{"id":34248,"date":"2025-01-17T22:00:33","date_gmt":"2025-01-18T05:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/2-samuel_23_13-39-copy\/"},"modified":"2025-01-07T13:02:39","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T20:02:39","slug":"2-samuel_24_1-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/2-samuel_24_1-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Be A Wise Steward of What God Has Given You"},"content":{"rendered":"

2 Samuel 24:1-9 \u00a0 \u00a0(CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Samuel 24:1-9.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

2 Samuel 24:1-25 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Again the anger of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So 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.”
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But Joab replied to the king, “May the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your 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?”
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The 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.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-4:\u00a0 At a time of relative peace in Israel, King David decides to order a census.\u00a0 He requires his government officials to travel all throughout Israel and count how many men are ready, willing and able to fight for Israel.\u00a0 Joab, David\u2019s army general, is hesitant, suggesting to David that ordering a census at such a time is not a wise thing to do. However, David\u2019s word overrules Joab\u2019s concern.<\/p>\n

What was so wrong about David ordering a census and counting the fighting men of Israel?\u00a0 How was that a sin?\u00a0 Does God have a problem with counting?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0 If counting was somehow wrong or evil, you wouldn\u2019t see so many stats in the Bible.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that counting is wrong, but it\u2019s about why we count.<\/p>\n

Here are a couple of likely reasons why David ordering a census was a foolish thing to do.<\/p>\n

First, it was a waste of resources.\u00a0 Administering a census was costly, both to the government as well as to the people.\u00a0 Exodus 30 laid down the procedure for administering a census and there you\u2019ll see that every man who enlisted in the army as part of the census had to pay half a shekel (or in today\u2019s economy, possibly a couple thousand dollars) as \u201catonement money\u201d.\u00a0 That\u2019s a lot of money to be requiring the people to pay, especially when there was no war to fight and no urgent need for a census.\u00a0 So one reason David calling a census was a sin was that he was wasting the resources God had entrusted to him and to the nation of Israel.\u00a0 What\u2019s the lesson here?\u00a0\u00a0Be a wise steward of what God has entrusted to you.\u00a0 Don\u2019t waste it.\u00a0\u00a0Sin is whenever I make poor use of what God has given to me<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Second, the reason David wanted to count the fighting men was not because he was trying to serve the people.\u00a0 Rather he was trying to feed his own ego.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Since God looks not just at appearances but at the heart, it grieved the Holy Spirit that David was no longer anchoring his hope in God but was anchoring his hope in the size of his army and in his circumstances.\u00a0 What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Anchor your hope in God and God\u2019s promises, instead of in people, numbers or circumstances.<\/strong><\/p>\n

2 Samuel 24:5-9 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0After crossing the Jordan, they camped near Aroer, south of the town in the gorge, and then went through Gad and on to Jazer.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They went to Gilead and the region of Tahtim Hodshi, and on to Dan Jaan and around toward Sidon.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then 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.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0After they had gone through the entire land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Joab 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.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 5-9: \u00a0Verses 5-8 suggest to us the cost of the census and how much work David\u2019s government had to do to travel all throughout Israel to administer this unnecessary census.\u00a0 Then verse 9 gives us the result of the census: Verse 9 gives us the result of the census: Joab counts a total of 1.3 million men who are ready, willing and able to fight for Israel.\u00a0 But was it worth the cost?\u00a0 We\u2019ll find out in the verses that\u00a0 follow that, no, it wasn\u2019t worth it.\u00a0 What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0C<\/strong>ount the cost before you pursue an idea.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Holy Spirit, may I not be reckless or stubborn in my decision making.\u00a0 May my decisions be informed by wisdom from the Holy Spirit and good motives from a pure heart.\u00a0 Help me to seek good advice early and to listen for Your voice often.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

opyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Samuel 24:1-9.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\n2 Samuel 24:1-25 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0Again the anger of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”
\n2\u00a0\u00a0So 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.”<\/p>\n

On verses 1-4:\u00a0 At a time of relative peace in Israel, King David decides to order a census.\u00a0 He requires his government officials to travel all throughout Israel and count how many men are ready, willing and able to fight for Israel.\u00a0 Joab, David\u2019s army general, is hesitant, suggesting to David that ordering a census at such a time is not a wise thing to do. However, David\u2019s word overrules Joab\u2019s concern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34248"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34251,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34248\/revisions\/34251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}