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Uzza (1 Chronicles 13)
First, then, we are to consider DAVID’S GREAT FAILURE…. [T]here was no failure through lack of multitudes…. Neither was there any failure so far as pomp and show were concerned…. Neither was there any failure, apparently, as far as the musical accompaniment was concerned. “David and all Israel played before God with all their might.…” What was the reason for that failure? [F]irst, there was too little thought as to God’s mind upon the matter. David consulted the people, but he would have done better if he had consulted God…. One very important omission was that the priests were not in their proper places, [and] they also had a cart, instead of Levites, to carry the sacred ark…. Next, I notice that, the first time, there were no sacrifices…. All through this incident, we see that there was no taking heed to the commands of God, and to the rules which he had laid down. The people brought will-worship to God, instead of that which he had ordained. What do I mean by will-worship? I mean, any kind of worship which is not prescribed in God’s own Word…. The first commandment may be broken, not only by worshiping a false god, but by worshiping the true God in another way than that which he has ordained…. Mark this: if it be not of His appointment, neither will it meet with his acceptance.
CHS, 49:518–21
I suppose that Uzza, through the ark having been so long in his father’s house, had grown unduly familiar with it, and therefore touched it. Yet it was an express law that even the Levites should not lay a hand upon the ark. They carried it with staves; the priests alone might touch it for necessary purposes. It was for this profanation that “Uzza died before the Lord.”
CHS, 49:526