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AGAPE LESSON 41
THE PERIL OF NUMBERS
Put together by Bongie Kuzwayo
[2Samuel24]
[Psalm37v1—11, 16—19, 23—25]
[Proverbs 30v8—9] Remove falsehood and lies away from me; give me neither poverty nor riches—
feed me with the food allotted to me; (9) lest I be full and deny You, and say, “Who is the Lord?” Or lest
I be poor and steal, and profane the name of my God.
(2Samuel 24v1—3) Again the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel, and the Lord moved David
against them to say, “Go number Israel and Judah.” So, the king said to Joab the commander of the
army who was with him, “Now go out through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and count
the people, that I may know the number of the people.”
In the Bible, the worriers in Israel are referred to as “the armies of the Lord.” Now David wants to count
the armies of the Lord as though he owns them, they are his. He is weighing his military strength as
though the power comes from him; forgetting that it is the Lord who fights our battles.
[Psalm44v4—5] You are my King, O God; command victories for Jacob. (5) Through You, we shall push
down our enemies; through You, we will push down those who rise up against us. (6) For I will not trust
my own bow, nor shall my sword save me.
The church out there is derailed because their agenda is not doctrine but numbers and cash-flow. The
harlot is ever out hunting for souls. [Proverbs7v15] So, I came out to meet you, diligently to seek your
face, and I have found you.
They will boast that they are winning souls. There is no such thing as anyone winning souls. It is the
Lord who adds. [Acts2v47b] And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
[John6v44] No one can come to Me except the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up
at the last day.
This is the area where most children of God stumble. As numbers increase, many quire things happen.
Some will suddenly stop thinking straight. Suddenly, divorce is on the cards. King Solomon was blessed
with wealth more than all the kings in his time. He found and married countless women, building
shrines for some of them. With some, the more money they make, they desperately start striving to
get more. – like it will never be enough. Some will be very faithful when earning little, once their
earnings increase, suddenly the calculator begins to malfunction. Divorce and depression are prevelant
in the church today.
(v3) And Joab said to the king, “Now may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times more
than there are, and may the eyes of my lord, the king, see it. But why does my lord the king desire
this thing?”
This was both a rebuke and a warning from Joab and the captains of the army.
[Psalm141v5] Let the righteous strike me; it shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me; it shall be as
excellent oil; let my head not refuse it.
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(v4) Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the army.
Therefore, Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the
people of Israel.
[Proverbs1v22—30] How long, you, simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their
scorning, and fools hate knowledge. (23) Turn at My rebuke; surely, I will pour out My Spirit on you; I
will make My words known to you. (24) Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my
hand and no one regarded, (25) Because you disdained My counsel, and would have none of My
rebuke, (26) I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, (27) when your
terror comes like a storm, and your destruction like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon
you. (28) Then they will call on Me but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not
find Me.
(v10) And David’s heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So, David said to the Lord,
“I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of Your
servant, for I have done very foolishly.
David sincerely repented, and no doubt he was forgiven. Sin though, does not go unpunished. The Lord
will forgive anyone who repents but will punish the sin.
[Numbers14v18] The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression;
but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third
and fourth generation.
[1Timothy6v6—10] Now godliness with contentment is great gain. (7) For we brought nothing into this
world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. (8) And having food and clothing, with these we shall
be content. (9) But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare which drown men in
destruction and perdition. (10) For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have
strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
• King Saul dismally failed his arithmetic test:
[1Samuel 15v3, 7—8] Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroyed all that they have, and do
not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and
donkey. (7) And Saul attacked the Amalekites, from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt.
(8) He took Agag king od Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of a
sword. (9) But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the
lambs, and all that was good. and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised
and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.
As mission accomplished God expected the answer to be zero. But Saul’s answer was far from right.
He was rejected by God and demonic attacks became the order of the day in his life.
[1Samuel 15v10—11] Now the word of the Lord came to Samuel saying, “I greatly regret that I have
set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My
commandments.” And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the Lord all night.
King Saul failed his test and God sent Samuel to go anoint David to sit on the throne after Saul.
• The rich young ruler:
[Luke18v18—23] Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life?” (19) So, Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good, but One, that is
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God. (20) You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not
bear false witness. Honour your father and your mother.” (21) And he said, “All these things I have kept
from my youth.” (22) So, when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing, ‘sell
all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow
Me.” (23) When he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.
[Luke 18v24—30] And when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, He said, “How hard it is for
those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! (25) For it is easier for the camel to go through
the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (26) And those who heard it said,
“Who then can be saved?” (27) But He said, “The things which are impossible with man are possible
with God.” (28) And Peter said, “See we have left all and followed You.” (29) He said to them,
“Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children,
for the sake of the kingdom of God, (30) who shall not receive many times more, in this present time
or in the age to come eternal life
When numbers dictate to us, faith will step aside and give us room to rationalize. [Matthew6v22] The
lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. (23) But
if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness,
how great is that darkness!
Your eye is said to be good when you see numbers through the eyes of the Spirit. When your eye is bad,
light cannot penetrate; just like air cannot penetrate the scales of leviathan (Job41v15—17). A bad eye
is a sign of pride; and God hates pride with a passion.
[James1v12—15] Blessed is a man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will
receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. (13) Let no one say when
he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt
anyone. (14) But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. (15)
Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings birth to
death.
[James4v1—6] Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires
for pleasure that war in your members? (2) You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot
obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. (3) You ask and do not receive,
because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. (4) Adulterers and adulteresses! Do
you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a
friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (5) Or do you think that Scripture says in vain, “The
Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously?” (6) But He gives more grace. Therefore He says, “God resists
the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
AGAPE LESSON 41