After our King David had consolidated his power in Israel, conquering his surrounding enemies, an adversary stood against Israel, and incited David to conduct a census in the nation to determine the strength of his army before going to war.A new adversary approaches. Hasn't this happened before? How many enemies has David's army faced down because God was with him? Isn't this the same David who was willing to face a giant because God was going before him? This time something different happens though. Instead of trusting in God to win this battle, David turns to his troops, to his own strength for his assurance.
All of those years of struggle, David relied on God because he had no one else to rely on. All those years of hiding out in caves and running for his life, he depended on God for strength because he had no strength of his own. This is a different sort of test. Now David does have strength. He has the entire nation of Israel at his back. He has arrived. But he seems to have forgotten how he got there.
This is so easy to do. It is easy to call on God when everything in crumbling around us. It is also easy to forget who got us through those hard times when things start going well.
Where is the first place you turn when things get difficult? Do you think you are strong enough to face battles on your own? This is where I often get confused. The point of the struggle is not to make us strong so that we will not need God, but to teach us where our strength comes from. It doesn't matter if you have no money or if you run a multi-million dollar corporation. It doesn't matter if you have no friends or if you are surrounded by a crowd of people who love and support you. As soon as you try to draw your strength from somewhere other than God, you are going to fall on your face. This is exactly what David learned. He had learned to rely on God in times of weakness. Now he learns that he must also do so in times of apparent strength.
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