Friday, May 31, 2013

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, Joab led out the armed forces. He laid waste the land of the Ammonites and went to Rabbah and besieged it, but David remained in Jerusalem. Joab attacked Rabbah and left it in ruins. David took the crown from the head of their king—its weight was found to be a talent of gold, and it was set with precious stones—and it was placed on David’s head. He took a great quantity of plunder from the city and brought out the people who were there, consigning them to labor with saws and with iron picks and axes. David did this to all the Ammonite towns. Then David and his entire army returned to Jerusalem.

In the course of time, war broke out with the Philistines, at Gezer. At that time Sibbekai the Hushathite killed Sippai, one of the descendants of the Rephaites, and the Philistines were subjugated.

In another battle with the Philistines, Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver’s rod.

In still another battle, which took place at Gath, there was a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He also was descended from Rapha. When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of Shimea, David’s brother, killed him.

These were descendants of Rapha in Gath, and they fell at the hands of David and his men.

Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.”

But Joab replied, “May the Lord multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord’s subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”

The king’s word, however, overruled Joab; so Joab left and went throughout Israel and then came back to Jerusalem. Joab reported the number of the fighting men to David: In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who could handle a sword, including four hundred and seventy thousand in Judah.

But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, because the king’s command was repulsive to him. This command was also evil in the sight of God; so He punished Israel.

Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly by doing this. Now, I beg You, take away the guilt of Your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”

The Lord said to Gad, David’s seer, “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for Me to carry out against you.’”

So Gad went to David and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Take your choice: three years of famine, three months of being swept away before your enemies, with their swords overtaking you, or three days of the sword of the Lord—days of plague in the land, with the angel of the Lord ravaging every part of Israel.’ Now then, decide how I should answer the One who sent me.”

David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for His mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”

So the Lord sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead. And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was doing so, the Lord saw it and relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown.

David said to God, “Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted? I, the shepherd, have sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Lord my God, let Your hand fall on me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on Your people.”

1 Chronicles 20, 21:1-17

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we have followed David’s story, we have seen a young shepherd boy who had gained God’s favor be anointed and blessed as Israel’s king. Once he was king, we have seen how God protected David and delivered him through numerous times of peril. We have also read about many victories over nations that would choose to threaten Israel. Through those victories, David became more and more powerful, maybe too powerful for his own good.

For power sometimes has a way of going to someone’s head, resulting in sinful behavior, and as we see in our scripture for today, this is exactly what happened to David,

David’s success had been firmly grounded in his faithfulness and obedience to God. As David remained true to God, then God remained faithful to David and blessed all that he did because David did it in the name of the Lord and to His honor and glory.

But as we see Chapter 21 open, we find things changing. For we read where Satan influenced David to take a census of Israel so he could have an idea of just how many people he had, especially the number of fighting men at his disposal. Of interest here is that David didn’t ask God as to whether he should do this or not. There was no quality assurance check to make sure the calling wasn’t a deception. No, David felt in his own mind that taking a census was a good idea and, despite Joab’s objections, went ahead with his order.

Well, this didn’t set well with Joab who knew it was sinful and it definitely didn’t sit right with God. For why did David need to worry about how many people he had at his disposal when he had God on his side. Isn’t the Lord all that David really needed?

Isn’t that all any of us need for that matter?

Looking at our passage, we see how God reacted to David’s act of insolence For if David wanted to choose evil over righteousness, opting against being true to God, then God would not be true to him. Instead of truth, David, and Israel by association, would receive consequences in the form of punishment and no amount of remorse or regret by David would change God’s mind.

For God sent this message loud and clear through David’s seer Gad who brought the following word from God to the king:

 “This is what the Lord says: ‘Take your choice: three years of famine, three months of being swept away before your enemies, with their swords overtaking you, or three days of the sword of the Lord—days of plague in the land, with the angel of the Lord ravaging every part of Israel.’ Now then, decide how I should answer the One who sent me.”

Note that not one of these three options were easy. Each contained their share of difficulty and tribulation but David felt that falling into the hands of the Lord and His discipline would be better than falling into human hands, the hands of His enemies. In a way, I think David may have thought that if he fell into the arms of the Lord, then he and the people of Israel might find themselves pardoned because God is a God of mercy. But David and Israel both learned in a hurry that although God is a God of love and mercy and grace, He is also a God of punishment and judgment and wrath.  

For the Lord honored David’s choice by sending a plague on Israel, killing seventy thousand men, followed by an angel to destroy Jerusalem. Would the holy city be obliterated by the Lord? It almost happened but as the angel was carrying out God’s will, God relented and ordered the angel to stop and withdraw from Jerusalem. At that juncture, we are told that the “angel of the Lord” was “standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

As the angel withdrew, scripture tells us that “David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem”, a sight that led “David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown” in mourning and repentance. David lamented that others had to pay the price for his sin when he said to God:

“Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted? I, the shepherd, have sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Lord my God, let Your hand fall on me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on Your people.”

David’s word reveal that he is coming back around to the man and leader who had good standing with God, a man who was true to the Lord and obedient in seeking Him and carrying out His guidance. David took full accountability and asked for God’s wrath to be upon him and his family and not others. In his words, we find the anguish one can go through as they realize that their sin rarely only impacts just them. So often, many suffer for the transgression of just one person.

In David’s case, 70,000 men paid the price and lost their life, all because he angered God with his self-centered and self-focused order.

Friends, we need to pay close attention to this account and what happened to David through his relationship with God. If we live in a way where we seek to be true to God, then we can expect to find ourselves in God’s favor and He will be true to us. However, if we choose to rely on ourselves and get caught up in our power vice His, then we, like David, can expect to experience consequences, and those consequences will most probably impact more people that just us.

Truth or consequences.

Which will you choose?

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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