Share The Vision to Share The Mission
Are you interested in joining effort with a person or organization toward accomplishing a goal: as a friend, partner, ally, or wife/husband? Do you understand the vision: what is important to the person, why it is important to him/her? what does he or she want to accomplish, and how? Understanding and sharing the vision will help lay a strong foundation for an alliance. Conversely, proceeding into an alliance without understanding or sharing the vision is a step toward eventual failure. We learn about this principle based on a study of David’s interaction with his wife Michal when David led Israelites to bring the Ark of God to Jerusalem.
Reverence for the Ark of God
The Israelites revered the ark as representing their covenant with God. They went before the ark to talk to God and believed that Moses heard the voice of God from between the two cherubim above the atonement cover on the ark [Numbers 7:89]. However, the ark did not have a home since the time Philistines captured it in a battle but were forced to send it back because it brought them calamity [1 Samuel 6]. It was temporarily in the home of Abinadab (in a town of Judah) until David brought it to Jerusalem.
Home for the Ark in Jerusalem: David’s Commitment
David was a committed worshiper of God and had great regard for all symbols and substance of worship. Once he settled down in Jerusalem as king of Israel, he made elaborate plans to bring the ark to Jerusalem. He built a tent for the ark in the City of David and organized 30,000 men to escort and celebrate the ark from the home of Abinadab to its own home. The first attempt failed because of a near-accident that resulted in the ark being handled irreverently by Uzzah, son of Abinadab. The ark was diverted to the house of Obed-Edom, a Gittite, because David was afraid of God and of the ark. He made a second attempt three months later, also with elaborate plans for celebration and entertainment. He succeeded this time and brought the ark to Jerusalem.
Shame Instead of Pride
As the ark entered Jerusalem, David, wearing a linen ephod, danced “with all his might” to sounds of trumpet and other musical instruments. Michal, his wife, saw the dancing through a window, was ashamed of her husband, and proceeded to chide and insult him when he returned to bless his household. If Michal understood David and his relationship with God, she would have appreciated his desire to bring the ark to Jerusalem and his unrestrained celebration when it finally happened after failure of an initial elaborate plan. She would have joined the dance, or at least privately congratulated her husband and worshiped with him for the accomplishment.
Protecting the Interest of God
Also, the failed first attempt helps us to learn about reverence to God and symbols of worship, through the death of Uzzah and David’s fear of God and the ark. Additionally, we learn how God treats people that protect his interest, through the experience of Obed-Edom and his household during the short three months that he housed the ark.