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2 Samuel 24:1-4 – Trusting God’s Character

A God who only ever did things we could understand wouldn’t be God. There are some cultures where authority figures are never questioned. If your father, your mother, your employer, or your ruler tells you to do something, you do it, and you don’t question why. It often leads to abuse and exploitation. In the West however, we go to the opposite extreme. In the West we say: ‘If you’re in authority over me, you’re only there because I elected you. You’re there by my leave. If you’re going to tell me what I should do, I want to know why, and I want to think it’s a good reason. If I don’t think it’s a good reason, I’m not going to do it.’ And we can end up bringing that attitude to authority into the church. We can end up bringing it into our relationship with God. But the problem with that is that if God is God and we’re not, then he’s going to do things we don’t understand. And our understanding can’t be the judge of whether they’re right or wrong. If you tell a child to do something, almost automatically they’ll ask ‘Why?’ And good parents or grandparents, or aunties or uncles will try and explain why. But there are things that they’re just not going to understand. And it’s not because they’re stupid. It’s because they’re 6 and you’re 37. And they’re not going to be able to understand. But they just need to obey. In that situation, no explanation is going to help. One day, they will understand, but not now. Reasons won’t help them obey. But what will help them obey is if they trust you. That’s a bit like God and us. When he says something is right or wrong, we need to believe him, because he is God. We need to trust him – and we can trust him, because we know his character.

And David realises that here. He knows enough about God to know what his character is like. Because when God gives David 3 options as to what punishment he can face, David says in v14: ‘Let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.’ I wonder if we tend to look on God’s mercy as the exception rather than the rule? Not David. If it’s a choice between the mercy of God and the mercy of man, David is choosing God’s mercy every time.

Question

  1. How can we trust God when we don’t understand?

Prayer Points

  1. Give thanks that God has shown us his character so we can trust him.
  2. Use prayer points from your congregation.
  3. Pray for family matters.