Reward of Intimacy with God Part 2

In this Bible Fellowship session, the speaker discusses the consequences of King David's prideful decision to order a count of the people of Israel. The speaker highlights Joab's reluctance to carry out the count and his attempt to protect the Levites and the tribe of Benjamin. The speaker emphasizes the importance of being mindful of the authority under which one submits and the need to pray for leaders. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of repentance and the discipline of God. The session ends with a reminder of the power of God's Word. Praise God. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. People of God, praise the Lord. And with Jesus' joy, we are delighted to welcome you again to this week's Bible Fellowship at the Wheatfield International Network. And this is where God does the miraculous, and this is the place of intimacy with God. We are very grateful to be able to bring the Word of God to you this evening, and today we're going to continue with part two of our message from last Sunday, Reward for Intimacy with God. Our study is drawn from the book, the First Chronicles, the book of First Chronicles, chapter 21, verses 1 to 29. Last week we dealt with verses 1 to 4, and this week we're going to continue from verse 5 all the way to verse 11. And so last week we saw King David. We saw King David ordering a count, a census of the people of Israel. And his order to Joab, the commander of his army, was to go count the people and bring the number of the people to him. And so for no particular purpose, other than what seemed like pride, King David set up the entire nation for guilt with God, because the Bible says that Satan moved him to do this. We also saw that Joab was reluctant, because he knew that this count was going to offend God. And he was very reluctant to offend God in this way, and he also knew that the people of Israel were going to suffer for what David was getting ready to do. And so he tried to discourage David from this thing. But, you know, David being his boss, he was obligated to do as he was told, because the Bible said in verse 4, nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. And so Joab went ahead and counted the people and brought the number back to King David. Last week we also talked about pride, about the dangers of pride, and how pride can quickly bring a person down from great heights of promotion, because pride is offensive to God. And so we saw that David now, having been helped by God, now successful, a great king, his military, mighty, the nation, doing good, obviously he had now become overtaken by pride. And he was making decisions in pride that had serious consequences on the people whom he led. And so we talked about how we must be very mindful of the type of authority under which we submit. Now we should submit, because the Bible says we must submit to authority, but we also have the free will to choose, to decide, to do the right thing when it becomes obvious to us that this authority over us is leading us away from the purposes and the will of God to make informed choices. So we need to be mindful, we talked about the need to be mindful of the authority under which we submit ourselves, so that we don't knowingly or unknowingly become guilty of offense to God because of the disobedience of someone else, the disobedience of a leader. So these were our subjects which we examined last week. So this week, today, we are going to delve deeper into the Word of God, beginning at verse 5, and we are confident that God, by His Word, through His Spirit, would reveal to us some Kingdom Truths and some secrets of the Word. So let's pray. Holy Spirit, we invite you because you are the Spirit of Knowledge, you are the Spirit of God, you are the Great Teacher. We invite that you will come tonight, teach us your Word, anoint the speaker to speak even as the oracles of God, bring light, bring understanding, bring deep revelation, unlock the mysteries of the Kingdom to us tonight, so that we can understand the Word of God even better, help us to expound the Word of God more perfectly tonight. In the name of Jesus, Amen. And so, we are going to go straight to the Word at 1 Chronicles chapter 21, starting from verse 5, which reads, Then Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to David. The Bible says, But he did not count Levi and Benjamin among them, for the king's word was abominable to Joab. Verse 7, And God was displeased with this thing, therefore he struck Israel. Verse 8, So David said to God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing, but now, I pray, take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly. Then the Lord spoke to Gad, verse 9, David's seer, saying, Go and tell David, saying, Thus says the Lord, I offer you three things, choose one. Choose one of them for yourself, that I may do it to you. Verse 11, So Gad came to David and said to him, Thus says the Lord, choose for yourself, Either three years of famine, or three months to be defeated by your foes, with the sword of your enemies overtaking you, or else for three years, three days, the sword of the Lord, the plague in the land. Or else for three days, the sword of the Lord, the plague in the land, with the angel of the Lord, destroying throughout all the territory of Israel. Now consider, what answer I shall take back to him who sent me. We are going to stop right there, we have actually read up to verse 12, to make sense of the scripture, we had to go all the way to verse 12. And so now, we see here, that David has ordered a count. Joab, as a man under authority, has gone ahead to count the people. And the Bible says, he counted the men who drew sword. Which might suggest to us, the real reason David ordered this count in the first place, he wanted to know his military might, he wanted to be reminded of his military might. He wanted to be reminded that his kingdom was now great and mighty, and he wanted to know specifically, how many men drew the sword. But the Bible tells us that Joab didn't count Levi, Joab didn't count Benjamin, that's in verse 6, we touched on that also last week. And that's because Joab, he wasn't incited by Satan, because he wasn't incited by Satan, he was able to be clear minded enough to spare the Levites and the tribe of Benjamin from guilt. The Levites, as you know, are the ones who support the priests in their duties. The tribe of Benjamin produced the first king of Israel, Saul. So perhaps, we can actually see that in the divine order, Joab was probably trying to protect the priests and the kings. So because if you follow the story now, and we put some spiritual imagination into it, you'll see how he singled out these two tribes, the Levites, the helpers of the priests, and also the tribe of Benjamin. The tribe of Benjamin produced the first king, Saul. And so we can say that Joab was trying to protect the priesthood and kingship of Israel. And you know, the Bible says that we are kings and priests unto God. And as such, Joab might have been, in that context, acting as a type of Christ, protecting God's elect from destruction. So Joab, because you know the Bible is full of types and shadows, the Bible talks about the Old Testament really was a shadow of the New Testament. So in the Old Testament, we can see Christ revealed in the actions of many characters in the Bible. So in this context, Joab was acting as a type of Christ, protecting the Christians who are priests and kings unto God. So knowing that judgment was going to fall on the people, Joab now took the place of Christ, protecting the elect, that's the Levites, and Benjamin, the tribe of Benjamin, who produced the kings. And that's because Joab knew, he knew being a military man, he also knew being a man filled with wisdom, that this act by David was going to have consequences. And the consequence of that was going to be judgment. And that judgment was going to be inevitable, unless the count was not done. As long as the count was not done, there was going to be consequences, there was going to be judgment from God, and the judgment was going to be inevitable. And that judgment was going to fall on the land, because it was evident to him that Satan was attempting to undermine God's authority in Israel. Because remember, in verse 1, the very first verse of the scripture, the Bible says, Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to count. The ultimate purpose of this was to undermine God's authority, using the authority of man, i.e. David, to undermine the authority of God. And Joab couldn't get in the middle of that. Joab was trying to act as an intercessor between the people and judgment. Again, he was acting as Christ, he was taking the role of Christ. And actually, the name Joab, when you look up the meaning of the name Joab, it means Jehovah is his father. That's the meaning of Joab. And we know that the father of Jesus Christ is Jehovah. So, when you examine this text, you will find so many indicators, shadows, revealing to us Christ even in the Old Testament. And here is a good example of Joab typifying Christ, and the role that Christ will come and play in the lives of the believers, the Christians. And so, in verse 7, we see that God was displeased with what David had done. God was displeased with David. And verse 7, if we just go to the word, the Bible says, And God was displeased with this thing. Therefore, he struck Israel. There had to be judgment. There had to be judgment. Because, you know, God is a righteous judge. God loved David because the Bible said that David was a man after God's own heart. You would have imagined that because God loved David so much, he probably would have turned a blind eye to what David did. But, you see, God is a righteous judge. Actions have consequences. And so, when we sin against God, regardless of who it might be, we must be ready to face the consequences unless we repent. Although now we have Jesus as an advocate who intercedes for us because the Bible says that Jesus Christ is seated in heaven making intercession for us. So Jesus makes intercession for the saints. But remember, at that time, Jesus hadn't come. But, you see, like I said, even though Jesus hadn't come, we see that God was placing people strategically in certain points in Israel's journey to act the role of intercessor with Jesus who will come and do when he came in the flesh. So in this context, Joab was the intercessor. But David wouldn't let Joab intercede. So we see that even though Jesus hadn't come at that time, his role as intercessor was already in play. So, again, God is righteous. His eyes do not behold iniquity. So once there is sin, there has to be a wage. And the Bible says the wages of sin is death. So there had to be judgment. There had to be repercussions. There had to be consequences for what David had done. And because David acted on behalf of Israel, the judgment came upon the nation of Israel because David was leader of Israel. Now, if you remember, the Bible says that Levi was... God chose the tribe of Levi as his firstborn. God chose the tribe of Levi as his firstborn. So because Joab didn't count Levi and didn't count Benjamin, it's safe to assume that Levi and Benjamin were spared from that judgment. Still, Israel suffered the consequences, the actions of one man. And, you know, sometimes the consequences of our actions are so serious and so foundational that this is why, again, I go back to the previous admonition of why we must, as believers, be very mindful of the authority under which we submit. That's on one part. But on the other part, this is another reason why, as people of God, we must constantly pray for our leaders. We must pray for God to give our leaders wisdom to help them make the right decisions so that we, the people, we don't suffer consequences of their errors in judgment. Because the Bible says we must submit to authority. So even if we're mindful of the authority under which we submit ourselves, there are occasions where we can extricate ourselves from up under that leadership. So now we have Jesus, we have Christ, we have the Holy Spirit of intercession, but still there are some consequences that are heavy and result from the errors in judgment of our leaders. So it's imperative that we pray for our leaders. Now, in verse 8, we see David. David is now remorseful. He is now remorseful. He is now fully aware of the consequences of his proudful decision. And verse 8 says, So David said to God, I have sinned greatly, trying to say that this is my responsibility. And he says, because I have done this thing. But now I pray, take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done foolishly. David is trying to say to the Lord, this is my fault. Judge me. Let me suffer the consequences of my actions. But like I said before, David wasn't acting in his own capacity alone. He was acting in the capacity of leader of Israel. So his judgment, his decision to count Israel had consequences based upon his role as the king of Israel. So therefore, the judgment had to come upon the nation because he was acting in a representative capacity. And so, because David is so sorry, now he's aware of what he's done. Even though at the time when he had the opportunity to listen to counsel and do the right thing, he didn't. But now he's sorry, he's trying to negotiate with God, he's trying to enter into a dialogue with God. Again, what he's trying to do is to spare his people because David loves his people so much, he's trying to spare them the pain and the suffering from what he has done. But it's a little too late. It's a little too late because now God is upset. God is not happy with him, so God is not interested in communicating directly with David. God has nothing to say to David, but he has something to say. And so we see that in verse 9 the Bible says, Then the Lord spoke. So the Lord spoke, he just wasn't interested in speaking to David. The Lord spoke to Gad, David's seer. So the Lord could hear David very clearly. The Lord could hear him clearly, he just wasn't interested in talking to him. Because you see the Bible says in Isaiah 59 verses 1 and 2, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot see, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear you. So iniquities, if there's sin in our lives, if there's iniquity, God isn't going to hear us, but he's not going to talk to us. And that's why we must use the speakings of God as a barometer of the state of our lives spiritually. God's ears are open to us, even when we sin against him, he hears us, he won't talk to us, but his covenant love keeps the door open for his children to always walk back in. So iniquity might prevent, not iniquity, iniquity does prevent communication with God, but because God will not stoop so low to talk to you if you're an unrepentant sinner, otherwise how would you know that you're in sin, how would you know that your life isn't displeasing God, your life is rather displeasing God. So that tells me that, and this happens a lot in my life, in my walk with Christ, when God is quiet, we must check ourselves, we must conduct a spiritual scan of our lives. There might be unrepentant sin somewhere, and usually that sin is pride. If God is no longer speaking clearly, we need to be quick and do a scan, because there might be sin in our life, and you know what happens when there's sin and our life's judgment is next door. Usually, the root cause of God's silence is pride, pride in our life. So the Bible says that God, God spoke, God answered David, but God didn't speak to David, He spoke to God, and in verse 9, we see, verses 9 to 11, 9 to 12 actually, we see that God has offered David three things. God has cancelled David at this point, God isn't having a one-on-one communication with him, He's cancelled. So God is sending word to him through his seer, and gives him an opportunity to choose his own punishment. And so now, in addition to the punishment of seeing his beloved Israel suffer so much because of his momentary lapse in judgment, God has given him the added responsibility of custom designing his own punishment. Choose which of these three painful punishments you prefer, says the Lord to David. No doubt, when all this is done, David will be a lot more careful, a lot more circumspect in his behavior, knowing that even though he's a man after God's own heart, God does not shirk his responsibility of discipline of his people. God will check his people, because if he doesn't check you, who will check you? The way God checks you is totally different from the way the world checks you, from the way Satan checks you, because Satan does check you. You know, the Bible says, and we'll get to that next week, because we're getting close to the end of our meeting this evening. The Bible says that David, in choosing his preferred punishment, said he would rather fall into the hands of God than fall into the hands of man, because man has no mercy, man will annihilate his enemy. But God, even when angry, God still has mercy, especially for someone he loves so dearly. So now David is in anguish. He has offended God, he has offended his people, and he has disappointed himself. That's not an enviable place to be. That is not an enviable place to be. When God isn't happy with you, your people are unhappy with you, your friends, your family, they're not happy with you, and you, you're disappointed in yourself. Many people will go straight into depression, and it will be hard to move on. But you see, David was a man who knew how to encourage himself. And one thing I love about David, which the Bible says endeared David to God also, is David was quick to repent. That's why we see in verse 7, David says, David, we can see already in verse 7, verse 6, where are we now? Yes, verse 8, David says to God, I have sinned, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing. And David goes on to say, I have done very foolishly. David is quick to repent, he's quick to be remorseful, and mean it, and learn from his mistakes. And that's why David was so beloved by God and was so prospered. David had done worse things. David is a man who committed adultery, who found a woman he wanted, sent his husband to the war, organized with this Saint Joab. This Saint Joab who was so conscientious to protect the Levites and the tribe of Benjamin from destruction, by refusing to count them. He willingly conspired against Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, for David, and got Uriah killed in the war, so David could have Uriah's wife. So, Joab obviously wasn't all that righteous, if he could do this. But in this moment, in this context, he was righteous, the righteousness of God was manifested through Joab. That's to tell you that, you know, we're all human beings. We have our moments of triumph, moments that we stand up triumphant, and we have our moments of weakness. In our own selves, in the flesh, we really don't have much strength to do anything good or righteous, because the Bible says there is nothing good in the flesh. What makes the difference is the presence of the Holy Spirit who inhabits us and helps us to do right by God. So Joab in this context was, you know, an upstanding man. But there are other places in the Bible that Joab didn't do so good. So we all have frailties, we all have sinned and fallen short. We all need Jesus, we all need Holy Ghost, we all need the Word, we all are in a journey to perfection. And so, this week, we are going to leave our study here and we will carry on next week. It's always a joy and an honor, a great privilege to be able to bring God's Word to the people of God. It's always, for me, it just makes me so delighted and so grateful to be able to delve into the Word of God and see some truth, you know, see light in the Word of God. And I'm grateful and I really truly pray that tonight what we have heard will come alive and take root in our hearts and really help us to become even more excellent. And you know the Word of God is alive and powerful, so says the Bible. The Word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It's able to cut asunder the soul and the spirit. It's a discerner of the intents and the thoughts of the heart. Nothing is hid before the Word. When the Word of God is deployed, the power of God is deployed. The power of God follows His Word. Once God's Word is deployed, miracles follow the Word. And so tonight I'm grateful once again for the enablement to bring the Word. Before we clock out tonight, I would like us to pray. I feel led to have us pray and our prayer tonight will come from the Word of God in the book of Jeremiah chapter 30 verses 16 and 17. And the Bible says, Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured, and all your adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity. Those who plunder you shall become plunder, and all who pray upon you I will make a praise. This is the Word of God. Verse 17 says, For I will restore health to you, and heal you, and heal your wounds. I will restore health to you, and heal you of your wounds, says the Lord. Because they called you an outcast, saying this is Zion. No one seeks her. So tonight we are going to pray in the name of Jesus Christ. We are going to bring God's Word before Him. And we are going to pray this prayer for ourselves. So now in the name of Jesus Christ, I want us to pray that devourers, devourers in our lives shall be devoured. In the name of Jesus, let's pray. Devourers in our lives, we decree and we declare that devourers in our lives shall be devoured. We decree and we declare by the authority and the unfailing Word of God, by the power in the name of Jesus Christ, our adversaries, every one of them we decree, they shall go into captivity. They shall be held captive in the name of Jesus. All who plunder us, they also themselves they become plunder. All who pray upon us, God today makes them pray in the name of Jesus. Everywhere they go, they themselves they become prey in the name of Jesus. We decree and we declare tonight that God has restored health to us. God has restored health to our finances. God has restored health to our minds, to our ministries, to our homes, our marriages. God has restored health to our state of mind, to our opportunities. God has restored health to our families, our relationships, our businesses, our careers. In the name of Jesus we decree and we declare that God has healed our wounds. God has healed us of our wounds, our inner man, our inner child, our self-esteem, any and every wound that we have suffered from trauma, from any kind of traumatic events. God has healed us and today we decree we are no longer outcast. We declare that we are no longer outcast, we are beloved of the Lord. We decree that tonight we enter into the congregation of greatness for the favor of our God is upon us, for the glory of our God is upon us in the name of Jesus. This week we command open doors, supernatural open doors. We command divine abundance, we command restoration upon our lives tonight in the name of Jesus Christ. So it is and it is done in Jesus name. So again thank you very much for joining us in our study this evening. The Lord bless you and the Lord keep you. The Lord cause His face to shine upon you and the Lord give you peace. Blessings.