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Holy Justice

But the Lord Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness. (Isaiah 5:16, NIV)

Tough Theology

I went to college once. For about four years. While I was there, I was required to take three theology electives, one of which was a survey of the Old Testament. The OT (as I like to call it) is really quite fascinating. It is the history of Yahweh and His people who constantly mess things up. Yahweh is a God who requires a lot, and Israel rarely, if ever, seems to be able to live up to His standards.

It was in this Old Testament theology class that I began to question my Sunday school idea of who God is. I had always learned that God is good. He forgives. Jesus loves me — this I know.

True? Of course those things are true. But during college, I began to really grapple with who God is — the fact that His character probably involved a lot more than what I had learned from the pictures in my children's Bible.

One of the things that I was required to do in my class was to write a paper on a passage in the OT where God seems to act unfairly. We were given a list of Scripture passages, and then we had to study and write a paper presenting our conclusions of Yahweh in these specific instances.

I chose to write about Uzzah's story, which I'll explain in a moment. At first glance, I felt sorry for Uzzah. At second glance, I felt even more sorry for him. As I continued to study Uzzah's story, my pity for him did not disappear. What changed was my idea of who Yahweh is, and my understanding of His holiness.

Freighters of the Lost Ark

I suppose I need to give you some background if you're to understand my conclusions. Here's what was going on in 2 Samuel 6: David is king, and he decides to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. Two guys, Uzzah and Ahio, are in charge of transporting the ark on its journey. They put it on a cart pulled by oxen, and they set out. There's a big party of people following along singing songs of praise to Yahweh and playing all of their loudest instruments. Everyone is super excited about the return of the ark to Jerusalem. Then things takes a turn for the worse:

When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. The Lord's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God. (2 Samuel 6:6-7, NIV)

All right, this is where I began to struggle with God's idea of justice. It seems to me that Uzzah was just trying to be helpful. He saw the oxen stumble, and because he had such respect for the ark that housed the Lord's presence, he was trying to keep it from falling on the muddy ground below. My first thought was, "Thanks so much, Uzzah! Way to protect Israel's most valuable possession!" Apparently, that is not what God was thinking. So, how do we explain this in light of what we know about God's character?

Ark History 101

First of all, we need to know a bit of history about the ark. The first problem is that Uzzah and his brother were transporting the ark incorrectly. In Exodus, God gives Moses specific instructions about the ark and how it was to be transported. Only Levite priests were allowed to handle any of the things that belonged in the tabernacle; and, there was a specific way that they were to handle the ark: "Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the chest to carry it. The poles are to remain in the rings of this ark; they are not to be removed." (Exodus 25:14-15). Uzzah was a Levite, and he was supposed to be carrying the ark — it was not to be sitting on a cart transported by oxen.

Can't Touch This

As I mentioned before, the main thing I began to understand while studying this passage, is the gravity of God's holiness. The Anchor Bible Dictionary mentions the fact that God's presence was manifested within the ark. It was a place where "God would meet the people."¹

People were not allowed to just go around touching the holy things left and right. In fact, when giving instructions about moving the tabernacle, God says, "the Kohathites are to come to do the carrying. But they must not touch the holy things or they will die" (Numbers 4:15). This was quite serious business.

When Uzzah reached up and touched the ark, he was going against a direct commandment. The passage says that, "The Lord's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act" (2 Samuel 6:7, emphasis mine). He lacked the proper respect for Yahweh — by touching the ark, he was ignoring the seriousness of God's holiness. His sinful hands reached up and basically touched Yahweh — felt the perfection of righteousness. Not cool.

Justice or Mercy? I'll Take Both

OK, I know that was a lot of background information, but I only mention all of these specifics about the Uzzah story because I want to give us some idea of the biblical culture and Israel's understanding of God's law.

Now, on to the main point. Was God unjust in striking Uzzah dead? To be quite honest, it kind of looks like it to me, even with the knowledge of the gravity of Uzzah's offense. It even seemed to look like it to David: "Then David was angry because the Lord's wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah" (2 Samuel 6:8). But was David justified in his anger?

If we believe that God is holy ("one perfect in goodness and righteousness" according to Merriam-Webster) then it would be antithetical to His nature to act unjustly. So, God cannot act unjustly, but is He always required to react with justice? The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul gives some insight into this topic:

God does not always act with justice. Sometimes He acts with mercy. Mercy is not justice, but neither is it injustice. Injustice violates righteousness. Mercy manifests kindness and grace and does no violence to righteousness. We may see non-justice in God, which is mercy, but we never see injustice in God."²

So, in this case, was God just choosing to show justice to Uzzah instead of mercy? King David knew God's law. He should've demanded that the ark be transported according to the law. Isn't he just as guilty? Perhaps he is. But maybe God chose to show David mercy instead of justice.

But does God just get to show justice or mercy to whomever He pleases? Well, yes. He says so: "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy" (Exodus 33:19). While this may offend my sense of fairness, I have to admit that my concept of justice is probably not quite as perfected as God's. The time and place God chooses to show mercy and justice is His prerogative.

Offensive Justice

None of this was easy for me to accept. As I wrote this paper for my Old Testament class, I struggled with Uzzah's story. Even if God was acting with justice instead of mercy in Uzzah's case, it still seemed extreme to me. This is where my misunderstanding — my lack of respect — for God's holiness made itself very evident.

Many of us tend to get offended when God shows us justice, and I have wondered where this mindset originated. I find it interesting that in so many of the biblical passages where we feel that God is being cruel or irrational, the biblical writers don't always seem to have the same feeling. They don't report on what happened and then add their commentary. The authors don't usually even try to explain God's actions as I've just done in much of this article.

We do not always have the same mindset. We do not seem to have the same understanding of punishment that the biblical writers did. Perhaps it is because so many of us in the West have been blessed and have lived in comfort for so long, that we have forgotten what God's justice looks like. We have come to expect His mercy, but when we experience His justice — or even read about it in the Bible — we get offended.

Whether we're struggling with difficult passages or with seemingly unfair situations in our lives, it has been helpful for me to keep God's holiness in mind. His righteousness is pure and infinite. Deuteronomy 32:4 says that, "He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he."

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Does God ever act unfairly? Is that possible, based on what we know about His character?

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Thankfully for us, God so often shows us His mercy. We must not let ourselves be offended, however, when He decides to show us His justice also. God is never unloving toward us — but we must keep in mind that He is always holy.