“Maintain a Healthy Fear of Displeasing Jehovah” (10 min.)
Is it possible that a son who deeply loves his mother or father is afraid of him? Yes. it's possible. A son who appreciates his parents, worries about not causing them harm by a bad action or something that he says will hurt them or other people. For this reason, sometimes the expression "that my mom doesn't find out or that my dad doesn't find out" is not because they are terrified, but rather they have a healthy fear of not displeasing them.
And that is what we are going to talk about this time in Treasures of the Bible with the title: “Let us maintain a healthy fear of displeasing Jehovah”. And it is that we consider Jehovah as our heavenly Father, and we want to do things that make him feel good, that he feels satisfied with the service we render him.
And that leads us to review something that happened in the time of King David, which could show that sometimes good intentions are not an open letter to violate Jehovah's commands.
LET'S READ: 2 Samuel 6:3,5.
3 Now in order to transport the Ark of the true God from Abinadab's house that was on the hill, they put it on a new cart. And Uzá and Ahió, sons of Abinadab, carried the new cart. 4 So they took the Ark of the true God from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill, and Ahio was walking in front of the Ark. 5 David and all of the house of Israel were celebrating the occasion before Jehovah with all kinds of juniper-wood instruments, harps and other stringed instruments, tambourines, sistrums, and cymbals.
Good. Let's imagine the situation. The ark of Jehovah's covenant was in the house of a man named Abinadab. He spent 70 years there, and of course, under Jehovah's approval. So we can imagine that this house was very special and this family was special. Therefore, these two who are mentioned here as Uzzah and Ahio sons of Abinadab, had practically been born and raised with the ark of the covenant on their property.
So they may have seen it as something special or they may have gotten used to seeing it as something routine. Another detail that the story presents us is that Abinadab's house was on a hill, so it was not so easy, or go up or down something from there. There was his risk that this could be spoiled. David thought that it was time to move the ark of the covenant from that house, so he made things that were apparently well done, such as a new chariot.
I mean, it was going to be released for something as special as the Ark of the Covenant. But it wasn't good. It wasn't right. In the instructions given by Jehovah that appears in exodus 25, he clearly says that this ark had to be moved with poles or pieces of wood where they should be transported by authorized persons. They were not to touch her, but only the poles, the pieces of wood that they had to put on her shoulders.
An error there of not having followed the instruction of Jehovah. They made a new chariot, but they did not transport her, as Jehovah had said. Here they were exchanging a command from Jehovah for good intentions. A good reminder for us not to change anything, seemingly with good intentions, even though we are changing Jehovah's commandments. But we already have the framework of circumstances. They start to bring that carriage. One man is in front, another is behind and a hill in between. What happens in that course, in that journey?
LET'S READ: 2 Samuel 6:6.
6 But, when they arrived at the threshing floor of Nacon, Uza reached out and grabbed the Ark of the true God, because the bulls nearly overturned it.
But wait. Wasn't it the right thing to do? Prevent something as valuable as the Ark of the Covenant from falling? There was a law and that had to be respected no matter what. why? in the account of Numbers four and chapter seven it is clearly indicated that the one who touched the ark had to die. There was a specific mandate. And Uzza disobeyed. Good intentions should not cause us to violate biblical mandates.
There is a saying that goes like this: “He who offers himself is left over”. That is, if a person does not have the authority to do something, he should not offer. In the case of Uza, he was not a priest. He apparently he was a Levite. And with more reason. He should know perfectly what the law of God was. Do not touch. For that there were people assigned and not even to touch them directly, but by these sticks or pieces of wood.
So since he was a child, Uzza knew perfectly well what was the correct procedure for moving, transporting and laws that involved the use or handling of the Ark.
LET'S READ: 2 Samuel 6:7.
7 Then Jehovah was very angry with Uzzah. The true God executed him on the spot for that disrespect, and he died next to the Ark of the true God.
Here no human being was asked to execute this person. It was directly Jehovah. The expressions that we see in the verse is: Jehovah was very angry. He executed him there for that lack of respect. So it was a direct judgment from Jehovah. You didn't have to think twice. But why did he have to do that if it was apparently a good intention?
Uza lost his healthy fear of displeasing Jehovah. We also want to be very careful in our days when we carry out theocratic activities. Let us not try to stand out in front of others simply for selfish reasons or as Proverbs 3:7 says, “Do not become wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord, and stay away from evil."
Some might think that his qualities would allow him to be the center of attention and do things that we really shouldn't. We want to be like children, deeply respecting Jehovah. We love him, but we don't want him to be offended or embarrassed by our actions at any point. Let us do our best to do our service to Jehovah with good intentions, with a clean heart.
May Jehovah be satisfied that we render him sacred service with a clear conscience. Let us maintain a healthy fear of displeasing Jehovah and that will allow us to continue serving our Almighty God in the right way.
Comments
Post a Comment