Sue and I had a relaxing time at the Pastor/Spouse Retreat last week. We heard an excellent speaker, experienced fine fellowship, and ate good food. In a get-acquainted exercise we were asked to answer the question, “What is one thing about you that your congregation back home doesn’t know about you?” And I realized that there may be something about me that some of you don’t know. So this morning it is confession time.
Most of you know that Sue and I spent 15 years in Japan as missionaries. In 1981 when we returned to the U. S., we decided to live in Chicago one year. In some ways that was a wonderful year. We participated fully in a large congregation that accepted us and loved us. When I say fully, I mean Sunday school, choir, invitations to people’s homes and even as their paid janitors –because we had no job. What’s more the co-pastors were a husband and wife. He was also a public elementary school principal. They became role models for us. In that sense it was a wonderful year.
But in another sense it was a difficult year. I could not find a job. I sent out resumes all over the U.S., applying to colleges, universities and companies. I had not finished my Ph.D, yet, so colleges couldn’t use me. I had too much education for some jobs and those companies didn’t want me. “Over qualified,” they said. It was the subject of our prayers every day. In the meantime, one church member hired me to help him do odd jobs. Pastor Joe hired me at his elementary school as temporary janitor. And I taught some courses at the community college, but I could not find a permanent job. I was embarrassed, depressed, and discouraged.
I know that some of you have experienced those feelings. You have tried and tried to get a job and nothing opens up. You have filled out resumes. You have gone to all the right places. You have prayed about it. And you are tempted to give up or to take a job that is illegal or immoral. I know how that feels. I was getting desperate.
Finally, I decided to take things into my own hands. I thought there must be some employer out there who needs someone with my qualifications. They just don’t know about me. So I prepared an ad for the Chicago Tribune.
After all, I was fluent in Japanese. My training was in communication. And I almost had my Ph.D. I got half a dozen calls. The one I remember best was the one that went something like this. “We are a company that has clubs all over the world and we’d like to open some in Japan. Would you have any objections to working for Playboy?” Short conversation. Some of you didn’t know that. In some ways, I suppose it served me right.
We have come to the final message from II Samuel. If you have followed David’s experiences through this book you have seen that his life took a nose dive. He was anointed king over Israel, but he became a moral failure and a bad example. In his psalm in Chapter 22 he says, “The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer…” These words express his trust in God. He recognized how dependent he is upon God. But, unfortunately, in Chapter 24 he takes things into his own hands instead of depending on God.
It seems to me there is a fine line between pride on the one hand and desperation on the other. When we are proud we depend upon our own strength, skills, and abilities to get things done instead of trusting God to work things out for us. When we are desperate, what do we depend on? Our own strength, skills, and abilities AND maybe manipulating people and circumstances to get our way.
I’m not quite sure which it was for King David. He had come through some difficult times. His sons almost wrenched the kingdom away from him. They certainly made his life miserable. His future looked bleak. Maybe it was desperation.
On the other hand, he had also achieved several military victories and in Chapter 23 he was able to list 30 strong men. Whichever it was, the picture we get is that his trust turned toward human strength, rather than depending on divine power and he commanded Joab, his military commander, to take a census of the soldiers. That decision got him into a lot of trouble. Let’s take a closer look to see what we can learn for our own walk of faith.
First, we learn that David sinned in counting these soldiers. He sinned against God. He went against God’s will. It wasn’t the counting of people that was wrong. In other places in the Bible God asked for a numbering of the people. The problem seems to be his motive. Why did he want to know how many soldiers he had? Was he comparing his military might with nations around him so he could boast that he had the largest army? Did he want to establish confidence that if he dug himself into a hole his military might would get him out? Was he trying to congratulate himself on his military victories so he could put another trophy on his shelf? Or was he so desperate he felt he needed to know how much strength he could muster? Either way, it was a sinful attitude in God’s eyes, because he was depending on military strength instead of on God’s strength. Isa. 31:1 “Alas for those who go down to Egypt for help and who rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the holy one of Israel or consult the Lord!” Again and again we read in the O.T. that it was God who fought the battles for the Israelites. When they won a battle they were tempted to think it was their strength that won it. They were like the woodpecker that was pounding away on a dead tree and suddenly lightning struck the tree and split it down the middle and the woodpecker died of a heart attack. He thought he had done it.
Sometimes God sent storms and even hail to defeat the enemy. In Job 38:22 we read, “Have you seen the storehouses of hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?” And God accomplished his plan in other ways as well, ways that did not require human skill.
In Deuteronomy, God had warned his people against the sinful attitude of self-sufficiency and independence from God: "Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his command that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery…. You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God…” If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed." (Deuteronomy 8:10-19)
David not only sinned against God, he sinned against the people of God. David’s right hand man Joab saw right away that what David was doing was wrong and he warned David. But David insisted on going ahead. He disregarded God’s word and he disregarded the advice of his commander.
God has given us his word to instruct us, but if we ignore it, it won’t help us. In the church God has surrounded us with his people: mentors, teachers, pastors, deacons, brothers and sisters to support us, to help us, but if we ignore them and go off in our own direction, they can’t help us. If, on the other hand, we value each other and affirm each other, we can bear each other’s burdens. We can pray for each other. We can learn from each other’s experiences. Part of our mission statement says that we “help ourselves and others walk the path of righteousness, peace and harmony, the way Jesus wants us to live.” And when we don’t do that, we not only bring trouble on ourselves but on those around us. Your sin affects more than just yourself. David’s sin had a terrible effect on God’s people and our sin goes beyond our own lives. This story gives us an opportunity to check our own attitude toward God. Do we allow Him to guide us in our decisions and actions? Or do we blindly put ourselves in the driver’s seat?
Fortunately, in David’s case, he repented. Verse 10 says that after he did this, David felt guilty. He was “stricken to the heart,” we read in v. 10.
Maybe you know the pangs of guilt that David felt. I think I do. Before I was married, I signed up for a job going door to door selling pots and pans. I didn’t last long. I remember trying to persuade one gentle, older couple that they needed these things and they bought them. Afterwards I realized that I had done wrong. They were living simply. They were happy before I got there and I’m sure they would have been just as happy if I had not come. After I sold the pans to them, I became painfully aware that I had manipulated them so that I could chalk up this sale on my chart. And when I realized that, I repented. I quit. I knew that was not the way God wanted me to get an income.
David’s sin raises a lot of questions. Does God want us to get ahead by taking advantage of others, by putting their lives on the line? Would God want me to sell products that damage the health of others? We live in a complicated world today, but would you buy a pair of shoes if you knew that little children in some other country had been forced to make them for hours and hours for almost no pay?
Or suppose, because we are a small congregation, the board decided that we have to do something about getting people here. Would God want us to sell lottery tickets or offer door prizes? Everyone knows that money talks. I heard of a church that advertised they would give $10 to everyone who came to visit their church on a Sunday morning. Whom do we trust? God. On whom do we depend? God. Where does our help come from? God. God doesn’t want us to engage in unholy methods to accomplish his holy work. Whatever we do, we want to do it God’s way.
All of us know that when drug users get desperate, they will lie, cheat, and steal to get their next fix. The other day a young guy on the sidewalk asked me if I needed a microwave. I didn’t think fast enough to ask him where he got it, but most teenagers I know don’t have their own microwaves. People who depend on drugs may find that kind of behavior acceptable, but people who depend on God will not.
There are two times when it is hard to depend on God: when we have plenty and when we have nothing. In both cases we are tempted to sin and we need to repent.
David repented. He still had to accept the consequences of his sin. God allowed them to play out. Our own bad decisions sometimes affect us for years to come. But God does forgive. He does heal. And he does provide. And I hope you have had occasion to experience that healing.
We saw that David sinned. Then he repented. And, last, he worshiped. Through his spiritual advisor, God told David to bring a sacrifice to him, to worship. David was instructed to purchase the place where he would offer his sacrifice. This act of worship cost him something.
It must have been a terrifying moment for Araunah as King David approached his threshing floor. Araunah was an illegal alien and he probably wondered what the king wanted. So when David told him what he wanted, Araunah made David a great offer. Take it all: the floor, the oxen, the ox yokes -everything.
But note David’s response: “No, but I will buy them from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” (v.24)
David knew that when we offer something to God it must cost something. And he was willing to pay the price. He bought the land, he built the altar, he paid for the sacrifices.
It is only by the mercy of God that we can stand before him. Rom. 12:1 says, “I appeal to you, therefore, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God , which is your spiritual worship.” Since Jesus came, making the supreme sacrifice, paying the price for our sin, we don’t need to purchase animals or other things to sacrifice. Our worship requires more than that. It requires giving ourselves, putting ourselves on the altar. As we learned last Wed-nesday, “the heart of worship is surrender. True worship happens when you give yourself completely to God. Offering yourself to God is what worship is all about.” (Purpose Driven Life)
I don’t know about you, but when God does something special in our lives, Sue and I try to give a special offering. Not long ago, when we experienced a special blessing, we decided to give an additional amount in the offering. You may have other ways to show your gratitude to God: volunteering for something you don’t normally do, helping with a church project you don’t normally help with. When God answers your prayer, I urge you to express your worship in some special way. Remember that your life depends upon God and his mercy and give thanks.
Conclusion
When we went through our difficult time in Chicago we learned a lot about God’s mercy and his provisions. Eventually, as we continued to pray and search for God‘s will, He opened a door for us. At the end of that year, on the day I completed my degree, we got a call to come to Bluffton College for an interview. And we knew that God had answered our prayer. We could depend on Him.
