Living Outloud: Your Praise Isn't Enough

A hard story forces us to face a hard truth: passion for God cannot replace obedience to God. We trace David, Uzzah, and the Ark to learn why fear of the Lord protects joy, how real repentance works, and why Scripture must shape our methods.

• the Ark’s return and why a new cart missed God’s command
• the difference between sincere worship and holy obedience
• why fear of the Lord brings alignment not panic
• Numbers 4 and Exodus on how to carry the Ark
• copying the world’s methods versus trusting God’s
• to obey is better than sacrifice from 1 Samuel 15
• Hosea 6 and Micah 6 on obedience repentance
• Psalm 51 as a template for contrition and renewal
• reading the Bible to obey it, not just admire it

With that in mind, go do your business with God. 

Whatever's on your heart right now, take a moment, take whatever time you need, go deal with him, go talk with him, and we'll see you next time.

Chapters

• 0:34 Welcome And Topic Setup
• 0:54 The Ark’s History And Misuse
• 2:07 Reading The Uzzah Account
• 2:52 Wrestling With Fairness And Fear Of God
• 7:36 Obedience Over Enthusiasm
• 11:14 What God Actually Commanded
• 15:22 Copying The World’s Methods
• 19:18 To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:23

Hey, welcome back to the Out Loud Bible Project Podcast. And this is my wife, in whom I am well pleased.

unknown: 0:30

Hi.

SPEAKER_01: 0:31

This is Kelsey.

SPEAKER_00: 0:33

I would like you to introduce me like that.

SPEAKER_01: 0:35

That's the official introduction.

SPEAKER_00: 0:37

Yes. For every time we're in public.

SPEAKER_01: 0:39

Every social gathering whatsoever. Cool. Well, we're gonna be talking about what we read in First Chronicles, specifically chapter 13, where we see an interesting story of David organizing the return of the Ark of the Covenant, which is a really big deal because the Ark of the Covenant represented God's presence with his people back in Moses' day. Like this has been hundreds of years now of like this is and the problem is that the Ark of the Covenant had become a bit of a good luck charm, less God's throne, more good luck charm that like we take it into battle, like it goes ahead of us and we win. And God is less interested in that sort of relationship with his people, so you know what? He let them lose, and it was taken, and it was with the Philistines, and the Philistines did not want it because God was not going to be held in a pagan temple either. So God is very sovereign in this story, also all the time. Uh but on display in this story. Finally, uh the Philistines end up sending this back to like, hey, just let it go back to its own home. And God directed it to be able to come back. It's been living on the outskirts of town for a while, and now it's time to get it back into the tabernacle.

SPEAKER_00: 1:56

And in chapter 13, verse 7, I'm just gonna read it again, even though you read it earlier this week, Mike. Uh, they placed the Ark of God on a new cart and brought it from Abinadab's house.

SPEAKER_01: 2:06

Oh, that's nice. It's a nice new cart.

SPEAKER_00: 2:08

Uzzah and Ahio were guiding the cart.

SPEAKER_01: 2:10

Oh, that's helpful.

SPEAKER_00: 2:11

David and all Israel were celebrating before God with all their might, singing songs and playing all kinds of musical instruments, lyres, harps, tambourines, cymbals, and trumpets. But when they arrived at the threshing floor of Nakon, the ox stumbled, and Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark. Then the Lord's anger was aroused against Uzzah, and he struck him dead because he had laid his hand on the ark. So Uzza died there in the presence of God.

SPEAKER_01: 2:40

Ouch.

SPEAKER_00: 2:41

Upon first reading, without context, you know, context is great, but without context, this kind of seems extreme.

SPEAKER_01: 2:46

Like this is an upsetting story.

SPEAKER_00: 2:48

It looks like Uzza was just making sure the arc didn't fall. That's a good thing, right? Like his instinct, you see something of value falling, your instinct is to grab it and hold it and make sure it doesn't fall.

SPEAKER_01: 2:58

And that's the thing, is it's not even likely a conscious choice. He's like, oh, I'm gonna go touch the arc. It's like, you know, when a lamp starts to fall, you just instinctively reach out and try to grab it. Like he probably wasn't even thinking. Next moment he's dead.

SPEAKER_00: 3:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 3:11

And this is one of those stories that that I remember the first time I heard it when I was a kid, I was like, that's not fair. It's not his fault.

SPEAKER_00: 3:18

And he was doing something good.

SPEAKER_01: 3:19

He was trying to do something right. And we know that this is a fine response because David had this similar response. Like it goes on to say, like, David was angry that Uzzah died, and he was struck with a fear of the Lord, which I think is that's an important factor. Because we understand being angry at God when it seems like he's being unfair, and that's okay. God can handle our anger and being angry with him. But it says that David feared the Lord, which we don't necessarily default to. Yeah because it's not being afraid of the Lord, that's not the same thing. This is like a whoa, God is serious. I didn't expect him to be this serious. I better, I better straighten up and and figure out what's going on here and get right with God. That's a fear of the Lord that I think we don't have. Often when we feel like God's not being fair, or God, it seems like God's overreacting, or like just wringing us through the mud more than he should, like these sort of thoughts, we can get angry. We can, and that we often do, but do we result in having a fear of the Lord, or are we just mad? And this is one of those indicators that David has a heart like God's. God said, David has a is a man after my own heart. It doesn't mean that he's perfect, he's certainly not, and we'll talk more about that. But and even in the story, he's not doing everything right. But that fear of the Lord being David's kind of gut reaction is something that we should pray to adopt as well as a response to when we feel like we don't understand God, he doesn't seem fair, we don't see the big picture. Let's have that produce a fear of like, whoa, God is bigger and God is serious, and apparently we're not I'm not on the same page as God. I thought I was, and apparently I'm not. That's a problem. Because it's not enough to just love the Lord. They were doing everything loving the Lord. They love the Lord. They're singing praises, all the musicians and the instruments and the singers and David's dancing. They're all dancing around. They they got a nice new cart. They're not gonna bring the ark home on some old grubby cart that's been used for carrying manure. No, we're gonna give them a nice new cart. And we're gonna have our big strong guys carry it, you know? Like these these are the best guys that we can find to do the job. And so they they did all this out of love for the Lord, but they lacked a fear of the Lord. And I may have told the story before, but I remember I think it was John Bevere. I guess it it haunts me, so it's on the it's on the tip of my tongue often, I think. Uh, but John Bever was he's an author and a Bible teacher. He was saying that uh he knew a friend who was a ministry leader and he had um established a fairly big global ministry, but then ran into some moral failures, not John Bevere, but his friend, and uh and ended up in jail. And so John was telling the story of like, I I went to go visit my friend uh in jail, and and I was talking to him, I was like, man, I help me understand. Like, you were doing so well, your ministry was doing so great. Like, can you just help me understand what happened that made you stop loving God so much? And the friend was like, Oh, I I never stopped loving God. I never stopped loving God, but I stopped fearing God, and that's what got me here. I'm in jail because I stopped fearing God, um, which is a very wise bit of introspection there that we can take a lesson from because there's a difference between loving God and fearing God. And our love of God will compel us to do a lot of things, nice things, good things, but without the fear of God, then we're going to find ourselves trespassing when we don't realize that we're doing it.

SPEAKER_02: 7:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 7:01

And God is always fair. That's something we have to accept of God, that he is fair and he is just. And so if he punishes us, or if there's a consequence, or if something happens, it just doesn't seem right to us, the problem's not with him, the problem's with us.

SPEAKER_02: 7:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 7:14

And a fear of the Lord will drive us to get right with him. Like I said, like, oh man, we're not on the same page at all. I didn't even realize that's a recognition that we need to come to quickly when we find ourselves in a similar situation.

SPEAKER_00: 7:25

Here's the thing, though, about this story with Uzzah and David and the cart and the ark. David should have known better. Uzzah should have known better. Everyone involved in this celebration, bringing the ark back into Jerusalem, should have known better. And here is what I mean by that. In Numbers 4, 13, 14, 15, this is these are the instructions for how to pack up the tabernacle and move it. Right? So they've got a there's a ton of instructions in here, but specifically in verse 15, after Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy furnishings, that would include the ark and all the holy articles, and when camp is ready to move, only then are the Kohethites to come and do the carrying. They must not touch the holy things, or, Mike, it says, they will die. The Kohathites are to carry those things that are in the tent of meeting. The things in the tent of meeting is the ark of the covenant. And it's very specifically described in Exodus when the Ark was created in the first place, that it is a box with loops on the side of it and poles that go through those loops. And the poles are that which are the people are to carry when they're moving the ark. They're supposed to lift it up and carry it by the poles. And it's and this this verse in numbers gives the the condition that the people are to carry these items, not touch them, or they will die. And so my point is David is all thrown off and mad at God for killing Uzzah, but everyone should have known better. A brand new cart was not what God required for moving his ark. People carrying it by the poles is what God required. And quite frankly, very practically, God probably had a good idea because if you've got six men carrying the cart, the ark by poles, one of them can stumble and the other five are still holding the poles, right?

SPEAKER_02: 9:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 9:22

If you've got a cart and the ox stumbles and it falls, like it could fall, like was gonna happen. And God knows this. And so he actually already made a plan for safely carrying the holy objects from place to place. If David had remembered this law, had obeyed this law, had made the people and the the contingent carrying the ark actually have carried it by the poles instead of putting it on a cart in the first place, Uzzah would be alive to this day. Uzzah wouldn't have died.

SPEAKER_01: 9:56

Would have died later.

SPEAKER_00: 9:57

Uzzah wouldn't have died then and there.

SPEAKER_01: 9:59

And Uzza uh is the son of Abinadab who was a Levite. So Uzza could have been a Kohathite. I'm sure the genealogy is there somewhere. He may have been of the right family line.

SPEAKER_00: 10:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 10:11

Uh which just goes to show you he should have known.

SPEAKER_00: 10:15

He should have known. And everyone involved in this story should have known. Like they are blasting trumpets and playing their tambourines, and they're all celebrating, they're all excited, they're all very energetically enthusiastic about honoring God and bringing him back.

SPEAKER_01: 10:32

David also, he like not every king knew the scriptures, right? Even to this day. Um, but David did. Like David really soaked in the scriptures. He probably did know, and there was just a lack of fear of the Lord, which is like, if God said it, then we better do it.

SPEAKER_00: 10:48

Here's how I think that the fear of the Lord lacking is shown in this story, in that David had, or someone had the idea and David approved it. Like, let's go put a buy a brand new cart and put it on the carts. Right. And we'll bring it in that way, right? Like someone had this idea, whether it was David or an advisor or somebody, but David have officially approved it. Like, yeah, we'll put it on the cart and bring it in. Like they had this idea that they thought was good, and they thought was even honoring God, and they thought was even like really putting on display the glory and power of God, but they weren't following what the word of God says.

SPEAKER_01: 11:23

I'll even build on that one further. It actually got to the outskirts city on a cart from the Philistines. The Philistines, now they did not have a law, they did not know what to do with this thing. They put it on a cart and they sent some oxen who are like uh actually like baby oxen that had never been anywhere. And they're like, here's a test. Let's just let them go carrying this thing on a cart. And if it belongs to their God, then the God their God can bring it home. And it did. So it showed up in a cart. And I would imagine that they're like, okay, well, we've got to get it to Jerusalem now. Well, you certainly don't want to use this pagan Philistine cart. Ew, gross. Uh in fact, I think when it arrived, they actually already chopped that up and used it as a burnt offering, sacrifice. This idea of, well, we saw them do it this way, we can do our new version of it. And we think that we're improving upon, well, the world does it this way, we're gonna do it like that, but but newer and better in Christian-y when it's like, no, like God's version isn't some improved version of the way the world does it, it is his own thing. Like the world does what it does, yeah, and God doesn't even hold them to the same standard. God holds you to a standard of know what he says and obey it.

SPEAKER_00: 12:35

You have to you have to know what the word of God says and then take it seriously and do what it says as it says it. God did not say honor the ark and care for the ark and make sure it's protected. He said carry the ark when it moves, carry it by the poles. That's what he said to do. And so sometimes we will have really great intentions or we'll be really excited or really enthusiastic about worshiping the Lord, but without revering the word of God and obeying it. Like we have a bunch of disobedient people in church singing really loud with their hands up. And and that isn't enough. It's not what God asks of us. In fact, that is talked about over and over in scripture. Um, it makes me think of Samuel when Samuel went to King Saul to say, Hey, you are you've screwed up, God's taken his favor away from you, you will no longer be the king of Israel. Samuel says to him in 1 Samuel 15, 22, uh, he says, Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice. To obey is better. The Lord calls us to obedience. And you said it at the end of your your podcast and the Thinking Out Loud Thought of the Day. Like, God does not desire praise from you as much as he desires obedience from you. He doesn't require or ask your enthusiasm for his work and his glory and his kingdom as much as he asks obedience of you. And if we are not being obedient, it is likely because we have lost the fear of the Lord. But it is also possible that we're not being obedient because we don't actually know what his word says, and if we don't know what it says, we won't do it. And so we have to be people who are committed. That's what that's what the the driving force of this podcast and this out loud Bible ministry is all about. Is we have to be people who are committed to knowing what God says, Word says, know the Bible and then live like it makes a difference. Live according to obedience to the word of God, not obedience to what your pastor says, not obedience to what the latest TikTok preacher says, not obedience to what some guy who calls himself a prophet says, obedience to the word of God. And we are responsible. We have the responsibility, each and every one of us as individual Christ followers, to read it for ourselves, to know it for ourselves, and to obey it with our own lives.

SPEAKER_01: 15:15

Two more passages that really hit home the importance of repentance, the way God prescribes it, is Hosea 6.6 and Micah 6.6. Like, I I I'm just thankful that they have the same reference. It's easy to go look them up. Uh go look up Micah 6.6 on your own time and go through the like next couple verses as well. But Hosea 6.6 is in this context of this whole chapter. Hosea 6, in my Bible, it has a call to repentance right at the top. That's kind of the subtitle of it. Come, let's return to the Lord. This is in verse 1. He's torn us to pieces, now he will heal us. He's injured us, now he'll bandage our wounds. Which, by the way, like God will injure and wound as part of his discipline and punishment, but he is able to restore what is broken and restore what he has wounded to be better and stronger than before. We have to allow him that he can do that. In just a short time, he will restore us so that we can live in his presence. Oh, that we might know the Lord. Let's press on to know him. He'll respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring. Oh, Israel and Judah, what should I do with you? asks the Lord. For your love vanishes like the morning mist. That's the problem about us trying to love the Lord, is that kind of just goes by our emotions and our circumstances. It goes up and down, comes and goes. I sent my prophets to you to cut you to pieces, to slaughter you with my words, with judgments as inescapable as light. We're talking about the the word of God, what he said, like through the prophets or through the scriptures. I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings. This is the heart of God. Like I I w I don't want your sacrifices, I don't want your offerings. I want you to show love, and I want you to know me. If you think you're giving up all these things, you're giving up all these things to earn my love, earn my favor. I don't I don't want that. If you're not obeying me, if you aren't showing love, if you don't know me, then nothing you're giving me, it it doesn't matter. I don't need anything from you. David actually penned a psalm in another circumstance, um, but showing his repentant heart in Psalm 51 after he had sinned. You have that up? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 17:25

Uh just verse 17. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.

SPEAKER_01: 17:35

If I could just give you sacrifices and please you, I'd do it. That's that's the easy part. I if you want money, I'll give you money. You want you don't want something I have, I'll give you something I have. That's not what God wants. He wants the broken and contrite heart, the broken and repentant heart. So I I know this conversation hasn't been exactly rainbows and unicorns and feeling good about yourself.

SPEAKER_00: 17:59

But I I but it's it's to tie these two thoughts together, we have to know what the word of God says and obey what it says. And when we don't, because we are sinful, we have to repent. That is what God desires of us. Oh, I I feel bad about what I did, or I know that I'm kind of off. I'll just I'll go to church again.

SPEAKER_01: 18:18

I'll just sing louder and I'll show God that I'm sorry by by going to church and I'll even serve on a team and I'll give some money in the offering plate. No, that's not giving God what he wants.

SPEAKER_00: 18:28

What he wants is your repentance. What he wants is you to turn away from what you've been doing and get back to knowing him. And Mike, how do we know God? Primary source for knowing him. Read the Bible. Reading the Bible, reading the Bible, knowing what it says. That's how we know what to obey. It's also how we know the God that we are obeying. And it is how we know to repent and turn back to him, is all through the word of God.

SPEAKER_01: 18:56

And I mentioned earlier this week, repentance doesn't, it's not like this big scary word that some street preacher yells at you to do. Like, okay, maybe they do, but like that's not we don't have to be intimidated, like, oh, like this big thing. Like it's important, but it's here, here, it's just you want to know how to repent. If you're feeling right now, it's like, oh yeah, there's some things that I feel like I've been trying to please God in other ways or get right with him in other ways and not really repenting, then go, here's some homework. Go read Psalm 51 in its entirety. You see David in arguably one of the most grievous sins of his life, yet he can still be a man after God's own heart because of this heart and this prayer in Psalm 51. In it you'll find a a simple phrase where he says, Create in me a clean heart, O God, renew a right spirit within me. Don't cast me away from your presence, don't take your Holy Spirit from me, restore to me the joy of your salvation. Just renew this right spirit within me. That is a plea that can come with, hey God, I'm sorry for how I I overstepped, I sinned, I disobeyed, forgive me, and please create in me a new heart. And it's just like I said, it's just bringing back yourself from the drift. You drift it off, you want it off, just come on back. And you may have to do it multiple times a day. I don't know. I think you'll find though, the more you truly repent, the less often you're gonna have to do it.

SPEAKER_02: 20:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 20:30

Because in doing so, you're going to develop a heart of God, you're gonna know God's heart more and more, and that's gonna prevent you from doing from sinning more in the first place. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 20:43

So when you know you have to go repent for the sin that you've done and you get to know God more and more, you actually love him more and more, which means you obey him more and more. Jesus equates love and obedience multiple times in the scripture. Like the more you know him, the more you love him, the more you will obey him, the more you fear him, and the less you sin, and the less you actually have to repent from.

SPEAKER_01: 21:03

Yeah. So if you're tired of sinning and having to repent so often, repent more often. And uh over time you'll find that your heart that he is building and replacing and restoring in you is one that is closer and closer to his own. With that in mind, go do your business with God. Whatever, whatever's on your heart right now, take a moment, take whatever time you need, go deal with him, go talk with him, and uh and we'll see you next time.