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Why Did God Kill Uzzah For Touching The Ark?

By Glenn Davis

The story of Uzzah touching the Holy Ark to steady it and being struck dead is one of the stories that shocks many people. Why did God kill Uzzah for touching the Ark?

When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled.  The LORD’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore, God struck him down, and he died there beside the ark of God.  2 Sam. 6:6-7, NIV

To understand, we need to look at the entire story.

Why Did God Kill Uzzah For Touching The Ark:
The Beginning Of The Story

The story starts in 1 Samuel 4, way back in Samuel's early days.  The Philistines and Israel were at war.  In battle, 4,000 Israelites were killed.  This led the Israelites to believe that God had withdrawn His blessing from them.  Instead of inquiring of the Lord and repenting, they decided to use the Ark of the Covenant as a lucky charm.  They got Eli’s two wicked sons, who were priests, to bring the Ark to the battle front.  Surely, God would not allow any harm to come to His holy Ark!

The Philistines were scared when they heard that the Ark of God had arrived in the Israelite camp.  They knew the power of this God way back to when He had decimated the mightiest army in the world while bringing Israel out of Egypt.  Still, they were determined to fight.  They totally defeated the Israelites, killing 30,000, and capturing the Ark.

The Philistines were ecstatic about having brought the famous God of the Israelites under their power.  But everywhere they took the Ark, disease, rats and trouble followed.  After seven months, they had had enough, and they put the Ark on an ox cart and returned it to Israel.

The ox cart stopped at the Israelite town of Bethshemesh.  They were delighted to have the Ark returned.  The Levites, using the proper legal procedure, took the Ark off the cart and placed it on a large stone.  Then a sacrifice was offered.  So far, so good.  But the men of Bethshemesh got curious.  They violated God by looking into the Ark; many died.

The remaining men of Bethshemesh didn’t want the Ark around any longer.  They asked the town of Kirjathjearim to take it, and they did.  It was put in the house of Abinadab, and his son was charged with guarding it.  

Why Did God Kill Uzzah For Touching The Ark:
Treating God With Contempt

Fast forward over 50 years to the time of David.  David gathered 30,000 men, the same number which had been killed in the major battle that lost the Ark, to bring the Ark to Jerusalem.  They put the Ark on an ox cart and, with music and great celebration, began transporting it. Then it happened.  The oxen stumbled; Uzzah touched it in trying to stop it from falling off the cart and was killed.  He was just trying to help.  Why did God kill Uzzah for touching the ark to steady it?  At first, David was angry, then he became afraid of God.

This entire story shows a complete disregard for the majesty and holiness of God.  First, the Israelites tried to manipulate God as if He were some lucky charm that they could bend to their will.  Some Christians fall into this trap as well.  God becomes Someone who will answer all their prayers the way they want.  He will heal them every single time.  He will provide their dream spouse, job, or whatever.  It is good to have a little Jesus in your pocket.

This is the same principle that the occult works on.  If you can say or do the right thing in the right order, you can control or manipulate the spiritual realm into doing your will.  This is an illusion.  Yes, we should bring our requests and desires to our heavenly Father with thanksgiving and praise.  We can have confidence that He cares about every detail of our lives, but He is God, and we are not.  If He answers “no” or allows difficult circumstances into our lives, we continue to love and believe He knows what is best.

The second thing is how the Ark was transported.  We can understand the Philistines putting it on an ox cart.  They didn’t know better.  But David knew better.  Uzzah knew better.  Every Israelite knew better.  God’s Law was very specific about how the Ark, which represented His holy Presence, was to be transported.  This represented a total disrespect for the Law and Person of the Holy God, Creator of the Universe, Redeemer of Mankind.  

David and the others were excited, enthusiastic and rejoicing in the Presence of God.  Nothing wrong with that.  God loves His children to rejoice and express their emotions of love and excitement.  But they allowed familiarity to breed contempt.  They forgot their heavenly Father was also the Holy God who cannot look upon sin.  They thought God was a Buddy and would overlook their sins. 

Some Christians have a similar, dangerous, faulty view of God.  They only choose to see one side of God.  They focus on Him as a divine Friend, loving Father and a generous Provider.  They worship Him with exuberance.  All of this is perfectly true, and we need to focus on it.  But not to the neglect of the holiness of God.  Many Christians today have relegated the Law of God to the dusty past. God does not change.  The payment for His righteous hatred of sin in our lives led Him to allow His dearly loved Son to be crucified on our behalf.  We dare not take it lightly.

Satan loves to deceive Christian into one of two extremes about the character of the Father.  Sometimes, he presents Him as a harsh, unloving Judge ready to punish even the slightest infraction of His Law.  Christians then walk in fear of offending this God.  This, of course, is not the real God.  It is a picture of many heathen gods.  Our God loved us so much that He sent His dearly loved Son to bear our punishment so He could embrace us.  Our God loves it when we come to Him, enjoy His presence and trust that He is working out everything for our good.

The other extreme is to tell us that God loves us so much that sin no longer matters.  The Bible talks more about righteousness than it does about love.  God wants a righteous, holy people. David and Uzzah discovered this.  New Testament Christians Ananias and Sapphira discovered this.  The Corinthian Christians discovered this [1Cor. 11:29-30].  Some Christian churches today are playing with fire.  While we love God with the abandon of delighted children, we never forget that the New Testament is clear that genuine love is founded on respect for and obedience to the Word of God in every area of life.

Why did God kill Uzzah for touching the Ark?  He was violating God and His Law. He was a sinful man [as we all are] touching the Holy. The only way we can come into the presence of our Holy Father is by standing in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  This makes us holy in God’s sight. The unholy is always destroyed in the presence of the Holy.  Jesus Christ is the only way to God, and we must never take Him for granted.

What would have happened if the Ark had fallen to the ground?  Nothing.  The ground is not sinful.  It is a creation of God.  The priests could have brought the correct poles, lifted it from the ground and carried it from then on.  Uzzah shows that even good intentions cannot violate the Word of God without consequence.

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