I’ve always wondered when it came to creating the foundations of this world why God chose 24 hours for the day. A slight adjustment to the solar system and He could have made the length of a day swing a few hours in either direction. A day on Saturn is only 10 hours and 42 minutes, most of us would sleep through life in this scenario. But over on Mercury a day is 58 days and 15 hours long. Talk about waiting to watch the sunset. But for whatever reason, God made our day revolve around a 24 hour cycle. Within those days we live, breathe, eat, and sleep. God built our bodies to operate on that time cycle, needing at least 8 hours of sleep out of the 24, leaving another 16 to do life. But what you really have built within the days is a ‘restart.’ You see, every 24 hours is indeed a new day that we have in the Lord.
Have you ever noticed the beautiful cleansing that can come with sleep? It may have been a terribly stressful day, but with a good night’s sleep you can wake up feeling fresh and anew. A new day, a new start, a new beginning. What you have in this new day is another opportunity. An opportunity of where to place your priorities, where to place your faith and where to place your allegiance. And folks, it resets each and every day. You see, each and every day we have an option. An option to serve ourselves or an option to serve God. Just because you serve and worship Almighty God on Monday doesn’t mean it will automatically bleed over to your Tuesday. You see, what we have in Christ Jesus is a daily reprieve. Yes, our salvation is eternal, but our daily spiritual walk renews every 24 hours. And that 24 hours renewal depends on decisions that lie within our own very hearts.
We find ourselves today in the very last chapter of 2 Samuel, chapter 24. We have been studying the two books of Samuel for 55 days now and tomorrow we will move into the two books of Kings for another 47 days. We will see the death of King David in chapter 2 of 1 Kings, a life that has had more ups and downs than a pump jack in West Texas. (some of you might have to google that Texas vernacular) By the time that you get to the last days of David, wouldn’t you think he’s learned how to properly follow God? I mean after God took him to the woodshed over the debacle with Bathsheba, wouldn’t you think that he learned his lesson? After the painful lesson with Absalom, don’t you think that God’s rebuke had taught him effectively? But what we see in our text this morning is that each and every day has the possibility of triumph over sin…or failure to sin. Even for a man after God’s own heart.
David decides to perform a census on the Israelite army. He wants to know exactly how many fighting men he has at his command. Sounds innocent enough, yes? The only problem is it's against God’s Law. Back in Exodus 30:12 God tells us that He owns His people. He made them, He cares for them, and He provides for them. As a result, He knows their count. You see, God doesn’t need to count people, men do. And David, wanting to know how strong his army was, was flying in the face of God. Several of David’s generals tried to talk him out of it, but he persisted. By this time, he had been walking with God for almost 70 years. Doesn’t David know what disobedience to the Lord will bring into His life? But yet this particular day, David lost the spiritual battle. You see, one single 24 hour cycle of weakness to sin can radically alter a life.
God corrects David and offers him three options of rebuke. Three years of famine on the entire land. Three months of the nation fleeing before it’s enemies, or three days of pestilence across the entire land. The first two would allow David a certain level of immunity, so in a true heart fashioned after God, David chooses the last so that he can suffer with the people for his sin against God. And as David makes his decision, he utters some words that shows us that his son Solomon had not cornered the market on wisdom.
“Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.” 2 Samuel 24:14
Friends, today your close spiritual walk with God has nothing to do with yesterday. Each day is a new opportunity to love, worship, serve and honor God in all you do. But on the flip side of that coin, each day is also a great temptation. The dawn of each new day also brings you face to face with your enemy. An enemy that wants to distance you from God, tell you His commandments are outdated and irrelevant and that you can do whatever your heart sees as right today. But folks, they are all lies. You see, you not only choose to serve God at the point of Salvation, but each and every day after. And the one single day that you think you can do it on your own, temptation will be there waiting for you, like a snare in the wild.
May you today, be aware, alert, and ready to attend to your spiritual condition.
“What we have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into all of our daily activities.” William Griffith Wilson
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