When I was a Latter-day Saint, one of the stories I frequently heard to teach the need to follow church leadership and authority was the story of Uzzah and the Ark of the Covenant.
In 2 Samuel 6, Uzzah reaches out his hand to steady the Ark as it begins to fall, and when he does so, God strikes him dead. This striking story was often used to reinforce the idea that ordinary members of the Church should not attempt to correct problems or challenge the direction of church leaders. Instead, they should trust that God is in charge and that He will correct His Church in His own time and through His appointed servants.
For instance, Brigham Young taught:
“Let the kingdom alone, the Lord steadies the ark; D&C 85:8 and if it does jostle, and appear to need steadying, if the way is a little sideling sometimes, and to all appearance threatens its overthrow, be careful how you stretch forth your hands to steady it; let us not be too officious in meddling with that which does not concern us; let it alone, it is the Lord’s work.”
But this application seems almost opposite to the message of the passage when it is read in its full context.
The story of Uzzah is not primarily a warning about ordinary people trying to correct God’s leaders. It is a story about God’s leaders failing to follow God’s instructions, and the serious consequences that result when they do.
To understand the story fully, we need to go back earlier in the Old Testament, particularly to the books of Exodus and Numbers. God gave specific instructions about how the Ark of the Covenant was to be transported. The Levites were commanded to carry the Ark using poles, and they were warned not to touch the holy objects directly. (Exodus 25:14-15; Number 4:15) The pattern established in the Old Testament was that the priests carried the Ark according to God’s command. (See Joshua 3)
However, in 1 Samuel, when the Philistines captured the Ark and later returned it to Israel, they transported it on a cart. After this, the Israelites appear to have adopted that same method. They placed the Ark on a cart rather than carrying it as God had instructed through Moses.
That is exactly what happens in 2 Samuel 6. David and the Israelites are moving the Ark on a cart. The text does not say so expressly, but they seem to be following a pattern that originated with the Philistines rather than the instructions God had given to Israel. And we don’t see any indication that the priests were involved in the process, only the “able young men of Israel.” (2 Samuel 6:1)
When the oxen stumble and the Ark appears to be falling, Uzzah (a Levite but not a priest) reaches out his hand to steady it. From a human perspective, it appears that he is trying to do something good: he is trying to protect the Ark from hitting the ground. But in doing so, he violates the command God had already given that the Ark was not to be touched.
The text does not expressly critique Uzzah’s actions. But his mistake was clearly not that he was too eager to correct David. To the contrary, it appears that he might have become complacent towards God’s instructions due to the fact that the Ark had been in his home for many years. In any event, it does not appear that anyone spoke up and pointed out that God had given specific instructions for how to carry the Ark.
What happens next is especially important. In 1 Chronicles 15, we get a fuller explanation of David’s response. After this tragedy, David recognizes what went wrong:
“You Levites did not carry the ark the first time… Because you did not carry it the first time, the anger of the LORD our God broke out against us. We did not seek him according to the rule.”
David does not conclude that the problem was someone trying to interfere with God’s work. He does not say, “Uzzah should have trusted the leadership.” Instead, he recognizes that the leaders themselves had failed to follow God’s instructions.
The solution was repentance and correction. The priests and Levites purified themselves, and they carried the Ark properly:
“Then the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the carrying poles, just as Moses had commanded according to the word of the LORD.”
The lesson of this passage is not that God’s leaders never make mistakes or that members should never question leadership. In fact, the opposite is true: David and the priests were God’s appointed leaders, and they still needed to be corrected by God’s revealed Word. Indeed, had the leadership been following God’s instructions about how to carry the Ark, this tragedy would not have happened.
The true lesson is that God’s people must follow God carefully. We must look to what He has actually commanded rather than assuming that good intentions, human wisdom, tradition, or even religious authority automatically guarantee that we are doing His will.
The ultimate authority in this story is not David, the priests, or even the sincere intentions of Uzzah. The ultimate authority is the Word of God.
The story of Uzzah does not teach us to blindly defer to human leadership. It teaches us to faithfully defer to God.
P.S. Here’s a sermon that inspired some of these reflections: