There are times in every believer’s life that God will lead us to say or do something that doesn’t make sense to us at the time.  We might follow His lead but put our own twist on the command of God.  God’s Holy Spirit might prompt us to go see a certain person at a specific time, but we procrastinate and end up just texting them later with polite, generic words.  God might lead us to do a work that is not what we think is in our “wheelhouse” of ability or responsibility.  So, we might tell someone else of the need who is better fitted, we think, for the task.  Or God may prompt us to reach out to a person who is not like  us and invite them to our home for a meal.  But we decide instead to send them a note of encouragement.

Sometimes God says clearly what to do and when to do it; but our first response, with a little whine, is “why, Lord?” “Why me?” “Why do we need to do this?” “What’s the point?”  As parents, who are “training up a child in the way he/she should go;” we hear this often!  God knows and hears our whine, too!

As children of God, we say we want to be good and do good in this world but we give back less than our best at times. God, who is Good, the only One who is Good, invites us to join Him in His great work but our reply is less than good.  We look at His invitation as a burden instead of a holy privilege! Then, we give him our least effort resulting in merely a sprinkle of good that should have been God’s best work in and through us.  God is training us to more like Him in every way.  But our whining with wanting to know why with every word God speaks frustrates God’s molding and shaping of us.  I’m guilty.  How about you?

2 Samuel 24

David Enrolls the Fighting Men

24 Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”

² So the king said to Joab and the army commanders with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.”

³ But Joab replied to the king, “May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?”

⁴ The king’s word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders; so they left the presence of the king to enroll the fighting men of Israel.

⁵ After crossing the Jordan, they camped near Aroer, south of the town in the gorge, and then went through Gad and on to Jazer. ⁶ They went to Gilead and the region of Tahtim Hodshi, and on to Dan Jaan and around toward Sidon. ⁷ Then they went toward the fortress of Tyre and all the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites. Finally, they went on to Beersheba in the Negev of Judah.

⁸ After they had gone through the entire land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

⁹ Joab reported the number of the fighting men to the king: In Israel there were eight hundred thousand able-bodied men who could handle a sword, and in Judah five hundred thousand.

¹⁰ David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”

¹¹ Before David got up the next morning, the word of the Lord had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer: ¹² “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.’”

¹³ So Gad went to David and said to him, “Shall there come on you three years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”

¹⁴ David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”

¹⁵ So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. ¹⁶ When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

¹⁷ When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the Lord, “I have sinned; I, the shepherd, have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family.”

David Builds an Altar

¹⁸ On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” ¹⁹ So David went up, as the Lord had commanded through Gad. ²⁰ When Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.

²¹ Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”

“To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped.”

²² Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. ²³ Your Majesty, Araunah gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the Lord your God accept you.”

²⁴ But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them. ²⁵ David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

God told David to take a census. But David instead told his commanders to draft an army of fighting men across the land of Israel and Judah.  David’s commander, Joab asked “why” as he saw no point in doing that tedious, long work.  David’s disobedience caused God’s people pain and suffering.  Our sin affects all those around us.

God is the great Giver. God is the great Provider, Healer, and Protector. He is the Fount of every blessing. God is absolutely generous and utterly dependable. God is always with us and guides us while providing for us to accomplish His will in and through us.  The resounding and recurring message of Scripture from God is clear: God owns it all. God created all. God shares it all. Trust him, not stuff! So, when God who knows all because He created all tells us to say something or prompts us by His Holy Spirit to do something— “Just do it or say it.”  God always has a purpose and plan!

We wrap up both books of Samuel with this last piece of God’s wisdom from Samuel to Saul when he disobeyed God’s direct command;

“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.” 1 Samuel 15:22

Saul thought that his disobedience was that great of a sin and  could always be erased with another religious offering…offerings that didn’t cost much to him. 

David knew immediately his sin of disobedience, “I have sinned against the Lord.” David then purchased a place to render a holy sacrifice to the Lord. “I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

Ponder the differences between the heart of Saul and the heart of David. God sees and knows our hearts, sometimes better than we know ourselves.  Ask for the heart of Jesus daily as we walk humbly with God in all we think, say, and do.

When God invites or commands; do exactly what He says from a heart, mind, and soul committed to Him who loved us first.  What an honor and privilege to loving serve our King of kings and Lord of lords!  Real servants of the Most High do not ask why! 

Lord,

Forgive us our sins of laziness, doing less that what you tell us to be and do. Lead us to higher ground thinking as we expectantly wait on your Word of direction.  Thank you for inviting us to your work for it is indeed a holy privilege to serve you with your love in our hearts.  I no longer need to know why as I trust and obey you with my life for you are Life to me.

In Jesus Name, Amen