When David was king, he wanted to bring the ark of God to be with him in Jerusalem.

 

 

 

 

He gathered the leaders and soldiers together to do it.

He told the people why he wanted to bring the ark to Jerusalem. He said, When Saul was king he didn’t ask God what to do about stuff.

 

 

We want to always ask God and listen to Him and do what He says.

 

 

All the people thought this was a good and right thing to do.

 

 

 

They made a new cart to carry the ark and sang and played harps and tambourines and cymbals and trumpets and danced with all their strength as they brought the cart along.

But when they were bringing the ark they didn’t do it the way God said. They put it in a cart instead of having clean priests carried with its poles on their shoulders.

 

 

 

 

The oxen pulling the cart stumbled and a man named Uzza reached out his hands to hold the ark so it wouldn’t fall and he died..

 

 

 

Then David was unhappy and scared of God because the man died.

So David took the ark to a house nearby and went back to Jerusalem without the ark. Then the Lord put many good blessings on the house where His ark was.

 

 

The king of a city called Tyre sent messengers and builders and wood to build a house for David.

 

 

And David understood that it was the Lord who had made him king over the Lord’s people.

 

 

 

 

The Lord lifted up David’s kingdom high over the other kingdoms of the world because the Lord loved His people, Israel.

 

 

When the Philistines, God’s enemies, heard that David was made king in Israel, they came to attack David to kill him.

They spread out their army across the valley so David asked the Lord, Shall I go fight against the Philistines?

 

 

 

The Lord told David, Go, for I will give you to win the victory over them. So David took Israel’s army and fought the battle and God gave him to win the battle.

Then David said, The Lord has broken forth over my enemies as water washes away everything in its path.

The Philistines left their statues of their gods on the battlefield so David burned the statues to nothing because they are nothing, as the Lord God said.

 

More Philistines came and spread across the valley to fight with David and Israel.

So David asked the Lord again and the Lord said, Turn the army away and go around behind them. When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then go out to fight them because I have gone ahead of you to give you the victory.

So David did what the Lord God said and won a great battle against the bad ones who make everything bad for their people and for God’s world.

 

 

Word about how the Lord God fought for David spread around the world and the nations were afraid of David.

David made houses for himself in his city, Jerusalem, and he made a tent for the ark of God.

 

 

 

Then he said, Only the family of Levi are to carry God’s ark and do the work of God’s house because they are the ones that God chose to do it.

David talked to them and said, Get ready. Do the ceremony to be clean before the Lord. You are the ones the Lord God chose to carry the ark and do the work at His house.

 

Because we did not do it God’s way, a bad thing happened last time we tried to bring the ark of God to us.

So the priests got ready the way God had said and carried the ark on the gold poles to Jerusalem, to the beautiful tent David made for it.

Each person was assigned the task God gave them. Some sang songs. Some guarded the doors. Some played trumpets.

They brought God’s ark to its place with much joy and shouting and singing and playing beautiful music.