Complacency Kills 2 Samuel 6:5-11
It was only a momentary slip of the beasts’ feet, but it was enough to rock the Ark which was on the cart they were pulling. The priest driving the cart reached back to steady the Ark so it wouldn’t fall; but the moment he touched the Ark, he fell dead.
While the judgement the worshippers had just witnessed was not as severe as the judgement on the men of Beth-shemesh, Uzzah now lay dead beside the Ark of the Covenant. What wasn’t immediately clear was why Uzzah had to die. All that the people knew, and all we are told in the text, is that “God struck [Uzzah] down because of his error.” We are left to wonder what his error might have been. In fact, that Hebrews word rendered “error” in my translation is very difficult to translate into English. It only occurs once in the Bible, and that is in this seventh verse.
