Parading God’s Presence

2 Samuel 6:1-5

Verse 2 He and all his men went to Baalah in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim on the ark.

Now that David was getting settled in his new role as king of Israel it was time to get the rest of the kingdom set up and to David that meant getting the Ark of Covenant back in the main part of Israel. David begins by organizing his men. He brought together all the able young men which came to 30,000 men. This wasn’t the number of his whole army, just the young men from his ranks.

The Ark of the Covenant was very important to the people of Israel. God had told Moses that He would dwell on the Mercy Seat which sat atop the Ark making this one of the most sacred things to God’s people. It held some special items – a set of the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s rod that had budded and a pot of manna.

The Ark traveled through the wilderness with the Israelites and had crossed with them into the Promised Land. It had marched around Jericho and was there when the walls crashed down. Since there was no temple yet, the Ark was to be kept in the Tabernacle, in the Holy of Holies section. But when the prophet Samuel was still young, the Ark was captured by the Philistines in a battle that led to the death of 30,000 Israelite soldiers (1 Samuel 4:10). Do you recognize that number? Maybe David had a reason for the specific number of young men he was taking with him to bring the Ark home.

The Philistines soon passed the Ark around as everywhere it went havoc occurred. Their god fell twice and broke the second time it was near the Ark and when it was sent to other areas the people in those areas soon had tumors. After 7 months they decided that they couldn’t handle it anymore and they put it on a cart and sent it back to Israel where it came to rest in a field. The Israelites broke the cart apart and made sacrifices as they celebrated its return.

Just as when the cart carrying the Ark from Philistia arrived those many years before, David and his men are excited about the return of the item which represented God with them. The people of Israel celebrated with all their might using instruments and singing. This was a day for joy!

Making It Personal

What could make you want to celebrate with all your might? What is it about that thing that makes it so special? Do you get that excited about being in God’s presence?

Making It Personal Kids

What are some things that you like to celebrate with all your heart? Why do you like to celebrate that? Do you like to celebrate being close to Jesus?

Closing Prayer

Father, thank You for wanting to be near us. Help us to celebrate our times of closeness with You and may we bring others along to celebrate with us. In Jesus’ name, amen.