Wash your hands, wear your mask, keep your distance - Part 1

Today – Wash Your Hands

Patrick J van Rensburg

2 Samuel 6:6-9 (NKJV) “Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. 7 Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by the ark of God. 8 And David became angry because of the Lord’s outbreak against Uzzah; and he called the name of the place Perez Uzzah to this day. 9 David was afraid of the Lord that day; and he said, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?”

Unclean Hands

Uzzah died because he stretched out to the ark of God with unclean hands.

Jeremiah 25:7 (NKJV) “Yet you have not listened to Me,” says the Lord, “that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.”

It matters to God whether your hands are clean.   God does not want us to handle holy things with unclean hands.  Why must we wash our hands, especially during Covid-19? Handwashing is one of the best ways to protect yourself and your family from getting sick.  The biggest defense against this virus is to wash your hands. 

The medical word has told us to wash our hands but said nothing about sanitizing our hearts.

Pilate washed his hands, but his heart was not sanitized.

Matthew 27:24 (NLT) “Pilate saw that he wasn’t getting anywhere and that a riot was developing. So he sent for a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. The responsibility is yours!”

Sanitise your hands and your heart

The only thing that can save us today is the sanctification of our hearts. It is possible to wash your hands, but not clean your heart. It is easy to wash your hands in public, like Pilate did, but what was going on in his private life?  Pilate put on a good show in public; he washed his hands, but did not allow Jesus to change his heart.  He washed his hands publicly, but his heart was unclean.  You have to wash your hands and your heart if you want to come into the presence of God. Clean hands without a clean heart will still crucify people.  That is what Pilate did.

You cannot approach God with unclean hands and an unclean heart.  Many have lost the way during this Covid time.  They lost their discipline to attend church, they lost their discipline to pray and to read the Bible.

They have been so entertained with other things, that church and God does not matter to them anymore.

People are been flooded with unclean things through the media, Facebook and the TV.  It does not bother them that they become unclean. The question today is, what are you looking at, what are you listening to?  It is possible that you have accumulated dirty hands and hearts.  

All that you need to do, is to ask God to make you clean again and God will do it for you.

Psalm 24 was written after Uzzah was killed by reaching out to the ark of God with unclean hands.

David now asks  “Who may climb the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? “

Psalm 24:3-4 (NLT) Who may climb the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies.

David is giving us the answer on how we are going to enter into the presence of God. It is going to be more than good singing and preaching, but you are going to have clean hands and a clean heart.

Matthew 23:25-26 (NLT) “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! 26 You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.

1 Samuel 16:7 (ESV) “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

Matthew 15:18–19 (ESV) “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”

James 4:8 (ESV) “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

We need a sanitisation of our hands and our heart.  You cannot have his presence, without the cleansing of your hands and heart.  At some point you have to get off the couch and get back to church.

Transporting the Ark with clean hands and a clean heart

You have to get your family back to the house of God and ask “Lord wash our hands and purify our hearts.”  Transporting the Ark with unclean hands.  You cannot approach God in an easy cart.  Apparently, David didn't seek the Lord on how the ark should be transported.

Rather, his method of transport seems to be similar to the Philistine approach of putting the ark on a new cart pulled by two cows (1 Samuel 6:7).

1 Chronicles 15:2 "No one but the Levites may carry the ark of God, because the LORD chose them to carry the ark of the LORD and to minister before him forever."

1 Chronicles 15:13"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."

1 Chronicles 15:12 (NLT) “He said to them, “You are the leaders of the Levite families. You must purify yourselves and all your fellow Levites, so you can bring the Ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it.”

2 Samuel 6:13 (NLT) “After the men who were carrying the Ark of the Lord had gone six steps, David sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf.”

1 Chronicles 21:24 (NLT) “No, I insist on buying it for the full price. I will not take what is yours and give it to the Lord. I will not present burnt offerings that have cost me nothing!”

All over the world, you see the signs, wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands.

If you want God’s presence in your life you need clean hands and a clean heart.