Fri.’s Devo - Counting the People

Read: 1 Chronicles 19:1-21:30; Romans 2:25-3:8; Psalm 11:1-7; Proverbs 19:10-12 King Nahash of the Ammonites died and he had been loyal to David, so David sent messengers to console his son, Hanun. Hanun’s advisors told him that David had sent those men as spies because he was planning to attack his kingdom. They took David’s messengers, shaved off their beard, cut off their robes at the buttocks and sent them home in shame. David let the men stay in Jericho till their beards grew back. Hanun realized he had stirred up David’s anger so he hired the chariots of Aram-naharaim, Aram-maacha, and Zobah to fight with his army. David sent Joab with his army against them. The enemy arrived from two different directions so Joab split his army and put half of them in the command of his brother, Abishai. They won on both fronts and the enemies ran for their lives. David joined them for a counter-attack and they won again. Finally the enemy surrendered to David. In the spring, Joab went to war and David stayed home but when it came time to take the kings crown, David was summoned. The crown of the enemy weighed 75 pounds. This had to be a giant king. They had many battles with the Philistine giants and killed them also. Satan rose up against David and convinced David to want to count his people. Joab was so distressed about this that he left out Benjamin in the count. It wasn’t the counting that was so wrong it was the fact that the law said that if someone was counted, they must give a small amount to account for their soul. To count was to account for their soul like being judged at the end of your life. The atonement tax bought your righteousness and kept you from judgement. Jesus became that atonement tax for us - the ransom for our souls. The punishment for not paying the atonement was a plague. Here is the law found in Exodus 30:12 - “When you take 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 you number them; that there be no plague among them, when you number them.” How fitting that the plague was what David chose. I don’t know if he had read about counting the people and the plague but it played out that way. The angel of death came and began killing the people and when it came to the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite, it was stopped. David bought this land and offered sacrifices on it. It became what we now call the Temple Mount. In Romans, Paul explained that circumcision is a heart matter. It represents repentance and salvation, but if it is just a ritual with no change of heart then it is meaningless. The Gentile who circumcised their hearts to the Lord were more righteous than the Jew who was ritualistically circumcised and it didn’t change his heart. It was like being baptized at birth. That doesn’t save a person, only a person whose heart is right with God will be saved. Lord, help us to have a pure heart that is right in your sight. May our hearts be circumcised.