11/12/2010 8:33:30 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My
Worship Time Focus: A proud king
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: 2Sam. 24:1-9; 1Chron. 21:1-6
Message of the verses: “1 ¶
Now again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and it incited
David against them to say, "Go, number Israel and Judah." 2 The king said to Joab the commander of the
army who was with him, "Go about now through all the tribes of Israel,
from Dan to Beersheba, and register the people, that I may know the number of
the people." 3 But Joab said to the
king, "Now may the LORD your God add to the people a hundred times as many
as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see; but why does my lord
the king delight in this thing?" 4
Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the
commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from
the presence of the king to register the people of Israel. 5 They crossed the Jordan and camped in Aroer,
on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad and
toward Jazer. 6 Then they came to Gilead
and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi, and they came to Dan-jaan and around to
Sidon, 7 and came to the fortress of
Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites, and they went
out to the south of Judah, to Beersheba. 8
So when they had gone about through the whole land, they came to
Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9 And Joab gave the number of the registration
of the people to the king; and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand
valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand
men.”
“1
¶ Then Satan stood up against Israel and
moved David to number Israel. 2 So David
said to Joab and to the princes of the people, "Go, number Israel from
Beersheba even to Dan, and bring me word that I may know their number." 3 Joab said, "May the LORD add to His
people a hundred times as many as they are! But, my lord the king, are they not
all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord seek this thing? Why should he be a
cause of guilt to Israel?" 4
Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Therefore, Joab
departed and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem. 5 Joab gave the number of the census of all the
people to David. And all Israel were 1,100,000 men who drew the sword; and
Judah was 470,000 men who drew the sword. 6
But he did not number Levi and Benjamin among them, for the king’s
command was abhorrent to Joab.”
“David
the repentant sinner is the third main point from this chapter entitled
“David’s Memories and Mistakes,” and this section shows the humanness of David,
and also the consequences of being a leader and making a grave mistake like
David did in numbering the people of Israel and Judah.
I
wish to begin this section with a note from the MacArthur Study Bible: “Second Samuel 24:1 reports that ‘the anger
of the Lord burned against Israel,’ and this ‘incited’ David to take the
census. The apparent discrepancy is
resolved by understanding that God sovereignty and permissively uses Satan to
achieve His purposes. God uses Satan to
judge sinners (cf. Mk. 4:15; 2Co. 4:4), to refine saints (cf Job 1:8-2:10; Lk
22:31,32), to discipline those in the church (cf. 1Co 5:1-5; 1 Ti 1:20), and to
further purify obedient believers (cf. 2Co 12:7-10). Neither God nor Satan forced David to sin
(cf. Jas 1:13-15), but God allowed Satan to tempt David and he chose to
sin. The sin surfaced his proud heart
and God dealt with him for it.” Dr.
Wiersbe has some similar things to say about this issue, however I chose to use
this note from Dr. MacArthur’s study Bible.
Dr.
Wiersbe points out that Satan was very active in the OT times, but only on four
occasions is he mentioned by name as being the one tempting believers. The first occurred at the very beginning of
the Bible when Satan tempted Eve, and there is probably the most famous one in
the book of Job. Satan temps David her
and then in the book of Zechariah he temps Joshua the high priest. Hal Lindsey wrote a book in which the title
of the book sums all of this up: “Satan
is Alive and Well on Planet Earth.”
What
was the reason that David wanted to number the military age men in this census? There had to be a sinful motive to do this
otherwise it would not have spoken about Satan tempting David. There were legitimate reasons for having a
census as prescribed in the OT books of Exodus, and Numbers, and that reason
was to pay a tax in order to take care of the sanctuary of God. Jesus actually paid this tax even though that
system was corrupt at that time. “The
king wanted to magnify his own achievements rather than glorify the Lord.” Perhaps knowing that Solomon was a man of
peace David wanted to make sure that there were enough troops to take care of
any trouble, but if this is what he was thinking then this too was wrong for it
was God who would protect Israel.
I
must mention that Joab saw through this whole thing and argued with David about
this, but in the end he had to follow his leader even though he was wrong. This must have been pretty bad if a man like
Joab disagreed with it.
Dr.
Wiersbe writes “Sometimes God’s greatest judgment is simply to let us have our
own way. He also points out that the
census was never completed and there are two different numbers given in the
books of 2Samuel, and 1 Chronicles. The
reason may be on how the men were described as whether or not they were experienced
fighting men or not, at any rate the whole thing was sinful and should not have
been done by David.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: The reason that I like to study the life of
David is because it is recorded of him that he was a man after God’s own heart
and therefore I want to study his life so that I can understand why this is
true so that I can do similar things in order to also be a man after God’s own
heart. One of the problems for me, and I
suppose others is that we look at these two sinful acts that David committed
and think that factors into this statement about David. I think that the way that they factor in is
how David reacts after doing these sinful acts, how he does not try to cover
them up, but repents and realizes that he has sinned against the Lord. I believe that this is one of the reasons
that this statement about David is true and I want to learn from this.
My
Steps of Faith for Today:
1.
Keep a short list with the Lord as seen in a
Psalm of David: 139:23-24, “23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me,
and know my thoughts: 24 And see if
there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
2.
Put on the Spiritual Armor.
3.
Give myself to the Lord for worship and service.
11/12/2010 10:06:57 AM
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