As we see the further conquest and gradual movement into the covenant land of promise after Moses' demise; we see a common theme of brief victories followed by long periods of time when the Israelites at least became lazy in their application of faith based on these mandates. Deuteronomy 8:11 warns: Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day:...and Isaiah 1:5 shows in the process of time Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
The enemy began with attempting to discourage the report of those living in the land who appeared as grasshoppers in their sight ( Numbers 13:13). This was no exaggeration as the offspring of giants were said to exist there. God always asks man to go beyond his own efforts and capabilities so as not to bring pride into their hearts at what He accomplishes. Pride; of course was Lucifer's downfall; and Proverbs 16:18 warns us that pride comes before a fall.
This; no doubt was a large part of Saul's initial downfall; that is he thought that because of his great physical stature and his position that he could be presumptive. David made the same mistake when Satan influenced him to take a census of the people; which in itself wasn't necessarily evil; as Jesus Himself pointed out in Luke 14 with a king going after another army that was bigger and negotiating first; we actually see the Lord whittling down an army of that size in Leviticus 26:8 down to 300 capable men; again for the same logic. It was finding security as to his own reserves of strength that David was being tested for; although the sin was different with Bathsheeba we can see him using his position of kingship to be presumptive as to doing whatever he felt like doing and disregarding the consequences. Thankfully Psalm 51 and other passages show he quickly repented.
As we see the further conquest and gradual movement into the covenant land of promise after Moses' demise; we see a common theme of brief victories followed by long periods of time when the Israelites at least became lazy in their application of faith based on these mandates. Deuteronomy 8:11 warns: Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day:...and Isaiah 1:5 shows in the process of time Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
The enemy began with attempting to discourage the report of those living in the land who appeared as grasshoppers in their sight ( Numbers 13:13). This was no exaggeration as the offspring of giants were said to exist there. God always asks man to go beyond his own efforts and capabilities so as not to bring pride into their hearts at what He accomplishes. Pride; of course was Lucifer's downfall; and Proverbs 16:18 warns us that pride comes before a fall.
This; no doubt was a large part of Saul's initial downfall; that is he thought that because of his great physical stature and his position that he could be presumptive. David made the same mistake when Satan influenced him to take a census of the people; which in itself wasn't necessarily evil; as Jesus Himself pointed out in Luke 14 with a king going after another army that was bigger and negotiating first; we actually see the Lord whittling down an army of that size in Leviticus 26:8 down to 300 capable men; again for the same logic. It was finding security as to his own reserves of strength that David was being tested for; although the sin was different with Bathsheeba we can see him using his position of kingship to be presumptive as to doing whatever he felt like doing and disregarding the consequences. Thankfully Psalm 51 and other passages show he quickly repented.
This comment thread is locked. Please enter a new comment below to start a new comment thread.
Note: Comment threads older than 2 months are automatically locked.
Do you have a Bible comment or question?
Posting comments is currently unavailable due to high demand on the server.
Please check back in an hour or more. Thank you for your patience!
Report Comment
Which best represents the problem with the comment?