Why Did Uzzah Die For Touching the Ark?

[Nope]

From Randy's post.

First, God had given Moses and Aaron specific instructions about the Tent of Meeting and the movement of the Ark of the Covenant. "After Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy furnishings and all the holy articles, and when the camp is ready to move, the Kohathites are to come to do the carrying. But they must not touch the holy things or they will die. The Kohathites are to carry those things that are in the Tent of Meeting” (Numbers 4:15). No matter how innocently it was done, touching the ark was in direct violation of God’s law and was to result in death. This was a means of preserving the sense of God’s holiness and the fear of drawing near to Him without appropriate preparation.

The Hebrew god is supposed to be well, a god. Why does such a powerful being, who was routinely doing miracles, need to make people fear him? His presence, if it is as Christians describe, should have been able to do that without any silly rituals or killing people for innocently touching his relics.

[downbeatplumb]

Um...apparently not in this age, either.

Nope was referring to the Ark of the Covenant.

Ok then....wrong ark.

[Nope]

Just read 6 and 7 it didn't even mention that. Though it did mention that 70 were killed for attempting to peer inside the arch.

Whoops 2nd Samuel. I meant to include that

[Nope]

Um...apparently not in this age, either.

Nope was referring to the Ark of the Covenant.

Ok then....wrong ark.

The first Indiana Jones used the same mythology. Remember the Nazi's faces melting off?

[Randy Carson]

From Randy's post.

First, God had given Moses and Aaron specific instructions about the Tent of Meeting and the movement of the Ark of the Covenant. "After Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy furnishings and all the holy articles, and when the camp is ready to move, the Kohathites are to come to do the carrying. But they must not touch the holy things or they will die. The Kohathites are to carry those things that are in the Tent of Meeting” (Numbers 4:15). No matter how innocently it was done, touching the ark was in direct violation of God’s law and was to result in death. This was a means of preserving the sense of God’s holiness and the fear of drawing near to Him without appropriate preparation.

The Hebrew god is supposed to be well, a god. Why does such a powerful being, who was routinely doing miracles, need to make people fear him? His presence, if it is as Christians describe, should have been able to do that without any silly rituals or killing people for innocently touching his relics.

It was better for one man to die so that the others learned to obey God TO THE LETTER than for people to believe that they were free to do whatever they wanted with God's commands.

You ever punish one child knowing that the others would learn from the example?

Does a company ever fire one employee for taking excessively long lunch breaks in order to get the others to shape up?

It happens all the time, and God did what anyone of us would do to teach the people not to mess.

[downbeatplumb]

Ok then....wrong ark.

The first Indiana Jones used the same mythology. Remember the Nazi's faces melting off?

I remember that film, an hour and a half of Indie flying around the world to stop the Nazis getting hold of the ark and opening it.

Anyhoo I didn't click on the link and now I look slightly foolish, I'm man enough to admit when I'm wrong.

[Jenny A]

Don't touch holy things no matter how innocently, nor how good your intentions, or you will die.  One more stupid, arbitrary law.  Simple enough except it is the sort of rule only a highly vane, self important, insecure person would ever make such a rule.  I see no reason to excuse god.

But, what interests me about the story is that touching the ark is one of the few cases in the Bible where someone is struck dead by god.  Generally the "crime" is such cases is not one of the crimes to which people ordinarily assign the death penalty.  Right off the top of my head I can think of the following god executions:  Onan for not impregnating his sister-in-law or practicing birth control depending on who's reading the story; Lot's wife, for looking back at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; general undefined wickedness in the case of Noah's flood; having a stubborn ruler in the case of all those first born Egyptian sons; general undefined wickedness in the case of Onan's elder brother; having an adulterous father in the case of David's infant son; making fun of an old man in the case of the children teasing Elijah.

And where is the free will of man in all this death by god?  Nowhere apparently.  But should a man rape, murder, torture, or steal, then it's all about free will.  Even the very first fratricide got off with banishment and a special mark protecting him from strangers.

Another question----What ever happened to the ark?  It's gone.  Apparently though it was important enough to tell us that touching it is death, but explaining what happened to it is no importance.  It's last mentioned in 2 Chronicles 35 and 2 Kings 23 when King Josiah of Judah orders its return the temple in Jerusalem. Forty years later, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon captured Jerusalem and raided the temple. He returned, within the decade and took what was left in the temple, and then burnt Jerusalem to ground. 2 Chronicles 35; 2 Kings 23.  Did god allow it to burn?  Did Nebuchandnezzar take it without touching it?  What? And why given god's willingness to kill people over loading it on a cart and then touching it to keep it from falling why would god let either of those things happen? Because the Israelites were being bad? Silliness.

[popsthebuilder]

Yes, it was out of lack of respect somehow. No one was to touch the arch no matter what. But this is confusing, how were they to load it into the carts? I guess they used the poles to hold and move it without touching it directly.

[vorlon13]

Ananias and Sapphira were killed by God for not being good Communists.

[Jenny A]

From Randy's post.



The Hebrew god is supposed to be well, a god. Why does such a powerful being, who was routinely doing miracles, need to make people fear him? His presence, if it is as Christians describe, should have been able to do that without any silly rituals or killing people for innocently touching his relics.

It was better for one man to die so that the others learned to obey God TO THE LETTER than for people to believe that they were free to do whatever they wanted with God's commands.

You ever punish one child knowing that the others would learn from the example?

Does a company ever fire one employee for taking excessively long lunch breaks in order to get the others to shape up?

It happens all the time, and God did what anyone of us would do to teach the people not to mess.

Oh yeah people kill children all the time to teach them not to mess with things.