Fresh from a major victory over the Philistines, King David made a major mistake. Instead of trusting God for his next battle, he conducted a census to measure his military power and determine his chances of winning. And this mistake cost the lives of seventy thousand Israelites.

This story teaches us three very important lessons about responsibility:

1) Leaders are Satan’s special targets. He knows that in order to easily get to others, he can go through their leader, so he’ll use every strategy he has to bring a leader down. ‘Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census.’ The census sounded like a good idea, but it wasn’t God’s idea – He saw it as an act of arrogance and unbelief.

2) Don’t be presumptuous. We mustn’t allow past victories to make us overconfident about our next battle or our skill level. There’ll never be a time when we don’t need God. The fact that God had just granted David a great victory should have made him more, not less, dependent on God. Paul wrote, ‘Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent’ (2 Corinthians 3:5-6 NIV).

3) Listen to wise counsel. Joab, one of David’s generals, warned him he was making a grave mistake. ‘The king’s word, however, overruled Joab’ (1 Chronicles 21:4 NIV). We may each have great gifts, but no single one of us has all the gifts. Where we have weaknesses, others may have strengths. ‘Victory is won through many advisors’ (Proverbs 11:14 NIVUK), so let’s listen to the people God has put in our lives to guide and protect us.

What Now?

Ask God to make you strong in the face of challenges, humble in the face of successes, and always willing to listen to advice.