Reviewing a fact: God’s holiness potentially prevents the entirety of mankind from having a relationship with Him. A mere man cannot stand in front of an on-rushing locomotive and live.
Yet, God desires to have a relationship with us. From the beginning, when Adam and Eve were in the Garden, God would visit with them and walk with them. Then it happened: “They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3:8)
Adam and Eve hid because they now possessed the knowledge of good and evil. In disobeying God by eating of that particular tree, they had committed evil. In hiding, they understood a chasm now existed between them and God. The walks in the Garden with God were over.
After God drives Adam and Eve out of the Garden, a person’s logical assumption would be that God returns to His heavenly home and never ever communicates or attempts to have a relationship with man again.
Not so fast. When Moses leads the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, God once again works at establishing a relationship with mankind. When the Israelites camp at Mount Sinai, God commands them to build the Ark of the Covenant: “Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, so that I may dwell among them.” (Exodus 25:8) In addition, the Ark was topped with a mercy seat, a foretelling of what would eventually come in full display to all of mankind. “There I will meet with you; and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel.” (Exodus 25:22)
So God says to the Israelites that He will dwell with them and speak to them. His intention in doing so has no limits or expiration date.
Except God can never not be perfectly holy. And the Israelites could never not be unholy. That presented a problem, which came to light in the life of Uzzah. As God promised, His presence dwelt within the Ark. Because the Holy God was there, no one could touch the Ark and live.
While the Israelites were transporting the Ark on a cart (against the rules), the oxen stumbled and the Ark almost tumbled from the cart. Likely with good intentions, Uzzah reached out to rescue the Ark. He died instantly. (2 Samuel 6:6-7)
Was God a bit harsh? From our perspective, Uzzah was doing a good deed. But Uzzah was also an unholy sinner, like all of us. It’s an insurmountable fact: When unholy meets holy, the results never favor the unholy.
This provides an excellent truth for us. Suppose in the annals of mythology, an unholy god went to war against a holy god in order to win a people. If those people possess any wisdom at all, which god would they prefer win? For all of our sakes, our Holy God must win every time. He must remain perfectly holy in all circumstances, throughout all time.
The sinner Uzzah dies when he makes the mistake of entering into the presence of a holy God by touching the Ark. Therefore, how can we sinners have a relationship with this holy God? Shouldn’t we shake with fear at the thought of entering into His presence?
God says ‘no’ because He has figured it out. From the beginning of creation, from the moment Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden, He had already put into motion a wondrous plan to help us who are unholy to ultimately have the immense pleasure of entering into His glorious presence and dwelling with Him for all of eternity.
It’s nothing we did. We were incapable of doing anything by our own power and initiative. The Holy God reaches for us because we’re incapable of reaching for Him. He did it all.