<\/p>\n
\n1 Chronicles 21:1-17.\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.\u00a0So David said to Joab and to the leaders of the people, \u201cGo, number Israel from Beersheba to Dan,\u00a0and bring the number of them to me that I may know\u00a0it.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0And Joab answered, \u201cMay the\u00a0Lord\u00a0make His people a hundred times more than they are. But, my lord the king,\u00a0are<\/i>\u00a0they not all my lord\u2019s servants? Why then does my lord require this thing? Why should he be a cause of guilt in Israel?\u201d\u00a0Nevertheless the king\u2019s word prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed and went throughout all Israel and came to Jerusalem.\u00a0Then Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to David. All Israel\u00a0had<\/i>\u00a0one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and Judah\u00a0had<\/i>\u00a0four hundred and seventy thousand men who drew the sword.\u00a0But he did not count Levi and Benjamin among them, for the king\u2019s word was abominable to Joab.\u00a0And God was displeased with this thing; therefore He struck Israel.\u00a0So David said to God,\u00a0\u201cI have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing;\u00a0but now, I pray, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly.\u201d\u00a0Then the\u00a0Lord\u00a0spoke to Gad, David\u2019s\u00a0seer, saying,\u00a0\u201cGo and tell David, saying, \u2018Thus says the\u00a0Lord: I offer you three\u00a0things;<\/i>\u00a0choose one of them for yourself, that I may do\u00a0it<\/i>\u00a0to you.\u2019\u201d\u00a0So Gad came to David and said to him, \u201cThus says the\u00a0Lord: \u2018Choose for yourself,\u00a0either three years of famine, or three months to be defeated by your foes with the sword of your enemies overtaking\u00a0you,<\/i>\u00a0or else for three days the sword of the\u00a0Lord\u2014the plague in the land, with the angel of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.\u2019 Now consider what answer I should take back to Him who sent me.\u201d\u00a0And David said to Gad, \u201cI am in great distress. Please let me fall into the hand of the\u00a0Lord, for His\u00a0mercies\u00a0are<\/i>\u00a0very great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.\u201d\u00a0So the\u00a0Lord\u00a0sent a\u00a0plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.\u00a0And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was destroying, the\u00a0Lord\u00a0looked and\u00a0relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who was destroying, \u201cIt is enough; now restrain your hand.\u201d And the angel of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0stood by the\u00a0threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.\u00a0Then David lifted his eyes and\u00a0saw the angel of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0standing between earth and heaven, having in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. So David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.\u00a0And David said to God, \u201cWas it not I who commanded the people to be numbered? I am the one who has sinned and done evil indeed; but these\u00a0sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, O\u00a0Lord\u00a0my God, be against me and my father\u2019s house, but not against Your people that they should be plagued.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n
Think back over the past week. Have you told any \u201cwhite lies\u201d? Have you taken a quick glance at something that is off limits? Have you gossiped about a friend or slandered an enemy?<\/p>\n
These are what we may call petty sins: impure thoughts, small twists of the truth to get your way, careless comments tossed out without a second thought. They may not seem like major issues. After all, you didn\u2019t kill anybody or rob a bank.<\/p>\n
However, the Bible tells us that God cares about petty sins, which is why those sins do matter.<\/p>\n
In 1 Chronicles 21:1-17, we see a very interesting story that doesn\u2019t seem like a life-or-death situation at first. David simply asked Joab, the head of his army, to take a census of all fighting men in Israel. Joab immediately recognized that this seemingly innocuous request was a questionable command (there were circumstances in which a census was allowed, but this didn\u2019t fit the bill) and urged David against it. David ignored Joab\u2019s concerns, however, and pushed forward with the tally. In doing so, he incurred God\u2019s wrath and brought great destruction upon his nation.<\/p>\n
What can we learn about sin from David\u2019s tragic mistake?<\/p>\n
Sin is evil:<\/strong>\u00a0All sin, no matter how \u201cinsignificant,\u201d is evil and adverse to God. In fact, verse one directly says that Satan was the driving force of David\u2019s sin. A census seems so trivial to us. In fact, one could easily justify it as a necessary strategy in measuring the strength of David\u2019s army. But it displeased God.<\/p>\n
Similarly, we may justify our words, our actions, or even our inactions, but need to understand that sin is sin, and sin is evil. Whatever it is, it matters to God.<\/p>\n
Sin can be traced back to pride:<\/strong>\u00a0David counts the people presumably because he wants to see how successful he has been. He was prideful, which causes him to focus on his own human strength instead of his reliance on God. Pride is incredibly destructive. In fact, the Bible tells us that pride was the fall of Satan (Isaiah 14:12-17).<\/p>\n
Our sins stem from pride, which causes us to believe we deserve something, or that we\u2019re better than others. It removes us from the humility we should exemplify, and positions us into a dangerous place where sin can take hold.<\/p>\n
All sin has consequences:<\/strong>\u00a0No matter how small or how great, all sin has consequences. God, through the prophet Gad, gave David three choices for punishment:<\/p>\n
1. Three years of famine<\/p>\n
2. Three months of David\u2019s enemies triumphing over him and Israel<\/p>\n
3. Three days of plague.<\/p>\n
David chose three days of plague because he realized that it is better to be in God\u2019s hands than in the hands of man. Seventy-thousand people died in Israel because of one seemingly insignificant sin.<\/p>\n
There are always consequences, not only for the person committing the sin, but those around that person: Consider the young couple killed by the drunk driver, the family torn apart by adultery, the small business owner impacted by the theft in their store, or the little children exposed to the sins of those they are modeling. As Luke 8:17 says,\u00a0\u201cFor nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(NKJV). Sin will always be revealed, and the consequences are far reaching.<\/p>\n
My friends, we live in a world that celebrates sin. In fact, according to our culture, if you do not rejoice in your sin, there\u2019s something wrong with you. However, we are not called to live by the world, but by the Word. Do not take sin lightly. It is serious, no matter how small you might think it is. When you do fall, be like David, who recognized what he did, repented and sought forgiveness. We serve a merciful Father who is\u00a0\u201cfaithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(1 John 1:9, NKJV).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1 Chronicles 21:1-17.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.\u00a0So David said to Joab and to the leaders of the people, \u201cGo, number Israel from Beersheba to Dan,\u00a0and bring the number of them to me that I may know\u00a0it.\u201d\u00a0And Joab answered, \u201cMay the\u00a0Lord\u00a0make His people a hundred times … Continue reading “Wil Graham – Devotion”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194045"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194048,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194045\/revisions\/194048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}