the ARC. They're
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coming back for all the right reasons, and then in verse eight we read
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that they're rejoicing before God with all
their might, with songs and liars and
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Harps and tambourines and symbols and trumpets. There's this giant marching band moving along
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with the arc, people praising and
rejoicing God. Before all disaster happens and
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they end up leaving the arc and
going home. It's a good reminder that,
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as good and true as our praise
and worship of God might be,
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it never is enough to cover up
or make up for outright disobedience. You
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can't disobey God and the things that
he wants and then come to church and
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say, well, all praise him
with all my heart and somehow these things
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will balance each other out. God
even says in concerning the sacrifices, even
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in particular, it's obedience that I
want, obedience from the heart, more
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than these things. They had it
wrong. They were willing, perhaps honestly
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and and truly, to rejoice and
praise God, and that's good, but
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it doesn't make up for disobedience.
When God says the Levites, the priests,
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shall carry the Ark, to not
carry it and when we remember that
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this is the throne of God,
to put it in a cart, to
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say I don't feel like caring it. I'd rather not. Truly, there's
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a better way. If the king
wants to be carried, you carry the
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king. He is the king,
and God is our Lord, our God
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and our king. We are to
do as he pleases and not simply decide
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our own ways and then try,
I to think that it'll somehow be right
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if we praise him hard enough.
So these were the sins of David,
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the sins of Oza. In some
ways, they failed to submit to the
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truth and the reality that they were
to be controlled by God and instead decided
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that they they would control him,
and that's why this happened in the way
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that it did. God wanted to
teach Israel a lesson, and indeed he
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teaches us a lesson as well.
When it comes to God and in his
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presence and His Majesty and His Holiness, in his divine power as a warrior
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king, you are a fool to
neglect it, a fool to neglect God
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as Saltd but you're also foolish if
you think you can somehow control him,
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if you think that you can somehow
come to him on your own terms or
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treat him in your own way.
No, God will be as God will
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be. He is the Lord and
there is no other. This should put
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a degree of fear in our hearts, of reverence for our God and King.
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We are right to tremble before him, to feel the weight of His
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Majesty and as honor and his praise. We do not go before the glory
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of the Lord Lightly. We are
to worship him in obedience and reverence and
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AH. But it is also true
that God's coming to us on his own
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terms. It is also true that
that that fact is our very salvation.
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This is pictured in the Old Testament
by something that happened with the arc,
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something I haven't yet mentioned. In
describing it, I gave you this picture
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of of this wooden box covered with
gold, with these poles in the angels.
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But by this point it wouldn't be
quite so pristine, it wouldn't be
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so shiny, because there'd be blood
all over it. There would be blood
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because on the day of Atonement,
it was the priest's job, it was
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Aaron's job, to go and sacrifice
a bowl on the altar and then to
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take the blood of that bowl and
come in until the holy of holies were
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only Aaron could go and that only
once a year and he would go into
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the Throne Room of God and he
would light some incense, couple handfuls of
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incense on some five are so that
a great cloud of sweet smelling incense would
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fill the room. The same kind
of cloud that is pictured in the visions
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that the prophets have is also pictured
physically. There in the holy of holies,
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a cloud fills the room as God
comes in his presence and there Aaron
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is to take this sacrifice of a
bull, a sin offering it is called,
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and he is to dip his finger
in the blood and he is to
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sprinkle it on the front and on
the east side, seven times on the
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front. Then he's to do the
same with the with a goat, second
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sin offering, and again he is
to take the blood of the goat and
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he's to go into the holy of
holies and he's to sprinkle that blood on
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the throne of God, on the
presence of God. He sprinkles that blood
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and then he takes that blood and
he goes out and then he actually,
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I'm sprinkles that blood on the altar
itself as a way to purify the altar,
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which would then from that point on, for the rest of the year
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serve as the but's a pool and
which sacrifices were brought. This amazingly pictures
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that God, when he comes to
his people, he doesn't only come to
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them in his holy and His Majesty
and His power, but he also comes
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to them in His mercy. He
takes on himself the blood of Sin.
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He takes on himself the consequences that
we deserve, the sins that we commit,
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the ways in which we fail to
treat it, to a treat God
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properly. He takes this on himself
so that the people could be forgiven.
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Now we don't have the ARC anymore. It was likely destroyed or lost something
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when the temple and Jerusalem were destroyed. But it doesn't really matter, because
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we have Jesus. The New Testament
tells us that Jesus tabernacled among us,
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he tended among US and his body. He came to be present. God
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came to be present among his people, to be with us and to lead
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the way as our divine warrior,
and he does this particularly on the cross,
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when he goes to the Cross and
he acts in this powerful way.
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In the Pasta chapters and chronicles we've
been considering David in this particular light,
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the great king who rides forth with
his mighty men to go and destroy God's
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enemies, to clear the land,
to make a place for his people and
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rule over them in righteousness. That's
what Jesus does on the Cross as our
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king and as our God. This
is good news for us to know that
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God comes as he will come,
and he has decided to come in the
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power of His grace, in this
saving way. God comes to us in
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a way that we can never lose
his presence. And the Old Testament there
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was this sense in which God could
be separated and would be separated from his
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people if they didn't obey, if
they didn't seek after him, if they
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didn't do as they ought to do, he would leave, they would be
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kicked out of from the land.
Indeed, Ezekiel even has a vision of
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the cloud, the glory cloud of
God in all of his presence, lifting
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up from the Ark and the temple
and leaving Jerusalem because of the sins of
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the people. But when God comes
in Jesus, he comes in a permanent
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way. He comes in a way
to make us his forever and ever and
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ever. He even says that he
takes us and makes us a part of
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that Tabernacle itself, that Jesus even
lives within us, that he is spirit
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dwells within us and US in him. Amazing truths. Colossians talks as about
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us being seated in the heavenly places
where Christ is. The Bible talks about
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US ruling and reigning with our Lord
and Savior. These pictures tell us that
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not only do we come and is
his servants, but as servants who will
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never be broken away from him,
as servants who live and will always live
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according to his rule and his pleasure. This comes to us because God perfectly
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forgives our sins. Well, this
should bring us a great news. It
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is great news, it should bring
us great joy and it should also make
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us worship God in reverence and in
awe. Because God has come in this
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way, we don't have less of
an obligation to worship God as he sees
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fit, but all the more don't
we to come before him as he has
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called us, to know that we
are those who have been saved from our
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sins, to know that he promises
to always ride out before us, even
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when we fail to trust him as
we ought to. Know that when we
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are saved in him, we are
saved forever. These things should make us
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trust him all the more, to
love him all the more, to worship
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him all the more to seek to
draw near to him and be in his
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presence forever. When you consider first
chronicles thirteen and you think about us,
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are reaching out his hand to touch
the Ark of God in this way,
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consider the sins in it, but
also consider the great way in which God
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has come to reach and touch us
and that when he does that, he
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doesn't become unholy, but he makes
us holy. Let us pray
