Okay, you can turn in your Bibles to 2 Samuel 24. 2 Samuel chapter 24. 2 Samuel 24, there's some difficult things in this particular chapter and still some questions that I have that I'm certain I can't answer for all of you, so we're going to sketch the chapter tonight. For those of you who want to do more in-depth study, I can give you some book recommendations. Some of the numbers don't jive with the parallel passage in 1 Chronicles 21. There are, however, good explanations as to why, but as I said, we're not going to get into all of those particular details this evening.
But beginning in chapter 24 at verse 1, again the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, ìGo, number Israel and Judah.î So the king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, now go throughout all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and count the people that I may know the number of the people. And Joab said to the king, now may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times more than there are and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king desire this thing? Nevertheless, the king's word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the army.
Therefore, Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel. And they crossed over the Jordan and camped in Aroer, on the right side of the town, which is in the midst of the ravine of Gad and toward Jotzer. Then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tatim-Hadshi. They came to Dan-Ja'an and around to Sidon.
And they came to the stronghold of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites. Then they went out to south Judah as far as Beersheba. So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and 20 days. Then Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to the king.
And there were in Israel 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were 500,000 men. And David's heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.
Now when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, Go and tell David. Thus says the Lord, I offer you three things. Choose one of them for yourself that I may do it to you. So Gad came to David and told him, and he said to him, shall seven years of famine come to you in your land?
Or shall you flee three months before your enemies while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days plague in your land? Now consider and see what answer I should take back to him who sent me. And David said to Gad, I am in great distress.
Please let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are great. But do not let me fall into the hand of man. So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time. From Dan to Beersheba, 70,000 men of the people died.
And when the angel stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the destruction and said to the angel who was destroying the people, it is enough, now restrain your hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Arana, the Jebusite. Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people and said, Surely I have sinned and I have done wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father's house.
And Gad came that day to David and said to him, go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Arana, the Jebusite. So David, according to the word of Gad, went up as the Lord commanded. Now Aaron looked and saw the king and his servants coming toward him. So Aaron went out and bowed before the king with his face to the ground.
Then Aaron said, why has my lord, the king, come to his servant? And David said, to buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people. Now Orana said to David, let my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look, here are oxen for burnt sacrifice and threshing implements and the yokes of the oxen for wood.
All these, O king, Orana has given to the king. And Orana said to the king, may the lord your God accept you. Then the king said to Arana, no, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver.
And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel. Amen.
Introduction and Context
Well, we're in the larger context of chapters 21 to 24, which is essentially a final assessment of David's reign. And for the most part, it's a positive assessment. Not a perfect assessment as we have seen as we've covered these chapters. David was not a perfect man.
David sung about, David wrote about by the power of the Holy Spirit, a perfect man who would come from his line, but David was not that particular man. And in this chapter, as I said, there's some difficult things, not least of which is the sovereignty of God with reference to the sins of men. the various things that are going on in this chapter in terms of why it was wrong for David to number the people. Again, I probably won't satisfy all of your curiosity, but we're going to just try to get at the main ideas within the passage itself. Matthew Henry comments in his introduction to this section.
He said the last words of David were good. Remember that in chapter 23, we have the last words of David in verses 1 to 7. It's a prophecy concerning Jesus Christ. So Henry says, the last words of David were good, but in this chapter we read of some of his last works, which were none of the best.
Yet he repented and so finished well. Remember also in this context, chapters 21 to 24, there's a contrast between the reigns of Saul and the reign of David. Saul was a covenant-breaking wretch. Saul did sin against God, but he never forsook it, he never asked for forgiveness, he never repented.
We see just the opposite with David. David does sin, but David does confess, David does forsake, and David finds forgiveness and mercy from God. Again, he's not the perfect king that is to come, at least from his vantage point, but he was a just and a righteous king for the most part. Again, not without sin.
But
Three-Part Outline Announced
let's look at this chapter under three considerations. First, the census of Israel in verses 1 to 9. Secondly, the judgment upon Israel in verses 10 to 17. And then the necessity of atonement in verses 18 to 25.
You remember this section, chapters 21 to 24. Chapter 21 is very similar and parallel to what we find here in chapter 24. In fact, when we read in 24.1, again, the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel, it probably is reminiscent of chapter 21 and verse 1. Remember, there was famine in the land for three years during the reign of David.
And what was the particular infraction there was that Saul broke an oath with the Gibeonites And as a result, God required atonement, and then seven sons of Saul were put to death. There was atonement wrought there in Gibeah. So we see a parallel theme here. Only it's David's sin, but the justice of God must be satisfied, and this chapter ends as well on the high note of atonement. and the fact that God does require such to satisfy His wrath and His judgment and His fury.
But note, it says again, the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel. You will search far and wide in this chapter to find out why. We are simply not told why God is angry with the Lord. Now, it probably wouldn't... take very long to try and, you know, sketch a few responses.
They were never what they ought to have been. They never conducted themselves in utter perfection. But this whole idea of anger is not explained. It's just stated as a given.
It doesn't indicate why, but Israel is the target. So when 70,000 Israelites die, David interprets it as, why don't you just deal with me, Lord, and spare the children of Israel? Well, we see the target of judgment in this particular chapter is not only David, but it's also the nation of Israel. God's anger is directed against Israel as a whole.
Now, some of the commentators suggest it's because Israel as a whole sided with Absalom in his rebellion against David. Remember, David was God's king. David was the covenantal king over the covenantal community, and to rebel against him and to engage in insubordination against him was to engage in insubordination against Yahweh. And so some posit that, that it was the sin of siding with Absalom, and then even more recently, siding with the rebellion under Sheba in chapter 20.
But the text doesn't explain. I quite like Davis' response here. on the absence given of a reason for God's anger. He says, does this bother us? Do we perhaps assume that God must always explain himself and justify his ways?
I mean, isn't it enough for us to know that God is angry? Do we have to spell it out and know all the particular details? He says, if we cannot be content to accept the mystery of this text, we may be revealing ourselves. If we are upset over a text that tells us Yahweh is angry, but does not tell us why, are we not saying that we really don't trust Him to be just?
In other words, God is just. He doesn't stop just because He doesn't explain Himself. And we're in the wrong position to demand from God that He explain Himself. He says, is there not a strain within us that insists there must be no mysteries in God?
Don't we sometimes subtly assume that God owes us an explanation? We can easily brandish an arrogance that does not worship, that comes into the presence of the Most High with a strut instead of a bow. Are we angry because God is not perfectly transparent? Can we live and can we worship with mystery?
I think that Davis gets at something there. We always want a full explanation given to us for anything that results, and we're not content to realize, you know, that God doesn't explain Himself in every instance and in every circumstance to the likes of us. But notice the particular result of his anger in 24.1. He moved David against Israel to say, go number Israel and Judah.
Now, this is going to be a sin, or this is a sinful thing that David does. Joab realizes it, David himself realizes it, and God sends judgment upon the nation of Israel as a result. We might ask the question, why was a census sinful? Censuses were typically done in concert with military operations.
The people of Israel were numbered when it came to going into battle. And again, I don't know that I will be able to satisfy every curiosity that arises out of this particular text, but this is the particular thing involved. God moves David against Israel to say, go number Israel and Judah. Now, the agency utilized in this was the devil himself.
When we compare 1 Chronicles chapter 21 and verse 1, that is the parallel passage to what we find here in 2 Samuel 24. It says that Satan rose up and moved David to number the children of Israel. Now, that presents a bit of a melon scratcher, I think, to most of us when we see God here, sovereign over David, and then we see the instrumentality of the devil. In fact, you can turn there so you know I'm not making it up.
Believe me, I would not have made this up because it's a bit of a difficult thing to try and unravel. 1 Chronicles 21.1, now Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel. So back in 2 Samuel 24, we see that it was God that moved David against Israel to say, go number Israel and Judah. Now, I think that we ought to understand that God is absolutely sovereign. I don't think any of us doubt that.
We go to a Reformed church, we subscribe to a Reformed confession. God is comprehensively sovereign over all things. And I think the writer in 2 Samuel 24 is underscoring that reality. God is sovereign in His providence over every jot and tittle that takes place on this earth.
The writer in Chronicles, 1 Chronicles chapter 21, is looking at the immediate agency. He's looking at the immediate cause with reference to this particular sin, or this movement upon David to entice him or to provoke him to go and sin. And I think that our confession deals with this situation well. It highlights that God is the first cause, but that the fact is that there are second causes.
And in chapter 5 on divine providence, it says, although in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first cause, all things come to pass immutably and infallibly, so that there is not anything befalls any by chance or without His providence. Yet, by the same providence, he orders them to fall out according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently. Now, again, I'm just trying to offer a bit of rationale behind this. These are things that certainly have perplexed theologians throughout the centuries.
That's why I cite the Confession, because I think it's a balanced scriptural presentation of the truths at play in the Samuel narrative and that according to the Chronicler. And then in chapter 5, paragraph 4, where these two texts are specifically cited. It says, "...the almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God, so far manifest themselves in His providence, that His determinate counsel extends itself even to the first fall, and all other sinful actions both of angels and men. In other words, what the confession is saying accurately, reflecting what the Scripture says, is that nothing transpires apart from God.
There's no random event. There's no haphazard event. There's no sort of thing that takes God by surprise. There's nothing that catches Him unawares.
Everything falls out according ultimately to the decree and purpose and plan of the living and true God. However, he does use and employ second causes. The confession goes on to say, and that not by a bare permission. It's not the case that he turned his back for a time while all these dastardly things were perpetrated.
No, God is involved. He is the overseer. He is the governor. He is the sovereign.
It goes on to say, which also He most wisely and powerfully boundeth and otherwise orders and governs in a manifold dispensation to His most holy ends, yet so as the sinfulness of their acts proceeds only from the creatures and not from God. who being most holy and righteous neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin." So the 17th century confessions encapsulate biblical truth. God is sovereign over all things. This does not negate the reality of second causes. But when we trace all things back to God as the source, as the fountain, we cannot malign Him or we cannot suggest that He is the author of sin or the one who orchestrates the acts of evil.
Now again, this is somewhat perplexing and it takes some time to try and unravel and unscrew in one's head, but realize that what we have here in terms of the Chronicler and 2 Samuel 24 is the reality that God in His general providence oversees all things. The devil is the instrumental cause. The immediate cause, or the immediate cause upon David with reference to this enticement to number the children of Israel. Interestingly enough, in the next paragraph, it says, the most wise, righteous, and gracious God does oftentimes leave for a season his own children to manifold temptations and the corruptions of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled, and to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin and for other just and holy ends, so that whatsoever befalls any of his elect is by his appointment for his glory and their good." Now, the London Baptist does not contain it, but the Westminster points to 2 Samuel 24.1 as an illustration of that principle, that God is dealing with David as an elect redeemed sinner, but who is nevertheless chastening him for his sins, either past or present.
God deals with him for his own glory and for the good of David. Again, if that was not clear, you can email me, text me, or carrier pigeon me, and I can point you to some good resources on this particular topic. But there's the scene, there's the situation.
The Census of Israel
He is told to go, or he is moved to go. and number Israel and Judah. He gives the command to Joab, verse 2, go throughout all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba. Dan is in the high north, Beersheba is in the south. When you see that biblical convention, it means all of Israel.
Go number the people from Dan to Beersheba, count them, that I may know the number of the people."
Joab's Objection and David's Pride
Now note Joab's response. Joab says to the king, now may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times more than there are, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. Now, the text never tells us directly why it was wrong to number the children of Israel. Again, it's usually done in terms of military operations.
We don't know the military situation facing David. We don't know the particular situation facing him in terms of his political kingdom. But I think that Joab's words here give us a hint in the direction as to why what David did was wrong. Because Joab says, may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times more than there are, and may the eyes of my Lord the King see it.
In other words, may your people be multiplied. Perhaps what's driving David, John Gill took this position, was a pride and a boastfulness and a desire to have a great army and a great amount of resources that would certainly exalt him and elevate him. And I think that what Joab says here may indicate that that's the particular direction. This is the man who wrote that some trust in chariots and some trust in horses, but will trust in the name of Yahweh, our God.
So David is not acting consistently with what he knows. David has lived his life in dependence upon Yahweh. David has written Psalms ascribing his dependence upon Yahweh. And here it's almost as if he's trusting in the number of bodies that do populate his standing army.
That probably does get at it. Again, I can't say for certain because we don't have a 26th verse that says, and herein lies the problem of David's having numbered Israel. But Joab's response seems to tilt the argument in that direction. David wants to know how many people he has in his army.
And notice what Joab goes on to say in 3b. He says, but why does my lord the king desire this thing? Joab was not a tender, sensitive soul, was he? I mean, Joab was the least that we would say is that sensitive sheep in the flock who gets easily perplexed over certain difficult situations.
Joab was not that sort of a guy. But Joab here is essentially pleading with David not to number the people of Israel. That may indicate there was not a military excursion that they needed to embark on. That may indicate that there was no need to muster the troops.
It may indicate the reality that David was doing this for reasons that were unsavory and unrighteous. Notice in verse 4, Nevertheless, the king's word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the army. Therefore, Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel. Interesting that it's the captains of the army and the chief of the army himself.
We're not hiring, you know, minimum-wage ladies or men to go out and knock on doors and collect census data. These are the military officers of Israel, which indicates something's going on here that doesn't seem right. And then essentially what we have in verses 5 to 9 is a sketch of Dandabir Sheba. We don't need to go through all of that except to say that it took about 9 months and 20 days.
So when David comes to the point of repentance, or when David comes to the point in verse 10 wherein his heart condemns him, realize it wasn't overnight. Realize that a considerable amount of time had passed. Right? Joab comes back, answers David, there were 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword and the men of Judah were 500,000 men.
I think there's a lesson that we need to glean from this and that we glean as well with reference to David's sin with Bathsheba and Uriah. David didn't immediately repent. David lived for a season at peace with sin he had committed. And we ought to take notice of that and we ought to seek by the grace of God not to make peace with sin.
Immediate repentance, short accounts with God, dealing radically and righteously with Jehovah when we sin against Him. Let not 9 months and 20 days go past before you repent. Let not that season go past after, you know, David has this sin with Uriah and Bathsheba. It takes Nathan, the prophet, and his preaching to call David back to repentance and faith.
Learn from this, that if the man after God's own heart can stray from God and can live at least to some degree in contentedness with undealt with sin, you and I need to be on our guard. You and I need to be on heightened alert. You and I need to be watchful and prayerful, realizing that if the man after God's own heart could make peace with sin, we ought to see the potentiality for such an occasion, and we ought to guard our hearts against it. Maintain short accounts with God.
When you sin, confess it. Forsake it. Find mercy from Jesus. Don't entertain it.
Don't sit on it. Don't stew about it. Just go to the throne of grace, confess it, and you will find mercy and forgiveness.
Judgment Upon Israel
Now, notice the judgment upon Israel in verses 10 to 17.
David's Heart Condemned
Note the condemnation by his heart. David's heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. As I said, we don't have a specific answer here why it was sinful. Some suggest that he did not require the half shekel.
In Exodus 30, when the census was taken with reference to military operations, each of the men numbered were to provide a half shekel as a ransom payment for their lives. The text doesn't say that David asked for this half shekel, so therefore, that was his sin. Well, I'm not sure that we can conclude that. Others say that he wanted to impose tribute upon them, but the text doesn't say that either.
The idea that he didn't receive an order from God that he was told to go and number the people. Or the idea that he had pride in his heart. Notice, the confession only involved the numbering of the people, not half shekels, not imposing tribute, anything like that. The sin confessed was that he numbered the people.
And as I suggested earlier, the desire expressed by Joab for the multiplication of the people of Israel may lean in the direction that this is what David was doing. He was trusting in his standing army. He was trusting in his resources. This is probably toward the end of David's life.
He's already spoken his last words. He's looking upon and he's reflecting upon his legacy. You hear this with presidents who are on their way out, even though their legacies are abysmal and terrible. Nevertheless, they like to reflect upon their legacy and all the good that they've done.
No, just look at the streets and you can see a testimony. You haven't done a whole lot of good. But this might be what David is doing. John Gill understands it this way.
He says, so that this appears to be done, the numbering of the people, not through any urgent necessity, but merely out of curiosity and to gratify the pride of his heart and please himself with the thought of ruling such a numerous people and brag of their numbers to other nations and place his confidence therein. And no wonder it was displeasing to the Lord." Again, we don't know, it doesn't say that, but this seems to be the way the scales are tipped based on what Joab says and based on David's own admission or confession. It is the numbering of the people. Vannoy says, the implication of Joab's statement is that David's mind was set in some improper way on the importance of numbers and that he was more concerned with how many fighting men he could muster than he was with trust in the Lord's promise to make the nation great and to protect his people from their enemies.
Again, a contrast from what he writes in Psalm 27. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
The Importance of Prompt Repentance
Now, I suggested earlier that we ought not to let 9 months and 20 days pass before we repent before God. But nevertheless, praise God that after 9 months and 20 days, His heart did condemn Him. This is how we know there's grace there. This is how we know He's different from Saul.
This is how we know that He was a believer in Jesus Christ. And I would suggest we ought to praise God for hearts that condemn us. Because they don't do so apart from the Spirit. left on our own, our hearts would never condemn us. This is a ministry of the Holy Spirit, to convict the world of sin, right?
This is something we ought to praise God for. This is what we find in verse 10. David's heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, I have sinned greatly in what I have done.
But now I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly." This is a marked contrast with Saul. You'll survey the text, survey the Saul narratives, and you don't find such an admission. You don't find his heart condemn him. You don't find him confessing his iniquity.
You don't find him praying to the Lord and essentially asking God, for mercy from on high. This is one of the aims of the author in chapters 21 to 24. Again, it sets the stage for the succession narrative for Solomon in 1 Kings chapters 1 and 2. David was the righteous king and his son is the rightful heir to the throne of Israel.
Saul was the wicked king and ought to be shunned as a result of that. So the author is still contrasting with us David and Saul, and unfortunately he has to do it in the context of David's sin, but nevertheless that's how he's going to do it. So notice, David makes this admission before the Lord God, now God sends Gad the prophet in verses 11 to 13. It is intriguing, the confession precedes the prophet.
The confession precedes the prophet. In his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah, the prophet preceded the confession, right? David's doing a little better in this instance. Remember, David was living completely flagrantly against Yahweh in 2 Samuel 11 and 12.
God sends Nathan to David Nathan tells David the story about the man with the little ewe lamb. David gets incensed and outraged, and Nathan says, thou art the man, and God reproves him. And then David says, I have sinned against Yahweh. Here, thankfully, David confesses his sin.
Not that that was not right. That's still legit. I think we get this in our head. Well, they got caught, and then they repented.
They repented. Praise God. No matter how it came about, if he got caught and he repented, he repented. Praise the Lord.
Sometimes that's the way he operates. He has somebody get caught and then they repent. David in 2 Samuel 11 and 12. We cannot negate or neglect or somehow diminish David's repentance there because he got caught first.
The issue is repentance. Forgiveness was administered by Yahweh based on the prophet's reproof of David and David coming clean. Here David comes clean, confesses his sin to God, and then Gad comes and gives him the options for judgment. Notice in verse 12, Go and tell David, thus says the Lord, I offer you three things.
Choose one of them for yourself, that I may do it to you. These are miserable choices, aren't they? I mean, this is sin's consequences. We have to think about this sort of stuff, and I think the author puts it there for us.
Sin does not produce good consequences. When you act sinfully against God, and you do foolish things, the consequences aren't roses and joy and happiness and sunshine and rainbows. The consequences are horrific. Consequences for yourself, consequences for others.
In this instance, it affected the entirety of the nation. Of course, God's anger was directed to the entirety of the nation. David doesn't know that at this particular point or this particular time. We, the reader, are told in verse 1, the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel.
David wasn't told that. David doesn't get these narrator tips along the way. We, the reader, have this information. At this particular point, David doesn't know that.
His sin brought about these consequences, and I think it's good for us to realize that sin always brings consequences. Is it ever the case that you sin and rainbows, you know, a light in the air? No, it's not the way it is. There's always miserable things that result from sin.
You're all looking at me surprised. Am I suggesting something here that is contrary to your experience? Have you ever sinned and been happier for it? I mean, there's the passing pleasures of sin that the writer of Hebrews alludes to, but Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy those passing pleasures of sin, because he counted the riches of Christ as much better than anything that this world had to offer.
Sin does not bring joy. It doesn't bring happiness. Drive down Chilliwack sometime and see what the effects of sin are. There's a guy that used to live next door to this building, and he would come here and ask for money.
He was a nice fellow, and I felt sorry for him, and I knew what he was going to use that money for. At that particular time he was able to rent that house. I see him occasionally downtown, his face is completely changed. The effects of the drugs have changed his appearance.
I mean he's got the sunken in cheeks, the teeth are falling out. It doesn't, it hasn't yielded him a better and a happier and a more profitable life. Sin never does. It never promotes goodness, happiness, contentedness, harmony, peace.
A man sins in his family. And what happens to the family? There is ruination. A man sins with adultery.
He basically butchers his wife and his children. A woman sins, committing adultery. She butchers her husband and her children. There is never good that comes from sin.
And here what the author tells us are David's options. I mean, this isn't Monty Hall, let's make a deal. Do you want the burrow behind gate number one or the car behind number two? These are horrific options.
So God came to David and told him, verse 13, Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or shall you flee three months before your enemies while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' plague in your land? Now consider and see what answer I should take back to Him who sent me." I mean, this right here would convince me I'd never want to be a king.
I'd never want to be a president. I'd never want to have that sort of an effect upon people, and yet at the same time I tremble at the thought as one who must give an account for those souls who are in the church of Christ. It's a terrifying reality, and David's got to answer probably the most difficult question he's ever had to answer. This is going to affect the people who I love.
I mean, what he says in verse 17 is truly Christ-like. I mean, he is prototypical Jesus at this particular time. It's my sin, God, don't plague the sheep. Let it come to me in my house.
I mean, that's the heart of David. He's not happy with this decision. He's not willy nilly with this decision. He's not saying, well, you know, this will wipe out more people and this will wipe out just as many.
You know, let's go for the mass. He's not like that. This is probably killing the man as he has to consider and plan and plot the demise of his own countrymen. You see, a king doesn't want to ruin those he rules over.
I mean, at least real kings. I'm sure there's those out there that have no care whatsoever. I mean, think of a Stalin or of a Pol Pot or a Hitler. I mean, they certainly don't care about those under their rule.
But David was a man after God's own heart, and for him to be given these options must have been a real, real difficult thing. I mean, we just read the text and, oh, wow, you know, he chose, you know, number three, the plague. What was that like? What's a man got to go through in terms of answering this particular question?
David Casts Himself on God's Mercy
Note what he does. He casts himself upon the mercy of God. Think about that. God has said, I'm going to pour out my wrath, and David says, I'm casting myself upon the mercy of God.
David knows his God, doesn't he? Verse 14, and David said to Gad, I am in great distress. Please let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man. Isn't that a beautiful statement?
David doesn't forget his theology. God doesn't stop being merciful while he's full of wrath and justice. We have this idea, you know, God flips on the switch to be an angry God on Tuesday and on Wednesday he'll flip the switch and be a merciful God. God is all that God is all the time.
He doesn't stop being something to be something else. He is His attributes. His essence, His attributes are identical. There are not so many parts that make up God.
The doctrine of divine simplicity teaches that He is not a composite being. He's not a little love. He's not a little wrath. He's not a little judgment.
He's not a little justice. He is all that He is all the time. And so David has the confidence to cast himself upon the mercies of the Lord God Most High. I love the way Davis puts it.
Well, let's just look at a few texts before we read this Davis quote. David is not new to this. Notice in chapter 12. Notice in chapter 12.
After David's son dies. As a consequence of his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah, the Lord God struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David. And when they asked him about the fact that he is no longer fasting and weeping once the child is dead, in 1222 he says, while the child was alive, I fasted and wept. For I said, who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live?
That underscores the fact that David understood that God was gracious, but that God is sovereign. It's up to God to display His graciousness or His mercy as He sees fit. I don't twist His arm. I don't manipulate Him.
I don't get what I want just because I want it. David knows that God is sovereign. He knows that God is gracious. Notice in 1612. when Shimei, that wonderful specimen of a human being that threw rocks at David and cursed him.
I'm being sarcastic. He wasn't a wonderful specimen of a human being. I think that Abishai was on the right track. personally, but I mean, he wanted to de-head Shimei and remove him from the earth. But notice what David says in 1612, it may be that the Lord will look on my affliction and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing this day.
You see, David's always in the hand of a sovereign God and he realizes that. He knows that God is gracious and God is merciful. So back in this great conundrum of which thing to pick, He places himself in the hand of the mercies of God. Davis says, David is about to meet Yahweh's wrath and yet is convinced of Yahweh's mercies.
Somehow he imagines that the hand that strikes him will nevertheless spare him. David's assumptions are astounding. His words in verse 14 breathe not only necessary resignation, but boundless consolation. See how well he knows his God.
In his crises, his theology seems to come out almost by reflex action. Is this not as it should be in believing experience? Must you not have your best theology for your darkest moments? I love that statement.
Must you not have your best theology for your darkest moments? Yes. That's why we preach the Bible and hopefully encourage you that you need to know theology for those dark moments because it's that that's going to get you through it. It's not you and what a great fellow you are.
It's what a great God God is. He says, and in the disasters and sins of life, is there a kinder place to fall than into the hand of Yahweh? No, there's not. So notice verses 15 and 16.
So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time. From Dan to Beersheba, 70,000 men of the people died. And when the angel stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the destruction. Remember from our study in Impassibility, this idea of God relenting or repenting is an improper predication.
It is an anthropopathism. God doesn't actually change. This is written in the manner of men to communicate to us an act of revelation. God revealing himself this way.
The change is not with him, it is with man, but nevertheless, this is the way we interpret, this is the way we see. So God relented from the destruction and said to the angel who was destroying the people, it is enough, now restrain your hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Arana the Jebusite. Now Davis argues that verse 17 is a flashback. that 17 actually precedes 16.
He argues from what's called the pluperfect tense. And if you really want to spend some time tonight in discussing pluperfect tenses, we can stay later. But the idea being is that 17 happens prior to 16. So David prays and the Lord God hears And the Lord stays the hand of execution in this instance.
But note David's prayer in verse 17. David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people and he said, surely I have sinned and I have done wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father's house. That's David at his best, isn't it?
That's the David we know and love. I mean, we know and love David even in the misery and the sin. We don't stop loving David. God never stopped loving David, so we mustn't ever stop loving David.
But that is Christ-like. That's like Moses. Moses interceded that way on behalf of the children of Israel. Paul does the same thing in Romans 9.
He himself wishes that he could be anathema from Christ for the sake of his countrymen. This is the doctrine of substitution. If I could take the punishment due to the nation of Israel, I will take the punishment due to the nation of Israel. Isn't that what our Savior does?
Isn't that what Jesus Christ is all about? Isn't that what the discourse in John 10 is? The shepherd or the Lord Jesus gives His life for the sheep. This is what David is doing.
I have sinned. I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father's house.
Gil says this is a type of Christ, the good shepherd, willing to lay down his life for the sheep and suffer in their stead that they might go free.
The Necessity of Atonement
So now let's look finally at the necessity of atonement. Verse 18, and Gad came that day to David and said to him, go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Arana the Jebusite. So David, according to the word of Gad, went up as the Lord commanded. Now, there is a connection here.
God stays as wrath in verse 16, but this section tells us that atonement needs to be wrought. In other words, the wrath is stayed, but sacrifice must come. Davis explains it. If the altar on Aaronah's threshing floor was a matter of God's command, which it was, verse 19, God tells David to build an altar on Aaronah's threshing floor.
And perhaps you already know about Aaronah's threshing floor, but keep it in for now, because in a few moments we're going to reveal it to the rest of us, the significance of Aaronah's threshing floor. It's not just some guy. Okay, it's in Jerusalem and it's a very significant location. But for now, notice that God commands David to erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Arana, the Jebusite.
So David, according to the word of Gad, went up as the Lord commanded. So this was divine direction. God says to David, erect an altar. Why would you erect an altar?
For sacrifice. Sacrifice needs to be made. God's wrath has been stayed, but His wrath has not been propitiated. And we need to deal with that, and this is the instruction for David to go and make sacrifice.
So again, Davis, if the altar on Aaronah's threshing floor was a matter of God's command, then the sacrifices offered there must have been imperative. This wasn't a suggestion from Yahweh. You know, David, if you feel like it and you have a hankering to worship, go on over to Aaronah's threshing floor. This is the divine word.
This is the word of commandment. He says, this means that the situation was not resolved at the end of verse 16. Their wrath was stayed, but not satisfied. The scourge ceases in verse 16, but the wrath behind the scourge must not merely be curtailed or on hold, but must be dealt with or theologically it must be propitiated.
You've all heard that word before. It's been preached in our pulpit, propitiation has to do with the wrath of God. God's wrath is targeted upon sinners. Christ comes as the substitute and He takes the wrath Himself.
So God's wrath is spent in the sacrificial substitution of Jesus Christ on behalf of sinners. He goes on to say, hence the altar and sacrifices of verse 25, and this is affected by atonement. This isn't a willy-nilly suggestion here. This must happen.
God stays His wrath, but the wrath is still present. It must be propitiated. It must be spent. It must be dealt with.
Hence the necessity for sacrifice. Now notice the king in Oranah. He's called Ornan in 1 Chronicles 21. We'll just call him Oranah here because that's what's indicated in the Samuel narrative.
He's surprised. He goes out, he bows before the king with his face to the ground. Oranah says, why has my lord the king come to his servant? David says, verse 21, to buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the Lord that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.
You see, David knows. David understands, yeah, the killing may have stopped, but God's wrath is still there. We've got to deal with that, and David understands that, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people. So Aaron says to David, let my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him.
Look, here are oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing implements, and the oaks of the oxen for wood. All these, O king, Orana has given to the king. And Orana said to the king, May the Lord your God accept you." So you see, Orana's being pretty beneficent and pretty generous. Notice he doesn't offer him the parcel of land, that's probably the difference.
There's a sizable difference in terms of the money spent by David in the Samuel narrative versus the Chronicle narrative. Probably in Samuel, he's buying the items necessary for sacrifice, and in the Chronicler's account, he's buying the land itself for what will go in that particular place. Okay? So that's probably the difference in terms of the money spent.
But note what David says in verse 24. We pressed this a little bit last Wednesday night and then again on Sunday evening. Remember when we saw those three men who went to go get that sweet water from Bethlehem for David, when he had that moment of nostalgia and longing. We suggested that sacrifice is a necessary element in the Christian life.
We looked at Matthew 16 where Jesus, you know, He insists that we take up our crosses daily and follow Him if we are genuine professors of the true religion. We're not to live in, you know, pomp and splendor and majesty and glory and, you know, pampering the flesh. We need to take up our crosses daily and follow the Lord Jesus. In the context, that means that we ought to be willing to die for the Lord Jesus.
Sacrifice involves deprivation. It involves the removal of creature comforts or goods or things or stuff that we would like to otherwise keep, but we're going to sacrifice them for the glory of God and for the good of, in this instance, Israel.
Sacrifice Must Cost Something
Notice that David isn't content with a cheap form of religion. Aaron is offering him everything free of charge. David could easily have said, well, that's quite nice of you, Your Honor. Thank you for your contributions to the nation and its plague problem.
But that's not what David says. Verse 24, no, but I will surely buy it from you for a price. Nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which cost me nothing. What an indictment to Israel of later times, in Malachi's day, when they're taking the lame and the maimed animals and they're sacrificing it to Yahweh.
Or when they're on their way to temple and they steal a sacrifice. Had they listened to David in 2 Samuel 24-24, they would have realized that this is what religion is all about. This is what the true religion is. We will not bring anything to the Lord my God that costs me nothing.
David ain't going to get off cheap here. David sinned. He's called to sacrifice. He's going to sacrifice.
He's not going to, you know, try to cheat God or try to jip God or try to cheap out. How many times do we do that in our service to God? We cheap out. Well, you know, we'll just keep this a little bit back.
Why? Isn't he worthy of everything great and glorious? When we move forward in the narrative in 1 Kings, look and see how they decorate that temple. Is that some sort of a testimony to the ingenuity of man?
No, it's a testimony to the glory of God. You don't go to the thrift store to build the temple for God. You spend money, you buy gold, you get jewels, you deck it out because this God is so glorious. You don't cheap out, you don't skimp, you don't shave off the edges, or you don't keep back some for yourself.
Wasn't this the sin with Ananias and Sapphira? Peter says, as long as it's in your control, you are free to do with it what you want. But when you said you sold it for such and such a price, and you said you gave all that to the Lord God Almighty, and you lied. We're not supposed to lie when it comes to sacrifice.
We're not supposed to steal when it comes to sacrifice. We're not supposed to skimp or cheap out when it comes to sacrifice. We're supposed to sacrifice. Deprivation, hurt, pain, all of that stuff is involved in the word sacrifice.
I love what David says here. He says, nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver, and David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel.
Turn to 21.14. Same language. After the death of the sons of Saul for atonement. 2 Samuel 21.14. And after that, God heeded the prayer for the land.
Now, the parallel with chapter 21 is vivid. Both chapters describe a sin that leads to judgment. In 21, it's Saul's sin. He broke the covenant with the Gibeonites.
In 2 Samuel 24, it's David's sin. He numbered the children of Israel. Both chapters required atonement. 21 and 24 was death in 21 and here in 24 it was death also. 70,000 people died and then the sacrifice in terms of the oxen was offered up afterwards. As well, both chapters demonstrate that God's justice is satisfied.
It demonstrates to us what the cross is all about. The cross isn't first and foremost a message of, you know, loving kindness to humanity. It's a message of the satisfaction of God's wrath. You know, Paul, when he sets forth to argue concerning the propitiatory work of Jesus in Romans 3, you know what Paul says is demonstrated at the cross?
The righteousness of God. that God can be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Because, see, someone would say, well, that just doesn't seem right. It's almost like God just took His wrath and threw it away. Oh, no, no, no, no.
God spent His wrath in the person of His Son. God's wrath must be spent. It must go forth. It must find its satisfaction.
So both chapters demonstrate that. And then both chapters show David accept responsibility as the true covenantal king. David accepts the responsibility in 21 to make Saul's sin right. Well, not to make Saul's sin right, but to correct the breach of the covenant that Saul engaged in and David undertakes in this particular situation.
Mount Moriah and Redemptive History
Now, I mentioned that Arana the Jebusite, his location is very intriguing. It is Mount Moriah. It's Mount Moriah. If you're familiar with the account in Genesis chapter 22, you can turn there.
This is where Abraham took Isaac in response to God's command that Abraham go and sacrifice his son Isaac. It was the land of Moriah. And intriguingly, notice the response of the angel of Yahweh in verses 11 and 12. When Abraham is about to bury the knife into his son Isaac, his son, the son he loved, his only son, the language is reminiscent of Jesus as the only son, the monogamous of God most high.
In 2211, the angel of Yahweh called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. So he said, here I am. And he said, do not lay your hand on the ladder, do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. The hand of the angel stays the hand of Abraham.
Same sort of thing that we see here in Jerusalem in 2 Samuel 24. Now turn forward a bit to see the significance of Moriah. I'm sorry, 1 Chronicles 22.1. I've told you that the parallel to our chapter is 1 Chronicles 21.
Well, on the heels of the offerings given by David at that location, or on the Jebusites threshing floor, notice in 21.30, but David could not go before it to inquire of God, but he was afraid. of the sword of the angel of the Lord. Then David said, This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel. This is the site of the temple. Mount Moriah is where they would construct the temple.
This is a significant place in history, in redemptive history. So when David is told to go to Aaron of the Jebusites threshing floor, this is the site where the temple will be constructed. Notice in 2 Chronicles chapter 3. Excuse me, 2 Chronicles chapter 3 verse 1.
Now Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah where the Lord had appeared to his father David at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. So you see it's a very significant location in redemptive history in Israel. Vannoy says that the Lord, it is intriguing that we have this sin, David's sin, the nation's sin, God's anger toward them, and what comes as a result. It's the place of sacrifice for sin.
It sort of all leads us to the end. And some would think, wow, 2 Samuel 24 ends a bit odd. No, it doesn't. It points us, A, to Christ, but it does so via the temple that Solomon will build.
The temple is the type pointing us forward to the Lord Jesus Christ. So 2 Samuel 24 ends on that high note of Davidic covenant, finding its fulfillment in the Davidic son that will stand for and be what the temple would ultimately point to. biblically, theologically, is rich in terms of its construction. But Vannoy makes this observation. but rather are incorporated into their actualization. I've got to say, when I started this study this morning, I thought, oh man, here we go again.
You know, David, everything seemed to be okay. 22 was good. You prophesied concerning Jesus. We got to hear about your mighty men. And now you're sinning against the Lord.
Come on, David. But it ends on this high note. This is where God is going to deal with the sins of Israel. This is where God is going to bring atonement to Israel.
This is what's going to point us even more so to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is that great atoning sacrifice for the sins of His people. This ends on the highest of notes, where God is worshipped, where His wrath is satisfied, where His justice is recognized, and where the people of Israel have the plague withdrawn from them. Truly ends on a most blessed note.
Application and Conclusion
Well, brethren, I think as we consider in conclusion just this chapter, probably we could spend a whole night just rehearsing the themes of 2 Samuel as a whole, but we do see in this the demonstration of the absolute sovereignty of God. The Lord God is behind everything. The Lord God is comprehensively sovereign. David doesn't sin apart from the decree.
We don't live apart from the decree. Again, I would suggest that you read chapter 3 that deals with the decree and chapter 5 of Divine Providence that shows that decree fleshed out in history through Divine Providence. Some of it may still remain a bit perplexing at times, but realize that these 17th century confessions are working with the scriptural data and putting together in very succinct and very compact statements biblical truth concerning these high things that God reveals. As well, I don't think we ought to leave this chapter without realizing the blessed presence of the conviction of sin.
Verse 10 is a good thing. It may not have been a happy occasion for David. It may not have been a season where he would have opened the champagne and called for rejoicing. It was certainly a painful situation, but sometimes the best things come through the most painful things.
It was a good thing that David's heart condemned him. that he had numbered the people. It was a good thing that he was convicted of his sin and that he was moved to repentance, he was moved to confession, he was moved to forsaking it. Don't get upset if somebody calls you out on your sin or if the Holy Spirit, working through the preaching or the reading of the Word, convicts you of your sin. This is his ministry.
This is what he does. If we get upset, it's as if to suggest, well, I don't need your help, Holy Spirit. I'm okay on my own. I have achieved a status of such excellence that I don't need to be reminded of such things.
We most certainly need to be reminded, and we need to have the gracious humility of a David. David doesn't get defensive. David doesn't say, well, I numbered the people like Moses did, and that was okay then. What?
David owned it, and he said he sinned, and he had done very foolishly. When the Spirit convicts you of your sin, don't get defensive. Don't get argumentative. Get repentant.
Get humble. Get contrite. Get lowly. deal with God the way He calls you to. As well, we ought to recognize the mercies of God and say with David, let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great.
And then, of course, the typical significance. The heart of the Messiah is revealed in David in verse 17. Matthew Henry said, let this remind us of the grace of our Lord Jesus who gave himself for our sins and was willing that God's hand should be against him that we might escape. The shepherd was smitten that the sheep might escape.
And then of course this whole section in 18 to 25 indicates or highlights for us typically the atoning work of our Lord Jesus Christ for the sins of His people. Well, let us close with a word of prayer.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank You for Your Word, and we thank You for these studies, and 1 and 2 Samuel, and for the great things that You do in the lives of Your people. God, certainly You are a sovereign God, certainly You are a just God, a righteous God, a God who does pour out wrath upon the sinner, but as well You are a God of grace and mercy and loving-kindness. I pray that we would learn these lessons and that we would learn them well. that we would always be willing to say and prepared to say with David that we would cast ourselves upon the mercy of God Most High. Go with us now and watch over us in the remainder of this week.
Bring us together on the Lord's Day that we may worship you in spirit and truth. And we ask these things through Christ our Lord. Amen.