During High School, I made an all-boy-band that shook many young girls’ hearts. Well, it didn’t only shake girls… The other boys from my class (and classes below) were awed at the ragtag team that the Lord had chosen to minister unto them.
O yes we were a gospel band! Made up of the three boys that sang the most secular music ever, two choir boys, one guitarist who played both, one boy who had backslid and a part time pianist. We were called the Psalms and we sang hits like ‘I need an Angel’, ‘Storm is Over’, ‘I can’t get over you’, ‘Walked a Mile’, and so many others. Till today I still can’t believe we made teenagers look forward to coming to church.
I secretly thanked God for the boys’ acceptance, corporation and forsaking all to sing for Him. Each performance was a miracle. Until a stupid idea hit me. Dedication Service was coming up in October. This was shortly before our Advanced Level Leaving Examinations (UACE), and our parents were invited to come pray for us.
Their children of course were given platforms to sing. And I thought it wise to bring more boys on board. You know, to feel more inclusive … even when I hadn’t run the idea by the Manager upstairs.
It was a disaster!
We were now 14! The lead was selfish with his microphone, the new boys were nervous while others just wanted their parents to see them, the vocals went all directions, and other boys kept their faces down. I felt so embarrassed. But luckily enough, we had performed better in our previous life while at school, so I sought consolation from those.
I had thought, if the numbers were more, we’d be better. I attached identity to numbers, and that my friends, is how God brought back this story, to teach us why in many portions of scripture He seems to be disagreeing with large numbers.
Like the reason I’ve given, many of us think the more the better. But that’s not for always. We are deceived that the more hours we’ve worked, the richer we will be — the more the numbers, the stronger our armies will be. This was Gideon’s case. And God gave Him another reason:
Judges 7:2 And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people who [are] with you [are] too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’
In this scenario, God was telling Gideon that men would in the end trust themselves as opposed to God. They’d then draw trust from how sizeable they were, and in that essence show no need, of the need of God.
That alone makes ‘big numbers’ an idol. Humans have many cars, many houses, many accounts, many assets, many titles, many this, many that … and not all are evil, but you’d be shocked to discover that the more many have such, the less their need of God will be.
In the end, their identity is tied to those things. And it’s good to lose those things some times, so that God can be defined as one’s identity, and when those things return, one isn’t worried about who they are. Their security is now in something everlasting, and not what can be robbed, or eaten by moths.
Even the Israelites were victims. Their freedom caused them to forget their God so quickly. There was no generational telling of His wondrous deeds. The next batch would neglect Him for other gods due to the freedom & peace they were experiencing, and since they were His people, He had to force slavery upon them, again, just to make them need Him again, and this plan wasn’t sustainable.
Even in this present age, many don’t talk to God as long as their finances are adequate. Once the scales cease balancing in their favor they pull out God from the long forgotten drawer.
He is a jealous God. He doesn’t want to compete for the same spot in our hearts with money. ‘Either it or I is God.’ He says. And He doesn’t want us broke. He wants us to settle it in our minds that once we have Him, we have everything we need including (not just money) but provision in all aspects. Provision of love, care, covering and more than you thought you’d ever needed.
Just as the first reason is for us to TRUST in Him and draw our identity and meaning for the same, another reason is to justify the truth that He is not a respector of men. From this scripture, we see this attribute:
Deuteronomy 7:7 The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples;
It’s easy to say ‘God chose them because they were more in number than us all…’ But it hits different when He’s on the side with the least numbers. He then shows that He is the definition of big … and that once we have Him on our side, we have the majority!
Deuteronomy 7:17-19 “If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’— you shall not be afraid of them, [but] you shall remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. So shall the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.
Once more, you can see that the large enemy numbers caused the Israelites to quake. But God just wanted them not to be moved. He needed to show them again that He’s ALMIGHTY. If it was the Israelites larger in number, they’d have been confident in themselves, and yet the trusting in self brings a snare (a trap) as Proverbs 29:25 states. But once one has their trust in God, the large sizes of the likes of Goliath can’t cause them to shudder.
Solomon said two were better than one. And Jesus said where two or three are gathered He’d be in their midst. They didn’t say ‘hundreds.’
There’s a reason why the Psalmist said some trust in chariots, and others in horses. These were assets one needed to have in large numbers in order to win a battle long ago. But once one elevates their sight and trusts in God even if the numbers are many, that’s when God will even add them large numbers permanently and cease to take them away because that man no longer trusts in them.
For those that don’t learn the lesson, and are submitted under God, God will keep leaving them with small numbers so that they can run to Him when things are tending towards shortage as a mechanism to keep them needing Him like we saw with the Israelites.
May God grant you power to look beyond the numbers, and trust Him instead.
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Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
Psalms 20:7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
Psalms 33:16-17 No king [is] saved by the multitude of an army; A mighty man is not delivered by great strength. A horse [is] a vain hope for safety; Neither shall it deliver [any] by its great strength.
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