How Big Am I?
Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, "Go, number Israel and Judah." So the king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, "Now go throughout all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people, that I may know the number of the people."
We're weak as God makes us, and it is our own fault. In Him, we are POWERFUL, even if we are not the mightiest. 1 Samuel 23:17 says, “These things were done by the three mighty men”, so that we do great things and conquer with God. In ourselves, what we deserve, we are always an inch above chastisement for the evil within. Only God refrains us from sin. He keeps us from falling, and when He is displeased, He allows us to fall. He directs things, so that He may be exalted before us. He uses the SIN that's inside of us to chastise it out of us, bringing us into devotion. We must walk devoted to God, or we must learn it.
But, like Job, we are never SO high spiritually as to not merit reproach.
Learn this.
God is totally in control of our falls and the pain we endure (vs1-2).
God will have us worship Him broken heartedly (vs24).
God is good to sinners (vs25).
First, God is in control of all things, even our falls, and the pain procured It is written, “He moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah” (vs1). The evil is in us that must be chastened out, and we DO things that bring about great falls. That failure wasn't isolated; it was the result of many little failures adding up.
God makes us learn that we are sinners, and He keeps us worshiping Him on His terms as nothings. He humbles pride, “and those that walk in pride He is able to abase” (Dan 4:37).
Secondly, God will have us worship broken heartedly. David said, “nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing” (vs24). He will have us mercifully saved and not meritoriously delivered. He will have us abased in self, so that He will heartily be praised and nothing else. He is jealous of His glory and has declared that all things would honor the Son, that praise and thanks would become us, and we'd worship in reverence and fear. Hebrews 12 says, “let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:28-29). The Most High is in awe in the assembly of the saints. He is feared in His majesty, praised in His dealings, and bowed to in His providences. I have been ministered to by a quote from Jeremiah Burroughs, “Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition." He is worshiped in everything because His love and wisdom demand it. He is who we love, and the reward is sweet.
Thirdly, God is GOOD to all who look to Him, “so the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel” (vs25). He gave the mighty men great deeds, even as He gives grace to David to shine again.
This man's PRIDE brought him low, and now mercy will exalt him again. David was a great, great man upon the earth, and yet he obtained God freely, undeservedly, and obtained mercy amidst horrid wickedness's and deeds. He should embolden you and I to great acts of love because we are so freely received and given power. We can improve, grow, and be more pure for Christ. It is God who works in us, freely, powerfully, and simply by BELIEVING His love.
His mighty men, finally, are examples to us. “These things were done” scripture says, “by the three mighty men” (2 Sam 23:17). Be thrilled and possessed by the Lord's might. Be strong in grace. Know and believe God is on your side, to receive you again, falls and all. Know to love those who love you, and honor Christ for everything.
Know God's love is real, and live upon it, faults and all.
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