1 CHRONICLES. 13., 14.
DAVID calls the place Perez-Uzzah where the Lord smote Uzzah-that is, the breach of Uzzah; but where the Lord smote the Philistines he calls it Baal-Perazim -the Lord of breaches-and in this he puts the Lord first, as his thought was that the Lord had given deliverance from the Philistines. This outward hindrance was not only removed, but the Lord had done it; therefore David called the name of the place Baal Perazim, i.e., Lord of breaches.
When the Lord smote Uzzah, David was displeased and discouraged, and, having the breach most vividly before his mind, he called it Perez-Uzzah-the breach of Uzzah; but where the Lord is before his mind as deliverer from the Philistines, he calls the place Baal Perazim; and the Lord has so divinely helped him, that he is not only pleased, but encouraged; an d he bestirs himself to bring up the ark of God, and triumphantly accomplishes his willing and worshipping service. (The order of the narrative seems to show this).
He had heard that the Lord had blessed the house of Obed-Edom, and this set his heart afresh in motion to get possession of the ark and have it with him in connection with God's throne on Zion; but it was the discipline he got in connection with the pressure of his enemies upon him, and his dealings with, inquiries at, and leanings upon God, and the strength drawn therefrom, that inspired him with that divine energy that made him resolve to set about accomplishing his desire to have the ark, " the strength glory of Israel," in its temporary place, on the mount of grace—a new place given of God for the display of His royal favor in David, the man of His own heart, after all had been lost and ruined under the fallen priesthood and the rejected king.
It is to be noticed that though David began wrongly in not consulting God at the first, and in taking their precedent from the Philistines; yet, having a true desire in his soul, God would not let him succeed in his enterprise until he had owned Him as the source of all wisdom and true guidance; and hence the breach upon Uzzah, which led to the delay of three months that he might find out the sources of his own weakness and failure, and set about doing the work on the warrant of the word, and in dependence on the grace and strength of God. God had had compassion on the Philistines who were heathen when they, out of their own thoughts, sent home the ark of God on a new cart drawn by " milch cows;" and He had even guided the cart so perfectly that they went straight on in a miraculous way until they placed the ark in safety in the hand of the Levites at Bethshemish.
But David had committed two errors, for (1) he had consulted " with his captains " and " every leader," but had not duly inquired of the Lord; and (2) he had adopted a mode of conveying the ark borrowed from the Philistines—" a new cart and oxen"—and acted according to a precedent that God had blessed and made successful in heathen hands, but which He resented in His servants, who, having His word, ought to have acted upon it. They were His people, and they ought to have gone implicitly by the instructions of His word—" Only the Levites should bear the ark." The new cart and oxen had no warrant in God's word, although God had overruled them in His ways, and made this the very means of restoring the ark to the land of Israel. But this tested David: the Philistines drove him to inquire of God; and bye-and-bye he emerges from Baal-Perazim to bring up the ark of God a humbled and happy worshipper, and his success is complete.,(So Chronicles seems to teach). God Himself is trusted, His word is obeyed, His glory is manifested, and His people rejoice in His presence.
It is striking how the Lord does not at the very outset resent the action of David on account of his wrong beginning, and his following of a heathen precedent: yet He lets him go on until an act of irreverence brings divine judgment, produces displeasure and discouragement, and delays the work of bringing up the ark.
The Lord may allow us to go on with good desires and intentions until, through divine judgment on some " Uzzah," our unsatisfactory state of soul and heart be discovered, and it be shown us that there had not been at the outset a true dependence on God, and an inquiry of Him. David took it for granted that because his desire was right, the way to carry it out was only a matter of course. But God taught him that He will not have His ark brought home to its place by Gentile means, but as the thing was good and right in itself, God has to teach by things very like judgment that the means of carrying out our service must be according to His mind, as well as our object and aim. Here was Uzzah, a Levite, who ought to have objected to the putting of the ark upon the new cart, knowing it should have been upon the Levites' shoulders, yet acquiescing and merely steadying it where it was; and he was unmindful, too, that it was the symbol of God's presence.
It was more aggravated sin in a Levite than in any other, for he was there for the very purpose of bearing it, and he has the irreverence to put forth his hand to preserve the ark ion its wrong position.