Numbering Israel by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 14, 1909

Numbering Israel

By F. M. W.

The kingdom of Israel had become rich and populous. David’s long and successful reign had been attended with material prosperity. This prosperity, instead of turning the hearts of the people to God in grateful remembrance, had engendered pride and self-confidence. This spirit affected alike the king and his subjects, and filled them with ambitious designs.

David determined to increase his army by requiring military service from all who were of proper age. To effect this, it became necessary to take a census of the population. It was pride and ambition that prompted this action of the king. The numbering of the people would show the contrast between the weakness of the kingdom when David ascended the throne, and its strength and prosperity under his rule. This would tend still further to foster the already too great self-confidence of both king and people. The Scripture says: “Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.” The prosperity of Israel under David had been due to the blessing of God rather than to the ability of her king or the strength of her armies.—“Patriarchs and Prophets,” page 747.

God did not look with favor upon this work of his servant. Even Joab, unscrupulous as he was in other respects, protested against David’s command. But the objection was overruled, and David’s officers proceeded with their work. Soon after its completion, the judgments of God began to fall upon the nation, and the king, who gloried in his strength and greatness, was brought low in sorrow as the plague of the Lord carried off thousands of his subjects. Through this terrible disaster, through prayer and humiliation, David learned of his own finite weakness, and recognized that it was only of God’s mercy that his own life was preserved, and the hand of the destroying angel stayed from further destruction of the people.

This lesson is for God’s people in every age, and none the less for us today, both in our personal experiences and in our denominational work. Prone indeed is the heart of man to reason when prosperity attends his path, that by his might and genius he has secured for himself that which he possesses. We forget that the silver and gold are God’s, and that his are the cattle on a thousand hills; that he it is who gives power to acquire education, influence, or whatever wealth we may possess.

The same principle is true as applied to our own denominational work. We are the advocates of a rapidly progressing cause. God has given prosperity to his church. Believers have multiplied wherever the gospel seed has been sown. Institutions have been planted, giving character and stability to the movement. God has led this people on until the influence of the principles they represent is felt throughout the world.

Even as Miriam, with the voice of inspiration, sang of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, as Moses and David and Paul and others recounted the workings of God in behalf of his people, it is well for us to recount signal experiences in this work, and bear them ever fresh in our memories; but in doing so, it is for us to recognize that all the success and prosperity have come through God, and not through ourselves. When we view the progress of this work from the standpoint of what we have accomplished, emphasizing what has been wrought through our efforts, then, like David, we are numbering Israel, and the glory of man, and not the glory of God, is the object of the comparison.

We would not see one whit less reported of the splendid advance of the message. We would not see less recounted of the workings of God in connection with it. We would not desire less published of facts and figures relating to its material progress; only let us keep self out of the comparison, and not think in our hearts, even if we do not utter it in words, “My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.”

The strength of this cause is not in the numbers of its adherents, its system of organization, the worldly influence of its advocates, or the size or number of its institutions. Its vitality and power can not be computed in figures or measured by mathematical equations. Its power is of God; its true manifestation, the life of Christ in the lives of his disciples.

The needs of this hour are for men and means to proclaim the message to earth’s remotest bounds. But even above these needs, as great as they are, is the demand for a deeper consecration. Three hundred earnest, consecrated men in the days of Gideon could accomplish more than forty-two thousand who were irresolute and ease-loving. The spirit of consecration then turned the victory on the side of Israel; the same spirit of consecration to-day will accomplish wonders in this closing work. Only let us be humble.

An abiding sense of our own weakness and unworthiness will keep us from boasting, and enable us to exalt God instead of self. We shall be lost in amazement that Providence, in spite of our mistakes and failures, could use us in some humble way in connection with this closing work. “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; . . . that no flesh should glory in his presence. . . . That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” F. M. W.