1 Chronicles 17:2 And Nathan said to David, “Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you.”

Perhaps King David was not concerned with the security of the Ark. The scriptures do not tell us with any certainty what his thinking was at the time. Perhaps security was my concern and I am just projecting my own personal insecurity into the scriptures. What other issues might have been at play here.

I can see something in this opening verse that speaks to how a prophet needs to be careful in how he chooses his words. That verse can be read, “Do whatever you want. God will approve.”

Obviously not because the very next thing said to Nathan was that David was not to build a temple. David went ahead with his plan anyway and made preparations for Solomon to build the temple.

We will never know what would have happened if Nathan had rephrased his speech and said, “God is with you, ask Him what he wants.” Rather than keeping to our hearts desires, maybe it would be best to ask God what He wants.

Now we are getting into murky territory and just providing our own opinions, insecurities and wants in place of what might really have been going on in David’s heart.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Too bad that verse wasn’t available to David at the time, but he knew his heart needed testing.

Psalm 26:2 Prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my heart and my mind.

Those were David’s own words. Perhaps what David wanted wasn’t evil, just unnecessary. Perhaps it was something he didn’t quite understand about the significance of the Ark.

Exodus 25 English Standard Version

17 “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. 21 And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. 22 There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.

Without a proper understanding of the mercy seat, perhaps David felt like God would not speak to his people Israel if they did not have this artifact. Is it possible David allowed the Ark to become a worship idol? Men’s hearts do that, don’t they? Or am I once again projecting my own troubled thoughts? We do that, don’t we? The Word has a way of exposing us.

1 Chronicles 17:1 Now when David lived in his house, David said to Nathan the prophet, “Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.”

Why did it bother King David that the Ark was in the tabernacle tent?

1 Samuel 4:10-11 English Standard Version

10 So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home. And there was a very great slaughter, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell. 11 And the ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

Is it because the Ark was stolen? Did David feel like a tent did not offer up adequate protection for the Ark?

1 Samuel 5 English Standard Version

The Philistines and the Ark

2 Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. 3 And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. 4 But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. 

6 The hand of the Lord was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory. 7 And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is hard against us and against Dagon our god.” 8 So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” They answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath.” So they brought the ark of the God of Israel there. 9 But after they had brought it around, the hand of the Lord was against the city, causing a very great panic, and he afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them.

11 They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people.” For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there. 12 The men who did not die were struck with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

Obviously God did not need KIng David to protect the Ark. But why didn’t the Ark protect Israel?

1 Samuel 7:3 And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”