Scripture: 2 Samuel 6: 12-23
Sermon: A Fool for the Lord
Topics: Ark of the Covenant, Michal, Jerusalem, folly
Preached March 3, 2019
Rev. Mike Abma
Preamble
Before turning to 2 Samuel 6, why not turn first to 2 Samuel 5.
As you may know, David spends a long time as an outlaw,
on the run from King Saul.
But now the tide has turned.
And things are going David’s way.
Just look at those headings for Chapter 5
* “David Anointed King of All Israel”
* “Jerusalem Made Capital of the United Kingdom”
* “Philistine Attack Repulsed”
Wow!
David is on a Roll!
Everything is going his way!
He is King.
He has a brand new capital city.
He has defeated that old enemy of Israel – the Philistines.
And now for the icing on the cake –
bringing the Ark of the Covenant into his new capital city.
That is how Chapter 6 begins.
With the first attempt to bring the Ark of the Covenant.
The Ark of the Covenant —
that gold-gilded box
containing a copy of the Law,
representing the presence of the Lord,
and acting as the footstool of heaven on earth.
The first attempt to bring the Ark to Jerusalem ends in tragedy.
As it rolls along being pulled by oxen on an ox cart,
it jiggles and shakes.
Uzzah reaches out to steady it.
Uzzah is struck dead.
And suddenly everything stops —
For 3 months everything stops.
David is confused.
He is angry.
He is afraid – how can the Ark of the Lord come into his care?, he wonders.
Perhaps David realizes there is a little bit of presumption in what happened before.
Perhaps he senses there was a little bit of taking God for granted,
of thinking God could be controlled and manipulated.
But that all ends and stops with the death of Uzzah.
Then we have the rest of this chapter, starting at verse 12:
12 It was told King David, ‘The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.’ So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing; 13and when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. 14David danced before the Lord with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod. 15So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.
16 As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.
17 They brought in the ark of the Lord, and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it; and David offered burnt-offerings and offerings of well-being before the Lord. 18When David had finished offering the burnt-offerings and the offerings of well-being, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts, 19and distributed food among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, to each a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins. Then all the people went back to their homes.
20 David returned to bless his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, ‘How the king of Israel honoured himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants’ maids, as any vulgar fellow might shamelessly uncover himself!’ 21David said to Michal, ‘It was before the Lord, who chose me in place of your father and all his household, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord, that I have danced before the Lord. 22I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in my own eyes; but by the maids of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honour.’ 23And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
EXTRAVAGANT PARADE
What David agonized over for 3 months
was whether the Ark of the Lord
would bring blessings and life,
or curses and death.
For 3 months he knew he could not take God for granted,
he could not presume things of God.
And then he heard some good news –
the Ark was bringing blessings to the house of Obed-edom
where it was staying.
David took this as a sign –
a sign that the Ark’s presence,
God’s presence
in Israel would be a blessing.
So with all joy and celebration and extravagance,
David and Israel bring the Ark into Jerusalem.
But this time things were a little different.
1. For one, the way it was transported was different.
It does not tell us this in our text, but if we read the parallel story in 1 Chronicles 15, we would learn that this second time they did not use oxen and an ox cart.
This second time the Ark was carried by Levites,
the way the Torah said it was supposed to be transported.
2. And this second time, no one took God for granted.
There was a sense of humility.
One of the first things done was they stopped
to give offerings and make sacrifices.
But with the sense of humility
there was also a feeling of extravagant Joy.
The joy that comes with knowing that God the Almighty
is willing to dwell with you;
The joy that comes with knowing that God the Almighty
is blessing you.
That extravagant Joy is seen in different ways.
A. It is seen in the huge parade that accompanied the Ark to Jerusalem.
B. It is seen in the offerings and sacrifices made,
Not only on the way, but also when the Ark arrived in Jerusalem.
C. It is seen in the huge FEAST everyone enjoyed once the Ark arrived.
Everyone ate cakes, and meat and raisins.
In other words, everyone ate like a King
Because everyone was rejoicing in the blessings of the Lord.
D. And perhaps most telling of all, we see extravagant Joy
in the dancing of David.
There is David, dancing with all his might.
There he is dancing only in his linen ephod –
a bit like dancing in his underwear.
There he is dancing
extravagantly
and shamelessly
before God and everyone else.
There he is
dancing in humility, in gratitude, in joy.
THE ONE CLOUD
There is one cloud on this otherwise sunny and celebrative day.
The one cloud casting shade on the day
is Michal,
the wife of David
and also the daughter of the former king, Saul.
Michal is not impressed by what she sees.
When she sees David dancing the way he is dancing,
she despises him.
When they finally meet and talk,
she can’t help but give David a piece of her mind.
She says to David,
“Don’t you realize that you are making a fool of yourself?”
Why did Michal say that?
Maybe it was because Michal had been a princess for quite some time.
Maybe it was because Michal had been raised in a palace.
Maybe it was because Michal had strong ideas of
what was fitting for a king
and what was not fitting for a king.
She clearly thought that David,
as a king
should NOT be dancing like that.
A King should never lower himself like that in Public.
A King should always be regal, honorable, respected.
But David disagrees.
David says he is dancing like that before the LORD
because he realizes that the LORD is the King.
And it is the Lord who made him a king.
It is the Lord who is the source of all blessings.
David was willing to dance like that,
because he knew that before he was anyone’s king,
he was first of all God’s humble servant,
and that all his joy was from Him.
David knew something that Jesus would remind us all of later on:
that it is by humbling ourselves that we are exalted;
it is by acting like servants that we are raised up;
and it is by losing ourselves for his sake,
that we in fact find ourselves.
THE OTHER DANCE
David James Duncan wrote a novel called The Brothers K.
It is a book about a family of brothers,
but it is also a book about
baseball, the Vietnam War, and the Seventh Adventist Church.
This family of brothers has to attend Sabbath School – like Sunday School but on Saturdays instead of Sundays.
They have to attend Sabbath School before the main worship service.
Their Sabbath School teacher is a young man they call Brother Beal.
They think Brother Beal’s lessons are “the little bore”
before Pastor Babbock’s sermon,
which was “THE BIG BORE.”
The family of brothers all thought that Brother Beal was a bit of a duffus…..
…..until they were at the Church’s summer camp.
They were playing a game of softball – and this family of boys loved softball and baseball.
Brother Beal was playing with them.
There was a rumor that Brother Beal was a really good player,
that he had even played baseball in college.
But in this game they were playing,
Brother Beal was only hitting little bloopers.
That is when Sister Durrell showed up.
Sister Durrell was Brother Beal’s girlfriend.
There were rumors that Sister Durrell and Brother Beal were going to get engaged.
When Brother Beal sees Sister Durrell sitting there
watching the ball game,
all summery and smiling,
he can’t help but smile back.
And he calls out, “This one’s for you, dear.”
The pitcher heard that as a challenge.
He wasn’t going to give Brother Beal an easy lob-ball pitch.
He was going to burn it in there with all his might.
And that is what he did,
a blazing pitch, right over the plate.
Brother Beal’s eyes narrowed.
His body coiled.
And then, in a motion of beauty and wonder
his body uncoiled in a mighty swing of the bat.
Brother Beal did not just hit the ball.
He obliterated the ball.
The ball went so high and so far
that everyone just stood there
watching it fly further and further away.
When they finally lost sight of the ball
they caught sight of Brother Beal.
He was not running around the bases.
He was not even trotting around the bases.
No, he was Dancing.
There was that pious Sabbath School teacher
jiving and jittering
mov’in and a groov’in
around the bases,
shaking his arms,
his hips
his hands
his head,
all the way to home plate
where he was blowing kisses to his girl, Sister Durrell.
And Sister Durrell was blushing, and smiling, and laughing all at the same time.
The umpire for the ball game was none other than stern Pastor Babbock.
He thought Brother Beal was making a spectacle of himself,
especially in front of all those children.
So Pastor Babcock
in his loud voice, yelled,
“Brother Beal, you are “Out” —
I call you” Out” for leaving the base path!
Now quit acting like a fool.”
To which Brother Beal replied,
“Oh, I’m not acting.
This is exactly how I feel!”
This is exactly how I feel.
CONCLUSION
The Church Father Iranaeus once wrote,
“The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”
The glory of God is a human being fully alive.
May we all be able to feel fully alive;
Fully alive in running the bases of a ball diamond;
Fully alive in skiing down a challenging hill;
Fully alive playing the piano;
Fully alive dancing, or singing,
or doing whatever,
so that we lose ourselves
in the joy and in the blessings of the Lord
Amen
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