"David's Last Stand"

David’s Last Stand
2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21

I suggest you open your bible to 2 Samuel 24 and use the ribbon to hold 1 Chronicles 21. They’re two accounts of the same story, and we will refer to both accounts.

Although I won’t read the passages in their entirety, you might find it useful to refer to the stories as we go along. What if I were to ask you, “What was David’s great sin,” what would you say? Your answer would probably have something to do with his adultery with Bathsheba or his murder of Uriah. Actually, it was neither one. It is found here in our text.

The story begins this way:

2 Samuel 24:1 (ESV)

Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, number Israel and Judah.”

1 Chronicles 21:1 (ESV)

Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel.

Right away, the diligent Bible student notices something that seems a bit odd and confusing on the surface.

In 2 Samuel it says that God was angry with Israel and moved David against Israel by basically announcing the idea of a census. But in the 1 Chronicles account, it says that Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel.

There is a notable difference. 2 Samuel 24:1 attributes the census taking to God. While 1 Corinthians 21:1 attributes the action to Satan

The difference is one of perspective. 2 Samuel 24:1 tells the census story from God’s perspective as the primary agent; God permitted Satan’s action in order to fulfill his own purpose.

This phenomenon is not uncommon in Scripture. Matthew 4:1 contains a similar instance of dual agency, where Jesus is led out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil. It is also seen in the trial of Job: It was permitted by God and then brought on by Satan after the Lord spoke highly about Job. Job’s heart stayed righteous despite the attack. Similarly, 2 Corinthians 12:7 teaches that a God-sent affliction can be delivered by a messenger from Satan. When Paul wrote that he was given a “thorn,” he used a passive verb, indicating that his affliction was given by God.

Satan works in many ways in an attempt to destroy or discourage God’s people. Yet God is sovereign. God does not author evil, but sometimes God makes use of others’ evil deeds to accomplish his good purposes (Genesis 50:20)

So, God basically (in His anger with Israel) allowed Satan to directly tempt and provoke David to number Israel. It appears that God gave Satan the thought to do it, but Satan actually provoked David.

Keep in mind, at any time David could have resisted Satan and humbled himself before the Lord (which is what God desired).

God was angry with Israel. The cause is not stated. Why? We don’t need to know. However, David was instructed by God and incited by Satan to take a census of Israel and Judah. So a census was taken.

In the account in 2 Samuel, Israel had 800,000 swordsmen, and Judah had 500,000.

By the account in Chronicles, there were 1,100,000 in Israel and 470,000 in Judah who drew the sword.

I’m not worried about the discrepancy in the numbers. 1 Chronicles 27:24 (ESV) says:

“Joab the son of Zeruiah began to count, but did not finish. Yet wrath came upon Israel for this, and the number was not entered in the chronicles of King David.”

Since Israel and Judah were accounted separately, the two reports can easily be the numbers at different stages in the progress of the counts.

In the account in 1 Chronicles 21:6, Joab – who didn’t want to take the census in the first place – didn’t count the people in Levi’s and Benjamin’s tribes. 1 Chronicles 27:23 tells us David didn’t count those aged 20 and under. It’s going to be a contaminated census.

The account in Samuel tells us David was convicted by his own heart that he had sinned, and he begged God to take away his sin.

The Chronicles account says God was displeased and struck Israel – we’re not told how at this point, or if it’s just a brief reference of what is to come later in the story. David was given a choice of punishment (note that the punishment would fall on Israel, not just David):

• 3 years of famine

• 3 months of fleeing before enemies (meaning they have the upper hand on the battlefield)

• 3 days of pestilence

Pestilence is practically an obsolete word, meaning what today we might call a fatal infectious disease.

Which of these three do you like best, David?

None of them! They’re all terrible!

How much damage could God do with 3 days of a fatal disease? The same as he could do in 3000 years.

But David – knowing there was no good choice – chose 3 days of pestilence, administered by the angel of the Lord. When the pestilence came to a certain place in Jerusalem,

David pleaded in 1 Chronicles 21:17 (ESV)

“Was it not I who gave command to number the people? It is I who have sinned and done great evil. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Lord my God, be against me and against my father's house. But do not let the plague be on your people.”

Then David builds an altar. The angel of the Lord told David to build an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah, or Ornan. When David sought to purchase the site on which to build the altar, Ornan tried to donate the site and the oxen and the yoke for the sacrifice. But David would not have it. He says, “I will pay full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

So David built an altar on site of Ornan’s threshing floor offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

The Lord answered with fire from heaven, signifying acceptance of the sacrifice. And there, the plague stopped. 

1 Chronicles 22:1 (ESV)

Then David said, “Here shall be the house of the Lord God and here the altar of burnt offering for Israel.”

What are we intended to take away from the story?

• That it’s wrong for a country to take a census? No – other factors in the story overtake the simple fact that a census was taken. There’s no prohibition against censuses.

• That God sets a trap for people intending to make them fall…and that he works hand-in-hand with Satan in springing the trap?

…and then says “Gotcha!” No – that’s inconsistent witheverything we know about God and his plan of redemption.

• That there’s no forgiveness but only some kind of plague for transgressors? No, the Bible’s main theme is the way to forgiveness.

The real take-aways

What was wrong with counting the number of people?

Two things we need to understand:

• First, God had instructed Moses and Israel under the law that when they took a census, every man was to give “the redemption money” as an offering to the Lord. This was not done. God’s Word was completely ignored. (Exodus 30:11-16)

• Second, David’s pride was what led him to number the people. David had won a number of great victories and he wanted to bask in the glory of his successes. This national census was for his glory, not God’s glory. (Vs. 2 – “That I may know…”)

Another take-away is that we can’t always tell whether suffering is the result of the offender’s sin.

The consequences of self-serving compliance or obedience in form, but not substance, may fall on others and not only on the obvious offender. 

On the surface, that may seem unfair. But God does not act haphazardly. In this case, other offenses had a part in the lead-up to the story – God’s anger at Israel.

David considered himself to be the primary offender by taking a census for a self-serving or self-satisfying purpose. But God’s business wasn’t only with David.

Apart from David’s sin, God had a score to settle with Israel before he instructed David to number the tribes.

2 Samuel 24:1 says God’s anger was kindled against Israel. It was Israel who was the object of God’s wrath, not only David personally, although David found himself to be sinful in the execution of God’s instruction.

There’s a lesson in the choices of punishment offered. To David, there was clearly a best choice among the bad.All bad choices  – it reminds me of a night when we lived in Indianapolis.

Illustration – Jordan at Walmart

David made a wise choice. He says, “Let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is very great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”

What stopped the plague on Israel?

Mercy (God’s tender heart)

The plague was stopped at a certain place in Jerusalem because the Lord said to the angel who was wreaking destruction and death…

“It is enough.” (2 Samuel 24:16).

1 Chronicles 21:15 says, “The Lord relented from the calamity.”

“It is enough” is a revealing statement. “Enough” does not mean the same as “all that justice allows.”

“Enough” means sufficient to serve the intended purpose. His purpose was not to destroy the nation. His purpose and plan was for the nation to bring the Messiah.

We don’t have to take sin lightly to see that God is not only a God of wrath and punishment. He is a compassionate, merciful God who abundantly pardons.

All of our hopes for salvation rest on the full person of God – not just his wrath. If he punished to the full extent justice allowed, David would not have survived this story, nor would the nation.

The real message is that God’s “grace is greater than sin.” If God’s grace is not greater than our sin, his grace is not a factor at all.

Sin has consequences, but God tempers the ill effect of sin – not randomly and mindlessly, but with a divine eye to his grand design and purpose – to redeem the race, not kill it.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (ESV) He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

Psalm 139:3-6 (ESV) You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.

Romans 11:33-34 (ESV) Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”

We don’t know what God is doing and why. Yet this story shows us that:

• Wrongdoing comes with a cost,

• Repentance for wrongdoing is recognized, and

• It shows that we have a God that is full of grace and mercy – while just – He is still full of grace and mercy!