Count on God!

Posted Mar 18, 03:00 PM by Kay Camenisch

While having my quiet time a couple of mornings ago, I ran into a terrible Scripture passage. (I know it sounds horrible to say such about the Word of God, because the Word is good and true. What I read was terrible in its implications in my life, not in its truth.) I’ve read and heard it before, but it was not so terrible those times as now, probably because I didn’t hear it as clearly or deeply.

“Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel” (1 Chron. 21:1) David commanded Joab to do the counting, and the job was abhorrent to Joab because he knew it was wrong. He was right. The Lord was displeased with David. God gave David the option of choosing his punishment. He had three choices: 1) three years of famine, 2) three months of being routed by the enemy, or 3) three days of vengeance from God.

David chose vengeance from God, “Please let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are very great. But do not let me fall into the hand of man” (v. 13).

David’s sin of counting his men was so great that “the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel: 70,000 men of Israel fell” (v. 14). Seventy thousand men—in three days! Those are pretty heavy consequences.

Help me if I’m wrong, but the only reason I can see that numbering the people was a sin was that David was taking account of his power or of his accomplishments. I say “power” because he numbered “men who drew the sword” (v. 5). I say he was looking at his “accomplishment” because he was taking count after a victory over the Philistine giants, a victory which could have reminded him of his first defeat over Goliath and of how far he had come since then. There is no indication he was taking stock to see if he was strong enough to take on a foe, so it seems he may have been just measuring his greatness.

I say “terrible” Scripture because of my own shortcomings. It’s so easy to forget that the Lord is my strength. So easy to move forward or hold back based on my own abilities, rather than trusting in God and looking to Him for guidance. And then so natural to look back at all that I have accomplished, rather than giving God the glory and honor due Him. Now I must call my shortcoming sin—sin worthy of terrible consequences.

What I call a weakness is really a sin so abhorrent that it led to the deaths 70,000 Israelites! God had mercy and stopped the death angel in the midst of his destruction or there would have been more. That feels like terrible news.

In my weakness, God’s strength is made known. On the other hand, in my sin, I take the glory and God is left out of the picture. God is God, and He doesn’t like being overlooked when He has done great things for us—and He has done great things. All good things come from Him. In everything we are dependent on Him.

He is also merciful. He has not visited consequences on me like He did on Israel. I am grateful for His mercy. In fact, I’m impacted by His mercy, but I’m also impacted by my tendency to sin and by how deserving I am of terrible consequences.

The scary thing is that I don’t know how to change. My very inclination is to sin by looking to my own strengths and accomplishments.

Once again, I’m totally dependent on God for His goodness and His mercy—His goodness to change my heart, and His mercy to be new every morning.

But that’s exactly where He wants us, isn’t it? —Counting on Him instead of ourselves!