And when they came to Chidon’s threshing floor, Uzza put out his hand to hold the ark, for the oxen stumbled. Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzza, and He struck him because he put his hand to the ark; and he died there before God. And David became angry because of the Lord’s outbreak against Uzza; therefore that place is called Perez Uzza to this day. David was afraid of God that day, saying, “How can I bring the ark of God to me?”
This is a difficult passage, to say the least. The anger of the LORD was aroused. The LORD is not a static Being in the heavens, who does not really care one way or the other what we do, how we act, how we treat things that are sacred.
Uzza, along with all of the Israelites, knew (or certainly should have known) that their God was holy, and that the ark was holy. For a man to touch the ark—for whatever reason—without God’s instruction was deadly.
The LORD is in his holy temple, but He is also in our midst. Let all the earth keep silence before Him…
