Murder by Numbers“So the LORD sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time. From Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men of the people died.” (2 Samuel 24:15) In the 2002 Sandra Bullock movie Murder By Numbers, a detective is engaged in an intellectual contest with two gifted high school students over a series of murders. God has an even better story in the Bible in the 24th chapter of Second Samuel. King David decided that he needed to count his troops. This was a grievous sin in the nation of Israel because God made it crystal clear that He, not the army, was their source. It was against God’s law to number the troops. David’s general, Joab, knew the serious nature of such an act (2 Samuel 24:3), but David made up his mind and commanded Joab and the captains of the army to count the people of Israel for over 9 months. David got the number that he wanted, 800,000 men with sword and 500,000 men of Judah. But David Dialed M For Murder and the result was more than just Collateral Damage, it was Murder By Numbers as God judged the sin of David by hitting Israel with a plague that killed 70,000 men. This is the sad story of human nature, because as we grow in wealth, power and ability, our confidence moves from trust in God to trust in our own skills and resources. But the truth is we cannot know how to fully trust God in the financial, health or any area until we really have to. Many of us don’t trust God until we’ve lost everything, until we were forced to trust Him when we could not pay our bills or feed our children unless God provided. This was the time where many of us learned to trust God, when the doctor said the cancer is terminal, the banks said foreclosure, the wife said I want half, the taxman said lien and levy, and the finances said chapter 7. We never had to trust God before we lost our family, business, possessions, relationships, or health because we think we had it all. We don’t willingly enter this level of trust with God until we have nothing left because we can't keep anything by own our power. Don’t be like David, be humble and ask God to keep us from trusting in our own meager resources and abilities, ask God to help us trust in the promises of His Word and thank Him for His many blessings today.Copyright © 2002 Eddy Ministries. All rights reserved. Subscribe/Unsubscribe:
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