Tag Archives: david took a census

How many times does God ask us to do something and then we see if it’s feasible before trying to do it? We try to get all our ducks in a row before “stepping out in faith.” It’s not really faith if we set everything up ahead of time to ensure our success. We trust in the things we see and know versus the unseen. We end up doing it in our own strength instead of His strength. We then wonder where our reward is for such an act of faith. The truth is we have our reward because we did it in on our own instead of trusting in Him.

In the last chapter of II Samuel, God was upset with Israel. David sent his army commanders out to do a census so he would know how many warriors he had. His officer replied, “May your God multiply people by the hundreds right before the eyes of my master the king, but why on earth would you do a thing like this?” He resisted David because he knew what David was doing and it wasn’t right. After years of serving God, walking with Him and talking with Him, David was still tempted to walk by sight.

David reiterated his command and sent the men out. In verse 10, it says, “But when it was all done, David was overwhelmed with guilt because he had counted the people, replacing trust with statistics.” The man, who once was indignant because an entire army was afraid of a giant defying his God, was now in the shoes of the army. He forgot that holy fire that he once had that wasn’t afraid of anything that came against God’s people. As he got older, he trusted God less and relied on what he knew instead. He forgot that God won his battles, not his numbers.

I think of my child who is willing to jump off of anything when I’m around. He trusts that I’ll catch him. As he gets older, he’ll try to push me away while he jumps off of things. He’ll get bumps and bruises and finally he’ll quit taking those leaps. His fear of gravity will overtake his trust in me. We do the same thing to God. We take leaps of faith early on in our walk with Him. We’re amazed when He catches us. Then we start trying to act independently of Him. We try to do acts of faith without Him. We fail and our pride gets bruised. We ask God where He was and why He didn’t catch us when we were doing things for Him. We then quit acting in faith all together. We end up only doing things for God where we are guaranteed success.

God asks us to trust Him completely. He asks us to trust a Him blindly. When we take those leaps, there is a time when we are free falling. Our stomach is in our throat. Our adrenalin is rushing. We are wondering if God will catch us because our destiny is not in our hands. That’s where God wants us to live. That’s where He wants our faith. He doesn’t want us to trust in statistics, numbers, things we can see or our own strength. He wants us to trust in Him alone. If He calls you to do something, don’t trust in what you see or try to make things work. Take the step of faith and have that child like trust that your Father will catch you.