I Chronicles 21:13 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.
Recently here on the Ranch we had more than eighty young people join as summer staff to help us. The morning they arrived, I told our full-time staff, “Everyone here is about to move up in the chain of command simply because we have a lot of other people who have not been on staff before. So, we will be responsible. Sometimes they may do something for which we will be responsible because of our place of leadership.”
Sometimes it is hard for leaders to know the balance between responsibility and dependence. In I Chronicles 21 the Bible tells us about a great sin that David committed. Verse 1 says, “And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.” This was a great sin. We won’t go into all the reasons why other than that David seems to have been exhibiting independence from God. He wanted to know what he could do with his armies. Joab recognized this as a great risk. Joab said, “Why then doth my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?”
When I say that David numbered the people, it was actually Joab that did the numbering because David gave him this command. He said, “Go, number Israel… and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.” The Bible continues, “Wherefore Joab departed… and Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David.” So, who numbered the people? The literal answer is Joab, but David was responsible for it.
Verse 8 says, “And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing.” Later he says to God, “Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done?” David realized that he was the one responsible.
Now “responsibility” means “ownership.” It means that you own your actions and your words. For instance, if a child is crying in the night and the father says to his wife, “Go check on your son,” he is abdicating his responsibility. He needs to own up to his responsibility as a father. Responsibility is to own the child, the idea, or the mistake.
The thing we need to remember is that being responsible does not mean independence from God. I think it is telling that God gave David three choices regarding the way God would judge David’s sin. It may sound cruel to you. God is essentially saying, “David, you want to be independent of Me? You want to do things on your own? Fine. When it comes to My judgment, instead of My deciding; you decide. You choose what you want since you like doing what you want.”
David was humbled and repented. David confessed his sin, and God gave David a choice. Verse 13 is striking and crucial. It says, “And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.” David, who had taken things into his own hands, took responsibility for his sin, but then he depended upon God for how God would respond. He said, “Let me fall now into the hand of the LORD.”
The point is that you can still act responsibly while resting in God’s hand. Trusting God does not mean not taking responsibility for your actions or thoughts. Taking responsibility for my actions and thoughts does not mean I do not trust God. It is not “either, or”; it is “both, and.” David was a man who realized his responsibility, but also came to realize the importance of dependence upon God.
Today, act responsibly. Own the decisions you make, but trust God to help you know the right decisions. You can still act responsibly while resting in God’s hand.