As is his wont, Dr. Sproul concluded the conference. His text was 1 Chronicles 13:1-14.
We live in a culture and sadly in a church that doesn't consider God to be holy. If we do understand he is holy, there is no grasp of his justice; and if we do understand holiness and justice, we will not want to hear about God's wrath. We much prefer God's love, compassion, and grace. We assume grace. We are not amazed by grace. The text provides one example of the outbreak of God's wrath found in Scripture. This often forms one basis of criticism against Scripture's inspiration--according to this line, the Bible is just the product of a prescientific nomadic people lacking sophistication, attributing a man's sudden death to an offended deity. It is alleged the portrayal of this wrathful God is out of character with the NT concept of God. These passages need to be looked at again, to find out what's going on. This episode was supposed to be a joyous occasion. David brings the ark back from where it rested after capture and then release by the Philistines. He had a special ox cart built to transport the ark. Musicians, choirs, dancers. But one ox stumbles and the cart tilts. The ark is in immediate danger of falling onto the ground. Uzza instinctively (probably) seeks to prevent this and puts his hand on the ark to steady it. Instantly he is struck dead. Commentators have tried to produce naturalistic explanations or even attribute arbitrariness or darkness to God. Evidently these people never read Numbers 4, the instructions as to the care of the sacred vessels of the tabernacle. The ark, designed by God himself, had rings built in so that it could be transported by wooden rods, carried by the Kohathites on foot (not on carts). They would never have direct contact with the ark. There is an explicit warning not to touch the ark or else death results. Uzza was probably a Kohathite and should have known better. According to Jonathan Edwards, Uzza was guilty of arrogance. He assumed contact with the ground would be a greater sacrilege than contact with a human hand. Yet the earth does not defile the throne of God as does the touch of sinful man. Uzza had profaned the most holy object in all of Israel. Leviticus 10:1ff. Nadab and Abihu offering profane fire. They were also executed summarily by God for this offense. Experimental worship--innovative. God determines what is pleasing to him. [Cited the attractions of idolatry as demonstrated in the golden calf incident.] When Uzza was executed, David got angry. He had a hard time with God's wrath. What do we suppose Aaron's reaction was to the death of his sons? Leviticus 10:3--a reminder of God's requirement that all who approach him must regard him as holy. Instead, Nadab and Abihu came in profanity. Give a thought to how we come to and participate in worship. The relatives were instructed to remove the bodies outside the camp and were forbidden to mourn their deaths. Citation of Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Sproul said typically it was assigned in American lit classes as an example of sadistic preaching (although a true sadist wouldn't bother to warn people of God's wrath). The text for this sermon was "their feet shall slip in due time." Their fall was inevitable without repentence. The dam metaphor used by Edwards--God's wrath is heaping up and threatens to break forth at any time. The bow metaphor--the bow is bent and the arrow is aimed at your heart; the only thing holding back your doom is God's hand. The spider metaphor--hanging by one slender thread over the fire; the flames of wrath are burning all around. The sermon actually teaches the grace of God. Is it scary anymore? No one believes in hell these days. We all lie to ourselves that we have nothing to worry about from God. Edwards asked his congregationif there was any reason apart from God's grace why they were still alive. Sproul recounted the incident of students and late term papers from early in his teaching career as an illustration of justice and grace and the way we take advantage of grace.
In the middle of his sermon, Dr. Sproul recommended "Gospel Worship" by Jeremiah Burroughs as important reading for everyone.
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