Where Do You Place Your Confidence

Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.

 

1 Chronicles 21:1

 

 

God always requires total trust in Him alone for our victories in life and throughout Scripture we are cautioned not to place our trust in the strength of horses, other men or our own abilities. In 1 Chronicles, David's decision to take a census was a failure to keep his trust totally upon God.

 

David's purpose in counting his population was to assess his military strength, much like the second census taken under Moses (See Numbers 1:2–3). David found 800,000 men eligible for military service in Israel, and 500,000 men in Judah (See 2 Samuel 24:9), more than double the previous head count.

 

David's commander evidently recognized the grave error that his king was about to make. "But Joab replied, 'May the Lord multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord's subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?'" (1 Chronicles 21:3).

 

Joab was right the census displeased God and David was falling into the temptation of trusting in the size of his army rather than in God. In consequence, God punished David and reduced his forces by bringing a plague that killed 70,000 men.

 

How do we avoid placing our trust in God in our lives?

 

When we begin to place our faith in other things or people instead of God, we have lost all sight of what God is doing and has yet to do in our lives as we trust in Him. In a word we have failed to place our total trust in God for all of our needs or desires.