“The road to Hell is paved with good intentions,” claims an old adage. I have recently come to the conclusion that this is very true. I have people in my life, as I’m sure most of us do, who “just want to help!” (If you’ve ever let a little kid “help” with anything around the house, you’ll know what I mean when I say that some help is actually super unhelpful!) These “helpful” people desperately want to give advice or take over a situation no matter how little the recipient wants that. They might say unkind things or treat you in unkind ways “for your own good.” These people long to help, and I really do think that they mean well, but even when confronted about their behavior and the unintended consequences of it (often the hurt that it’s caused), these busy helpers refuse to believe that their actions did any real harm, sometimes excusing themselves with, “it’s the thought that counts,” or even becoming offended and reassuring themselves that despite the utter ingratitude they’ve experienced, they did their duty by trying (all the while thinking to themselves that if those silly people had just gotten out of their own way, their sage advice would have saved the day in the end).
The problem of the unhelpful helper is prevalent in the Bible. In a previous blog I mentioned Eve, who I believe thought she could help God out by eating the forbidden fruit. There are several other great examples of people who had a misplaced desire to help. King Saul thought that he would help Samuel, who was running a little late. Samuel was supposed to show up on a certain day to help Saul ask God’s blessing over a war the Israelites were losing. When Samuel wasn’t on time, the troops started deserting. Saul went ahead and made the burnt offering, feeling that someone had to ask God’s blessing, and since Samuel wasn’t there, he should step up and do it (1 Samuel 13). That doesn’t sound like a bad motivation, does it? “Someone has to do it, so I guess I may as well…” Isn’t that what David did when he stepped up to Goliath?
Speaking of David, in 2 Samuel 6, King David had decided to bring the ark of the Lord to Jerusalem with 30,000 of his men. On the way, the cart carrying the ark jolted because one of the oxen driving it stumbled. Maybe it hit a pothole or something. Uzzah pulled a mom-in-the-car and reached out to protect the ark from possibly falling out. Now, everyone back then knew that you never, EVER touched the ark except on its poles. In that moment, though, Uzzah felt as if God needed his protection. And he died.
There are other examples of people trying (and failing) to help in the Bible, but the examples of Saul and Uzzah are a great starting place. Saul’s big issue was that he didn’t trust God. Like David, Saul saw a need and filled it. Unlike David, who killed Goliath out of love for God and faith in Him, Saul took Samuel’s place at the altar out of fear. I don’t know if he even really believed that God would save the day or if he just thought that going through the motions of sacrificing to God would calm his troops’ fears. I do know that the Lord looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7), so even though outwardly David and Saul seemed to be doing basically the same thing, something must have been lacking in Saul’s motivation. As for Uzzah, he disobeyed God. End of story. As annoying as this expression is, we need to obey God because He said so. We don’t always have to know why. Uzzah didn’t get that, and it cost him his life. All the good intentions in the world can’t change disobedience into anything but sin.
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