The Foolishness Of Not Trusting God
2 Samuel 24:1–30
One of the things God most wants from us and for us is to trust Him.
Proverbs 3:5–6 (NKJV)
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
Psalm 37:5 (NKJV)
Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.
Psalm 118:8 (NKJV)
It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.
Trust is not optional. It’s foundational.
- But here’s the problem: most Christians treat trusting God as ideal but not essential.
- We think, “If you can trust God great. But if you can’t He understands.”
The problem with that thinking is that when we stop trusting God, we start failing.
Every failure of obedience begins as a failure to trust God!
* People don’t trust God with relationships so they chase connections that pull them away from God’s purpose.
* People don’t trust God financially so they withhold generosity and miss out on supernatural blessing.
* People don’t trust God’s timing, so they take matters into their own hands and make a mess of what could’ve been a miracle!
And that is exactly what happened to David in 2 Samuel 24—David stopped trusting God and the results were devastating.
Just to give you an idea of how big a deal this matter of trusting God is...
- When the writer of Chronicles records David’s story, he doesn’t include the story of Bathsheba—one of David’s darkest moments—but he includes this story.
Why? Because in God’s eyes a lack of trust is just as destructive as a moral failure.
- This is not a side issue.
- Your trusting God is at the heart of your relationship with God and when it’s missing everything else falls apart!
As we make our way through 2 Samuel 24, we’ll see 3 areas:
1. David’s Sin
2. David’s Choice
3. David’s Sacrifice
1. David’s Sin
2 Samuel 24:1 (NIV)
Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”
1 Chronicles 21:1 (NIV)
Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.
How are we to understand that difference? Two ways:
1. God incited David and used Satan to do it.
2. David faced a situation and Satan tempted him.
> It is also true, according to the Hebrew thinking, that whatever God permits He commits. By allowing this census-taking, God is viewed as having brought about the act... Under the divine providence everything ultimately was attributed to Him; why not say He did it in the first place?
—Walter C. Kaiser Jr., Hard Sayings of the Old Testament
On the surface, taking a census doesn’t seem like that big a deal.
- But there were some problems with doing it:
1. He would be counting what wasn’t his—the people belonged to God.
2. Counting the people marked a shift from trusting in God’s strength and protection to relying on human strength.
David forgot that God’s protection doesn’t depend on human strength or numbers.
Let’s face it, we live in a world of numbers—where might = right and numbers = strength.
Where are you tempted to count instead of trust?
Maybe it’s your bank account—you know God’s called you to trust Him with the tithe, but your counting keeps you from giving.
Maybe it’s your abilities—you’ve started leaning on talent, thinking, “I’ve got this,” instead of “God’s got this.”
Maybe it’s your influence—you trust your connections more than God’s favor, as if your future depends on who you know instead of Who knows you!
David thought that counting would make him secure—but the more he counted, the less he trusted.
Budgets matter. Planning matters.
- But when numbers become your source of security, you’ve traded faith for formulas—and that will destroy your trust in God.
And the root of this problem was based in spiritual warfare—Satan incited David!
- Satan can put desires in your heart and follow them up with thoughts in your mind that justify those desires.
John 13:2 (ESV)
During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him.
Acts 5:3 (ESV)
But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit…?”
So in David’s case Satan put the thought to take a census into David’s mind and made it seem like military wisdom when in fact it was a lack of trusting God.
Do you realize Satan is subtly working to keep you from trusting God?
- You have to be careful about what thoughts you allow to live in your mind—because what the enemy can plant, he can produce!
Before you act on a thought—trace its source.
- Is this faith talking or fear talking?
- Is this biblical wisdom talking or worry talking?
2 Samuel 24:2–4 (NIV)
2 So the king said to Joab and the army commanders with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.”
3 But Joab replied to the king, “May the LORD your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?”
4 The king’s word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders; so they left the presence of the king to enroll the fighting men of Israel.
1 Chronicles 21:6–7 (NIV)
6 But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, because the king’s command was repulsive to him.
7 This command was also evil in the sight of God; so He punished Israel.
And no sooner had Joab finished with the census than David was conscience-stricken.
2 Samuel 24:10 (NIV)
David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, O LORD, I beg You, take away the guilt of Your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”
This is interesting: after he sinned with Bathsheba—which was much more obvious—God had to send a prophet to confront him.
- But in this case David’s conscience was overwhelmed with conviction.
- The more mature you are, the faster you repent!
- The more you know God, the faster your heart recognizes sin, sees it, gets rid of it, and repents!
2. David’s Choice
2 Samuel 24:11–13 (NIV)
11 Before David got up the next morning, the word of the LORD had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer:
12 “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for Me to carry out against you.’”
13 So Gad went to David and said to him, “Shall there come upon you three years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”
So David had 3 choices for his punishment:
1. 3 years of famine = hunger, economic collapse, devastation.
2. 3 months of fleeing from the enemy = war, destruction, captives.
3. 3 days of plague = swift but devastating judgment.
Some might ask: Why did God allow others to suffer for David’s sin?
- Here’s the answer: because your sin never just affects you!
- Every choice we make has consequences beyond ourselves.
- When it comes to sin, there is no such thing as a victimless crime.
This story is a vivid reminder that our sin is always more deadly than we realize and will create a ripple effect we cannot control.
1 Chronicles 21:14 (NIV)
So the LORD sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead.
2 Samuel 24:14 (NIV)
David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the LORD, for His mercy is great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.”
*Hebrew: His mercies are many*
The first two punishments would mean he would be at the mercy of people.
- And David said, “I trust the mercy of God more than I trust the mercy of people.”
David was about to face God’s punishment and yet he was convinced of God’s mercy!
- Somehow he knew that the God who would punish him would at the same time spare him.
- Do you have that view of God? That He is incurably merciful?
- We have a tendency to view God’s mercy as an exception He grants rather than a character trait He has.
I’m not saying God doesn’t judge sin—He has to or He’s neither just nor merciful.
David had it right: mercy will triumph over judgment.
3. David’s Sacrifice
1 Chronicles 21:15 (NIV)
And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was doing so, the LORD saw it and was grieved because of the calamity and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the LORD was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
2 things I want you to notice:
1. The emotion the Lord felt—He was grieved, He felt sorrow.
- God isn’t detached from the pain our sin causes.
- His heart breaks over the brokenness sin brings.
- Even before David repents, God has compassion.
2. Notice where the angel was standing—the threshing floor of Araunah.
- The Lord is going to take a place of judgment and turn it into a place of mercy!
1 Chronicles 21:16–17 (NIV)
David looked up and saw the angel of the LORD standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown.
David said to God, “Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted? I am the one who has sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? O LORD my God, let Your hand fall upon me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on Your people.”
David repented and instantly he was invited to worship.
- So often we think that once forgiven we have to walk on eggshells around God—but that’s not what He desires. He wants us to draw close.
1 Chronicles 21:18–27 (NIV)
David went up in obedience to the word that Gad had spoken in the name of the LORD.
Araunah said to David, “Take it! Let my lord the king do whatever pleases him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this.”
But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”
David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the LORD, and the LORD answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering. Then the LORD spoke to the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath.
What is this saying to us?
1. God is able to turn any situation around—He can redeem anything!
- This chapter starts with pride and ends with humility.
- It starts with Satan inciting David to sin and ends with God instructing David to worship.
- It starts with God’s anger at sin and ends with His mercy toward sinners.
- God is merciful to sinners—and the greatest example of that is Jesus dying for us.
2. Worship that honors God is both obedient and sacrificial.
- When you serve, sing, or give—is it your best or your leftovers?
- If your giving doesn’t move you, do you think it moves God?
3. Repentance is the key to avoiding judgment and experiencing blessing.
- David’s repentance resulted in both forgiveness and the opportunity to secure the site of Solomon’s temple.
- Could it be that like David you need to repent of pride or the self-reliance that makes you less reliant on God?
- Repentance is the mark of a mature Christian.
