Sun.’s Devo - Counting the People

Read: 2 Samuel 23:24-24:25; Acts 3:1-26; Psalm 123:1-4; Provers 16:2-23 All of the members of David’s elite Thirty were mentioned by name just like our names are written in heaven and our lives are remembered. It doesn’t tell us what Israel did to make God angry. It was probably that Israel had fallen into idolatry and forgot the Lord. Whatever it was, God wanted to punish them and he used David to do it. He put it in David’s heart to want to know how many people he had in his kingdom. The only ones he was interested in were the able men capable of being in his army. God had instructed in Leviticus how to number the people. They were to let each man pay a price for his soul when being numbered. To be numbered was to bring into account your life like we will face at the end of our lives. The price they paid was a redemption price to pay for their sins up until then so it wouldn’t be “judgement day” for them then. David didn’t require that tax so the people were being judged before their lives were over. Joab didn’t want to count the men but obeyed his orders. He found that there were 800,000 in Israel and 500,000 in Judah. When David got the number, he was immediately convicted of what he had done. The next morning, God’s messenger, Gad came with God’s word. David had three choices for his punishment. He could have 3 years of famine, 3 months of fleeing from his enemies, or 3 days of a plague. He prayed for the latter. He would fall into God’s hands and maybe he would have mercy. God sent his death angel which started in the north and came southward killing 70,000 people. It was stopped by God by the threshing floor of Araunah right before it got to Jerusalem. David saw the angel and repented. Gad was sent back to David to tell him to offer a sacrifice on the threshing floor. First, he bought the land from the owner Araunah. Araunah offered to give it to David but David said he would not offer anything to the Lord that didn’t cost him something. In Acts, Peter and John were on their way to the Temple for the 3 o’clock prayer time. They saw a lame man being carried in to sit by the gate and beg for money from the people who came to the Temple to pray. I’m sure they had passed him every Sabbath and not given him much thought, but now their eyes were opened to what God can do so they stopped and healed the man. This caused amazement in the people and a crowd gathered to witness this great miracle. Peter took the opportunity to address the people and teach them about Jesus and the gospel. He took them through scripture pointing out the different prophets who prophesied Jesus’ coming and death. He told the people to repent of their sins and come to Jesus. Lord, may we lay down our lives to you and daily die to ourselves. Thank you for resurrection life and hope. Thank you that you meet our needs daily and we have no cause for fear. You will never leave us or forsake us.