Perez-uzzah: The Death of Uzzah

David defeats the Philistines and rules his kingdom in peace. Once peace has come, he resolves to bring the ark of God to the City of David. The Levites were commanded to carry it on their shoulders, but David ignores this and has the ark set on a new cart. At the threshing floor of Nacon the oxen stumble and the ark is shaken. Uzzah reaches out and takes hold of it, and God strikes him dead on the spot.

The fault was not Uzzah’s alone. David had made a wrong plan from the start, and in God’s sight he and all the people gathered there were sinners who deserved to die. David believed that human devotion and zeal would please God. In truth he had mistaken his own ideas for God’s will. When no answer came, he turned his anger on God and called the place Perez-uzzah.

Afraid, David sent the ark away to the house of Obed-edom, and it was that household which was blessed. Later he summoned the leaders of the Levites, had the ark carried as the law required, and repented. Faithfulness lies only in doing what God’s word commands. However great human zeal may be, it is not in itself acceptable to him.