David committed an awful sin when he counted the people. The Bible says that he was “replacing trust with statistics.” With taking a census, David was able to see how many people he had at his disposal and he could then put his trust in those great numbers.
We do the same thing all the time. For some of us, we place our trust in financial statistics. Big pay checks that always come every week or bi-weekly is one statistic. A large savings account that will “save us from anything that arises” is another place we put our trust. For some people, we put our trust in the people we have around us—our support group. This could be family, a circle of friends, the church community.
Trust in God first. God above all else. Replacing trust with statistics does not offer security. The circle of friends, the large savings account, the fancy car—it can all be taken away. Because of David’s great sin, replacing trust with statistics, he lost some of those people. You always lose when you trust people and things over God.
“But when it was all done, David was overwhelmed with guilt because he had counted the people, replacing trust with statistics. And David prayed to GOD, ‘I have sinned badly in what I have just done. But now GOD forgive my guilt—I’ve been really stupid.’”
-2 Samuel 24:10 [MSG]
Tania Gutekunst 