In the latter years of King David, we are told that “the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying,”Go and take a census of Israel and Judah” (2 Sam. 24:1). As the account is laid out, David commanded Joab to go throughout Israel and Judah and count all the fighting men. Joab immediately objected, but David insisted.

The issue seems to have been that counting the fighting men was either motivated by pride or was a sign the King was trusting in the strength of his army rather than in the God of Israel. Either way, even Joab was offended by the idea and he was not a particularly spiritual man. Whatever the issue, it opened up David and, consequently, Israel to the attacks of Satan.

When the census had been completed, the text says that David was conscience stricken and asked forgiveness from the Lord (2 Sam. 24:10). However, things were already set in motion. The Lord sent Gad the prophet to David saying that David was to choose one of three punishments for Israel: three years of famine, three months of fleeing before their enemies, or three days of plague. David chose plague because it was totally in the hands of God, rather than choosing war and placing the nation in the hands of some human enemy. Before the plague ended, seventy thousand Israelites died over a three day period. Three are several spiritual principles that we should draw from this story.

1. A rebellious nation, at some point, will bring judgment on itself. God is patient and long suffering, but even that has limits. God is full of grace and love but he is also holy and righteous. He is very clear through scripture, that his love and grace abound toward those who love him and keep his commandments, but discipline and judgment will eventually come on those who rebel. He warns, he pleads, he sends partial judgments, but when the people insist by their continued rebellion, he will release the fullness of his judgment. Like any loving parent, he does not desire to punish his children, but he will do so when necessary for their sake.

2. Sometimes, God punishes a nation through its leaders. If you have ever wondered how in the world certain men were elected to high office when they were obviously unfit by lack of capacity or character, you might consider the sovereignty of God in the matter. We often blame political leaders for the woes of our nation, but the nation may well be the problem more than its leaders…especially when the nation elects its leaders. Poor leaders make bad decisions that cost those they lead…sometimes in disastrous proportions. During the Bill Clinton presidency, some raised the question as to whether character really mattered in a president as long as the was a shrewd politician. The biblical response would be absolutely. Scripture declares that thrones are established (maintained, secured) through righteousness (Pr. 16:12). Unrighteousness will undermine the throne and the government and people it represents.

In 1 Chronicles 21:1, when the same incident is reported, we are told that “Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.” Here we have an account where God doesn’t cause a man to sin because God cannot be tempted nor does he tempt anyone (Ja. 1:13), but because of Israel’s rebellion, Satan procured a legal right to attack the nation through its king. In this case, Satan prompted the sin, but God determined the judgment. The “2 Samuel version” that says. “God incited David,” simply recognizes the ultimate sovereignty of God…that God allowed Satan to incite David. God allowed it because he is a just God and Satan brought the charge of rebellion against Israel. In doing so, God’s justice demanded that Satan be given the right to bring judgment on the nation.

3. Trust in God, not in men. When God told David to choose the judgment for the nation, David gave a wise response. He simply said, ” Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great, but do not let me fall into human hands” (2 Samuel 24:14). It is always better to trust God than to put your fate in the hands of men. God will bring judgment and discipline, but it is always measured and its purpose it to turn us or a nation back to him so that he can bless again.

It is a bad idea to try to avoid God’s discipline. When I was a kid, my parents would warn me. “Tell the truth. You may get in trouble, but it won’t be as bad as the trouble you’ll be in if we find you are lying to us.” In the Old Testament, God scolded Israel on several occasions because they tried to avoid his discipline and the second round of discipline was much harder than if they had simply submitted to the punishment God had directed toward them initially.

4. It is not a sacrifice, if if costs us nothing. As this story unfolds, seventy thousand Israelites die from a plague in a period of three days. As David was crying out for God’s mercy on behalf of the people, he was enabled to see the angel of the Lord standing over Jerusalem with a drawn sword that was releasing the plague. In a moment of mercy, God relented and called off the angel and the judgment before it took its full measure.

As God relented, David was instructed to offer a sacrifice on behalf of the people. He was instructed to build an altar on the threshing floor of a man called Araunah the Jebusite. David asked to purchase the threshing floor, wood, and oxen for the sacrifice. Araunah offered to give it to David for free, but David concluded, “No, I insist on paying for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” David paid full price, offered the sacrifice on behalf of the people, and the plague was stopped.

In the days of David, people had not forsaken the temple or the sacrifices. However, after “worship” and offering their obligatory sacrifices, they lived as they wanted to and their hearts were far from God. We can go through the motions of worship and sacrifice and yet not be doing those things as a sign of our love and surrender to God. In the days of David and there after, Israel often would sacrifice the sheep and cattle they didn’t want – the lame, the blind, the blemished.

Sometimes we only give God the leftovers instead of the first fruits or the best of what we have. We only serve when it is convenient, we only give when we have already bought everything we want. We only show up to encourage our spiritual family when we don’t get a “better offer.” We may be surprised to discover that those are not acceptable sacrifices because they were only tokens and cost us very little or nothing at all. God gave his best. We honor that sacrifice by giving our best.

When a nation who once knew and honored God begins to offer only lip service to God or says all the right things but then lives like the devil, judgment is on the way…not because God is unkind but because he is holy and just. The flaws may be noticed first in the leaders, because media may place them under the microscope, but the leaders may simply be a reflection of the heart of the majority of men and women in that nation and God has given the people what they wanted.

There may well be a core of God’s people who hate what the culture is doing, but judgment may still come and they will be effected. Remember Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? They were righteous men who loved the Lord, but were still deported to Babylon and separated from their homes and families. God was with them, but they still underwent severe trials because their nation as a whole, had abandoned God.

Politics will not save us. Only re-evangelizing America will do so, so that righteous people will elect righteous leaders. God desires to bless, but he is also holy. Only revival in America, in the church and the nation, will keep Satan from retaining a legal right to devastate this nation through its own leaders and foreign enemies. Even now, many American leaders are sponsoring laws that promote and protect the very things for which God has destroyed nations. Pray for the nation by praying for the church to once again preach the gospel in America with boldness and righteousness…a sacrifice that will cost us something.

Tom Crandall wrote an article lately about fear. It captured my attention because when we have Freedom Weekends, about 75% of all participants stand to be ministered to regarding fear. Fear may manifest as anxiety, a crippling fear of rejection, an unhealthy fear of death, an anticipation of abandonment by those we love, etc. This is a very simple and basic approach, but one I think is worth commenting on.

Crandall enumerated 3 steps to overcome fear:

• Recognize fear is a demonic spirit.
• Understand that behind every fear is a lie.
• Invite the Holy Spirit to disarm fear with truth by writing out the real story.
  

Recognize Fear As A Demonic Spirit

Paul instructed Timothy, “For we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7). Fear is the anticipation of serious pain, loss, threat, or injury. A generalized belief that something bad is going to happen to create physical or emotional pain is anxiety. What we often fail to recognize is that feelings are always produced by beliefs. So if I feel anxious, I believe that something harmful is coming my way, even if I can’t define what that “something” is. Our belief may not be readily apparent to us, but it is there.

One of the strategies of the enemy is to assign a demonic spirit to us that fuels the belief that produces fear. That spirit will whisper uncertainty to us and cause us to interpret events so that we feel threatened by what is happening or by what may happen in the future. Our belief may be based on an experience from our childhood when we felt alone, uncared for, abandoned, abused, or as if no one could protect us from harm or from evil. That kind of experience typically makes us feel as if we are on our own and that no one will care for us, provide for us, or protect us except ourselves…and we sense that we cannot even protect ourselves at times.

When those beliefs are seated deeply in our hearts, we will find it almost impossible to trust someone else. We may suspect that there is something defective about is that ultimately keeps others from loving us and caring for us. We will typically be high on “control” because we only begin to feel safe when we are in control of our relationships and environment. We may even anticipate that anyone who loves us will eventually reject or abandon us. The enemy will fuel those fears and beliefs at every opportunity. In most cases, we will also project those beliefs onto God…that he can’t be trusted, that he won’t be there for us, and that he doesn’t really love us.

Understand That Behind Every Fear Is A Lie

What we believe determines nearly everything else in our lives. The ultimate lie that Satan peddles is that God isn’t looking out for us. The first lie peddled was in the Garden of Eden when Satan suggested to Adam and Eve that God was withholding good things from them and his promises were hollow. So, instead of trusting God for those good things, they took matters into their own hands and ate from the Tree. They turned their backs God and lost their place in the Garden.

Satan crafts his lies to draw us, at least our hearts, away from God. Like the Prodigal Son of Luke 15, we can decide that our Father is keeping good things from us and leave the protection and provision of his house. Once we do that, we are fair game for Satan. And, like the prodigal, one bad decision tends to lead to another as we try to control our lives and secure our own happiness or well being.

One of the core lies that Satan fuels is that if any hurtful experiences come our way, it means that God doesn’t love us, protect us, or provide for us. Satan whispers a false narrative that God promised to make our lives a rose garden and anything short of that is a betrayal by a God who cannot truly be trusted. But God never promised us life on this planet would be pain free. In fact, Jesus promised just the opposite. He declared that in this world we will have trouble (Jn.16:33). He also alerted us that we would likely experience persecution, rejection, and betrayal even by those we love.

The Word does not promise a lack of trouble or pain, but only that God will see us through those moments and seasons. The truth is that every human being will let us down at some level because we are human – weak and frail. The truth is that God is the only one we can ultimately trust to watch over us and deliver us from the hard times and attacks of the enemy. God has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you (Her. 13:5). We must count that as truth and believe it by faith rather than sight when hard times come or when God doesn’t bail us out of a crisis immediately because he is using the crisis to develop something in us or someone else we are involved with.

Invite The Holy Spirit To Disarm Fear With Truth By Writing Out The Real Story

Jesus told us that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and will teach us all things (Jn. 14). Sometimes the lies of the enemy have been with us so long that we don’t recognize them for what they are but our agreement with them can give Satan a legal right to continue to harass and afflict us. David asked God to search his heart and show him of there was anything offensive (out of line with God’s truth) in him (Ps. 139:23). That should be our regular prayer as well. When we discover the lie we have agreed with, we must repent and renounce the lie.

If we are afraid, we can know that our fear is overshadowing our faith. The enemy will unrelentingly fuel that fear until his is discovered and driven out by the authority of Jesus. Once we have recognized the lie and repented of partnering with that lie, we can command the a spirit of fear to leave us. Many believers have commanded that spirit to depart without success because they still harbor a view of God that doubts his goodness, love, protection, and provision for them. We must decide that the Word of God is true and stand on that truth when our eyes cannot yet perceive what God is doing in our situation. We must choose to give God’s word more authority than our emotions or our interpretations of past experiences colored by Satan’s lies. We should also pray regularly for the Spirit to increase our faith when we find it lacking.

Jesus said, ‘Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (Jn. 8:32). The key to overcoming fear and the key to contentment, security, and confidence is knowing the truth and believing it. Root out those lies and then fill those spaces with the truth of God. Be blessed in this season of Thanksgiving.

Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear expensive clothes and indulge in luxury are in palaces. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.” I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John.” John 7:24-28

In the passage above, Jesus was referring to John the Baptist. He praised him in front of a large crowd of Jews who had weaned on stories about the great prophets of Israel. Jesus declared that among men and prophets, there were none greater than John. When you consider Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah and Isaiah….that is quite a statement. Especially, when you consider that John never performed a recorded miracle. He didn’t write extensive books or prophecies against nations. He didn’t have a forty year career of prophesying and counseling kings. His ministry was brief, remarkably unrecorded, and he even had moments when he wondered if Jesus were the Messiah after all.

So what made him great and what makes us great in the kingdom of God? We can tell from the passage that John had been given a ministry of preparation – preparing the hearts of Israel to recognize and receive Jesus as their Messiah. He had one job. He pointed the broken to Jesus and confronted the self-righteous about their hypocrisy. No miracles, no extensive writings, no supernatural rescues. What he did bring was a few short years of uncompromised preaching about the one who was coming. He was totally faithful in the purpose that God had ordained for him.

We are clearly told by the Psalmist (Ps. 139:16) that everyday ordained for us was written in God’s book before one of them came to pass. The things written before our birth are the purposes of God for our life on the earth. His desire is that we discover and fulfill those purposes. Perhaps, our greatness in heaven will be measured by how well we fulfill God’s purposes for us. Those purposes will look different for each of us so we cannot compare ourselves to others or what they do for Jesus. Our call is to be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit and then be as faithful as possible to fulfill what God has called us to so. I think that was part of John’s greatness. That was certainly the greatness of Jesus. On the other hand, too many of us pursue our own purposes in this life and then expect God to bless our pursuit.

Sometimes we feel insignificant in the things we find ourselves doing for Jesus. We may serve quietly in the shadows week after week, we may never build a great church, we may never lead hundreds to Christ…but if we are faithful with the opportunities put before us, we can be deemed great in the kingdom of heaven. In a biography of Billy Graham we are told that he was born in a farmhouse outside Charlotte, North Carolina. He grew up on a dairy farm. When he was sixteen he was turned down for membership in a local youth group because he was considered “too worldly.” However, a farm worker named Albert McMakin, persuaded Graham to go hear an evangelist named Mordecai Ham. Graham was converted during a series of those revival meetings held by Ham and the rest is history.

Before reviewing the biography, I never heard of McMakin or Ham, but their willingness to fulfill their purpose in a moment offered to them was essential in the gospel being preached to hundreds of thousands of people with untold numbers of responses. If McMakin had not been working on a farm and had not pointed Billy Graham to a revival, who knows if God’s purposes for Graham would have been fulfilled. We tend to measure things by worldly standards (numbers, name recognition, magazine covers, etc.), but heaven measures them differently Fulfilling God’s purposes for us is the thing…not my will but yours be done.

We may not always be clear on the purposes, but if we sincerley want to fulfill everything written in his book, I’m confident God will lead us into moments when those purposes can be fulfilled…even if we are not always aware we are doing so. I’m also convinced that sometimes we turn down his small purposes while waiting for the one we think will carry more weight. But the principle is that we must be faithful in little before he will make us faithful in much.

God does not exist to fulfill our longings for the things of this world, but we exist to fulfill his longings for us. And when we fulfill his longings for us, we experience his pleasure and his blessings. Let me encourage you to think about his purposes for your life in the days ahead and ask him to reveal those to you. Each purpose is significant but only God may know how significant a farm hand can be extending one invitation to a worldly teenager on a little farm in North Carolina.

Do you ever find yourself experiencing a sense of longing for something that you can’t quite identify? Maybe it is the sense that something unidentifiable is still missing that would make your life complete. Maybe it’s a haunting feeling that someday you will lose something or someone that that is very central to your life right now and that anticipated sense of loss releases a kind of sadness that is vague but very real. Have you ever thought about things you love in his world that you might miss when you have departed…even if your destination is heaven. Maybe it is the warmth of family, the sound of children laughing, a sunrise on the ocean, stars sprinkled through a desert sky, or mist rising off a mountain lake. Maybe it is the warmth of holidays or a wedding that you sense you will never experience again once you leave this world.

As believers, we anticipate heaven and know that something marvelous waits for us there, but somehow we sense we will still miss things we have come to love and appreciate on planet earth. We may even feel guilty for wanting to hold onto this physical experience more than we want to go to heaven as if that is a “worldly” rather than a “spiritual” mindset. Part of the challenge is that most of us have a very vague notion of what heaven will be like. The stereotypes of culture about heaven aren’t helpful. You know … the idea that we will drift on clouds playing harps or that we all become etherial and angelic beings without substance…spirits floating around with little to do. There is also the pervasive view that we will simply worship God every moment of eternity and in doing so, lose our sense of uniqueness and identity. We may believe we will just be part of enormous crowd declaring the praises of God…forever. As much as I love worship and God is worthy of it, that sounds mind numbing after a thousand years.

Perhaps, we also wonder if we will learn in heaven, create in heaven, achieve in heaven, build in heaven, compete in heaven, have fun in heaven or simply live an eternity that, if we are honest, may sound boring and unfulfilling…yet, at the same time, we know we will be thrilled to be in the presence of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It seems confusing.

But here is the good news about heaven. Heaven, ultimately, will be on this earth that we were designed to inhabit. If we read scripture carefully and literally for the most part, God’s plan is not for us to drift in some ethereal spiritual realm forever, but to inhabit the earth that he will restore to its original state before sin. Remember, he looked at his creation, including man, and called it all “Good!” Solomon said that God has placed eternity in our hearts. Because eternity is the idea of everlasting and everlasting means a state that goes back forever as well as forward forever, some of our unfulfilled longings may be for the earth we were created for before sin and the curse prompted a down grade. When I feel sad that I will miss the sunrise, a spring rain, or the Grand Tetons when I transition to heaven, I may be longing for the very things God initially intended for me to enjoy forever.

Paul tells is in Romans 8 that the creation is groaning to he released from its bondage to decay and will be released when God’s children are resurrected at the end. At the resurrection, we will receive bodies no longer subject to decay or death and so will all of creation. There is, of course, a heaven now that we call Paradise that seems to be an intermediate heaven where the saved will wait in comfort for the end of time. But it is not all that heaven will be because heaven will be on earth and God will dwell with his people there. All indications are that it will be much like the earth we know but without sin, without death, without natural disasters, and will be an incredible upgrade in every respect.

It was God’s original intent that man would rule over the earth, develop it, cultivate it, establish godly culture with godly art, music and architecture. God will not give up on his original intent for men. I believe we can anticipate learning, discovery, amazing art and music, and certainly festivals. The heavenly Jerusalem will settle on this earth and we will go up to the great city to celebrate God and all of his blessings. We will all be family and so our sense of family and familiarity will not wane but will be enhanced. There will be animals such that the lion will lie down with the lamb. Who knows what technology or travel or music will be like, but it surely will be part of heaven. What we won’t have is pain, hospitals, war, crime, loss, grief, or cemeteries.

We need to think more about heaven in concrete ways. We don’t need to feel as if we will never see the things we love about this world again, but will see them and experience them as huge upgrades to what already thrills us. We don’t even need to feel unspiritual when we think we might prefer earth to heaven, because in the end, they will be the same. So the next time you see something or hear something on this world that takes your breath away, thank God for it and look forward to being thrilled by even greater things when we live under the new heaven and on the new earth!