Temporary address

We've just moved to temporary accomodation as we wait for our new house to be built.

The move reminded me of a less known Bible story, when the Ark of God's presence was moved temporarily to Obededoms house for three months.

The backdrop is rather sad. King David, the priests and Israelites attempted to retrieve the Ark from the Philistines on a new cart drawn by oxen. However, whenever the oxen stumbled, "Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the Ark." The text says "Then the Lord's anger was aroused against Uzzah, and he struck him dead because he had laid his hand on the Ark."

It says that not only was David angry but was afraid of God, asking Him how he could ever bring the Ark back into His care. 

While he determined how to restore the Ark, it was taken temporarily into the house of Obededom of Gath. The text in 1 Chronicles 13 tells us that "the Lord blessed the household of Obededom and everything he owned."

David realised that it had been commanded earlier by God that only the Levites could carry the Ark (1Chr 15:13), hence the outburst of God's anger. They had unfortunately "failed to ask God how to move it properly!"

Two personal lessons I glean are:

1) To enjoy the presence of God in our temporary Obededom-like season.

2) To ensure we are doing things properly; following after the way God instructs us to go about things. 

Moving can be stressful, but with God in our everything, we can be assured that the Prince of Peace, Emmanuel, is with us. 

#housemovingcanbestressful #Peaceinourmove #blessinginthetransition