Respect

Toward the end of David’s reign, David commanded a census be taken of God’s people. It took his commander, Joab, nine months and twenty days to complete the pain-staking task of counting the number of capable warriors ‘from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south’. David wanted to know how many were in Israel and he found out that he had over a million capable men ready for war. “But after he had taken the census, David’s conscience began to bother him” (2 Samuel 24:10a).
Why was David convicted? At one point, David himself penned these words: “Some nations boast of their chariots and horses, but we boast in the name of the LORD our God” (Psalm 20:7). Why was David now seeking numerical figures when the Lord alone deserved his focus? David didn’t need to count on a mighty army to defeat the Lord’s battles. He knew that God had given him the victory in the fiercest of times. Like David, in our quest for more, we sometimes forget that everything we have achieved, accomplished, and yes, avoided is because of God’s mercy and power.