Joseph Prince - Blessings Follow Where Jesus Goes
I wanna share with you the story of Obed-Edom and how God wants your family blessed, amen? But first, you must understand the story is intricately linked with King David. David, and I shared this in my book "Destined to Reign," the secret of David, all right? David has a secret with God, and the Bible says that David said, in one place, that "God like me". I like that. David, you know, just said, "God love me," and God love all of us, but David said, "God like me," amen. You know what? God loves everybody, but there are some people God just likes, and David said, "God like me," amen. We know that David, of all the people in the Bible, God called David "a man after my own heart".
Now, I've heard preachers saying that God called David a man after his own heart when he was a king, although he committed adultery, although he murdered the woman's husband and all that, but, actually, the timing of which when God called David "a man after my heart" is actually when he was still a teenager, when he was still young, amen. God said, "I have found my servant David, who will fulfill all my will". When he was ordained, God saw him as a man after his heart. So I ask the question, what was it about David? I've heard preachers saying, David...now, I'm not preaching on David, okay? I have a few sermons on this already as well as my book that center in a whole chapter on it, but real quick, passing in review so that we understand the context of the story of Obed-Edom, David, some preachers say that he repented fast.
Well, there were many others in the Bible who repented fast, but none of them God says, "He's a man after my own heart". There must be something unique about David that's not a common denominator, right? And I found that David, in Psalms 132...now, all this is in my book "Destined to Reign," so we're not covering on David now, so, real quick, just to let you, it's found in Psalms 132. But David wrote this psalm when he was a young man, a teenager, most likely, and he says this, "We heard that the ark," the ark of the covenant, show them a picture of the ark. The ark of the covenant, that's the ark, all right? At that time, it was in the hands, at one time, it was in the hands of the Philistines because the priest Eli was corrupted together with his sons, all right, Phinehas and Hophni. And what happened, there was a battle, and the enemies took the ark, all right, away with them, the Philistines.
But how many understand that the ark can defend itself? Because a corrupted priesthood, they were no more worthy of the ark. The ark went into captivity or, so to speak, "into captivity," but, actually, the ark took the enemies captive. The enemies put the ark in front of their god, Dagon. It's a fish god. So there's this image of a fish in front of the ark, so they were celebrating their victory, saying that their god, the god of the Philistines has overcome the God of Israel. The next day they came, Dagon was on his head, bowing down before the ark, the presence of God, okay? And, remember, the ark is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you look carefully, you look at, it's a rectangular shape, an oblong shape, all right, made of wood, actually, all right. Wood, in the Bible, speaks of humanity, so Jesus is 100% human.
Do you know that you have a man representing you now in heaven? Amen, you have a man with human emotions, with human compassion, with human sensitivities. A man. Literally, there's a man at God's right hand. God has found the perfect man, and he represents you and I, all right? So that's the wood of the ark of the covenant, but you can't see the wood because it's overlaid with gold, and that speaks of Jesus's deity, his divine righteousness. He's God. Hundred percent man, wood. Hundred percent God, gold. So the gold overlays the wood. Good, huh? All right, so the box speaks of Jesus, his person. The lid, the lid is called the mercy seat. The lid is where, once a year, they'll put blood on the mercy seat, all right, and the lid speaks of the finished work of Jesus Christ because of the shedding of his blood.
All our sins are put away once and for all. All the bloods of bulls and goats every year offered on the Jewish altar can never permanently and eternally take away sins, but this man, with one sacrifice, because the blood that ran in Emmanuel's veins is not human only, it is divine, and because it is divine, it is not confined by time. His blood avails for all those from Adam until all those who will live in the future. He died for all man, for all time, which means all our sins is not just forgiven from the day you were born into this world until the day you accept Jesus, all right? You are forgiven for all eternity, something that the blood of bulls and goats can never do, okay? So the mercy seat covers the box, and every year, once a year, blood would be put on the mercy seat.
There's one thing, God's holy eyes, the Bible says nothing is hidden from God's eyes. God's eyes can penetrate through walls. God's eyes can look right into your heart and see your true motives. God can look into your thoughts. Nothing, nothing is hidden from God's eyes, but there's one thing God's eyes cannot look through, and that's the blood of his Son because you know what's inside the box? All right, three items inside this box. Number one, the golden part of manna, all right? God provided manna for man's hunger because man murmured, murmured, murmured. So the manna is a picture of man's rebellion, man's murmuring of God's provision. So God says take than manna that reminds God of man's rebellion, man's murmuring, man's rejection of God's provision, and God said, "Put it under the mercy seat".
The next thing God says, all right, is Aaron's rod that budded, what happened was that the people complained against Aaron, whom God appointed to be the high priest for their benefit, and yet they murmured, they rejected God-appointed leadership, and God says, "This rod of Aaron, that reminds me of man's murmuring and rejection of my leadership, put it under the mercy seat," okay? And the last one are the Ten Commandments written on two stones. Man rejected God's standard and produced a golden calf. God says, "The Ten Commandments now remind me of man's rejection of my standard". Put it under the mercy seat.
So everything is put under the mercy seat, and guess what? Blood is put on the mercy seat, so, once a year, when God looked down, God does not see all the tokens of man's rebellion, but God sees the blood of sacrifice, and you know what happens outside? Blood on gold means blessings on the people. They get bumper crops. Their enemies come against them, flee before them seven ways. Their children become brilliant, amen. Their wives become beautiful. They become healthy and strong. Blessed is the fruit of their body as long as there's blood on the mercy seat, okay? Watch this. Let me show you something that "Indiana Jones" says cannot be done. Nobody can look into the mercy seat, but you are safe, all right? We're gonna lift up the mercy seat and let you see, okay? Watch.
If you're not saved, close your eyes. Golden pot of manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the Ten Commandments, all right? The Ten Commandments, the Jewish Talmud tells us, was engraved on sapphire. Very interesting because, in Exodus, it tells us, I think, I believe, it's Exodus 24, it says that God sat down, and underneath his feet, he sat on Mount Sinai, underneath his feet was the work of sapphire. This is very interesting because, in the early church, a man called Ananias and his wife Sapphira lied, and they fell down dead, causing a lot of fear in people not knowing the story. It's a typology, all right? The story really happened, but there's a truth there. Ananias, his name means "grace of God," "Hananiah," in Hebrew. Sapphira, his wife, means "the law," the Ten Commandments.
Whenever you mix Ananias and Sapphira together, the result is death, okay? There was another man called Ananias, not the same man. Another man. Remember when Saul, he was struck blind? Not struck blind. He became blind because of the glory that appeared, all right? He fell from his high horse. He literally fell from his high horse, all right, and became blind for three days, and finally, God sent a man called Ananias. Same name, which means his name is, what? "Hananiah" means, what? In Hebrew, "Hananiah," "God's grace". "Hanan" is grace, "Yah," is "Yahweh," "Hananiah," God's name, okay? And the first person that Paul saw was the grace of God, and that defined his ministry, okay? This time, there's no Sapphira. There's no law, okay? Are you with me?
So the thing is this, church, when people go back to the law, they actually fall from grace, mercy seat. Mercy seat, grace, is higher than the law, than the Ten Commandments, and that's why the Bible says, when you go back to the law, you fall from grace. Are you with me, people? So what happened was that, when the ark was taken captive, they put it in front of Dagon, all right? Dagon fell before the ark. It's a picture of Jesus Christ and his finished work. Remember, when they came to arrest Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus stepped forward. He was so cool, and he says, "Whom do you seek"? And people, men, soldiers with swords and torches, brandishing their spears, they came and said, "We are looking for Jesus". He stepped forward and says, "I am". The name of the God of the burning bush, "I am". Bang, they all fell on the floor. All fell on the ground, straightaway, all right?
Again, Dagon before the ark of the covenant, amen. The divine captive became the captivator. No one can murder Jesus. That's why it's wrong to say Jesus was murdered. Jesus said, "No man takes my life. I lay down my life". The other day, I was sharing with Brother Darren about, Pastor Darren. I was telling Pastor Darren about some things that I saw in the scriptures. I saw bits and pieces some years ago, but that day, became so clear to me that nobody ever died in Jesus's presence. You study the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you'll find nobody, no matter how sick they were, ever died in Jesus's presence. They only died if Jesus not there.
That's why maybe he delayed going to Lazarus because he want to demonstrate the power of resurrection after four days of being dead. He cannot be there or else Lazarus cannot die. Nobody dies in Jesus's presence. He says, "I am the resurrection and the life," amen. That's why Jesus always spoiled funerals. Everywhere he went, every time he attends a funeral, it became a celebration, amen. He got so much life. Imagine if you spend time with him. If you are sick, you spend time with him, I guarantee you, as long as you are in his presence, you cannot die. And because, you know, God is showing me this, now when I say, "Lord Jesus," with my open Bible, I say, "Lord Jesus, I come to your presence," I'm so conscious at that moment I'm immortal at that moment. I cannot die because I'm in the presence of the resurrection and the life.
And then, remember when he was on the cross? The Bible says he was not killed. Listen, in the Gospel of Matthew that portrays him as King, the Bible says he dismissed his Spirit the way a king would dismiss his subject. He dismissed his Spirit, all right? He gave up, he dismissed his Spirit. That's the original Greek, "dismissed his Spirit," and then he died. He died first. The two thieves, the Roman soldiers came to break their legs so that they cannot support themself, asphyxiation will set in, and they will die. Notice, the two thieves cannot die until Jesus died. As long as Jesus is alive, they cannot die. Lift your hands and say, "Lord Jesus, I come into your presence, amen". Keep on doing that, you might end up like Moses, who spent time in God's presence. At 120 years old, the Bible says he still looked young at 120.
Turn to your neighbor and say, "There's hope for you". Hah-hah-hah. Now let's go to the story of David. So what happened is that the ark, finally, the Philistines says, "You know, this ark is too much trouble. Every time we send the ark somewhere to a city of the Philistine, another city of the Philistine, another city of the Philistine, emerods break out". So I studied what is "emerods". Find out that it was hernia, it was hemorrhoids. It was all kinds of problem in their private parts. So, finally, they said, "We have to send this ark back," okay? So they put the ark on the ox cart, okay, and they sent back to Israel.
Now, they're not supposed to put it on a ox cart, but they don't know any better. These are Philistines, y'all, all right? So they put it on an ox cart, and they sent it off, and the Bible says it was oxen... or it was, rather, two milk cows that just gave birth. So they said this, if the milk cows' natural tendency is the milk cows will want to turn back because of their young, all right, they are mommies that are breastfeeding, but, "If they go straight to Israel, we know that what has happened to us is from God," duh. Anyway, it went all the way to Israel, all right, and the people of Beth Shemesh were the first people of Israel that saw the ark come back, and then what happened was that they put it on a stone, on a rock.
Now, I brought my pastors there to that very place where this happened, and the Bible says that they made a big mistake. They looked into the ark. In other words, they wanted to see the Ten Commandments. Today, the same sin is committed in many, many, many, many, many places. People want to bring back the Ten Commandments in the pulpit, but the problem is this: for you to bring out the Ten Commandments, you have to push aside the mercy seat. So in order for us to preach the Ten Commandments, we have to push aside grace, and death was the result. As a result, that day, the Bible tells us thousands died in the city of Beth Shemesh, and that same sin is being committed today. All right, so the people were afraid.
Now, the people of Israel are afraid. They said, "Let's take the ark, and let's put it on the", by the way, when you stand where you stand in Beth Shemesh, all right, you can see the city of Kiryat Ye'arim, where the ark was, and they put the ark there, and the ark was there for 20 years. And, you know, King Saul, the king before David, he never bothered to take the ark to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the center of Israel, the center of worship, the center of political life. Everything is in Jerusalem, and refused to take the presence of Jesus, don't forget, the ark is a picture of Jesus. Are you with me? I called up my creative director to tell him to design something that I'm seeing in the Spirit about the ark, again, confirming is the work of Jesus.
All right, look at the art again, all right? Can you see the ark? There are four corners, all right? If you open them up, let's open the one on the right and then the front, the back. Let's see what happens. Then the front, then the back, okay, then the bottom, all the way. Now let's see the front. You see the cross. Come on, give Jesus the praise, amen. It's a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, again, the Old Testament are just types, pictures, all right, of the real substance. It's like the photo album. You see the Old Testament law, a photo album of Jesus, but it's not Jesus. It's a photo album, amen? Like, for example, when you are overseas, you look at the photo album on your iPhone. You look at all the photo rolls of your family, your children, and you kiss it, or whatever, but it's not the real, it's not them, but it points you to them.
So the Old Testament are pictures of Jesus. Can you see? All right? All right. Now, what happened was that there on the hill of Kiryat Ye'arim, the ark was there for 20 years, and King Saul never bothered, so it's a picture of the times today when people have church, and they use the name "God," "God," but you seldom hear about Jesus. Jesus no more in the center of the church. You know, God wants his Son to be in the center. Notice that God says, God made his Son, when he died, he died in the midst of two thieves. Jesus says, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst". In the book of Revelation, John heard a voice behind him, and he turned around. The throne of God was there. In the midst of the throne was a Lamb. "In the midst of the throne". I don't know how that worked out, but "In the midst of the throne," the Bible says. So he wants to be in the midst.
The Bible doesn't say, "Husbands, love your wives". Doesn't say that. It says, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loves the church". We don't worry about loving our wives. We just focus on Jesus, his beauty, his grace, his love, and then our wife become the beneficiary. The Bible doesn't say, "Wives, submit to your husbands". Doesn't say that. It says, "Wives, submit to your husbands as unto the Lord Jesus". Don't see the rascal... sorry. Don't see the man. See the Lord Jesus, amen? Can you submit to Jesus? Yes. So look at your husband and see Jesus behind him, amen, and you do it as unto the Lord. It becomes worship. It becomes worship, amen.
So David, as a young boy, David said, in Psalms 132, "I heard", in Psalms 132, he says, "I was in Bethlehem Ephratah. I heard about the fields of the woods". That's Kiryat Ye'arim. Literally, it's a city of the woods. That's where the ark was for 20 years, and David says, "I will not give sleep to my eyes nor slumber to my eyelids until I find a place for the God of Jacob". So the moment...and the moment he has this in his heart to bring Jesus back to the place of centrality, if anyone has a heart to bring Jesus in the center place of your family, your marriage, your parenting, your house, your career, your church, pastors watching this, bring Jesus back to the center of your church, just like David.
God saw this was in his heart. God liked it. God liked him, and God resourced him, and God gave him charisma. God gave him favor. God gave him good people. God gave him even silver and gold to help him fulfill this objective. God even promoted him. God gave him everything because he has a heart to bring the ark to Jerusalem, to put it in center place, amen. So the time came, and David was happy. Twenty years, all right? And David and his men says, "Let's go". Now he's king. He has the resources. He has the manpower. And they went up there to take the ark, but the big mistake was this: David put the ark on an ox cart, same like the Philistines 20 years earlier. And the Bible teaches the ark must be on the shoulders of the priests, all right? The shoulders of the priests, you see? All right? Here is a bronze sculpture of the priests carrying the ark.
You know, the carrying the ark like this is not meant to be borne by animals. It's meant to be borne by priests, Levites, amen. It's a picture of exalting Jesus in your life, your marriage, your ministry. You know, like a grand final, football final, all right, World Cup final, two all, two all, last minute, amen, and your favorite striker scores the final goal. Your final team won, amen, and they are rejoicing. This is the grand final of all finals, right? What do they do with the guy in the final whistle? They carry him on the shoulders on each side. They carry him high. It's a picture of, what? Exalting their champion. See that? Our lives is to exalt Jesus, amen. You run out of things to say, you know, godly things to say to your children? Talk about Jesus. Talk about Jesus. Tell them Jesus loves them, and I'll guarantee you, God will give them the revelation. God will give them the experience of that love that casts out every fear from your child's life, amen, church? Are you with me?
So, you know what happened, right? Somebody died, and what happened is that they went to the hill of Kiryat Ye'arim. I'm gonna show you right now a picture I took because every time I would go to Israel, I started going there in 2002 or '03, because I had this in my heart. God, when I go there, he gave me the secret of Obed-Edom, all right? At that time, nobody preaches on Obed-Edom in 2003, and I preached my first sermon in 2004 on Obed-Edom. And I said, "God, give me this, Lord, this revelation".
So I went there. In 2007, I went back there again, and this is the place of Kiryat Ye'arim. Where I'm standing is exactly where the ark was for 20 years. This is the house of Abinadab, the priest, where the ark stood for 20 years. I'm standing there now, and I'm pointing towards Jerusalem. Way yonder, seven miles away, is Jerusalem, so David's gonna take the ark from this place, all the way to Jerusalem. The picture here is that we are bringing Jesus back to the center of the church, to the center of our lives, okay? God's work must be done God's way. So, David forgot. All right, David forgot about this, and David put it on an ox cart. And the priest, Abinadab, he had two sons. One is called Uzzah, one is called Ahio. And you know who died, right? Uzzah. Uzzah died and Ahio the brother said Ahio! Literally, his name was A-H-I-O in the King James Bible. And the two brothers accompanied the ark.
And what happened was that because it was on a bullock, all right, it was an ox carrying, oxen carrying the ark. When he reached the threshing floor, the place where they thresh wheat or barley, the ox stumbled, the Bible tells us. The ox stumbled. All right, let's see that verse. Okay. "So they set the ark of God on a new cart, brought it out of the house of Abinadab on a hill, and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart. And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill". Big mistake. If they read their Bibles, so sometimes, you know, even men of God like David, they forgot to read their Bibles on how to carry the ark.
The Bible says clearly the ark must be borne by the shoulders of the priests, not by bullock cart. All right? "And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on a hill, accompanying the ark of God, and Ahio went before the ark". So, there's Uzzah and Ahio, all right? "Then David and all the house of Israel played music before the LORD on all kinds of instruments of fir wood, on harps, stringed instruments, tambourines, sistrums, and cymbals". Friends, there was no lack of praise and worship. Someone says the secret of Obed-Edom is that he understood praise and worship. I heard somebody that said this, "The way to bring the presence of God back into the church is praise and worship". Not praise and worship per se. Praise and worship is involved. The secret is not praise and worship; because before Uzzah died, before the ox stumbled, there was praise and worship. I said there was praise and worship. All right?
Jesus talked about worship, true worship is worshiping the Father in spirit and in truth. There is a worship that has no sense of grace. There is a worship that has no sense of the blood. There's a worship that's performance, as well. All right? "So when they came to Nachon's threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled". Hey, what's wrong with that? The oxen stumbled, and Uzzah put forth his hand, and "the anger of the LORD was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him dead for his error; he died there by the ark of God". So, Uzzah died. Now you must understand God hides meanings in names, especially in the Old Testament, and the name Uzzah, you know the Israeli invention, it was the Israelis that invented the Uzi gun, the short machine gun, Uzi. It came from the word "power". Uzzah is man's power.
So, his name actually means his power, man's power, not God. It's not Uzziah. That would mean God's power. It is Uzzah, his power, his strength. What is this? You know how death comes in? Not because of sin, per se, in this context. It came in because of man's strength. There is a worship that is man's strength. There is a ministry that's based on man's strength. There is trying to steady the ark based on man's strength. Even you see a man of God stumbling, don't try to steady him. God can steady his own. Amen.
You see something happening, don't try to put in your arm of flesh. There'll be death. Trust God. Step back. I know one of the hardest things to do is step back. It's easier to tell our children, "You should, you should, you should, you should," than to step back and say, "I believe you will". "You should". There is stress. "I believe you will". There is rest. "I believe you will do great in this exam". "I believe God gives you wisdom". "I believe you have the mind of Christ". "I believe," instead of saying, "Hey, you should study, huh? Huh? You should not be watching TV, huh? Huh, you should, you should, you should, you should". "You should" is demand. "I believe" is supply. So now, what we've got, you know, we say things like, "Lord demands, grace supplies". When it comes to our wives, we say, "You know, you should do your makeup earlier. You should not be late. You should, you should, you should". But it takes creativity to think, "All right, darling, let me help you with this. All right, darling, let me help you with that. Darling, let me help you get started on this".
You know, cry out wisdom not to use the word "You should". Nobody likes to be shoulded. Are you with me? So, the thing that you've gotta watch for is Uzzah in your life, the steadying the ark. "But Pastor Prince, this person is doing this, this person is doing that". Trust God. Okay, there's some things God will tell me to do. There are some things God said, "Hands off, I'm dealing with something in this person's life". Okay, all right, are you with me? In worship and all that, Uzzah must not come in. What's Uzzah? Man's effort, man's flesh, man's strength. Uzz, Uzzah, as in Uzi, okay? All right, verse 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. David was afraid of the LORD that day, and he said, 'How can the ark of the LORD come to me?'"
Now, he has a wrong response. Instead of saying, "I was wrong. There's something going wrong, out of whack here". How many know that grace is hindered not by man's sin? Grace is hindered by man's strength, and that's the message of this story here. I repeat again, man's sin never stopped God's grace. God's grace is greater than sin. When the prostitute who is sick comes to Jesus, she received. Grace is stronger than her sin. The tax collector who is a sinner, all right, a tax collector is someone who collect taxes for the foreign government against his own nation. All right, he's someone who betrayed the nation; and, yet, with this sinful man, when he's sick, he comes to Jesus, he's able to receive. All the sinners during Jesus' time could receive. Sin wasn't an obstruction. Sin wasn't an obstacle. Why? God's grace is greater than sin.
People say things like, "Sin stopped that revival. Sin stopped that movement of God". If sin can stop revival, revival cannot even start. It would never have start, because revival starts where there is sin. How come revival stopped? Because men bring in laws, men bringing their effort, men bringing their own control. Okay? So, the only people that cannot receive from Jesus are those who think they are strong. They think they're obedient. They think they know the Scriptures. The Pharisees cannot receive from Jesus. So, again, what hinders the grace, whether it's healing grace, providing grace, supply grace, what is the thing that hinders grace? Man's strength. And we say, I know I cannot. God says, "Don't worry; I can". It's like your hand compared to his hand. You decide. Amen? Okay.
So, David had a slavish fear. David went back to the spirit of bondage again to fear, the wrong kind of fear. Instead of saying, "We missed it somewhere, all right," he says, "Ah, the ark better not come". All right, so it says David moved the ark of the Lord, "So David would not move the ark into his city, but David took it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite". So, finally, Obed-Edom! Oh, man, it's Obed-Edom! The Gittite! Once a while he goes for Getai. Getai is a sing, concert among the Chinese here in Singapore. All right, Obed-Edom the Gittite. Now watch this in the next verse. "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".
Wow! The whole house got blessed in 3 months! Now, I'll just say this. Josephus, the Jewish historian, there's a famous Jewish historian called Josephus. He lived during the time of the Romans, and he's not a Christian, but he wrote about the Jewish history. Josephus wrote that Obed-Edom was a very poor man when the ark came to his house. That's why his house was outside, not in Jerusalem. And David was afraid. So, David looked at the nearest house that was there, and it was Obed-Edom. He was a bad Edom, you know, and his house was there. And David says put it there, and Obed-Edom was, "Okay, bring it to the center place of my house, please, yes, in front of my field here, that's right, in front of my house".
All right. And he was very poor, according to Josephus. But within 3 months, Josephus says, he became very wealthy. In 3 months. Okay? So, that's all Josephus said, all right? But I believe this blessing is not the unseen blessing like, "Oh, I have more peace". It was something that people can see, because the next verse says, "Now it was told King David, saying, 'The LORD has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.'" It was very evident. It was visible. It was clear for all to see. How many want this in your family, in your life? How many want in your workplace people to say, "There's something on this guy. There's something on this girl".
The world will call it X factor, all right. We call it the, hey, the grace factor, amen, the favor factor. By the way, the word "charisma, charismatic," somebody is charismatic, come from the word charis, which is grace in Greek. It was used in ancient times to describe believers. Yeah, you have a lady 50 plus, and her face shines, and for a while you forget she's 50 plus. God's favor on people makes them ageless. Turn to your neighbor again. "There's hope for you, bro. There's hope for you, sister". Amen. You look more beautiful, amen? You know, good looks can only last you five minutes; and after that, it is the charisma, it is the favor of God.
So, folks, that's what you must go for, the favor of God. It was on Obed-Edom and on his house. All right? So much so that that message was brought back to David, all right? What was David doing during these 3 months? He fought another battle, the Philistines, and at the same time he was studying his Bible, and he realized he did it wrong. But at the same time, when he heard the news, God is blessing Obed-Edom, he felt the pang of jealousy. All right, it's just one family enjoying, all right, all these blessings. I'm gonna bring the ark into the City of David, so that David will be blessed and his entire city. Not only that, in the center of Israel, Jerusalem, the entire nation will be blessed. So, David and his men went down to Obed-Edom. How sad Obed-Edom was when he heard knock on the door. "Obed"! "I'm sorry. I'm sleeping in my bed". "Obed, get up from your bed. King David calls". So he came up. David says, "Ark, please".
Then the Bible tells us, all right, later on that Obed-Edom became a doorkeeper of the ark. In other words he told his family, "The ark is leaving; we're all going". All right? So, they all followed the ark, and he became a doorkeeper of the ark in the City of David. This man is no fool, man. David brought the ark back, and look at how David did it now this time. Watch this now. All right, next verse, please. "So it was, when those bearing the ark of the LORD had gone six paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep". Wow, seven miles journey, you know, by the way. All right, now it's less from Obed-Edom's house from Kiriath-Jearim, it's 7 miles from Obed-Edom's house, all right, still some miles to go to Jerusalem. Every sixth pace, they stop they sacrifice, burnt offering. Every 6 paces, stop, they sacrifice burnt offering. Every 6 paces, they stop and sacrifice.
So, when you're looking from a hill, all the way to Jerusalem...show my picture again in Kiriath-Jearim. All right, all right, you'll find there pillars and columns of smoke all the way to Jerusalem. It's like columns of smoke every sixth pace. Now stop. I'm bringing you to the secret now. Are you ready? I think we'll continue next week. All right? How many want the secret, the mystery of Obed-Edom? God revealed this to me in the year 2004, all right, or 2003. I preached it in 2004. You can check our records. You'll find it there. Long before anybody preached on it, all right, I preached on it. This is my revelation. Number one, there are people who say Obed-Edom is a worshipper. But there was worship before Uzzah died. I'll show you just now. And now there's worship after Obed-Edom.
Also there's worship because the Bible says David danced before the Lord. Now, this is post Uzzah. Early on, they had praise and worship. All right? So, praise and worship is not the key. Praise and worship is involved, but it is not the kind of praise and worship we think. What is the secret of Obed-Edom? So, we look at his name, Obed-Edom. Look at that, Obed-Edom. Show me the name Obed-Edom on the verse. Obed-Edom. Obed in Hebrew, it means servant. Remember the father of David? His name was Jesse, was the son of Obed. Obed is the son of Boaz, whose wife was Ruth. Anyway, Obed means servant. Edom, what is Edom? Now, Edom is a place where Esau would stay, Esau the picture of the flesh. He's a red man, the twin brother of Jacob. God gave him Edom. Edom is red. Edom means red. So, I look at it, "servant of the red".
What in the world is that, you know? So the name doesn't give you the meaning, because it says servant of the red. Servant of the red, what is that? Then I made a deeper study, and I found out that the word Edom came from the word dam, which is blood, which is red. Adam, the first man is called Adam, literally, red-blooded man. Dam, man with blood. Okay, so dam in Hebrew, you can ask a Jewish friend, okay? Dam or damim in plural is the word for blood. Are you with me? There is a prophecy of Jacob to his 12 sons before he died, all right? They became the 12 tribes. When he addressed Judah, from whom Jesus would come, from this tribe, he said this: "Binding his donkey to the vine, his donkey's colt to the choice vine," talking about the Messiah Jesus.
Now, in the day when you can bind your donkey, you know, donkeys are stubborn. All right, don't look at your husband. Look here, all right? You know, donkeys are stubborn. If you can bind a donkey to the choice vine, you know vine are not this fat. Vine are very thin. You know, vine don't even have a trunk. Vine, that's why they call it the clinging vine. Where you get grapes, you must have the trellis for the vine to climb. So, it's very skinny and very, very winding. It has no trunk. But in those days, in the days when Jesus is in your life, all right, the vine will be so full of sap, so full of life that it'll be this thick. You can even bind a stubborn donkey to it, and it won't move. Jesus says, "I am the vine". Amen?
Now watch this. "He washed his garments in wine, And his clothes in the blood of grapes". So grapes, juice, it's got blood. In the Hebrew, dam. Blood of grapes. He washed his clothes in blood of grapes. Now watch this. There's a type here, very beautiful. Remember when the 12 spies went out to spy out the land, and they came back, all right, with a message for Moses and the nation of Israel? Two of them had a pole, one in front, one behind. It became the emblem of the ministry of tourism in Israel today. All right, there's a pole, one in front, one behind, and it's a cluster of grapes on the pole, and they said, "This is a foretaste of what is in the Promised Land," a cluster of grapes they must carry on a pole.
You see how heavy it is? It's a big, again, it's a photo album, a picture of Jesus. Jesus was on the pole. "I am the vine". And there are two thieves beside him. Remember that? And when you look at Jesus, he looked like the blood of grapes. He was crushed. He was beaten. Before you get wine, you must step on it. Before you get wine, wine must be crushed. It must be bruised. And that happened in the passion of the Christ. He was beaten and beaten. He was squeezed to give us intoxicating wine. The first miracle Jesus did was at a wedding. Jesus turned the water into wine.
You know, I studied this. It said that to have good wine, first of all, you planted the vine. It takes about 3 or 4 years before it starts growing good grapes. The first grapes are never good. It cannot be made into wine. Then you have good grapes 4 or 5 years. Then after 4 or 5 years, the 6th year, 7th year, 8th year, even you produce the wine, the wine is not very good. You must wait until 10th year, 11th year, 12th year, then your vine starts producing good wine. But if you really, really, really want good wine, you must wait for many years, 10 years, 20 years, you get the very expensive wine. Wine is very much like us guys, the older we get. Not a single amen, not one amen, not one amen from the ladies. Hey, ladies. We said some good things about you just now. The guys all said amen. Now you don't say amen. So, the ladies, as well. Yeah, amen, praise God.
What Jesus did was in the wedding, all right, the six waterpots of water became wine, best wine. He compressed time in an instant. He can turn the water of your marriage into intoxicating wine. Obed-Edom became very rich in 3 months, became very blessed in 3 months. Don't say, "My best years are behind me". God uses the phrase, "I will restore to you the years the locust has eaten". How does he do that? You are not God. Your part is to believe. Let God be God, and he'll restore to you the years, your best years are still ahead of you. "Pastor, you don't understand. I'm 70 years old". You know what? Every year from now on, every month will be full of life, more than in your 20s, in your 30s, in your 40s, in your 50s. He'll restore to you!
Okay, folks, let me bring this to a close, okay? You are distracting me. So, the blood of grapes. So, go back to Obed-Edom again. His name is what? Wow, I'm just seeing this revelation. Dom can mean the blood of grapes. All right, blood. Edom, he's a servant of the blood. Whose blood? The blood of Jesus! He has a revelation of the blood! And this is confirmed by the fact that before Uzzah died and Obed-Edom's house had the ark, David had praise and worship but no offering of sacrifices. So, where do you think David learned? After Obed-Edom, he's mad at him. Every sixth pace, sacrifice. Every sixth pace, sacrifice. I'm getting out of the light. It's dangerous to walk in darkness, folks. In the light is where the blood keeps you clean. Every sixth pace, all right, the Bible tells us he offered, then he got radical.
Do you call that radical, every sixth pace? Do you call that radical? Like a church that practice Communion, having Communion, drinking the blood every Sunday, do you call that radical? That's where we get it from, folks. It's a problem in the house. Take out the bread, take out the cup. A child forsake, take out the bread, take out the cup. Now we do it only in church. We do it once in a month. Some places bimonthly, one year once. Jesus says, "Do this often, when you remember me". You proclaim the Lord's death. You proclaim the Lord's death right in the midst of the darkness. You proclaim the Lord's death right in the midst of the sickness. You proclaim the Lord's death right in the midst of lack every time you partake.
The most dangerous picture Satan can ever see of a believer is the bread in his hand and a cup in his hand, coming like this, because that's the priest. That's the markings of that priest right there, right there. These are weapons, all right? It's like in the eyes of the devil there's a nuclear weapon in your hands coming near him to explode in his face. Come on. Are you listening people? In the early church, they don't have it just in church. The Bible says they broke bread from house to house. In other words, I just ate bread this morning, I mean Communion, and I drink the cup, remembering all the benefits of the broken body of Jesus. I get up. I visit Lawrence's house. All right? You know why I do down there? Even though I've partaken, I break bread in his house, and then we both go and visit somebody else.
All right, that's what it means from house to house to house. No wonder the devil is so afraid of this, and he has, to a certain extent, successfully removed this from the church, making it into a ritual. For this reason, many are weak in the church. Many are sick. Many die prematurely, because they no longer remember what Jesus did. Are you with me, folks? But Obed-Edom every day must have put sacrifices before the ark. He knew the truth. By the way, and I think about Obed-Edom. It's Obed-Edom the Gittite. Notice Obed-Edom the Gittite. You know what's a Gittite? Gittites are those who come from Gath. Does that ring a bell? Gath, Goliath, the enemy of David and Israel came from, they call him Goliath of Gath. You know David and Goliath? The enemy, Goliath, came from Gath. Gath is not a priest's city. It is the city inhabited by Philistines.
So, in other words, now this is where some scholars differ, okay? In the Jewish commentary, some Jews says he's a Levite. Some Jews says he's a Gentile. The reason Jews cannot decide on this is because you must understand commentary is not inspired. God's Word is. And it's very hard for them to believe that God would bypass David and bless a Gentile. You understand now? All right, so they cannot take it. But even though it said the Gittite, the Gittite, and someone says, "Oh, he's a Levite from Gath Ramon, a place where Israelis would stay". But it's not even Gath Ramon. It's called Gittite from Gath. So, I submit to you, I believe he's a Gentile. He's not a Jew. In other words, he's not law conscious. He's Jesus conscious. Remember there are two people in the Bible that Jesus said had great faith? Both were Gentiles. The Roman centurion and the woman, Syrophoenician woman, both of them Jesus said had great faith.
Now, they were not conscious of the Ten Commandments. They were not conscious of the law, and they're the only two Jesus said had great faith. "I've not found so great faith, no, not in all Israel". You see, they were not conscious of their faith. The centurion was not conscious of his faith. He was conscious of Jesus. The woman with the issue of blood, she touched the hem of his garment, and she was healed. She wasn't conscious of her faith. She was conscious of Jesus. So, the more of Jesus we unveil to the people, the more of his goodness and grace that people see, the more faith they have. More Jesus unveiled, great faith. Little Jesus unveiled, little faith. It is not for you to see your faith.
The woman didn't say, "Do I have enough faith? Do I have enough faith? Do I feel enough faith? Enough faith. I'm not sure I have enough faith". That wasn't the woman's posture. She looked to Jesus. She wasn't conscious of her faith or the lack of it. Jesus turned around and said, "Your faith has made you well". She wasn't looking at her faith. She was looking at Jesus and his grace. When you see Jesus in his grace, he turns around and see you in your faith, amen. What we have done is that said, we have even made faith a barrier between us and Jesus. Because I don't have this kind of faith, I cannot receive from Jesus. I don't have this kind of faith. I cannot receive my healing. I don't have this kind of faith. Faith was never meant to be a barrier. Jesus is a bridge to God's blessings. Jesus is your faith. Whatever you lack, Jesus is the bridge. There's nothing that comes between you and him, amen. Amen, church?
It's not for you to look at your faith. Your eye is for seeing. Your eye is not for looking at itself. Always remember, a guy who can make his face ugly is secure. I'm teasing. But look at this. Obviously, he is a Gentile, which means he's not conscious of the law. The law makes you sin conscious. Okay, he wasn't sin conscious. He was conscious of Jesus. His blood has washed away all my sins, past, present, and future. My family is washed by the blood. David must have asked Obed-Edom, "Obed-Edom, what's your secret"? He must have told David, "Every day, we offer burnt offering". And David said, "Men, get all the sheep here. Every sixth pace, offer". The men said, "We offered 50 already". "Offer again".
You know, David got radical about it. Come on, when you get a revelation, this confirms the revelation that God gave me about a servant of the blood. Amen. Do you know that the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed you, past, present, and future? In fact, you are in a waterfall of his blood cleansing you. In 1 John 1:7, 1 John 1:7, real quick, see the blood of Jesus Christ? "If we walk in the light as He is in the light". Again, he's not telling you how you walk. He's telling you where you walk. If we walk in. In is en in the Greek. In the light. It's not how you walk. It's where you walk. All right, if you are a Christian, in other words, you are in the light. All Christians are in the light.
Look at 1 Thessalonians 5:5. All right? "You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness". Even the song says, "We are creatures of the night". We are not creatures of night. We are creatures of the day. Amen? We are all sons of light. How come Paul had the confidence to tell all the saints in Thessalonica, "You're all sons of light"? You believe in Jesus, you are in the light, and if you're in the light, 1 John 1:7 says what? "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us". And the word there is the present active indicative. That means the blood keeps on, keep on, keeping on, constantly keeping on, keeping on, cleansing us. The moment you have a bad thought, cleansed. The moment you have a wrong intention, cleansed. You have a bad motive, cleansed.
And God wants you conscious of the blood of Jesus. Today, we don't offer a fresh sacrifice of Christ, because it's been offered once and for all, but we can constantly remember by partaking of the Communion. And thank God the blood keeps on cleansing us. Amen? Let me close with this. Back to David's story. David danced before the Lord. After the sacrifice, David danced all the way, before the Lord, all his might, and David was wearing a linen ephod. Don't forget, David was a king. What's a linen ephod? If you follow my teaching on the high priest garments, the linen ephod is where the stones are. The linen ephod, the long underneath, the colorful ephod underneath, way down, the first layers, of course, the white linen. After that is the linen ephod. That is the garb of a priest.
Now David is wearing that. He's a king. So now we see what? Photo album, photo album. King-priest, our Lord Jesus. All of you are what? Royal priesthood. You got it? Because you are a priest, you have intimacy with God. You have influence with God. Your friend can say, "Can you pray for me"? You say, "I can. I'm intimate with him". A priest does that. And because you are a royal priesthood, be careful now. Priests, you go to God, you get the answers. King, you're coming from God's presence, and you speak, "Be healed," and the person is healed. Are you listening? King-priest. Are you with me? So, David is dancing. So, David and all the house of Israel brought out the ark of the Lord with shouting and the sound of trumpet.
Now listen carefully. Just now I said praise and worship by itself is not the answer, because we've got praise and worship with no grace consciousness, no blood consciousness, okay? And you're doing it out of Uzzah, human strength. But here now it is done because of the sacrifice. David found the secret. Amen? And they are worshiping God. Now, this is true worship. It is borne out of a consciousness of grace. No Uzzah, no human strength. It's all Jesus. And how are they carrying him? How are they carrying the ark? On the priests's shoulders now. Amen. They are lifting Jesus high. True worship lifts Jesus high. Can I have a good amen? True worship always lifts Jesus high. And that's a reminder of the blood we do today in terms of Communion. All right? And we lift Jesus. That's true worship.
So, next verse, please? I'll finish somewhere around here. "Now the ark of the LORD came into the City of David. Michal, Saul's daughter," David's wife, first wife, "looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart". In other words, don't forget this woman is associated with David. She typified a certain kind of church. She's a daughter of Saul. David typifies what? Grace. He just offered the blood. He understand Uzzah means strength. Don't get involved in human strength. Trust the blood, trust grace. Lift Jesus high. And guess what? Another type of church, because it's a church. The church is always portrayed as a woman. She looked down. She's the bride of David and David's first wife, and she despised the king, why? Grace makes all of us equal, and she wants her husband to act himself like a king. Don't wear the linen ephod. Don't dance around like a crazy man.
Somebody say, "Praise the Lord". Some of you are so dignified, you are dead. So, David was dancing before the Lord. "So they brought the ark of the LORD, and set it in its place in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it. Then David offered," look at this, how radical, "burnt offerings and peace offerings again". Once they reached Jerusalem, they were praising God, dancing. All right? And the sad thing is only one person was unhappy about all this praise and worship, about God's grace, about lifting Jesus high. Her name was Michal, the wife of David, all right? Her name actually literally means, Michal literally means a little water. She's a Christian, but a legalistic Christian who despised those who rejoice over grace. "You all are just too happy". They grow old very fast.
Do you know what happened to Michal, jealousy? Drop down the last. "Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death". Whether David had no relations or she was struck barren, we do not know. But let me tell you a story in closing, a true story. About 1,000 years after this story happened, the true Son of David came to Jerusalem, riding on a donkey. Remember binding the donkey to the choice vine? He came riding. And the Bible says, "Here, Israel, your king, lowly and righteous," all right? And you know who rejoiced when he came? Would you believe it? The children. The Bible says some people, especially the children. That speaks to me of the emerging generation. It is this emerging generation, not this older generation. "Oh, you people are just too extreme".
You know, it's this emerging generation. They shouted, "Hosanna! Hosanna to the Son of David"! And the Pharisees heard it, and the Pharisees told Jesus, "You hear what the children say? Make them shut up". Jesus says, "If they shut up, the stones will cry out". I suspect the stones there may be a reference to the Ten Commandments. "The ones that you believe in will cry out against you, because the Lawgiver is here in grace". So, the Pharisees represents the type of Christians, church today that comes against grace. We both have the same heavenly Father, but not the same mother. Our mother is grace. Their mother is law. The Pharisees uphold the law. Even Jesus came, the Lawgiver, they cannot see. They cannot see the Son. They can only see the servant Moses, Moses, Moses. They can't see the Son. The Son of the house came. They're still on the servant, Moses, Moses. Are you listening, people?
Now watch this. This is Mark 11, okay? In the same chapter, after he rode into Jerusalem, in the same chapter, it says Jesus cursed the fig tree. He saw a fig tree, and it was having fig leaves, but no fruit. So, as an appearance of hypocrisy, Jesus cursed the fig tree. Now what is this a type of? The problem is that he has no fruits, but fig leaves. When is the first time you saw fig leaves in the Bible? Adam and Eve. After they sinned against God, they realized the glory, the glory left their body, and they were naked, all right? So, they covered their nakedness. They covered their sin with fig leaves, salad dressing. They covered themselves with fig leaves.
Now, fig leaves has no blood, and it's a picture of what? I can, by my own efforts, cover my sins. The Bible says, "Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins". Jesus's blood must be shed. All right? Then the Bible tells us God clothed them with skins of animals, which means God is the first person to kill animals, a type of Jesus's death, and God clothed Adam and Eve with coats of skin, blood everywhere, all over their body. Amen. God was the first one to kill animals, to cover men, because men's sin cannot be atoned by just a covering. Fig leaf religion teaches without the blood of Jesus you can, by your own efforts, cover your sins. God says, and why is it not enough? Because man provided for it. But God says, "Without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness". And why is it enough? God provided for it. And if God clothed you, you are clothed before God. Amen, church?
So, Jesus cursed, watch this now. I'll close with this. Jesus cursed the fig tree, and it was dried up from the roots, all right? Then he turned to his disciples, and he taught them about the faith of God, how the faith of God is released. If you want to say something and see it happen, Jesus says you must first curse the fig tree. He'd just demonstrated that. In other words, you must curse fig leaves. What is that? Self-righteousness. Unless, until you curse self-righteousness, your faith cannot work. Unless I heal... sorry, I heal. Uzzah, the brother. Unless Uzzah is out of your life, your faith cannot work, because man's effort and God's faith in you cannot coincide. You cannot amalgamate them two. All right? Unless you renounce self-righteousness. Stop trying to save yourself. Then God's faith is released in you. Are you listening?
Jesus cursed the fig tree because it had fig leaves, a picture of self-righteousness. All right? He didn't curse the nation. He didn't curse the people. Jesus says don't curse. Bless. But he cursed the fig tree. What must we curse in our life? Self-righteousness, and then the faith of God is released. Michal was barren like the fig tree at the end of the story, because she refused to renounce her flesh, her self-righteousness, and embrace grace, lift Jesus high, give up on Uzzah, man's strength. She refused and became barren until the day she died. I don't know about you. I don't want to be barren. I want to be blessed.
By the way, real quick, I want to show you, see what happened to the sons of Obed-Edom. The sons of Obed-Edom were Shemaiah the firstborn, Jehozabad the second, all the way down to Issachar the seventh. Verse 5, Peulthal the eighth, for God blessed him. All his sons were blessed. From Shemaiah the firstborn, they were sons born who governed their fathers's houses. They were men of great ability. Wow, verse 7. The son of Shemaiah, all his generation, his sons and his grandsons, they were all able men. Verse 8, all right, all these were the sons of Obed-Edom. They and their sons and their brethren able men with strength for the work. Wow! Wow! And all of them ended up in the temple. They moved house when the father says, "Boys, we are going where the ark is going". Amen.
Now I'm not saying you cannot move locations, okay, or go to another country. Make sure there's a great church there. That's your first priority, or you'll lose your children. Don't do that. There are more things in life more important than just making money. And all the people said amen.
Every head bowed, every eye closed all across this place. All right, church. Friends, if you are here, and you've never made this wonderful Jesus your Savior, 2,000 years ago he loved you long before you knew him. God so loved you, my friend. That little word "so" is intensity. God so loved you, he sent his Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for your sins. Jesus hung on the cross like crushed grapes, blood everywhere, red all over. That's what our sins brought him. And he was not there for his own. He was not there for himself. He was there for us.
So, my friend, when you see Jesus crushed on that cross, you know your sins have been punished. Your sins have been dealt with in righteousness and in judicial character of God. God has punished them. So, friends, today there's no more judgment left. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, amen. If you'll just say, "Father, I accept Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord," at that very moment God brings into your life everything that Jesus has done for you. If that is you, wherever you are watching this, pray this prayer right now in the privacy of your own home or wherever you may be. Pray this prayer with us right now. From your heart, say:
Heavenly Father, I believe you love me, and you sent your Son, Jesus Christ, to die for me on that cross. He was crushed, wounded for all my sins. His blood was shed, cleansing me from every sin. I am forgiven, totally, eternally. Thank you, Father. You raised Jesus from the dead, and Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, in Jesus's name. And all the people said amen, amen, amen. Praise the Lord, hallelujah, amen.