Splendor of Holiness

“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. 7 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” 2 Samuel 6:6-7.

Celebration.

Death.

The God of life.

And God struck him down.

God who is love.

And the anger of the Lord.

Lord! We get mad at God—“He was doing your will! Bringing in your ark!” We fear—“Is this the God we know? What if? Will God drop bombshells? Does he still strike down?” We don’t know what to do with this story, with this wrath and anger, with this death. If we make a mistake in ignorance, will we call down the wrath of God? Was it a mere mistake? Is God that easily provoked? Is he angry? What if?

“Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth” Psalm 96:9 HCSB.

Holiness. Do we understand the holiness of God? The very fact that there is an ark speaks to the marvelous grace of our God. Who are we to have a holy God in our midst? The angels themselves cover their faces and feet before him (Isa. 6). But this God, who causes the very mountain to tremble when he puts his cloud of glory on it at Mount Sinai, this God has allowed his presence to rest on the ark, covered by the mercy seat. God reached down to be able to have a relationship, to restore joy, life.

And in his grace, to make possible this relationship with the Joy-Giving, Living God, he gave his law in Leviticus, Deuteronomy, clearly explaining how an unholy people could live with a holy God. What grace! He revealed it, so the ancient Israelites did not have to guess and cower in fear lest they make a mistake in ignorance and stumble into the wrath of God. No, God in his grace clarified, guided, protected them by revelation.

And here David and Uzzah stumbled. They broke many of the revealed laws of God—in fact, they carried it in the same way that the Philistines did, pagans who were not given the revealed word of God, who saw Yahweh as only another god, a magic charm. First, the ark was not to be carried on a cart. Secondly, it was to be carried by the Kohathite prietsts. Uzzah was not a Kohathite (and perhaps not even a priest). And the ark was never, ever to have been touched. There was a clear disregard for the Lord. When Uzzah reached out, did he think that dirt would soil the ark more than his own sinful hand?

What was Uzzah’s transgression? What caused death? It was not mere rule-breaking, although the Hebrew for error in “God struck him down there because of his error” clearly shows guilt (1). David broke the rules. They all broke the rules. All deserved death. Yet, only Uzzah died. Perhaps one could argue he was just the example, having touched it he epitomized the blatant disregard for the Lord behind the law-breaking. Yet, I wonder—is there more? Jacob recognized that he should have died, having seen the angel of the Lord (Gen. 32). The Holy God on the mountain of Mt. Sinai, and any who touched it would die. Manoah, Samson’s father, recognized any who saw God would die (Jdg. 13:22). Isaiah, when he saw a mere vision of the Lord, was afraid he would die (Isa. 6). The high priests had a rope tied in case they were struck down. Do we understand the pure holiness of God? A holiness so real that perhaps it is powerful to destroy all that is unholy?

Light kills. It is life-giving, pure, beautiful. Yet it bleaches, sanitizes, kills germs. Focused light can burn. Darkness cannot reside in light, but is eradicated. A mere metaphor—but the Holy God dwells in inapproachable light, pure, focused holiness. All that is death-giving of sin and unholiness cannot stand.

Do we understand holiness?

“God is holy in his absolute uniqueness. Everything else belongs to a class. We are human; Rover is a dog…But only God is God. And therefore He is holy, utterly different, distinct, unique. All else is creation. He alone creates. All else begins. He alone always was. All else depends. He alone is self-sufficient. And therefore the holiness of God is synonymous with His infinite value. His glory is the shining forth of His holiness. His holiness is His intrinsic worth—an utterly unique excellence” (2)

“To bring sin home, and to bring grace home, we need that something else should come home which alone gives meaning to both—the holy. …If our gospel be obscure, it is obscure to them in whom the slack God of the period has blinded minds, or a genial God unbraced them, and hidden the Holy One who inhabits eternity. This holiness of God is…the ruling interest of the Christian religion…Neither love, grace, faith, nor sin has any passing meaning except as they rest on the holiness of God, except as they arise from it, and return to it, except as they satisfy it, show it forth, set it up, and secure it everywhere and forever. Love is but its outgoing; sin is but its defiance; grace is but its action upon sin; the Cross is but its victory; faith is but its worship….What we on earth call righteousness among men, the saints in heaven call holiness in Him” (3). 

This is our beautiful God. We tremble before thoughts of his holiness when we get just a little deeper glimpse of his awesomeness. The mountains are wise enough to tremble; so do we! But as much as we tremble; we would want it no other way. A God who was not holy, a God who let unholiness and sin pass—would not be just God. He would not be God. It would be a capricious, almighty power who might wreak good one day and inflict evil the other. A god who could be carted on a Philistine cart to one’s whims, whatever people or nation could divvy up the most favor. It would not be a Sovereign God in justice and common grace, who restrains evil, fights for truth, rules in righteousness and justice. This is our holy God.

Grace flows from his holiness.

Grace that made a way for his presence to dwell among humans in an ark.

Grace that had revealed all they needed to know to please him.

Grace that saved the life of all the others involved that day, who all deserved death.

Grace that did provide for the ark to ultimately come to Jerusalem among celebration as this passage in 2 Samuel continues to show.

“Without the holiness of God, sin has no meaning and grace has no point. God's holiness gives to the one its definition and to the other its greatness. Without the holiness of God, sin is merely human failure, but not failure before God....Without the holiness of God, grace is no longer grace because it does not arise from the dark clouds of his judgment that covered the cross. Without God's holiness, grace would be nothing more than sentimental benevolence. It is this holiness that shows the graciousness of grace, its character as unmerited, because it also shows us the offensiveness of sin” (4)

A final way that grace is present in this passage—for it speaks of my Savior.

Grace as the presence of God among humans—yet he himself reached out to touch the leper. His touch gave life, not death, to the leper, the woman who grabbed hold of the edge of his garment, to Jairus’ dead daughter.

Grace as the very revealed God—showing his law lived out, showing the holiness and life God requires lived out. Showing the grace and love of the Almighty Yahweh.

Grace as the Savior—the grace of God in Christ who saved the life of all who come to him.

Grace as the Author and Finisher of our faith—who will make sure we ultimately come into the presence of God, holy and blameless before him (Eph. 1:4; Col. 1:22), in celebration.

“The Lord Jesus received is holiness begun; the Lord Jesus cherished is holiness advancing; the Lord Jesus counted upon as never absent would be holiness complete.” (5)

 “The one marvelous secret of a holy life lies not in imitating Jesus, but in letting the perfections of Jesus manifest themselves in my mortal flesh. Sanctification is ‘Christ in you’….Sanctification is not drawing from Jesus the power to be holy; it is drawing from Jesus the holiness that was manifested in Him, and He manifests itself in me.” 

We need not fear his holiness. Worship him in the splendor of his holiness.

NOTES

(1)  Terrence Kleven, “Hebrew Style in 2 Samuel 6,” Journal of Evangelical Theology 35, no. 3, p. 299-314. 

(2) John Piper, Brothers, We are not Professionals, p. 12-13; cited by Dustin Shramek, “Waiting for the Morning During the Long Night of Weeping” in Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, p. 187.

(3) P.T. Forsythe, The Creative Theology of P.T. Forsythe.

(4) David Wells, The Courage to Be Protestant (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 241.

(5) Christ is All, qtd. by Hudson Taylor. 

(6) Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, July 23.