{"id":4042,"date":"2019-07-23T20:00:44","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T03:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=4042"},"modified":"2019-07-19T23:10:24","modified_gmt":"2019-07-20T06:10:24","slug":"1chronicles_21_1-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/1chronicles_21_1-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Put Your Hope in God, Not in People"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Chronicles 21:1-17 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 1 Chronicles 21:1-17.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

1 Chronicles 21:1-6 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.”
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But Joab replied, “May the\u00a0LORD\u00a0multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord’s subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The king’s word, however, overruled Joab; so Joab left and went throughout Israel and then came back to Jerusalem.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Joab reported the number of the fighting men to David: In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who could handle a sword, including four hundred and seventy thousand in Judah.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, because the king’s command was repulsive to him.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-6:\u00a0\u00a0King David decides to count the number of fighting soldiers in his army, and God is not pleased with this.\u00a0\u00a0You\u00a0might ask, \u201cWhat\u2019s the big deal about counting soldiers?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0There is nothing wrong with counting numbers per se.\u00a0\u00a0But where David sinned was in why he wanted to count numbers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0David\u2019s sin was that he was placing his hope more in the number of people fighting for him than in the Lord who was fighting for him.<\/strong><\/p>\n

From this I learn at least two lessons:
\n(1)\u00a0God examines our motives.\u00a0\u00a0He doesn\u2019t just look at what we do, but why we do it.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0As Proverbs 16:2 says, \u201cAll a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by theLORD.\u201d<\/p>\n

(2) Often we can be tempted to put our hope in things other than God \u2013 our own abilities, plans, connections, experiences, or in other people.\u00a0\u00a0When we give into that temptation, the results can be dangerously wide reaching.\u00a0\u00a0Put your hope in God, not in other people or things.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 Chronicles 21:7-12 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This command was also evil in the sight of God; so he punished Israel.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly by doing this. Now, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The\u00a0LORD\u00a0said to Gad, David’s seer,
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Go and tell David, ‘This is what the\u00a0LORD\u00a0says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.'”
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So Gad went to David and said to him, “This is what the\u00a0LORD\u00a0says: ‘Take your choice:
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0three years of famine, three months of being swept away before your enemies, with their swords overtaking you, or three days of the sword of the\u00a0LORD–days of plague in the land, with the angel of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0ravaging every part of Israel.’ Now then, decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 7-12:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Eventually David realizes his sin and asks God for forgiveness (v8).\u00a0\u00a0Even so, the Lord is still intent on teaching David a lesson, letting David choose whether the punishment for David\u2019s sin will be for all of Israel to suffer three years of famine, three months of fleeing from enemies, or three days of plague.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0God\u2019s forgiveness is free and available to us when we sin, but that does not mean that there are no other consequences for our sin.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Part of truly repenting is acknowledging that our sins have real consequences that hurt others<\/strong>, and that is a lesson God wanted David to learn.<\/p>\n

1 Chronicles 21:13-17 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the\u00a0LORD, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 13:\u00a0\u00a0David is torn between the three choices God gives him, but he concludes: \u201cI would rather fall into the hands of God, because His mercy is great than fall into the hands of men.\u201d What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0God is more merciful than people are.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0I notice this truth often when I hear people on the radio mercilessly attacking and criticizing others for their mistakes, whereas the God I know is One who is fully aware of our failings and yet shows us tremendous love and mercy by dying for us on the cross.\u00a0\u00a0There is no mercy or compassion that can compare to the mercy and compassion Jesus showed us at the cross.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 Chronicles 21:14-15 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So the\u00a0LORD\u00a0sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead.
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was doing so, the\u00a0LORD\u00a0saw it and was grieved because of the calamity and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 14-15: For a season of his life, David mistakenly placed his hope in the number of men he had fighting for him over and above the one Almighty God he had fighting for him.\u00a0\u00a0When the plague comes and 70,000 of those men die, it was a sobering, painful reminder to David that putting his hope in people over and above his God was a foolish way to live, that ultimately all strength, protection, and might come from the Lord, not from people.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a reminder to us not to put our hope in people or in circumstances, which can change all of a sudden.\u00a0\u00a0Instead, put your hope in the God who never changes and who is always fighting for you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stress happens when you allow your happiness to depend on a person or a temporary circumstance<\/strong>\u00a0that is subject to change<\/strong>\u00a0instead of depending on the eternal God who does not change.\u00a0\u00a0Peace happens when we place our hope in God.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 Chronicles 21:16-17 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0David looked up and saw the angel of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown.
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0David said to God, “Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted? I am the one who has sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? O\u00a0LORD\u00a0my God, let your hand fall upon me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on your people.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 16-17:\u00a0\u00a0If David was the one who sinned, why would God punish all of Israel and not just David (see also 1 Chronicles 21:7 where it confirms that all of Israel suffered because of David\u2019s sin)?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A lesson here is that\u00a0when a leader sins, it does not affect him or her alone, but it affects everyone in that leader\u2019s care, either directly or indirectly.\u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t ever think that your sin affects only you.\u00a0\u00a0Directly or indirectly it will affect all those whom God made you to influence as well.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You for all the lessons I can learn from Your Word today.\u00a0\u00a0May my hope always be in You and not in anything or anyone else.\u00a0\u00a0When I sin, may I be mature enough to quickly run back to You in repentance and to take ownership of any consequences that arise from that sin.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 1 Chronicles 21:1-17.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

1 Chronicles 21:1-6 (NIV)\u00a0
\n1\u00a0\u00a0Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.\u00a0
\n2\u00a0\u00a0So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.”\u00a0
\n3\u00a0\u00a0But Joab replied, “May the\u00a0LORD\u00a0multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord’s subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”\u00a0
\n4\u00a0\u00a0The king’s word, however, overruled Joab; so Joab left and went throughout Israel and then came back to Jerusalem.\u00a0
\n5\u00a0\u00a0Joab reported the number of the fighting men to David: In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who could handle a sword, including four hundred and seventy thousand in Judah.\u00a0
\n6\u00a0\u00a0But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, because the king’s command was repulsive to him.<\/p>\n

On verses 1-6:\u00a0\u00a0King David decides to count the number of fighting soldiers in his army, and God is not pleased with this.\u00a0\u00a0You\u00a0might ask, \u201cWhat\u2019s the big deal about counting soldiers?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0There is nothing wrong with counting numbers per se.\u00a0\u00a0But where David sinned was in why he wanted to count numbers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0David\u2019s sin was that he was placing his hope more in the number of people fighting for him than in the Lord who was fighting for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4043,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4042","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\/4042","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=4042"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4044,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4042\/revisions\/4044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}