2 Samuel 6:5-9
And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God. And David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah. And that place is called Perez-uzzah to this day. And David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?”
We really rejoice in churches today in regard to our "worship" services. We should!! We should shout and dance and sing praises to our King, the Lord of lords, for our salvation; our redemption. Most people today leave a church and attend another one, often, simply because of their worship service. The teaching of the Word can be, often, moved to a lesser priority. There doesn't have to be an "either/or" approach: Either we have good worship, or poor preaching, or vice versa. It should be a "both/and" approach: We can have both great worship and great preaching. In the above passage what we have is the first one, however: We have great worship and poor preaching, or following of the Word. God's Word strictly forbade someone to touch the Ark of the Covenant. In Numbers 4:15 we read the warning to all the priest, to NOT touch the Ark. The Ark was designed to be carried by four priest who would slide two polls into the rings on each side of the Ark. The Ark would then be hoisted to their shoulders and they would carry the Ark, without touching the Ark. In the above story, David was so concerned with the music and the worship portion of the service, he forgot to follow the Word. Celebration for God's victories He provides does not trump obedience to God's Word. David might have remember when King Saul went ahead and offered sacrifice prior to Samuel's arrival. Samuel told King Saul the following:
1 Samuel 15:22
And Samuel said,
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.
God loves us to celebrate His glory and His provision. But, we must remember that the quality of worship does not negate the necessity of obedience. We CAN sin in our praise toward God. Praising God does not exempt people from committing an act of sin. Ananias in Acts 5 came with his wife to worship and gave some money left from a recent land deal. However, in their giving they lied about the fact they were bringing it "all" to the Lord in an offering. God didn't even care if they gave some or all. But, because they lied, God struck them dead right in front of the offering plate. The truth is, obedience is more important than celebration.
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