Among the Numbered

  

Ever wonder why it was such a serious sin that David took a census of the people of Israel to see how many fighting men he had?  Even Joab knew it was a sin and warned him not to do it.  Because he knew it was a sin, he skipped over entire groups of people and did a half-hearted job because he was so distressed about it.    

 

The Lord tells Moses in Exodus 30:12-16, “When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them.  Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this:  half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the Lord.  Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the Lord’s offering.  The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than the half-shekel when you give the Lord’s offering to make atonement for your lives.  You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the Lord, so as to make atonement for your lives.”

 

Atonement is to cover over sin.  Everyone had to pay the same and everyone had to choose to pay their own census tax.  It was an amount of value but not significant enough that somebody could not pay it.  As we see further on in the New Testament, this practice was followed annually.  When Jesus was asked if He paid the tax like everyone else, He noted that the children would not pay the tax but as not to offend, he paid it for himself and for Peter.  He did not pay it to fulfill the law as it was a shadow of Him as the atonement.  

 

David, knowing this background, took a census not for the purpose of atonement but to note his own greatness as he was tempted by Satin.  As a result, the Lord sent a prophet to confront him and choose his punishment from three different afflictions.  David chose a plague as He knew the Lord was merciful. 

 

David had made a shift in his heart from the Kingdom of God being central to himself being central.  Instead of serving the Lord and seeking His glory, he began to seek his own glory, status and greatness.   This shift caused him to stumble significantly.  

 

Looking to Chronicles for when David took a census in 1 Chronicles 21, just before this in 1 Chronicles 20, David had stayed behind in the battle at Rabbah.  As a result, we know that David had an affair with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11-12); she became pregnant, and David killed her spouse.

 

David was having a significant mid-life crisis.  He had been successful at war time and time again.  He had grown in stature and following.   He was at the peak of his career and was succeeding at everything.

 

In this position of success, David became conceited and lacked the same dependence upon the Lord that had put him in the position of success. His heart was hard as a result.  He was not even consulting the Lord about going into battle and then leading the way.  He was doing what he thought was right in his own eyes.

 

Elihum proclaims the majesty of God in Job 37 with this beautiful discourse and proclamation to Job about the incredible splendor of God but then ends it with this final statement, “He does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.” (Job 37:24)

 

David was no longer following the Spirit of the Lord but his own rational mind.   Perhaps the Spirit of God had departed from him in the time of sin with Bathsheba as his heart became hard. 

 

What seemed to shift David back was losing his son as a result of his sin and the plague that he knew was his fault. He built an altar at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, a Canaanite who lived in Jerusalem, potentially a king, who first saw the angel and offered the land to David as a gift for building an altar to the Lord to stop the plague. 

 

We see in this that even though David had sinned greatly by having an affair, murdering a man, and then taking a census of the people for his own glory, it did not close the door for him with God or for fulfilling his purpose in life. The place where he stopped the plague he caused by building an altar to the Lord was where the temple was built. 

 

David’s son, Solomon, received instructions and funding from David to build the temple where people would seek the Lord and the priests would make atonement for the people’s sin from then on.  The very location where the plague that resulted from taking a census and not making atonement would become the place of atonement and where the temple tax would be invested from then on.

 

So in this story of great sin, seeking glory, and betrayal, we see repentance and incredible restoration.  This is totally opposite of what we saw with Saul. Samuel told him the kingdom would be torn from him when he compromised. The sin was hardly as great as he went to battle as instructed but then kept rather than destroyed the bounty. 

 

From there we see Saul slide down this slippery slope of greater and greater sin in trying to hold onto his kingdom rule.  It leads him to jealousy, rage, and, ultimately, murder of the priests as he also sought to murder David.

 

So what was so different about David and Saul?  How is it that David never lost his position and was fully restored while Saul’s sin led to his ultimate demise and loss of the kingdom rule? 

 

There are a few differences that stand out between David and Saul.

 

Repentance: David repented and turned back to the Lord.  Ultimately, David’s heart's desire was to serve the Lord over being king.   Saul seemed to have his primary focus on being king over serving the Lord.  Being king had become of primary importance to Saul at the expense of his relationship with the Lord.

 

Care for People:  We see David making atonement for the people at different points.  This passion rose up in him to protect and care for the people.  Their destruction grieved David greatly.  While Saul saw the people as a means to an end.  They were pawns that he expected to show loyalty to him, but he had little care for them.  Saul would have even murdered his own son, Jonathan, on more than one occasion. 

 

Kingdom Perspective: David saw the world with eyes of faith.  He was far from a realist.  When there was a giant, he considered their standing with God to determine their status.   He was not shaken by the size of the giant he faced.  Saul was a realist.  He continually came back to looking at things from the perspective of the world.  To gain possessions and worldly power made him more prominent.  He failed to get over allowing his circumstances to define his destiny.  It led him into many poor choices that could have been avoided if he could of seen reality from God’s perspective.  Success is a life well lived in the Lord’s presence and in obedience to Him and not power, positions, possessions and prominence.

 

Where do we allow our circumstances to define reality and our destiny?  Where do we fail to see that what matters is what God says about it and not what it appears?  Where are we afraid to enter the battle we are called to?   Often this is a battle of the mind, overcoming fears, doubts, and disbelief.  Looking at the Promised Land, an entire generation of Israelites failed to enter in because they doubted their abilities in the light of circumstances versus believing God to overcome them. 

 

Entering your destiny involves faith. I know for me, I really struggled with belief around being an author.  I felt God speak it to me and even had a word from my first pastor, who was a prophet, that I was a writer. God would give me a name of a book and I would write it down but that is as far as I got with it.   I had the name of two books.  Then one week, sitting in service, there was a message on faith for the little things day-to-day.  I felt the nudge to keep a discipline of writing but focus more around my book titles.  Then the next week, God spoke to me clearly in a message about big faith.  The pastor said that obedience, doing what God said, is what pleases God and went on to say, “So, if God told you to write a book, you write the book because that is what most pleases Him.”  Because of this clear conviction, I had both those books wrote within six months. The entire time, I heard voices ask me who was I to write a book.  Now, after book five, I no longer hear those voices. I give them no place.

 

Humility:  While David took the census in a spell of arrogance, he came back to this place of humility and dependence upon the Lord.   In building an altar and offering sacrifices for the people, he came back to this place of the fear of the Lord, obedience, and humility.  Saul, on the other hand, never humbled himself when he grew arrogant due to his success.  He became envious of David and was not at all grateful for the position he was given by the Lord. 

 

Samuel steps in, and Saul pursues David, and the Spirit of the Lord comes upon Saul to the point he strips himself of his kingly garb and lays naked, prophesying all day and night. Yet, this powerful encounter with the Lord did not change Saul’s heart or mind.  Why is this? In an earlier text in 1 Samuel, we see that it was that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul, transforming him into a different person, that prepared him to be king.  Yet this time, he resisted, failed to repent, and kept pursuing David, the very person who was key in Saul fulfilling his purpose. 

 

If David had been with Saul in the battle with the Philistines, Saul, and his sons would have never died.   So, in this way, it was Saul who cut off his own purpose, not the Lord removing it from him and handing it to David as Saul had thought would happen. 

 

Ever notice that a person’s lack of character, ego, envy, jealousy, competitiveness, and/or discord in someone’s life often cuts off them from coming higher in their purpose?  It is only in putting these things to death that people can rise higher.

 

If someone plays dirty to get ahead and steps on others along the way, those people who were stepped on by them will usually not support them if they do advance. Rather, they will most often sabotage their success or walk away altogether, causing an exodus of competent people underneath them.    

 

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan. (Proverbs 29:2)

 

It is much easier to see this self-sabotage at work in others’ lives than it is to see it at work in our own lives.  Our weaknesses that keep us from going higher are often blind spots for us.  This is because it is never meant to be about going higher but growing in dependence upon the Lord. 

 

Dependence:  David mainly operated out of dependence upon the Lord, whereas Saul lacked this dependence once he was established. When we seek the Lord first, He aligns our lives to fulfill our purpose.  Even if we stumble and fall, He will pick us up and help us get back on course.  If we are missing something important in a blind spot, He will often give us a dream or speak to us about it in Scripture.   He enlightens us and shows us the path forward.

 

Lord, let us be among those numbered as wholly Yours.  Please help us to grow in repentance, care for people, humility and dependence.   Let us have pliable hearts that trust and follow You.  Help us to see and steer us away from doing things in our own strength, by our own means.