Question of the day: Can you remember a time when you were afraid?
Good morning class. This morning we are going to tackle the entire last chapter of 2 Samuel. This is a tricky chapter, or one that we could spend weeks on if we really dove into it. First, this account is also told in 1 Chronicles 21. The two accounts have some marked differences and to best understand really require looking at both. In interest of time I will reference it at times throughout this class and I would encourage you to take more time looking at both, however we won't be reading both chapters.
David Enrolls the Fighting Men
24 Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”
We need to stop and look at this first verse.
1. Again: It isn't clear when this is all taking place. There are many possibilities that we won't go into but it is clear that it is later in Davids reign.
2. "the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them." Here is perhaps one of the most important times when we need to look at 1 Chronicles 21. There it reads, "Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel."
WHAT?
How could it be completely opposite?
There is a huge difference between "the anger of the Lord" and "Satan rose up against Israel"
From Ellicott's Commentary it reads.
He moved.—The pronoun here stands for “the Lord,” yet in 1Chronicles 21:1, the temptation is attributed to Satan, and Satan is clearly meant of the devil, and not simply of “an adversary.” This is a striking instance of attributing directly to God whatever comes about under His permission. And yet it is more than that. God has established immutable spiritual as well as material laws, or rather those laws themselves are but the expression of His unchanging will. Whatever comes about under the operation of those laws is said to be His doing. Now David’s numbering the people was the natural consequence of the condition of worldliness and pride into which he had allowed himself to fall. God then moved him, because He had from the first so ordered the laws of the spirit that such a sinful act should be the natural outcome of such a sinful state. Of other interpretations: that which makes the verb impersonal—“one moved”—is hardly tenable grammatically; and that which makes the nominative a sort of compound word—“the wrath of the Lord” (as in some of the ancient versions)—leads to substantially the same explanation as that given above.
We are not going to dissect this any more, however it is important for this lesson to understand that it was Satan who tempted David, not God. If you have more questions we can discuss it later.
2 So the king said to Joab and the army commanders[a] with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.”
3 But Joab replied to the king, “May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?”
4 The king’s word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders; so they left the presence of the king to enroll the fighting men of Israel.
5 After crossing the Jordan, they camped near Aroer, south of the town in the gorge, and then went through Gad and on to Jazer. 6 They went to Gilead and the region of Tahtim Hodshi, and on to Dan Jaan and around toward Sidon. 7 Then they went toward the fortress of Tyre and all the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites. Finally, they went on to Beershebain the Negev of Judah.
8 After they had gone through the entire land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
9 Joab reported the number of the fighting men to the king: In Israel there were eight hundred thousand able-bodied men who could handle a sword, and in Judah five hundred thousand.
10 David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”
What has happened here? What is so bad about counting? Taking a census, even a military census was accounted for in the law so what is the big deal here?
David is conscience- stricken so we know something is up. Joab a man we can't say is a stickler for the rules, tries to tell him it isn't a good idea, and David ignores him! We know he did something wrong, but what? I found Ellicott's Commentary an interesting read.
The question of the nature of David’s sin in this act has been much discussed. The mere taking of a census in itself could not have been wrong, since it was provided for in the Law (Exodus 30:12) and had been repeatedly carried out by Moses (Numbers 1, 26). Nor is it likely that it was for the reason given by Josephus, that David neglected to secure for the sanctuary, as required, a half shekel from each one numbered (Exodus 30:13), since there is no mention of this, and David was at this very time concentrating the whole wealth of the kingdom for the future sanctuary. Yet the sinfulness of the act is distinctly set forth in the narrative (2Samuel 24:1) and in the punishment inflicted (2Samuel 24:15-16), is recognized by David himself (2Samuel 24:10; 2Samuel 24:17), and even forcibly impressed itself upon a person so little scrupulous as Joab (2Samuel 24:3). It must, then, plainly be sought in the motive of David. The whole connection shows that it was a military census, and it was made, not through the priests and Levites, but through Joab and “the captains of the host.” It would appear that prosperity and power, the natural generators of pride, had momentarily affected even David’s humble dependence upon God, and led him to wish to organize his kingdom more perfectly as a worldly power among the nations of the earth. A first step in this direction must of course be the placing of his military forces upon a systematic footing. This same desire to turn aside Israel from being a simple theocracy, to become a great earthly power, was the constant sin of the nation. It had led at the first to the request for a king, and Solomon was so thoroughly possessed with it, and so ordered all his policy in view of it, as to draw down, at his death, the judgment of the breaking up of the unity of the nation; and it is not surprising that, after all his conquests, David, in a moment of weakness, should have given way to something of the same spirit. It was thus an act most absolutely at variance with that general character which made him “a man after God’s own heart.”
I want us to read again this one part, "It would appear that prosperity and power, the natural generators of pride, had momentarily affected even David’s humble dependence upon God,"
How many times do we let the drive for prosperity and power affect our humble dependence upon God?
What can we do to guard against falling into this trap?
I think it is important to note, that David HAD great prosperity and power! Or did he?
So the "wrong" isn't in the power and prosperity but the drive to get it?
Perhaps it is simply in where are dependence lies?
To whom we give credit for our fortune?
As I work with teenagers everyday I run into two extremes. First there are those who hate how they look, they think they have no talents, aren't smart, just hate who they are. Then there are those who anytime they start to see talent or beauty or any other positive attribute in themselves they push it aside because they don't want to be prideful.
If we don't see the gifts we have been given it is an insult to our creator God! If we hate everything about ourselves then we can't love those around us! If we are blessed with leadership skills and are entrusted with power, then we must lead! Yet if we only denounce it in an effort to be "humble" then we are acting according to our calling. Humility comes from acknowledging God and keeping our dependence on him! Anything else is a great sin. Self reliance is a great sin! Self loathing is a great sin! David was given much and was very powerful but all of it was a gift of God and forgetting that was a great sin!
The other day while talking with a girl at Pisgah in an attempt to get her to see the gifts she was gifted with kept running into a wall she was putting up in an attempt to stay humble. I finally stopped her and said, "What did you do to get this talent? How hard to you work to get those beautiful eyes? Where did your leadership skills come from?"
David forgot that he didn't need to count and make sure he was strong enough, because all his strength came from God!
We must acknowledge what God has blessed us with and then and move forward for Him.
Let's continue reading.
11 Before David got up the next morning, the word of the Lord had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer: 12 “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’”
13 So Gad went to David and said to him, “Shall there come on you three[b] years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”
14 David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”
15 So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. 16 When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
17 When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the Lord, “I have sinned; I, the shepherd,[c] have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family.”
What do you think of Davids choice of punishment?
What about this choice clearly states that David understood his sin?
I like what Ellicott's Commentary said about this, "Here the spirit of David in his earlier years reappears; he chooses that form of punishment which seems to him most directly and immediately dependent upon God Himself. He places himself in His hands rather than suffer those other punishments in which the will of man seemed to have a greater share. And it may be noticed also that he chooses that form of punishment from which his own royal position would afford him no immunity."
Why then were others dying?
Do you remember another time when David's sin caused the death of many others?
We must never fall into the trap of believing that our sin is our own private thing that has no consequences for those around us, or for those we love. Even if your sin isn't seen by others! Here David's sin was a sin of his heart. Perhaps the most private of sins, and yet it hurt so many.
We know that Israel was right in there with David. They wanted an earthly king, they wanted to have armies to defend them instead of relying on God. Yet David calls them sheep and himself the shepherd taking responsibility. Why?
David Builds an Altar
18 On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 So David went up, as the Lord had commanded through Gad. 20 When Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.
21 Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”
“To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped.”
22 Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. 23 Your Majesty, Araunah[d]gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the Lord your God accept you.”
24 But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”
So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels[e] of silver for them. 25 David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.
The end this story is simple.
David, insists on paying for the sacrifice.
Our sacrifice for God will cost us!
When we sin, our sin hurts others!
Has your conscience been trying to get you to acknowledge your sin?
Is there something in your heart that needs to be repented of?
If you are having a hard time letting go, rest assured it is hurting those around you!
It is hurting your kids, your spouse, your coworkers, our church family!
Are you willing to humble yourself before God and be willing to take the consequence?
Are you willing to make a sacrifice and pay the cost whatever it is?
I realize these questions are not pretty feel good questions but they lead to a joy so great you can't even imagine it!
I know it will lead you to a place of greater dependence on the only One who can and will save you!
I know it will lead to healing not only for yourself but it will positively affect those around you!
Are you willing to be what David wasn't willing to be in this story; surrendered to God, trusting in His power to save you, heal you, restore you, and to make you whole?
If you don't know if you have the strength to give it all to Him....
Take a moment and listen to this song.
Let him Make you Brave! Brave enough to surrender to Him! He has called you! You are His! Trust in him and give it all up for Him!
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