Day 6 of Lent: March 10, 2025

From Ashes to Alleluia – Trusting in God, Not in Numbers

Scripture: 1 Chronicles 21:1-27

1 Chronicles 21:1-27

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The Census and Plague

21 Satan stood up against Israel and incited David to count the people of Israel. 2 So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army, “Go, number Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, and bring me a report, so that I may know their number.” 3 But Joab said, “May the Lord increase the number of his people a hundredfold! Are they not, my lord the king, all of them my lord’s servants? Why then should my lord require this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?” 4 But the king’s word prevailed against Joab. So Joab departed and went throughout all Israel and came back to Jerusalem. 5 Joab gave the total count of the people to David. In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and in Judah four hundred seventy thousand who drew the sword. 6 But he did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, for the king’s command was abhorrent to Joab.

7 But God was displeased with this thing, and he struck Israel. 8 David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing. But now, please remove the guilt of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.” 9 The Lord spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying, 10 “Go and say to David: Thus says the Lord: Three things I offer you; choose one of them, so that I may do it to you.” 11 So Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: Take your choice: 12 either three years of famine; or three months of devastation by your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or three days of the sword of the Lord, pestilence on the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel. Now decide what answer I shall return to the one who sent me.” 13 Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress; let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is very great, but let me not fall into human hands.”

14 So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel, and seventy thousand persons fell in Israel. 15 And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but when he was about to destroy it, the Lord took note and relented concerning the calamity; he said to the destroying angel, “Enough! Stay your hand.” The angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 16 David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces. 17 And David said to God, “Was it not I who gave the command to count the people? It is I who have sinned and done very wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, O Lord my God, be against me and against my father’s house, but do not let your people be plagued!”

David’s Altar and Sacrifice

18 Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to tell David that he should go up and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19 So David went up following Gad’s instructions, which he had spoken in the name of the Lord. 20 Ornan turned and saw the king,[a] and while his four sons who were with him hid themselves, Ornan continued to thresh wheat. 21 As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David; he went out from the threshing floor and prostrated himself before David with his face to the ground. 22 David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of the threshing floor that I may build on it an altar to the Lord—give it to me at its full price—so that the plague may be averted from the people.” 23 Then Ornan said to David, “Take it, and let my lord the king do what seems good to him; see, I present the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for the wood and the wheat for a grain offering. I give it all.” 24 But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will buy them for the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” 25 So David paid Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the site. 26 David built there an altar to the Lord and presented burnt offerings and offerings of well-being. He called upon the Lord, and he answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering. 27 Then the Lord commanded the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath.

Reflection: Lent is a season that calls us to turn from self-reliance to complete dependence on God. It is a journey from Ashes to Alleluia—from our human frailty and misplaced trust to the joy of resurrection and divine mercy. The story of David’s census in 1 Chronicles 21 reminds us of the dangers of putting our faith in what we can control, measure, and secure for ourselves rather than in the provision of God.

David’s decision to count his people was not just about numbers. It was a shift in trust—from faith in God to faith in military might, political power, and human achievement. The census reduced the people of Israel to statistics, tools for the king’s ambitions rather than the beloved community of God. Walter Brueggemann reminds us that this is the great temptation of power: to replace divine trust with human control. But God calls His people to live not by numbers but by faith.

Like David, we are often tempted to rely on our own strength. We count our accomplishments, measure our success, and seek security in what we can manage. We believe that if we can just get our lives under control, we will be safe. But Lent reminds us that we are dust, that our security is fleeting, and that our true hope is not found in what we hold onto but in the God who holds us.

When David saw the consequences of his actions, he repented, and God provided a way forward. At Ornan’s threshing floor, David built an altar, refusing to offer a sacrifice that cost him nothing. True worship, true repentance, true renewal always comes with surrender. It is in that surrender that David finds mercy, and it is on that very site that Solomon would later build the temple—a place where God’s presence would dwell among His people.

Lent is our threshing floor. It is the space where we are invited to lay down our need for control, our fear of scarcity, our pride in our own achievements. It is where we come, not with empty offerings, but with hearts ready to be reshaped by grace. And from that place of surrender, we move toward resurrection—toward the Alleluia of Easter, where we find that Christ’s victory is not in power, wealth, or numbers, but in the love that cannot be counted, the grace that cannot be measured.

Questions for Reflection:

1.    Where in your life are you tempted to trust in your own strength rather than in God’s provision?

2.    How might God be calling you to surrender something during this Lenten season?

3.    What would it mean for you to worship in a way that truly costs you something—whether in time, resources, or self-giving love?

Prayer: Merciful God, in this season of Lent, strip away our illusions of control. We confess that we often trust in our own strength instead of resting in Your love. Like David, we seek security in what we can measure rather than in Your faithful provision. Yet You call us to surrender, to lay down our false securities and find true life in You. As we journey from ashes to Alleluia, transform our hearts, that we may worship You not with empty offerings, but with lives fully given in love and trust. Amen.