The Babel Syndrome

A continuation of the "Clumsy Ox"
With the blood of a slain man on his hands, David anxiously asks, "How"? How shall I bring the Ark of God to me? Do you wonder, with me, that the "man after God's own heart" would have to even ask this question? Was all of Israel so spiritually ignorant that they did not know what was written? Or even worse, didn't care? Can the finger of accusation be pointed to that long gone generation without a thousand fingers being pointed at us of whom much is given? David had been betrayed by an enemy "within". An enemy so insidiously woven into the psyche of the human soul that listening to its voice had become second nature to him. What is that enemy you ask? Ask my children or ask my long suffering wife who has had to bear up under my "rants" for four decades! The enemy is a serious, but common, malady affecting all mankind. I call it the "Babel Syndrome".
When David decided to use the method of the Philistines nothing, at the time, seemed more logical. Ah ..., logic may be acceptable in Gath but finds little comfort in Jerusalem. Bring the Ark of His Holy covenant by mechanical means home to Israel? Never! God forbid even thinking such a thought. The Ark was to be borne by man himself. Nothing more and nothing less. No shiny red cart with yellow wheels for God's grand entry! Simply the linen clad shoulders of simple men. The method hasn't changed today for He still dwells with men and is carried throughout this world in humble vessels of clay. Not methods, not mechanics, not movements but ... men! When Jesus ascended into the heavens he left it all in the hands of eleven simple men [ and a suicide] and you know what? It worked! It will yet work today.
But what of this "Babel" malady? At the birth of the nations the human race was building a tower in the plains of Shinar that caused God, Himself, to pause and take notice. We will build until we reach the heavens themselves, they declared. We will make a name for ourselves! In the realm of man's redemption from sin and death he can't get away from the idea that there must be something he has to "do" to obtain this status. Thus "religion" is born and the Earth became full of temples, sacrifices, and ceremonies. That religious spirit is alive and well today embodied as the "Babel Syndrome" . Paul waged war with it in his day with the Judaizers who had infiltrated the infant church. Others battle it today with those who preach another gospel of "works" and doctrinal "hoops" one must jump through. The fear mongers scream about worldliness, television, and standards but let me tell you who to fear. Fear him who kills real faith. Fear him who can't see beyond the "works" of man. Fear him who points to programs for his righteousness. Fear him who has acquiesed to that age old sickness of the heart that says, "Surely there must be something I can do to attain my tower to heaven!"
O' Great Physician come and heal us of our disease and give us life for we have been sickened unto death!