King David should have known better. He should have known from the experience of his best friend Jonathan that when you are in covenant relationship with God, it doesn’t matter whether you have a few men or many; God can give you the victory. In 1 Samuel 14:1-23, the Bible records the story of how Saul’s son, Jonathan, and his armorbearer defeated an entire garrison of Philistines — with the help of God. But in spite of this experience and many others in the history of God’s people, when difficult times came to King David, he allowed Satan to tempt him to trust in his own strength and ingenuity.

 Read 1 Chronicles 21:1-14. Why did David decide to number Israel or count his soldiers? Why did his commander Joab counsel against this?

 Note that it was Satan’s idea to count the soldiers. He tempted David to trust in his own strength rather than to depend on the providence of God in his defense. Joab, the leader of Israel’s army, tried to persuade David not to number Israel because he had seen God work on behalf of Israel, but David demanded that the numbering go forward. His actions brought calamity to the nation, as the text reveals.

 No one ever trusted God in vain. Whenever you do battle for the Lord, prepare yourself. And prepare well, too. There’s a quote, attributed to a British ruler, Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), who, before a battle, said to his army, “Put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry!” (The powder was gunpowder.) In other words, do all that you can to succeed, but, in the end, realize that only God can give you victory.

 In our immediate context, it is very tempting to trust in the power of the government or in our bank accounts, but in every crisis mentioned in the Bible, when the people trusted in God, He honored their trust and provided for them.

 We should be using the present time to get square with God, get out of debt, and be generous with what we have been given. In the words of the old gospel song, “If we ever needed the Lord before, we sure do need Him now.”