S162P2 – Wicked tactics: an appeal to the ego
Num. 21:1-3
Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel. So David said to Joab and to the leaders of the people, “Go, number Israel from Beersheba to Dan, and bring the number of them to me that I may know it.” And Joab answered, “May the LORD make His people a hundred times more than they are. But, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? Why then does my lord require this thing? Why should he be a cause of guilt in Israel?”
The translation of verse one here has been much debated. This translation indicates that Satan moved David to sin, but other translations indicate that it was the wrath of God behind that prodding. However, we know that God cannot tempt a man to sin. When we review various translations of this verse, it seems to paint the picture of God in his anger allowing Satan to affect David in this way. This wrath of God must have had a source, and the sensible conclusion is that this wrath was brought about by David himself. There was something inside David which did not please God, and that wicked seed is where Satan began his work. He appealed to some part of David’s ego which God would not countenance.
Joab recognized that David’s move in taking this census was against the wishes of God. It is not clear from the scriptures what David’s exact sinful motivation was behind this order. He could have been doing this as a way of putting his trust in the power of his military instead of the power of his God. He could have been counting the people as a way of bolstering his own pride as their king. Perhaps he no longer trusted in the Lord’s promise of making Israel and Judah too numerous to count and felt the need to ensure this himself. Whatever the case, David’s desire to take this census was not about God but about himself. Satan tempted him with the thing he wanted to satisfy the self-centered impulse he had.
The scriptures do not teach us that Satan is able to force our hands. What he does is tempt us to take the reins of our own lives and worship ourselves. This can be us taking matters into our own hands as if we are God, taking steps we have no business taking. This can be us disobeying God because we think we know better. This even can be us praising ourselves for the great works God has done for us as if they are the fruit of our own work. All of these things inflate the ego, but God’s will is for us to deflate it. Satan’s temptation to build ourselves up really only serves to take us down. Father, give us the humility and understanding to know when our egos are being tempted and to focus on You instead.