2 Samuel 24 - Counting

Joab's still around... He's apparently not one of David's favorites, but, he's still hanging in there serving him. David is still using his skills as a commander.

David wants Joab to count all the people of Israel. Joab warns David against that. David orders Joab to count them, anyway. Turns out, David should have listened to Joab. God is not happy about the counting of the people and sends a pestilence on Israel that kills 70,000 men. It doesn't say how many women and children may have died.

David purchases some land, builds an altar, and makes burnt and peace offerings there. This appeases the LORD and the plague is over.

The other day while searching for the order of service for Maundy Thursday in Zion's email inbox, I ran across the congregation's annual report that was suppose to be filled out. I don't normally check the mail at the church, so it was fortunate that I ran across it. I really dislike annual reports! I got stuck on the first page. What year was the congregation formed. I looked it up yesterday in the files at the church. Zion's Articles of Confederation were approved by members on January 31, 1893. So now I can finish the first page of the report and go on to the second which I'm pretty sure is going to be sending me back to the archives for numbers I could've and probably should've looked up yesterday. But, I didn't think about it. The way the program is set up, I wasn't sure if I checked out the second page if I could get back to the first page :) Anyway, we keep good track of our members and of attendance... But, after reading this chapter, I wonder if we should be counting people at all! It takes very little time to count our attendance at Worship. But, I wonder about the stewardship of time in keeping track, of counting, members. Membership rosters take a whole lot more time than the 3 or 4 minutes counting attendance. From the reading on David's census, seems to me God would prefer we spend the time worshipping him rather than counting people.

Unfortunately, the counting and tracking of voting members will have to continue. It is not for the sake of the church, but, because of our constitutions, required by the state, to be non-profit organizations. So we'll keep counting.