Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

Today we’ll look at the consequences of unholy accidents.

Today’s scripture, 1 Chronicles 13:9‭-‬10 (ERV), shares…
They came to Kidon’s threshing floor. The oxen pulling the wagon stumbled, and the Holy Box almost fell. Uzzah reached out with his hand to catch it. The Lord became very angry with Uzzah and killed him because he touched the Holy Box. So Uzzah died there before God.

Consider…
Have you ever had someone minimize accidentally damaging something that was important to you? Or have you heard the words, “what’s the big deal”, in response to something ‘trivial’, that made you angry? I can imagine observers in today’s scripture saying, “it’s just a box”! Indeed, we read David got angry with God for killing Uzzah over this Box in 1 Chronicles 13:11, then scared when he realized how serious God was about HIS Box (1 Chronicles 13:12).

What made this Box so special to God?

In Exodus 25:8‭-‬9 (ERV), God said…
“The people will build a holy place for me. Then I can live among them. I will show you what the Holy Tent and everything in it should look like. Build everything exactly as I show you.

First we see, God designated a place where He could live amongst the people. That runs my mind to John 1:14 (ERV), which says…
The Word became a man and lived among us. We saw his divine greatness—the greatness that belongs to the only Son of the Father. The Word was full of grace and truth.

God has always wanted to live amongst His people, and He still does.

Next, we read God gave specific instructions about building a box. (Exodus 25:10-15)

The Holy Spirit just showed me, God’s divine directions are for preparation for His Holiness to reside in our presence. I saw that from Exodus 25:16 (ERV), which proceeds God’s box construction instruction. God said…
“I will give you the Agreement. Put it into this Box.

God’s covenant was to be placed in this box. Then Holy Spirit said, the box was Holy because God’s word was in it. This ran my mind to Psalms 119:11 (NLT)., which reads…
I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

I then thought, does that mean my heart, where God’s word is hidden, needs to be Holy? The obvious answer is of course! In Matthew 5:8 (NLT), Jesus said…
God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.

God is Holy and will only dwell in Holy places. 🤔

The last thing we discover about this box, is found in Exodus 25:21‭-‬22 (ERV), where God said…
“I will give you the Agreement. Put it in the Box, and put the mercy-cover on the Box. When I meet with you, I will speak from between the Cherub angels on the mercy-cover that is on the Box of the Agreement. From that place, I will give all my commands to the Israelites.

Here we see a couple of transformational things…

• God’s word dwells in
• God’s mercy covers over
• God speaks to us through His mercy

Wow! We discovered quite a bit, from God’s Holy Box!

It’s interesting to me that this Box had been moved around, and even stolen by the enemy, and no one was killed. Yet, poor Uzzah tried to prevent an accident, catching it when it fell in transport from the enemy’s camp back home, and he was killed for touching it.

My curiosity led me to Tony Evans Bible commentary which pointed out, God gave specific instructions on how His ‘Box of Agreement’ was supposed to be carried (Exodus 37:3-5), and who it was to be carried by (Deuteronomy 10:8). God’s Holy Box was only to be carried by His chosen Holy people, in a reverent (lifted up) way.

Poles, not hands where to be used to transport the Box, because God’s Holiness was to be elevated for all to see. In the same way that God chose the Levites to show God to the people, 1 Peter 2:9 (NLT) explains, He has chosen us. The verse reads…
But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

Did you see it, we’re to show the goodness of God! 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

Just now the Holy Spirit revealed, the Agreement in the Holy Box, was also a testimony to the goodness of God. So when the set apart Levite Priests were carrying the Holy Box on designated poles, they were actually elevating the goodness of God for all to see! 🤯

Hopefully, all that the Holy Spirit has led me to write today, shows you it wasn’t just a box, it was God’s Box! Which leads to the final tie in for us. 1 Corinthians 6:19‭-‬20 (NLT) admonishes us…
Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

The next time you’re tempted to think, ‘it’s my body’ or ‘it’s my life’, remember this cautionary tale from the the man who accidentally mishandled God’s Holy Box.

You belong to God, so handle yourself accordingly!

Today’s song is….
Not My Own

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)