Friday, July 2: 2Samuel 24-The sovereignty of God.

Believing God is sovereign can be a troubling and humbling. I am comforted to know that God is in control but when God’s control includes me, I sometimes balk, at least mentally.

Verse 1 causes me to pause, balk, think and hopefully to ultimately submit to the God who has called me and has redeemed me. Verse 1: 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."

Now if that verse didn’t stop you in your tracks read it again: 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." He [God] incited David against Israel… and 70,000 people died as a result.

Ruminate on this for a while. Israel’s actions are angering God. They are living unfaithfully, so God incites David to sin and the just punishment for the sin was the death of 70,000 Israelites. Thus, Israel is punished for their unfaithfulness…

It seems that David is little more than a pawn in God’s hand here. This is one part of my ruminating that troubles and humbles me. I like to think that I control MY LIFE. I like to believe -for good or for ill- that I am the captain of my ship, that my actions, thoughts, etc. fully and completely control the direction of my life. But plunging beneath the surface, this kind of thinking boxes God out of my life, and in particular, life in general. Heaven forbid! With David I cry: "I am in deep distress. [My thinking that I am in control of my life is just like David counting his army… wanting to know what he controls. Yikes.] Let us fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is great; …" (14). Thankfully God is merciful… with me an overconfident sinner.

Lord, sitting this morning before Your word, I am realizing how self-centered I am. How self-confident I am. Lord, to keep my ego in check, I confess that You alone are sovereign, that Your are Lord God and I am but a creature, a creation of Your hand. I submit to You. I acknowledge my self-centeredness and my self-confidence before You, who alone is God. Into Your hands I throw my life… Amen.

 

(Now if you want your head to spin a bit more, read 1 Chronicles 21:1, which is a second recounting of this same incident of David counting the army… Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.)