Desire for God's Blessings and Presence In Our Lives - Worshipping, Sacrificing, and Serving Are Blessings

Today's Focus Scriptures: 2 Samuel 6:7-19

2 Samuel 6:7-19

7 And the anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah, and God struck him down there for his irreverence; and he died there by the ark of God. 
8 David became angry because of the Lord’s outburst against Uzzah, and that place is called Perez-uzzah to this day. 
9 So David was afraid of the Lord that day; and he said, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” 
10 And David was unwilling to move the ark of the Lord into the city of David with him; but David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. 
11 Thus the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household.
12 Now it was told King David, saying, “The Lord has blessed the house of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, on account of the ark of God.” David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom into the city of David with gladness. 
13 And so it was, that when the bearers of the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. 
14 And David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, and David was wearing a linen ephod. 
15 So David and all the house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouting and the sound of the trumpet.
16 Then it happened as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.
17 So they brought in the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent which David had pitched for it; and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. 
18 When David had finished offering the burnt offering and the peace offering, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts. 
19 Further, he distributed to all the people, to all the multitude of Israel, both to men and women, a cake of bread and one of dates and one of raisins to each one. Then all the people departed each to his house.

LAGNIAPPE:

FROM: JewishEncyclopedia.com - The unedited full-text of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia

OBED-EDOM (Worshipper of Edom).
    
Table of Contents
—1. Biblical Data:
—In Rabbinical Literature: 2, 3, 4

—1. Biblical Data:
A Gittite to whose house the Ark was taken when removed from that of Abinadab in Gibeah. It remained with Obed-edom three months before it was carried to the City of David; and God "blessed Obededom and all his household" (II Sam. vi. 10-11).

—In Rabbinical Literature:
From I Chron. xxvi. 4-8, where Obed-edom is mentioned together with the Levites, it is concluded that he was himself a Levite. His name is interpreted thus: "Obed" = "the servant who honors God in the right way"; "Edom" (lit. "red")= "one who causes to blush." He made David blush for shame because the latter was at first afraid to receive the Ark, whereas Obededom took it into his house without hesitation (Num. R. iv. 21). During the time that the Ark was with him Obed-edom used to light a candle beforeit twice daily, early in the morning and again at evening (ib.).

The blessing with which God blessed Obed-edom consisted in children. His wife and eight daughters-in-law bore children twice every month during the three months that the Ark remained with him (ib.). According to another version, each of them bore six children at once (Ber. 63b).

2. Korahite; one of the guards appointed to march before the Ark of the Covenant when it was taken from the house of Obed-edom the Gittite to Jerusalem. He was commissioned also, with five of his companions, to play on the harp of eight strings (I Chron. xv. 18, 21, 24). During the regency of Solomon, in David's old age, Obed-edom belonged to the second division of the guard in the provisional Temple; and the sixty-two male members of his family, including his eight sons, were all detailed for duty at the Temple and kept guard on its southern side (I Chron. xxvi. 4, 8, 15).

3. Son of Jeduthun, and, like Hosah, a porter at the Temple in the reign of David (I Chron. xvi. 38).

4. Temple guard; flourished during the reign of Amaziah, King of Judah; under his care were all the gold, silver, and vessels which were carried off by Jehoash to Samaria.