The Ohio Independent Baptist, May 1968

Consider The an - - by Rev. John Keir - "And the ark of the L ord continued in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite ~hree month~: and t_he Lord blessed Obed-edom, and all his household And zt was told kzng D~v,d, saying, The Lord hath blessed tlze house of Obed-~dom hnd all that pertazneth unto him, because of the ark of God. So David wen; nd br~ugh: up the ark of God fro,n the house of Obed-edom into the city of David wzth gladness." II s z 6 amue : 11 , 12 This i ' a very impressive a:id in– tructive pas age of .Scripture. It wa" ~ neant for all o.f God s people 1of ,ucceeding ages and thus fior us also. fhe kingdo,m of Israel under ~i:ig iaul was in a sad condition. The very ymbol of God 's Presence, ithe ark of he covena:it was stuck away in ,the touse of Abinadab soon after that . ragic day whe:i the godless sons of r ~li took it as a fetish into baittle lgains,t the Philistines and where both A vere slain and the ark take:i by ,the >bilistines. Although the Philistines brought he ark back no effort was made to estore it to its righ,t·ful place in · srael. A:1d as result of the absence ,f the Presence of God t he nation vas i:i a ,b,ad way. There was war, lisuruty, disloyalty, unrest and dis– atisfaction of all sorts. It was the ulfillment of the prophecy that ~hineas' wife uttered at h,er chiild's 1 irth and when she was dying he named her baby Ichabod, ' 'The Jory is departed from l s·rael: for the ~k of God is taken.' ' But then finally D av id becomes ing over all Israel. And he discerned hat the Presence and blessing of God tas a:1 absolute must 1:1 the nation. o he sets about to bring back the rk of the covenant, the sym 1 bol of ,od's Presence, from the house of binadab. There is no question that 1is was 1 1 he right thing to do. But ne way he did it was not righit and resulted i:1 a tragedy, o:ie man )St his life and David was confused nd disgraced. Instead of the blessing f God whi ch he expected the whole roiect back-fired in a curse. I Chron. 5 : J 3 quotes David later as sayi ng : The Lord our God made a breach Pon us, for tl,at we ~01,1Rl1t fli111 (J/ t1/ter tl1 e dr1e order." Typical of Today How t ypical of our prese r1t day o;idi tio:1 i~ this epi sode. There is or1d iness, disunit y, di sloyalt y; we ave ·trikes. de n1onst~atio ns, riot,, ar. Ct1>nf11 ·ion ,tnd chaos. ~ he situa- 011 car1 l,cst l,e descril1ctl l)\' 1J1c - ~E OHIO INDEPENDENT BAPTIST Your editor had the privilege of hearing the author of this article, Rev. John Keir, ?f ~i.lson, Kansas deliver this message. ft is f1tt1ng for the hour in which we now live. This dear brother is presently retired, but for many years pastored G.A.R , B. churches in the mid-west. word - Ichabod, ' 'T1he glory has departed from America." And there is, of cour e, a recog:1•i1tio;i of the fac,t that we must .have a piritual reivival, that the Lord Him elf mrus.t intervene or all is ,lost. And o every– thing i being tried, to get the Lord back into the picture. As we again Jook in,to ithe record of II Sam. 6 we see David puit on a "big campaign." He had a "crowd' of 30,000, he had a ~ew cart .to haul the ark on and Ahio we·nt be– fore, and Uzzah "drave the cart." There was a Jot of music and bally– hoo. The whole idea was to worik up a revival. The trouble wa that it was in direct di obedience of what the Lord ordered. It i to be feared ithat the ' big' ' and the " new" thing that ·are be ing tried to bring about a piritual re– vival are not after God' "due order." God ' due order is found o:,Jy in Hi Word and it ureJ y doe not in– clude civil d i obedience, demon tra– tions, ecumeni m. worldliness nor f elJow trave]·in·g with the aipo tate . But i,t is bei:,g tried a nyway and it i seen to be back-firing as con– diti on~ go from bad to worse, plainl y howi;1g th at God' Pre en,ce i not in it . And it eems doubtful t 1 hat world wide or na ti o:1al revival can C'ome. But, prai se God, each indi– vidual Christi an can have a revival in a detached way in hi s heart. And thi we ee to l,e true whe:1 we con– sider thi s n1an Obed-edo n1 . According t o l hro:1. 15: 17-24 Obed-edon1 wa~ a L vite. And I ok at thi s n1an' courage' We are told th at aft er U Z7ah pt1 t forth hi har1tl to <steady the ark an 1 God n1otc hi111 dead . "David wa~ a1 r,1icl of the I..or(f th a t day" 1 he ark ~' as ltke a hc>t l)Ofaf(> t c) hin, . J1t,v.' can he get rt J of it'! We arc t<)ltl tl,at it \-Vas takctl lo the h1ouse of Obed-edom mo t Jikely thi s courageou ·man asked for i.~ wi,th the thought: "If onJy I cao ftnd what God's due order is here I will have His Presence and bless– i n,g!" We can well uppo e that he ought out Zadoc and Abiaithar the prie ts and that they checked into God' Word to find what the re– quiren1en.ts are for God' Prese:1ce and ble s ing in any situatio:1. If David on that tragic day would have been di cerning he would have noticed, as the ark was bei:ig loaded on the cart, th at there were ri:1gs in each corner of that acred box. He would have at once remembered that these were placed there at the di– rect command of God and were there so that the st ick by which the Ko– hath ite were to CARRY the ark were lipped in (Num. 7:9 ) . Even if hi memory failed him he hould have consulted the Word of God a:id he would not ·have had a:1y u e for t·he "new cart" and the oxen, and Ahio and Uzzah. Better to Obey God But let us go back to Obed-edon1. The re u)ting ble in g of God o n hi hou ehold a:id ' all that pertai net h u:ito him,., crie ou t the fact that havi ng obeyed God according to Hi\ cit1e order that we·et abiding Presenc of God in hi own heart wa hi portion. And no d ubt th at becau of God' presence i;i her heart Obed– edon1' wife wa.. o,e f tho e weet virtuouc; w men o rare, mode t , and in behavio r uch a. becon1 w n1en who profe god line. . And hi child– ren, no dot1bt, were not t1:1rt1lv tic– linqt1e-it teen-agers anti ()rug ,tddict :-1 nd clcn1onstrators. And ll l) Joubt his htt i:1c . a l o pr pet e(i bccat1,c of hi ~ obe(li cncc to the Word )t i,)(i. 1 et tt'i profit b the c~a111f le ()f Ol1cd-ctt<.)r11. a11d i11 these tla,, ,,,J1cn " nat tl) .1al re, iv,11 se ·n1 s t111likt;)V n1a, 1 " " we have the co 111 fl(, rt t)f kn ,vir1g that v.,c car1 \L"t l1 n,, ,. it in ur l \\ 1 ·1 heart . in t)tll l1ontL" i11 )t1r llltt r 11 an<.i itl t)llr SC J)d1 4\(\!ll f 11()\\1 l1i1,s . MAY, 1968 15 I