The Trap of Good Ideas

2 Samuel 24:10

And David's heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”

Proverbs 14:12

There is a way that seems right to a man,

But its end is the way of death.

David is a man after God's own heart. He knows God and loves God, and he has experienced the favor and power of God no king had ever known. Yet even this great leader fell hard into the trap of good ideas - that is, a tone-deafness, and a life out of harmony with God's Word and counsel. David thought he knew God's voice and His heart, but he failed to heed the deceitfulness of his riches and his own heart. Therefore, he could not distinguish God's will from his own, and he made the costly mistake of numbering that which belonged to God - and those numbers threatened to become His god. 

A dull conscience is the inevitable result of pride that goes undetected and unabated. Pride is undetectable because it is blind to itself, and David erred greatly by ignoring Joab's pleas to reconsider his folly. David was too proud to be corrected, or even to stop long enough to pray, so his conscience did not kick in until it was too late.

David's decision to count God's people would cost Him a great number of those same people.

1 Timothy 6:6 says, 

Now godliness with contentment is great gain.

Even in his great prosperity, David was not content, and his enterprising spirit was an affront to God's miraculous provision and plan for Israel. Even today, we are often intrigued by numerical success and financial wherewithal at the expense of true riches. Perhaps we should spend less time counting what God has given and more time thanking Him for it. Perhaps it would be wise to be sure our good ideas are God ideas. Perhaps . . .

Love and peace,

Pastor Eric