In God's Hands

I find it hard to imagine what David must have been going through as God gave him a pick of three consequences to his sin.

In 2 Samuel 24 David has numbered the fighting men of Israel and began feeling guilty for having done so. Maybe he sensed he did not trust God to protect him and Israel. Perhaps it was because he numbered them as if they belonged to him, the king of Israel. God wanted to be Israel's King all along and this is why he chose a man “after His own heart” and not one who would build his own kingdom as Saul and Absalom had tried to do. In any case, he had sinned and God would send retribution as he was just in doing.

What is hard to imagine is being in David's shoes as he considers how it is that, not only he, but all of Israel will “finance” the sin of the king. He is given three choices of which one is a three year famine, one is to flee from their enemies for three months and one is to endure a plague for three days. How does one decide on the manner in which people will loose their lives for something they have done? We often ask our children what their punishment should be for doing something wrong, but that is only about one person. How can a man decide what to do for a whole nation because of sin and how can he do so when he knows that he is the one who sinned and not the whole of the nation?

David's answer is telling. No matter how I envision David coming to this choice, he surprises me by the way he comes to it. The selection does not come from severity, or from length of time, nor from number of people possibly affected. The weight is placed solely on the mercy of God. Literally David says, "I do not want to make the same mistake again by being the one to try and protect Israel. I cannot protect them, nor can I keep them. I will not put Israel in the hands of my enemies again. In stead, I will place all of us back in God's hands because he is merciful." Had he learned his lesson of trying to take God's place? Was he coming to a place in his life where he could truly trust in God?

I believe David had always trusted God and humbled himself before the One who saved him time and again from his enemies. What David was overcoming was the enemy that had defeated Saul and Absalom; pride. The moment David began to act like kings from the surrounding pagan nations God had to get his attention. God had to warn David that his throne would not endure if he chose the way of those before him. He was learning how much of a struggle it truly is to be a “man after God’s own heart.” Being a self-sufficient person is not what God wanted from David. He wanted a king that would show the rest of His people how to follow and depend wholly on a strength that lay in God alone, not in their military or any other human commodity.

The lie that we can handle this life all on our own is still a difficult one to tackle. We are taught from birth to be mature means to be independent. Those who seek out help or community are weak. The truth is that we need God and we need each other. We must not listen to Satan when he tells us the opposite. God created us to be dependent on Him. True maturity is allowing God to provide for and care for us.

Rest in God’s hands!