Scripture: 2 Samuel 24:1-4,10-17
A couple years ago, the federal government put the complete, handwritten records of the 1950 census online… in a searchable database. So you can search the census records for family and friends who were alive back then. I found the record, for instance, of all the people living in the house of my grandma—my mom’s mother—back in 1950. They lived not far from Gainesville, in the Chestatee area of Forsyth County.
Anyway, in 1950, according to these handwritten records, my grandma, Pauletta Hubbard—or “Pauletty,” as everyone in the family pronounced it—was living with my grandfather, George—a farmer, as the record indicates. My grandfather died 15 years before I was born, so I never had the pleasure of knowing him. Also… another person I never met—my mom’s grandmother, Katherine—was living in the house with them. She was 70 at the time, according to the record. My Aunt Maxine, age 14, was still living at home, and so was my Uncle Harold, age 4.
So I’m reminded that by 1950 my mom—the oldest of the three kids—had already moved to Atlanta, where she worked for years as a telephone operator for Southern Bell. She met my dad in Atlanta in the mid-’50s.
But what I love about this handwritten document is that the census taker—someone named Virginia Williams—wrote down the information on this form, on April 10, 1950, while standing on my grandparents’ front porch. I can imagine my grandma talking to her. Maybe she was holding Uncle Harold in her arms as she did so.
I think that’s kinda cool… especially since everyone mentioned in that document, even my Aunt Maxine and Uncle Harold, are long dead—and what I wouldn’t give to go back in time and see them!
So this census seems like a perfectly good thing to me! And of course, most of us don’t have a problem with the government taking a census every ten years, even if it’s a little inconvenient or intrusive.
In today’s scripture, by contrast, it’s clear that God has a problem—not with censuses in general, for which there are rules in the Law of Moses—but God clearly has a problem with this census in particular… the one that David calls for in today’s scripture… It is a serious sin on David’s part…
Only we’re not told why. And this bothers us! We worry, for instance, that God isn’t being quite fair to David or to Israel… We really, really want to know why… Why was this census so wrong?
And today’s sermon is all about this “why” question. And the first and most important thing I need to say is, ultimately, when it comes to obeying God, the “why” doesn’t really matter. That’s the first point. Then, I want to talk about two possible reasons why God doesn’t want David to take this census: pride, which is Point Number Two, and fear, which is Point Number Three.
But Point Number One… Can any of you parents or grandparents relate to this observation from Heath Thomas and J.D. Greear? They write:
When one of our [young] children grabs a fork and reaches to place it into the tiny slits in the wall that seem perfectly suited for that fork, how do we respond? We say, “Don’t do that. Forks don’t go into the electric socket.” When the reply inevitably comes, “But why, Dad?” how often do we go into specifics? “Well, son, you see, at the subatomic level, there are tiny particles called electrons jumping between orbits. This creates what is called an ‘alternating current’ that travels through the wires in the wall. And if that current enters your body, it disrupts your central nervous system, burning your skin and possibly stopping your heart.”
Go ahead and try that on a two-year-old and see if it does the trick…
The authors’ point is, children are often way too young and immature to understand why… And if that’s true for children in their relationship to their parents, how much more true will it be in our relationship with God our Father! As these commentators point out, “The gap between a toddler’s knowledge and ours… pales in comparison to the gap between our knowledge and God’s. Far too many of us have deceived ourselves into thinking that God is only a slightly stronger, slightly wiser version of us. He is not.” 1
And that’s the understatement of a lifetime. For instance, the prophet Isaiah says, in Isaiah 40:26,
Look up into the heavens.
Who created all the stars?
He brings them out like an army, one after another,
calling each by its name.
Because of his great power and incomparable strength,
not a single one is missing. 2
When Isaiah wrote these words in ancient Israel, he would have seen approximately 5,000 stars in the night sky. That itself is a lot of stars. But astronomers now estimate that there are more than 400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, and that there are 125 billion galaxies in the universe. That means that the total number of stars is estimated at 1 x 1022, or 10 billion trillions of stars. [enf_note] ESV Study Bible, Personal Size (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008), 1311. [/efn_note]
So what does Isaiah mean when he says that our God has named each one of these stars, that he keeps track of each one, that he ensures that each one obeys the physical laws that he’s created?
He means that in relation to God, we simply don’t know very much!
If God is infinitely more powerful than we are, and infinitely more knowledgeable than we are, and infinitely wiser than we are, then it makes sense that what God wants from us… what God asks of us… what God demands of us… won’t always make sense to us.
Or, to put it another way… It wouldn’t make sense if God always made sense to us.
And here I’m not only or even mostly talking about what God says in his Word, the Bible… Maybe most of us read it and don’t ask the question “why”?
But I’m thinking more about last week’s sermon, for example, when Mordecai tells Esther, “Who knows if God didn’t put you in this position—making you queen of Persia—for such a time as this… so that you would be in a position to save your people?” 3
“For such a time as this…” It’s the same with us who have been adopted into God’s family through our faith in Christ… God has no less of a plan for our lives than he had for Esther or Mordecai! And yet, we don’t always or often have the luxury of knowing precisely what that plan is, or what it should look like. And we often struggle… Maybe we’re struggling in our career right now… Why, God? Maybe we’re struggling in our marriages, or in our families… Why, God? Maybe we’re struggling with a romantic relationship that’s on the rock… Why, God? Maybe we’re struggling with our health… Maybe we’re struggling with financial setbacks… Maybe we’re struggling with unemployment… Why, God?
We just can’t often know why God’s plan for our lives includes this particular obstacle, or setback, or U-Turn, or unexpected fork in the road… Much of the time we just don’t know. And it doesn’t make sense to us.
Meanwhile—here’s some good news—there are some things we can know for sure… some rock-solid promises from God’s Word… which apply to each one of us who has been born again through faith in Christ:
There is now therefore no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus.4 All of our sins—past, present, and future—are “nailed to the cross” with Christ; they are now completely forgiven, wiped out, gone…5 God’s Word says that God doesn’t even remember our sins anymore! 6
God has bought you and me with an infinite price—the precious blood of his Son Jesus.7 We are adopted into God’s family, as God’s precious and highly favored sons and daughters, and we call God, “Abba, Father,” just like Jesus did.8
The Lord is now on our side—so we have no need to fear.9 He is always for us—and if God is for us, who can be against us? No one and nothing! 10
God now loves us as much has he loves his only begotten Son Jesus.11 God shows us his favor constantly. 12
God is now working out everything in our lives for our ultimate good. God is transforming all of the bad stuff in our lives, all of the evil stuff that the devil throws our way, into something that will be good for us. 13 It’s as if God has engineered the universe so that everything will ultimately work out in our favor. 14
God knows the plans he has for us, “plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future.”15 “No weapon that is formed against us will succeed; And [God] will condemn every tongue that accuses us in judgment.” 16
We are the apple of God’s eye;17 We are beautiful to him; we have captured his heart; and his banner over us is love. God now treasures us!18 God loves us with a love from which literally nothing in this world, nothing outside of this world, can ever separate us! 19
Lord, may we have the “strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that [we] may be filled with all the fullness of God.”20
Can we comprehend how much we’re loved by our heavenly Father… how precious we are to our heavenly Father? And if all that’s true—and if we could only believe it—then maybe that will help us when times are tough… when God’s plan for our lives at this moment simply isn’t making sense to us.
I read a book by a very successful pastor, who started a small church that later grew into a “megachurch,” and along with that growth came its share of “mega”-sized problems… This pastor keeps a sign on his desk with this prayer on it: “Lord, this was not my idea. You got me into this. I’m trusting you to see me through it.”21
On a smaller scale—even for those of us whose vocations from God haven’t yet included “mega”-sized success, as the world defines it—maybe we can all pray something a little bit like that! “Lord, this was not my idea. You got me into this. This is your plan, not mine. You’re in charge here, not me. I’m trusting you to see me through it.”
The key word is trust. Even when we don’t know why. Even when it doesn’t make sense.
And that’s Point Number One: When it comes to obeying God, the “why” doesn’t ultimately matter. What matters is trust.
Point Number Two: In spite of this fact, we can still discern a couple of reasons why David should not have called for this census… Let’s talk about the first reason… Pride.
First, we know for sure what the purpose of this census was. We see this purpose in verse 9:
And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to the king: in Israel there were 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were 500,000.
Ahh… “Valiant men who drew the sword…”The purpose of the census was to determine exactly how large David’s army is—or at least how large it could be if these men were called upon to fight.
Okay, but that just seems like a prudent measure… Israel is surrounded by enemies on all sides. So why is that a problem?
Well, here’s another clue in verse 3, after David orders Joab to find out how many fighting men are in Israel. Joab says, “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 it, but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?”
Notice that word “delight”…
This same David, after all, once wrote in Psalm 40:8, “I delight to do your will, O my God.” Here, however, it’s clear that David isn’t finding his delight in doing God’s will; he’s finding “delight” in something else: He’s finding delight in the size of his kingdom… and in the size of his army. Which means he’s finding delight not in God or his power, but in his own power: “With an army this size,” he thinks, “look what I can do! Look how great I am! Look how favorably I compare to these other kings!”
And can we sense what the problem is with that?
Of course… It’s pride. Pride is what happens whenever we treasure something or someone more than we treasure Christ.
If, by contrast, we find our treasure in God alone—if we treasure Christ above all—we simply don’t need any other worldly treasure—including an army of 1.3 million soldiers. We find that Christ satisfies our heart’s deepest longings. We find lasting happiness and joy in Christ alone.
Pride stands in the way of the kind of deep and lasting happiness that God longs to give us! And it is a serious sin…
And that’s Point Number Two: God opposes this census because of the sin of pride…
Point Number Three: Pride wasn’t the only problem with this census…
When David called for this census, he was also operating from a place of fear… David wanted to know how large his army was in part because he was surrounded by enemies on all sides—and he was scared that he didn’t have enough of what he needed to protect himself and his kingdom.
So what would alleviate his fear if not counting eligible men and seeing how large his army might be?
And again, we may wonder, what’s wrong with that?
What’s wrong with it is, David doesn’t need a mighty army to win a victory over any enemy; he only needs a mighty God!
David should know this already!
He should know, for instance, the story of Gideon in the Book of Judges. God called Gideon to lead an army in victory over the Midianites. Gideon mustered an army of 32,000 soldiers. Is that large enough? It didn’t matter… the problem wasn’t that Gideon’s army wasn’t big enough, the problem was that it was too big! In Judges chapter 7, God had Gideon deliberately reduce the Israelite army down from 32,000 men strong to only three hundred men, and with that tiny army, Gideon led them to defeat the mighty Midianite army of tens of thousands.
Why did God do this? God tells us in Judges 7:2: So that when Israel won the victory, they wouldn’t be tempted to say, “We did this by our own strength, by our own mighty hand.” 22
Instead, when Israel won the victory, God wanted the Israelites to know—and God wanted the world to know—that God alone gave Israel the victory.
David should have known that!
And by way, wasn’t David that scrawny little kid that defeated the mighty Goliath with only one small stone?
David should have known that it isn’t about human strength, and human size, and human ingenuity.
In fact, David should have known those two powerful words: “But God… [dot, dot, dot]… That’s our church’s vision statement for this year… By all means, David’s army may be small… but God!
David doesn’t need more soldiers… He needs more of God! He needs to know that God is enough for him!
As the apostle Paul says in Philippians 4:19, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
By the way, listen to what this same Paul wrote about himself—in the same chapter of that same letter. He wrote it just after thanking the church at Philippi for sending him a financial gift to help sustain him while he was in prison. Paul writes, “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.” Pay attention to that word: content. He goes on, “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.”
And then he writes some of the most beloved and famous words in all of scripture: “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”23
“I can do all things.” In this context, of course, Paul doesn’t mean he can suddenly bend the bars of the jail cell like the Incredible Hulk, or that he can grow wings and fly away to freedom. No, when he says he can “do all things” he means that he can handle anything that comes his way—and still be content. When you are content, that means, among many other things, that you are not afraid… or I should say, even if you feel that temporary emotion of fear, which is natural, you don’t let that fear control you… You don’t give in to it… you’re not overcome by it.
Paul says he’s learned the secret of contentment. I want to know that same secret! How about you?
By the way, in Philippians 4:12, when Paul says, “I have learned the secret” of contentment, I take that to mean that he learned it the same way we all learn difficult things—very slowly… over time. And God just keeps on testing us until we finally do learn it. I think this is what verse 1 of today’s scripture has in mind when it says that God “incited” David to do what he does. God doesn’t cause David to do what he does; but God is testing David, just as God tests us, and God is disciplining David when he fails, just as God does for us today. As the author of Hebrews tells us,
For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way. 24
There’s a theologian I admire named Clay Jones. I’m Facebook friends with him. I read one of his books years ago, called Why Does God Allow Evil? In the book, he describes an episode in his own life many years ago during which he thought he was literally dying. He went to the hospital. The diagnosis was grim: The doctor told him the tests came back, and he had some rare, untreatable, inoperable form of cancer. He was dying, as far as he knew.
And then, while he and his wife were still at the hospital, he described what happened next… something that amazed me.
He said that he and his wife, upon receiving this grim diagnosis, immediately went to hospital chapel, they got on their knees—not even to pray for a healing miracle—but they got on their knees to thank God and to praise God… even in the wake of what should have been the most devastating news they could possibly hear!
Why were they doing this? I didn’t even understand why when I read it in the book. And since I was a Facebook friend, I reached out to him in a private message and asked him about that episode from the book.
He said that he and his wife knew, upon receiving what the world says is the “worst news imaginable”… they knew that, actually, because of the strength that Christ was giving them in that moment, they knew they were going to be okay… and they were going to be okay whether Dr. Jones lived or died.
As it turns out, the diagnosis was wrong… Dr. Jones ended up living, which is why he was able to write that message to me…
But even if he died… when he and his wife were on their knees in that hospital chapel… even if he died… it was clear that that cancer was not going to defeat him… or defeat his wife. Because he and his wife were “more than conquerors” through Christ who loved them.25 Because if God is for them, who or what could be against them? Because they can do “all things through Christ who gives them strength.”
They can do all things… including standing up to this frightening bully called cancer… without giving in to fear… And they can stand up to any other enemy that comes their way. Because they are more than conquerors! Because when they are weak, they are strong because Christ is their strength. Because they can do all things through Christ! They had learned that…
They had learned the secret of contentment… And they were on their knees in that chapel thanking God for giving them that gift!
Which reminds me of something that we saw after my mother-in-law, Anna Lee, died last year. My in-laws lived in a retirement community in Stone Mountain—Orlando is still there of course… And when a resident dies, some completely well-intentioned employee at the retirement community puts a notice in the elevator of the apartment building announcing the sad news to everyone.
And the notice for Anna Lee said, “We are sad to report that Anna Lee Blancato lost her battle with Parkinson’s this week…” I was with Lisa in the elevator reading this notice. Lisa smiled and said, “Anna Lee lost nothing. She gained everything.” And that’s exactly right!
So, Toccoa First Methodist Church, what do we have to be afraid of?
- Heath Thomas and J.D. Greear, Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in 1 & 2 Samuel (Nashville: Holman, 2016), 258-9.
- Isaiah 40:26 NLT
- Paraphrase of Esther 4:14
- Romans 8:1
- Colossians 2:14
- Jeremiah 31:34; Hebrews 10:17
- 1 Corinthians 6:20
- Romans 8:15
- Psalm 118:6
- Romans 8:31
- John 17:23,26
- Luke 2:14
- Genesis 50:20; Romans 8:28
- 1 Corinthians 3:21-23
- Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
- Isaiah 54:17 NIV
- Psalm 17:8
- Song of Solomon 4:1,9;2:4
- Romans 8:38-39
- Ephesians 3:18-19 ESV
- Andy Stanley, Deep and Wide (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), 48.
- Paraphrase of Judges 7:2
- Philippians 4:11-13 ESV
- Hebrews 12:10-11 NLT
- Romans 8:37