Have you ever noticed that there are occasions in the Bible where people act in a certain way and God commends it, and yet the same act at a different time by different people is an act of sinful disobedience? A good example can be found in comparing the census of Israel that Moses undertook in Numbers 26 with the census of David in II Samuel 24. When Moses finished the census in obedience to God’s command, God gave to the nation an inheritance of land which he has never revoked. In this way he blessed Moses’ obedience.
Several generations later we see King David undertaking exactly the same project which God had blessed in Moses’ day when he sent his commanders throughout the land to count the fighting men of Israel and Judah. The text does not elaborate on David’s motives for doing this, but we see Joab, his trusted advisor, warning him not to do it. David stubbornly continues with his project, and finishes with a stricken conscience, repenting before God for this foolish sin which resulted in a severe outpouring of God’s judgement in the land.
Is God capricious? Does he have double standards? Does he have favourites? No to all of the above. The point is that without faith it is impossible to please God. Moses acted by faith, obeying God’s commandment. David acted out of presumption, as if he could force God’s blessing just by cutting and pasting the acts of the past into his situation.
It occurs to me that we are so like that. How often we do the things that God has blessed in the past, expecting the same blessings today. We are so easily trapped in old forms and traditions which have long passed their “use by” date. This is especially true of our ecclesiology - our way of being Church. Going to our ancestors and forbears in the faith is a great source of inspiration, but copying their methods and actions can be perilous. God blessed them because of their faith, which for them was acting in accordance with God’s leading for their situation. There was nothing magical about their methods. Making a tradition out of the methods of the past degenerates very easily into idolatry where we worship the forms and forget the meaning behind their original function.
We need a fresh prophetic revelation for today, to help us apply God’s eternal and unchanging word in our situation. We must go to Him for this revelation, and not just copy what has gone before.
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