Struck By the Presence

struck |strək|
past and past participle of strike.
strike |strīk|
2 [ with obj. ] (of a disaster, disease, or other unwelcome phenomenon) occur suddenly and have harmful or damaging effects on: an earthquake struck the island

 STRUCK  is a message reminding us that God is holy and God is active and when we follow His divine directions we experience blessings. When we do not follow them we experience pain. How many times have we wondered why did God do something or allow something as if God himself orchestrated it. Yes God provided man with the resources and knowledge to do many things, but God did not force man to make weapons and use them against one another.
God is righteous and no unrighteousness should be ascribed to Him.

In 1 Chronicles 13:10 we see a man named Uzza (pronounced Ooh-Zay) being struck by the Lord and he dies. The text does not say exactly what God struck him with, but the result was death. To help illustrate what happened to Uzza, the Lord revealed a scenario to me where a man was struck by a rotating drive shaft on a car. The man was attempting to help someone who had just crashed, but he stumbled and had his head taken off from his shoulders. The person who shared this story with me was an eye-witness. When he told the policeman what happened it even shook the officer when he pointed out his head laying on the ground. Okay, so if you're not cringing yet you may not want to know how to avoid being struck, but if you're interested lets continue.
Being Placed In A Bad Position
Often times in life we do not get to make choices about certain things. You did not choose your parents, your birthplace, the house you grew up in, and probably not the schools you went to. We have choices, but we do not have unlimited choices as some may presume. There are multiple choices we can make that will lead to the same end result. For example, my sister was on the back of a go-kart that my brother was driving and the end result was a busted chin. Whether she had fallen off or jumped off, there was a high likelihood that she was going to be "chin-checked." Objects in motion tend to stay in motion unless acted on by an outside force. Sometimes we are placed in a bad position, but this is not the end of the world. Even when we are in a bad position, we have to know what we can and cannot touch. Uzza seemingly did not know that he was not supposed to touch the ark or he touched it for fear of it falling. In either case he made the major mistake of touching something he was not authorized to touch. Joseph was in a bad position several times, but he would not touch his master's wife.

Being Surrounded By Players
The other interesting dynamic in Uzza's being struck is that he is surrounded by players of instruments. King David himself is said to have been there playing instruments, however none of them seemed to warn him or correct him in how the ark should be handled.  

Numbers 4:5 - When the camp is to set out, Aaron and his sons shall go in and take down the veil of the screen and cover the ark of the testimony with it 6 Then they shall put on it a covering of goatskin and spread on top of that a cloth all of blue, and shall put in its poles.

It seems at times in life we are surrounded by people who seem to know what they're saying and what they're doing, but often they are just playing a part. Jesus called them hypocrites, which in the original Greek seems to imply an actor or role player. People who tell you to obey God, but they themselves do not obey God are mostly players. There is no God connection in their heart. Many people get Struck and get hurt because they have too many players around and not enough ministers. My sister broke her arm while playing on an old chair frame, so she knows what it's like to not be able to use her arm. I like to believe that sometimes God takes things away to have us appreciate it and respect it more. My sister now plays for the Lord and raises her hands to Him in worship because she respects God more than ever. Just as she learned to play from those around her, she also learned to pray and praise by the people He put around her later. The 3 Hebrew boys in Daniel 3 would not bow down when the players started to play. Many Israelites just played the part because they feared King Nebudchanezzar, but the 3 feared the Lord even to the point of being thrown in a fiery furnace. Even when you're surrounded by players, you do not have to bow down, because they came out of the furnace with a testimony!

Touching the Place of His Presence
The final issue we will deal with is what Uzza touched. The ark of the covenant represented the presence of God or the place of His presence. Spiritually the ark represents so much more because the place of God's presence was also on all the Holy Vessels in the tabernacle.

Numbers 4:14 - the sons of Kohath shall come to carry these, but they must not touch the holy things, lest they die

Now if all the holy vessels in the tabernacle were untouchable, how much more are we his chosen vessels untouchable in the new temple. Since we are temples of God's presence, we should be mindful and careful of what touches these temples. Even the priests under the Old Covenant had to sanctify themselves in order to go in and minister. How can we touch someone else's issues or problems when we have not dealt with our own. We must be prepared to touch the Holy things through cleansing and prayer. Elders and deacons must first be able to rule their own house well before teaching and leading in the house of God. So we are instructed to help carry the holy vessels, but it is left to a selected few to touch them.  For example paramedics and ambulance workers are trained to get patients to the emergency room or hospital, but are not authorized to do surgery. Likewise we can encourage and teach people, but only God can touch and change the heart.

God put His son Jesus in a bad position, and put him around players, and had Him touch the place of His presence. The results were similar and different. God made an example out of Jesus just as He did with Uzza, only Jesus was truly a priest. God struck Him [Jesus] so He would not have to strike us. He was bruised for us and by His stripes we find healing. I read of a man who has been struck by lightning 6 times and also noted that more people are killed by lightning than any other natural disaster. This same man has been divorced 5 times and I recognize that the ark of the covenant represents a marriage between God and his people. Every time God's people divorce Him and go after other gods, he strikes them and drives them back to Him. David was trying to move God's presence using what he learned from the Philistines instead of sticking to what God told them to do. God allowed the Philistines to do it that way because he had no covenant with them, but His chosen people Israel know better. When David got it right, he was able to dance before the Lord with all his might as the ark came back into Israel. It didn't come rolling in on a cart, but it came in carried by the people designated for the job and just as God instructed them to do it. His presence was supposed to be carried by His people.

Are we carrying God's presence because we've been struck with the love of Jesus. When He struck me, I was and have been forever changed. I carry His presence and should never have to tell anyone I'm a believer, because His presence is unmistakable.  You should even be able to feel it in this blog if it's real. I'd like to know if you feel it, because maybe I need to check what I'm writing.
God bless!