Trust God’s Provision

Let’s say that I’m driving home from the office, and it’s my wife’s birthday. As I’m pulling into the garage, it hits me that I forgot to get her a birthday gift. I get out of the car, and as I’m walking toward the door to go inside, I put my hand in my pocket and pull out a hundred-dollar gift card for Amazon that was given to us last Christmas. I’d forgotten all about it. Realizing this is an act of God, I quickly go inside, put it in an envelope, scribble out a cute little Hallmark thought, and humbly give it to Dawn, saying, “Happy birthday, Honey! Even though our finances are a little tight right now, I wanted to make sure you could shop for whatever you like.” She opens it up, and a delighted smile runs across her face. And she says, “Aww… I know finances are really tight right now. You must have had to sacrifice something for me to have this. You’re the best husband in the world.” And then I’d say, “Yeah, you know, God is good.” Or, “If I could rewrite the alphabet, I’d put U and I together.”

Now, how would you feel about me if I said, “It was a sacrifice; I wanted to show my love because you’re worth it”? You would probably say, “You’re a jerk. I pity the woman who brushes her teeth beside you.” There would be a lot of anger because people don’t like it when it appears that someone has sacrificed when they really haven’t.

King David, the man after God’s own heart, is nearing the end of his life, and what we find in 2 Samuel 24 is that David has upset the Lord. This is the same guy who wrote in Psalm 20…

7 Some take pride in chariots, and others in horses, but we take pride in the name of the LORD our God.

But in 2 Samuel 24, David takes pride in how many men he has in his military. And he wants to know exactly how many he has. Now, God had provided plenty of warriors for David, and to take a count of how many there were went against the will of God. But David is adamant and sends Joab against his wishes to count the number of military men in Israel. The Lord becomes very unhappy about David’s actions and sends the prophet Gad to David to deliver a punishment. But David must choose the punishment for taking this illegal census: 3 years of famine, 3 months of fleeing from his enemies, or 3 days of a plague. David chooses the last option, and as a result, God sends a 3-day plague that kills 70,000 of David’s military men.

It’s interesting that God goes after the very thing David had taken pride in. God wants us to trust in his provision, not in our power.