At first there weren’t very many of God’s people. There were only a few. And they were strangers in the land. They wandered from nation to nation. They wandered from one kingdom to another. But God didn’t allow anyone to treat them badly. To keep them safe, he gave a command to kings. He said to them, “Do not touch my anointed ones. Do not harm my prophets.” 1 Chronicles 16:19-22 NIRV
Hundreds of years before Jesus Christ walked the earth, God instructed and looked out for his people. Life was very different during the Persian Empire, and the presence of God was with the Ark of the Covenant, which was treated as sacred by any that knew of its power. There are rich stories about it in the Bible, but when I was reading in 1 Chronicles, I wondered why Uzzah was struck dead by God when he reached out his hand to steady it as it swayed precariously because the oxen stumbled as it was being taken back by command of King David.
Holy Spirit told me that it wasn’t Uzzah’s place to protect the ark from falling, and that he should have relied completely on God for its protection. I questioned this a bit in my conversation with God and even defended Uzzah, because it seemed to me that all he did was react naturally when he reached his hand out. The thing was, though, that he had reacted in fear, and God doesn’t want us to have any fear when we are in his presence. In fact, when fear comes upon us in a situation, it’s important for us to remember that fear comes from Satan and never from God. If we stay in that place of feeling fear, we are turning toward Satan’s face rather than God and allowing our emotions to take over.
In addition to protecting his children as he had commanded to the kings in the Old Testament, God also shows us that by sending Jesus Christ to die for our sins, resurrected and exalted to the name with ultimate authority over everything and everyone, we were also given the Spirit of God within us. Just as the Ark of the Covenant contained the presence of God and his supreme power, bringing entire cities to their knees, God’s plan for his children after sending Christ to earth to redeem us was that each one of us now contains his presence and holy power.
The same command that God gave hundreds of years before Christ still holds today. “Do not touch my anointed ones. Do not harm my prophets.” And since he struck Uzzah dead for merely touching the Ark of the Covenant, we can be assured that God will protect his children who are filled with his presence from people that want to harm us.
How can we be filled with the Lord’s presence? Pray to him, talk to him, study who he is, model our lives by his example, follow his commandments, surrender our entire being to him, and let him flow through us without trying to grab back control and “do it our way.” Just as babies grow into toddlers, into children, into teenagers, into young adults, into middle-age adults and then into mature adults throughout their human lifespan, we have a Christian lifespan that also varies in length, purpose and maturity from others. Some people don’t get past being a baby Christian, and many things can contribute to our desire and ability to mature into a Christian that carries Christ’s presence in such a way that others cannot deny that the Holy Spirit shines through them.
Every day that we are alive is an opportunity to grow and transform into the person that God ultimately created us to be, and for that I am so very thankful. As I begin to understand more about the authority that he gives us and the holiness that he calls us to, the reverance and love I feel for God’s children and my fellow believers grows and grows. One day we will no longer be strangers wandering from nation to nation, because one day we will be called home, along with our brothers and sisters in Christ’s Kingdom. Until then, I will seek greater intimacy with Jesus and live with a heart and mind open to him as he lives through me.