There is so much in this passage, we may spend a few days on it.  From the story of Mephibosheth (one of my personal favorites in all of the scriptures) to the war with the Ammonites begun with bad assumptions to David and Bathsheba to the Prodigal Son… quite a day’s reading.

Let’s look at the Ammonite War today.  We all assume that others will act in the same way we do.  Nobody is afraid of being gossiped about as much as a gossip.  Nobody is as quick to see lies as a liar.  So when we are called to be different, separate, unique, holy in our interactions, we cannot assume that anyone will believe us or trust a pure motive.  The Ammonites assume David is acting as they would and sending spies to “case the joint” before a full scale attack.  David was planning no such thing and was instead showing mercy and grace, something people of this world cannot understand.  So they mistreated his envoy and brought the wrath of Israel down upon themselves.

Why do we mistrust others?  Why do we assume their motives must be impure?  Someone pays us a compliment and we look for the favor that must be coming.  Innocuous comments are scoured in our memories to find the hidden barb of ridicule.  Someone states an opinion and suddenly we have an entire world built around all that they didn’t say but we assumed they meant.  Why?  Is it because that is how we would act in their situation?  Is it because we’ve been hurt before by missing the hidden reality behind some behavior and it has made us untrusting?

This is how racism, sexism, homophobia, church divisions and even wars begin.  We hear or see something and rather than getting to know a person and asking for clarity, we put them in a box with others and then label that box, “Them.”

Can we stop assuming?  Pardon the language, but as the old saying goes, “To ass-u-me just makes an ass out of u and me.”  When someone says something, can we just take them at their word?  Can we take compliments to simply be momentary blessings?  Can someone’s statement be just that statement?  Can we spend time with a person so they remain a person rather than a member of “them”?  We will all be better for it if we can.

David solidifies his reign with the return of the ark of the covenant.  It has been in Abinadab’s possession since it was returned by their enemies.  This is the key to David’s reign because it was believed that God communicated from between the cherubim on the ark’s cover.  This was God Himself coming to reside with David, with Israel, and to bless them.  But this journey brings a few confusing stories with it.

The first is the story of Uzzah.  As the ark travels on a cart pulled by oxen, they stumble and Uzzah reaches out “to take hold of the ark of God.”  Most assume it was to steady the ark so it didn’t fall, but the text never mentions this.  Like the disciples in the boat in which Jesus slept while the storm raged, Uzzah decides to take God’s safety into his own hands and pays a dear price for his lack of faith.  But there is plenty more wrong with this picture.  God had strictly said that only priests could carry the ark, and nobody was to touch it.  Instead, it sat on a cart pulled by oxen like a piece of luggage.  Looks like David and company need to re-read their Pentateuch!

After this, and remembering the ark’s capture and subsequent destruction of Philistine city after city that tried to hold it wrongfully, David decides not to take the ark to Jerusalem after all.  He leaves it in the care of Obed-Edom, until Obed-Edom’s household is miraculously blessed by God.  Only then does David return for the ark properly.  This time, the ark is carried, and every six steps he sacrifices a bull and calf.  While still not correct, it does show respect for God.

Yet Michal, David’s politically-binding wife and daughter of King Saul, is not impressed.  She scolds David for his embarrassing display of worship, and is subsequently cursed with barrenness because of her own lack of respect for God, her husband, and her King.

Our culture has little to do with respect, seeking familiarity instead, but as we see today, respect for God is a deeply important thing.