Working with computers can be frustrating at times. Several days ago, I was trying and trying and trying to do a specific task and every single time I tried; I FAILED!!! After several HOURS of attempting to do the same task in every conceivable way, I stood up and looked down at that thing and said something in frustration to it. Don't get me wrong - I didn't curse; it was something like "you stupid machine"! However, I said it at the very top of my voice and with such great force that my dog Pal (who was laying in his bed underneath that stupid machine) ran for his life. After awhile I calmed him down, but for the rest of the day, he was just not himself. All because he knew I was displeased about something!!! I wonder, what do we think about when we knowingly displease God. Here is the example of David...
1 Chronicles, Chapter 21
1 Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel. 2 David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, “Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know the sum of them.”
3 Joab said, “May Yahweh make his people a hundred times as many as they are. But, my lord the king, aren’t they all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel?”
4 Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem. 5 Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to David. All those of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew sword: and in Judah were four hundred seventy thousand men who drew sword. 6 But he didn’t count Levi and Benjamin among them; for the king’s word was abominable to Joab. 7 God was displeased with this thing; therefore he struck Israel. 8 David said to God, “I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.”
9 Yahweh spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying, 10 “Go and speak to David, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.”’”
11 So Gad came to David, and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘Take your choice: 12 either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days the sword of Yahweh, even pestilence in the land, and Yahweh’s angel destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.’”
13 David said to Gad, “I am in distress. Let me fall, I pray, into the hand of Yahweh; for his mercies are very great. Let me not fall into the hand of man.”
14 So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel; and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.
3 Joab said, “May Yahweh make his people a hundred times as many as they are. But, my lord the king, aren’t they all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel?”
4 Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem. 5 Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to David. All those of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew sword: and in Judah were four hundred seventy thousand men who drew sword. 6 But he didn’t count Levi and Benjamin among them; for the king’s word was abominable to Joab. 7 God was displeased with this thing; therefore he struck Israel. 8 David said to God, “I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.”
9 Yahweh spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying, 10 “Go and speak to David, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.”’”
11 So Gad came to David, and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘Take your choice: 12 either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days the sword of Yahweh, even pestilence in the land, and Yahweh’s angel destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.’”
13 David said to Gad, “I am in distress. Let me fall, I pray, into the hand of Yahweh; for his mercies are very great. Let me not fall into the hand of man.”
14 So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel; and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.
15 God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was about to destroy, Yahweh saw, and he relented of the disaster, and said to the destroying angel, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” Yahweh’s angel was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 16 David lifted up his eyes, and saw Yahweh’s angel standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces. 17 David said to God, “Isn’t it I who commanded the people to be numbered? It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Yahweh my God, be against me, and against my father’s house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued.”
In this story, David made mistakes: He listened to Satan, He didn't listened to Joab and he put his own well-being over that of the country. But verse 8 and verse 17 show David's repentant heart. David could have avoided the death of seventy thousand people if he had only trusted God. Today, think about YOUR LIFE. If it is not right, then make it right!!! Think: If God's word tells you to do something or NOT to do something- obey!!! Whatever you do, DO NOT DISPLEASE HIM!!!