Today's Favorite Verse: 1 Chronicles 21:1-2

Today's Favorite Verse: 1 Chronicles 21:1-2

"And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.

And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it."

Why was it wrong for David to number Israel? Moses was commanded to do so. The book of Numbers deals with counting people.

"And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the LORD, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them."

(Exodus 30:11-12)

Besides the difference of the Lord commanding a census, and in the other He did not, the one difference I can see is why the censuses were taken. When the Lord commanded it was during the construction of the tabernacle and to pay a ransom for the souls of people. It also happened in the dividing of inheritances for the different tribes. The censuses were to bless and redeem people. The purpose it appears for David to take a census was to see how powerful he was in the midst of battles with his enemies. Was the offense being that he was measuring his strength against other men, and not measuring their strength in relying upon the Lord to deliver them?

The Lord tells the seer Gad to go to David and have him choose between three different penalties.

"Either three years’ famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me."

(1 Chronicles 21:12)

All of them would punish the people and take lives. This is a very strong lesson to show David and even Israel, that their strength doesn't come from people, but the power of God to preserve them.

Day 2518