Blessing for Feb. 18th 2008

2 Samuel 6:11, 12
The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed him and his entire household. Now King David was told, "The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God." So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing.

David’s fear that God would punish him regarding the ark of God seems to have subsided with hearing that the household of Obed-Edom was blessed because of the ark being there for 3 months. The ark was earlier brought on a "new cart" by David and the Lord had struck Uzzah down because he ventured to hold the ark when the oxen stumbled. (Read 2 Samuel 6 if you do not know this happening). Transporting the ark on a cart was against God's specific command. The ark was designed to be carried (Exodus 25:12-15) and was only to be carried by Levites of the family of Kohath (Numbers 4:15). There a lot of "new carts" being propagated in Christianity these days, but it’s always imperative that we check whether these line up with the Word of God.
David wanted to do a good thing by bringing the ark to the city of David, but he didn’t do it the right way the first time. Definitely he must have checked on what went wrong and when he did it the second time, he made sure that he did it the right way. God was pleased, but this time his wife was not. Well, one can’t please everyone. Better please God than man.