A Grander Scheme: The Provision (Part 5)
One Year Bible (July 19)
I Chronicles 28:1-29:30
A GRANDER SCHEME: “The Provision” (Part Five)
Have you ever found yourself sitting down for dinner at “The International House of…PANIC”?
All you wanted was pancakes! Warm. Soft. Buttery. Syrup-covered pancakes. (Blueberries are a bonus!) Instead, you felt like a big ol’ “flapjack”?? By the way, the origin of the word “flapjack” means “To Toss” and “To Flatten”. Yes, that about covers it!
That describes exactly how David may be feeling about now.
Trust me when I say that he had an entirely different direction in mind. He was headed for “The International House of Promises”.
We find David right at this location in today’s passage, “When David took his census, he did not count those who were younger than twenty years of age, because the Lord had promised to make the Israelites AS NUMEROUS AS THE STARS IN HEAVEN” (27:23)
As you read through today’s “LIST of STARS” (the Israelites returning home), you will see that they do go on for at least a galaxy in this passage alone!
Do you see the problem with David’s ‘International House of Promises”?
Basically, he traded PANCAKES for POOP!
I don’t know how to put this more delicately because the enemy of God succeeded in his temptation of David and now 70,000 Israelites are DEAD because of this DECEPTION!
He started “Counting” instead of “Counting on God”.
Did God need David to count “The Stars in the Heaven”?
David CONFESSES his sin, but this does not eliminate his CONSEQUENCES!
God sends a prophet, (Gad, the Seer) to give David three choices: 1) Three years of famine, 2) Three months to be swept away before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you. 3) Three days of the sword of the LORD, even pestilence in the land. ( 21:12)
This term, “Sword of the Lord” signifies “The Destroying Angel”.
David was in great distress and unable to make a decision, so he casts himself and the nation “into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are very great.” ( 21:13)
This is the kind of cute verse that we just like to tack up on our mirror for our daily mediation.
However, this verse is really about David being on death row with all of his people who are condemned because of his sin and they are being punished with death while he is walking free.
Why is this you may wonder?
There is an answer that perhaps you have sailed right on by. Yet, It occurred twice in this passage...The words are, “The Sword of the Lord”! ( 21:13) Now, let’s look at the next occurrence.
“The tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place of Gibeon, But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was AFRAID of the SWORD of the ANGEL of the LORD.” (21:29-30)
Look at what Hebrews 4:12 tells us about this matter, “The sword is alive, active, and sharper than any sword you can imagine. This sword divides soul and spirit and it can judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
The problem is that David is guilty, and the sword stands for the justice of God.
Why would a loving God have wrath at unrighteousness?
Can’t he just overlook it? After all, God has no limitations. Right?
Yet, scripture tells us that God limits himself. He is limited to Truth and Righteousness. He must be true to HIS nature. He is Light and in HIM there is no darkness at all. God does not alter his moral character. A JUST God by essence demands JUSTICE!
So, what is David to do? And what will God do now that David has thrown himself into the ‘Hands of God” for His Mercy is GREAT”. (21:13)
At David’s desperate moment, the LORD called HIS angel to “Relax your hand”. The angel was “standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite (v. 15)
David doesn’t know it just yet, but just as his father, Abraham, found out when he went to offer his only son at Mount Moriah, Yahweh Yireh (Hebrew for “The Lord will provide”) will make a way!
Tomorrow, we will find out how David’s deliverance was part of a much “GRANDER SCHEME”.
