He said to them, “You are the
heads of the Levitical families; you and your fellow Levites are to consecrate
yourselves and bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it. It was because you, the Levites, did not bring it up the first
time that the Lord our God
broke out in anger against us. We did not inquire of him about how to do it in
the prescribed way.” So the priests and Levites consecrated themselves in order to
bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel. And the Levites carried the ark of God with the poles on their
shoulders, as Moses had commanded in accordance with the word of the Lord.
Yes. Remember, the first sin in the garden started
with someone not following the rules. It
still continues to this day. Moses’ law
made it very clear how to transport the ark (Exodus 25, 39, 40). To put the ark on an ox cart showed
disrespect. It would not have stumbled
with the priests carrying it the way it needed to be carried.
Falling short of
the glory of God always leads to death.
David should not have been surprised.