Psalm 75, 76; 2 Sam 5:22-6:11; Acts 17:16-34; Mark 8:1-10
What has Uzzah done wrong that God’s anger should break out against him? The short answer is that he has not respected the holiness of God. It is odd that the ark is being transported on a cart to begin with; the construction of the ark is such that it provides its own means of transport. There are rings built into the ark through which poles are inserted with which the Levites are to carry the ark, it was meant to be carried and indeed it was carried through the wilderness for forty years, surely the distance of this conveyance was not further than those years. Recall also that the ark is the mercy seat of God, and that it resides in the holy of holies where the high priest enters only once a year and at that time he must take pains to prepare himself for an encounter with the living God and that moment was fearsome indeed. Uzzah treats the ark with less respect that it deserves, it is the presence of the living God and to take hold of the ark, even with good intentions, is to transgress. David first responds to the incident with anger and then with holy fear. It is a fearsome thing to fall into the hands of the living God and we need to take into account His holiness when we speak of Him, think of Him and pray to Him.
Mark gives us yet another story of a feeding miracle. In addition to the feeding of the five thousand, Mark tells us of another time when Jesus fed a multitude, this time four thousand. In its details it is similar to the other story, told in a matter of fact manner. Jesus always gives thanks for what He has and then breaks the bread before passing it to the disciples to distribute. We follow that same practice in our eucharist each week. We ask God’s blessing on the offering of bread and wine, break the bread and then distribute it to the communicants. In our common life together this is meant to define our meals. In the Lord’s prayer we pray for our daily bread that we might remember that all we have comes from the Lord, not from our own devices, and in praying before we partake of our food we give thanks for that provision of our daily bread. We remain humble before Him in acknowledging our dependence upon Him.
Here we see something of Paul’s methodology in speaking to Gentiles. With the Jews he began by referring to Scripture to point to Jesus and here in Athens he points to the statue of an unknown god. He has seen that the Athenians are “religious” and he quotes from their poets and philosophers in his argument. He has gotten to know something of Greek culture and affirms that at its best it has found glimpses of truth. He does not attack this culture but points to what it acknowledges it does not know and uses its own terms to preach the Gospel into the void. Jesus is the highest ideal of philosophy and literature and He is also the fulfillment of the aspirations of all humanity, He answers all our questions no matter what our cultural background. Paul, however, is not uncritical concerning the culture, he makes an appeal based on the finality of God’s truth in Jesus, the time has now come to stop speculating and decide, repent of the sinfulness of rejecting God’s revelation. The time is now to come to a conclusion, the truth is here in Jesus, the time for forbearance of ignorance is ended. There is reason to fear the Lord and yet He offers salvation in belief of His revealed truth.
Crown Him the Lord of lords, who over all doth reign,
Who once on earth, the incarnate Word, for ransomed sinners slain,
Now lives in realms of light, where saints with angels sing
Their songs before Him day and night, their God, Redeemer, King.
Crown Him the Lord of years, the Potentate of time,
Creator of the rolling spheres, ineffably sublime.
All hail, Redeemer, hail! For Thou has died for me;
Thy praise and glory shall not fail throughout eternity.
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