“Yo’av said to the king, ‘May Adonai your God add to the people a hundredfold, no matter how many there are; and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king take pleasure in doing this?‘”-2 Samuel 24:3
I remember when I was having a conversation with Dr. Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg, the head of Israel Bible Center, and the author of a ton of books.
I had approached him about the prospect of doing some copywriting or digital marketing work for his organization.
To demonstrate my burning passion for Scripture and Biblical studies, I mentioned this blog and how, over the past decade, I had amassed over 30,000 readers and counting.
His off-the-cuff response was to simply say that the number was really not that big.
He was right.
In internet land, and taking into account just how huge the online population is, that number is ridiculously insignificant.
That wasn’t my point, though.
My point was to show that I had such a passion for Scripture that I had been faithfully blogging through the Word for over a decade.
And wouldn’t an A-lister trained copywriter who possessed such deep knowledge and a passion for Scripture be just the right person to take charge of his organization’s marketing?
Needless to say, I was told they already had a marketing team in place and didn’t need my help at the moment.
No biggie, I thanked him for his time and moved on.
So why do I bring this up?
Because I think this little exchange I had with Dr. Eli reflects what I think is a common flesh-driven attitude to how we view and measure success here on planet earth.
Our fragile human egos are so hell-bent on proving how great we are that we reduce everything to numbers.
We see these vanity metric expressions everywhere.
“Our company has over 100 branches located in over 50 countries.”
“My YouTube channel has over 1 million subscribers.”
“Last month’s product launch raked in over 3 million dollars.”
“I’ve slept with over 2000 women in my lifetime (Israeli rock star Gene Simmons of Kiss boasted this).”
“My last LinkedIn post got over 500 likes!”
“Yesterday, I did 100 pushups, 100 sit-ups, and 100 squats.”
“I have 3 beautiful daughters and 2 sons who are all attending Ivy League schools.”
“Over 100 billion served (McDonald’s tagline).”
And we see this same attitude in King David when he ordered Joab to take a census of the people.
When Joab asked King David why in the world he wanted to take a census, his response was…
“So that I can know how many people there are.”
That was David’s answer.
In other words, David’s ego wanted to know how big his kingdom had become.
David, now an old man (most scholars say he was around 70 years old at this time), was on the downside of both his career and his relationship with God.
As a corporate headhunter here in Tokyo, I often see this same egotistic tendency in older corporate executives who were once successful but are now way past their prime, but still trying to seek ego validation through position and higher salaries.
Quite an amusing spectacle to behold, I might add.
But this tendency ain’t just limited to the corporate world.
It exists in the world of religious ministry as well.
The fragile egos of Christian or Jewish congregation leaders place way too much importance on how big their flocks are.
More often than not, there ain’t no good reason to know just how big your flocks are, homies.
Just like there was no good reason for David to have to know how many homies were residing in his kingdom.
Folks seek that kind of data mainly to validate their ego, using numbers to measure success.
Ya feeling me here?
David’s desire to know that information was rooted in pride and in the flesh.
And you know what?
Orthodox Rabbis, who practically worship King David to the point of almost saying he never sinned, agree on this point.
And apparently, the ruthless Joab felt the same way.
To soothe the King’s fragile ego, he told him…
“May Adonai your God
add to the people a hundredfold,
no matter how many there are;
And may the eyes of my lord the king see it.
But why does my lord the king
take pleasure in doing this?””
To paraphrase, Joab was essentially saying…
“Look, man, we all know how huge your kingdom is.
However, does it really matter exactly how big it is?
What do you personally get out of counting everyone?”
See, Joab really wasn’t seeking an answer.
He already knew one thing.
Unless there was some bigger plan that he didn’t know about (highly unlikely), the census made about as much sense as counting the grains of sand on the beach to see if it was having a good year or something.
That’s why he was confused about why David would push such a massive and unpopular program.
Nevertheless, in verse 4, the army, probably very reluctantly, obeyed the king’s command and began counting the people of Israel and Judah.
So what’s the takeaway for today?
I think it’s best expressed in this Psalm.
“Unless the Lord builds the house,
The builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
The guards stand watch in vain.”
-Psalm 127:1
The bottom line is if God isn’t in it, it ain’t gonna last, homie.
So if you’re called to a mission or feel led to start a new project.
Don’t do what most people do…which is to be enthusiastic for the first couple of months, and then quit because the number of subscribers, likes, or followers doesn’t meet your expectations.
I’ve made thousands of dollars with this blog via Google Ads alone.
But trust me, it wasn’t that way in the beginning.
Most of my posts in the early days received zero response.
But fast forward a decade, and now I’ve developed a serious product that has made a significant market impact.
Ya feel me?
One thing I have strongly sensed both in my life and others is that when the Lord singles out a person to follow after him, one of the first steps He’ll take is to begin stripping that person of the worldly pleasures his ego has clung onto with such ferocious intensity all of his life—whether it be money, sex, or status.
Job was a good example of this.
The Lord allowed Satan to strip him of all the material comforts we hold so dear until he was near death.
God ultimately restored everything to him twofold.
But not until Job learned that it was the Lord who was the source of any blessings that had come into his life.
And you know who else’s life exemplified this pattern perfectly?
The Messiah of Israel, God’s chosen son.
Dr. James Allan Francis captured this truth well in his poem One Solitary Life when he wrote that Yeshua “did none of the things one usually associates with greatness.”
Yeshua wrote no books, held no office, owned no property, commanded no army, and left behind no earthly credentials.
Yet His life reshaped human history more than every empire, army, and king combined.
So forget about Facebook likes and other vanity metrics.
Just focus on one baby step at a time on the mission the Lord has placed before you.
You plant the seeds.
Then trust the Lord to bring the growth.
Ya feel me?
Done.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“So neither he who plants
nor he who waters is anything,
but only God who gives the growth.”
— 1 Corinthians 3:7
“Beware of practicing your righteousness
before other people to be seen by them,
for then you will have no reward
from your Father who is in heaven.”
— Matthew 6:1
“For whoever exalts himself will be humbled,
and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
— Luke 14:11
“So the last will be first,
and the first last.”
— Matthew 20:16
“What does it profit a man to gain
the whole world and forfeit his soul?”
— Mark 8:36
“Not many of you were wise
according to worldly standards,
not many were powerful,
not many were of noble birth.”
— 1 Corinthians 1:26
“But God chose what is foolish
in the world to shame the wise;
God chose what is weak in the world
to shame the strong.”
— 1 Corinthians 1:27
“Whatever gain I had,
I counted as loss
for the sake of Messiah.”
— Philippians 3:7
“For we do not commend ourselves again to you,
but give you occasion to boast on our behalf,
that you may have an answer for those
who boast in appearance and not in heart.”
— 2 Corinthians 5:12
“Let the one who boasts,
boast in the Lord.”
— 1 Corinthians 1:31
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