“Who is able to stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God?” they cried out. “Where can we send the Ark from here?” 1 Samuel 6:20 NLT
The events preceding this cry are important to understanding it. Briefly, the Israelites had tried to use the covenant box (“Ark” in 1611 English) as a rabbit’s foot, a magic talisman, to defeat their enemies, the Philistines. Obviously, Yahweh would have none of that, and he let the Philistines capture the box. However, he is God, and the Philistine idols fell down before the box, and the Philistine people had lots of troubles too, which their magicians told them was because of the box.
So, the Philistines sent the box back to Israel. The Israelite people were excited by this and a bunch of them, probably having heard of this box all their lives, but never having actually seen it it, gathered around, and again probably having heard that the actual tablets of the covenant were inside it, decided to take a look. Bad move. Remember Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu (Lev 10) or the Christian couple, Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5). Hey, what’s the big deal? It’s just God. It’s a bit like picking up a live electric wire. It’s just a piece of wire. Seventy people died.
Now, here’s the important point. God is not a short-tempered monster who all the time is looking to kill people who cross him. If he were, all of us would be dead. No, in select cases like these an example is made of people in order to try to get the point across. What is the point? Exactly the one these folk got. Unlike all the other gods who pretend to be other, this God is OTHER. He alone deserves the adjective “holy.” (“Other” is what the word “holy” means.) He is not to be identified with anything in Creation, nor is he to be treated as something common or ordinary, which is what these folks were doing. But he wants to live with us! That doesn’t mean that we drag him down to our level. It means that he wants to lift us up to his level. He wants to make us into people who can hold a live electric wire and live! Will you let him?
Called To Be Transformed 