Are you keeping score?

Posted by Timothy

August 28, 2008

In the quest for success and impact, whether you feel you have arrived to your pinnacle or have a long journey ahead of you, there is a temptation to want to keep score. To find security or to bolster one’s pride by looking at the resources you have.

I know I do it — sometimes it looks at the glass half-full and take pleasure on where I’ve come along. Often times it is glass half-empty and lamenting what I don’t have.

I do believe that having meaningful markers is important, but in this passage I could see how even kings, if they rely on the score more than on God, invite chastisement.

King David, successful in battle, allows some inner temptations or fears to seek solace by keeping score:

Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. So david said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.”…This command was also evil in the sight of God; so he punished Israel. 1 Chronicles 21:1-2, 7

David realizes that this is something that God would be angry at afterwards, and God set out to punish him by sending a plague.

What I found interesting was that, even before sending the plague, God shows his displeasure in a way that we can relate to perhaps more so than to a plague that kills seventy-thoussand people.

David, realizing what he has done, turns to God:

Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly by doing this. Now, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing. 1 Chronicles 1-8

God does not respond directly to David. As if shunning him, despite the direct plea and prior direct communication, the Lord responds to Gad instead and tell him to talk to David.

A direct communication and intimacy with God cut short because of wanting to keep score rather than relying on God.

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