No record

 

I have been watching football for a long time, so it is a big deal when I remember a commercial. One of my favorite commercials ever aired during the Super Bowl. It was for the NFL Network, with various coaches and players singing the song “Tomorrow” from the musical Annie. At the end of the commercial, it said, “Tomorrow we are all undefeated.”

No matter how bad that season had been, after the Super Bowl was over, every team got a fresh slate. When things get all messed up and do not go the way we plan or hope, that is what we all long for is a fresh slate. The beautiful thing about the Christian faith is that we believe through Jesus our sins are washed away and we are made a new person. God gives us a fresh slate.

The text we are looking at today has the idea of a “fresh slate.” It may seem hard to see at first, but as we look at it together we will see it.

1 Chronicles 27:23-24(CEB):

23 But David didn’t count those younger than 20 years of age, because the LORD had promised to make Israel as numerous as the stars in the sky. 24 Joab, Zeruiah’s son, began to count them, but he never finished. Since Israel experienced wrath because of this, the number wasn’t entered into the official records of King David.

This is the word of God

For the people of God

Thanks be to God

There is not a lot of information in this passage to help us understand how this relates to a “fresh slate,” nor is there a lot of information explaining the events leading to this census taken by David. But to expand upon the few details, we would need to read 1 Samuel 24:1-17 and 1 Chronicles 21, with 1 Chronicles being directly tied to the writer’s thoughts here.

Let me give you a summary, combining the two passages. They both give an account of a sin committed by David in the later stages of his life and reign. He, and his fellow countrymen, would know God’s promise to their forefather Abraham, which applied to them. God’s promise was, “I will bless you richly and I will give you countless descendants, as many as the stars in the sky and as the grains of sand on the seashore.” (Genesis 22:17) David decided to take a census of the people because he lacked faith in God’s promise, though he decided to disguise it by only counting the fighting men. As the process begins, God shares His displeasure with David and at the king’s choosing punishes the entire nation with a plague. The plague only stops when David pleads for mercy and builds an altar to God.

This brings us to verse 23 of our passage, “David did not count the males twenty years old and under, for the LORD had promised to make Israel as numerous as the stars in the sky.” God’s promise was “as numerous as the stars in the sky.” That is an incalculable number, with astronomers estimating anywhere from 100 billion to 400 billion in our galaxy alone. In short, God would make them a nation of more than enough, but David doubted this promise. He sent out the census to confirm that God had come through but then attempted to disguise his lack of faith by only counting the fighting men. God saw through David’s scheme and was displeased with him. And whenever a leader fails, the people feel the impact.

Verse 24 mentions Joab as the one who is taking the census. Joab is not to blame for the catastrophe. As a matter of fact, in 1 Chronicles 21:3-4 records, “Joab replied, “May the LORD increase his people a hundred times! Sir, aren’t you the king, and aren’t they all your servants? Why do you want to do this? Why bring guilt on Israel?” But the king overruled Joab.” He tries to talk David out of the census. Most likely due to the outbreak of the plague, Joab only produces a partial count.

What does this have to do with us? What does this have to do with a “fresh slate”? Notice what the end of verse 24 says, “God was angry with Israel… so the number was not recorded in the scroll called The Annals of King David.” The kings of Israel kept a log for each day, but verse 24 says the number from the census was not recorded. Was this an oversight? Or was it that David did not need or want to be reminded of his sin and the cost?

This is not the only time in the Bible that David is confronted with his sin. After his affair with Bathsheba, when David had believed he tied up all the loose ends, the prophet Nathan walked in and bravely called out the king. Though David humbly repented, God told him he would be punished. The child conceived with Bathsheba was not going to live, with that news David pleaded with God. He refused to eat or drink, clinging to the altar for the child’s life. When it reached David that the child died, David got up, wiped his face, ate, and went back to his life. His sin was found out, and judged. Rather than wallow in it with self-pity, David got up. Likewise, David got up after the census and left this failure out of the records.

You see, God had forgiven David for each of these instances of sin. When God forgives sin, He loses it in the sea of forgetfulness. Though he was forgiven by God, in order for David to get back up and keep going, David had to forgive himself. To forgive himself, David had to accept the consequences but move forward remembering his slate had been wiped clean by God.

When asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus summarized the law into two, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind. … You must love your neighbor as you love yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-40) As Christians, we understand that loving God is essential to our faith, demonstrated through obedience. And likewise, as Christians, we know that to love God we must love our neighbors. But we rarely stop to think about the end of Jesus’s second command, “as you love yourself.” We cannot love our neighbors properly if we do not love ourselves, and if we cannot love our neighbors properly we cannot properly love God.

In Corinthians 13, Paul defines love for us as believers. As part of that definition, Paul writes, “Love keeps no record of wrongs.” (1 Corinthians 13:5) When we profess faith in Jesus, our sins are washed away by His blood, and out of love, God remembers them no more. When it comes to our relationships with other people, we are to forgive their failures and not hold them over their heads. God gives us a fresh slate and we are to give others a fresh slate. What about when we mess up? How long do we hold onto those failures? If love keeps no record of wrongs, if God forgives and forgets our sins, why do we keep those records?

I am not saying we do not learn from our mistakes, certainly, we do not want to return to the same sins. But we cannot do is hold on to our failures. Holding onto our record of wrongs breeds self-hatred, resentment, bitterness, and guilt. All those things are contrary to love, even when applied to ourselves. The sad thing is, our adversary does not have to torture us in this state, he simply hands us the bat.

David had the number from the census left out of his records, and perhaps the reason was so he could move forward. The lesson had been learned, albeit the hard way, but nothing was gained by wallowing in that failure. The way forward was looking forward and forgiving himself as God had forgiven him.

What about you? What mistakes have you made, either recently or in the past? Have you confessed them to God? Has He forgiven you? Have you made restitution with the people you hurt? Have they forgiven you? If the answer is yes to all or most of those questions, then why are you still holding onto what God has forgotten? He loves you and wants you to let it go. It is okay to forgive yourself.

I want to invite each of us today to examine our hearts. If there is unconfessed sin, repent and you will experience the grace of God associated with His forgiveness. It will wash away your guilt and shame. But perhaps you have done that, yet the guilt and shame are still haunting you. Then maybe today you need to give yourself a fresh slate. Ask God to help you forgive yourself as He has forgiven you.