Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. 2 So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.”
3 But Joab replied, “May the Lord multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord’s subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”
4 The king’s word, however, overruled Joab; so Joab left and went throughout Israel and then came back to Jerusalem. 5 Joab reported the number of the fighting men to David: In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who could handle a sword, including four hundred and seventy thousand in Judah.
6 But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, because the king’s command was repulsive to him. 7 This command was also evil in the sight of God; so he punished Israel.
8 Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly by doing this. Now, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”
9 The Lord said to Gad, David’s seer, 10 “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.’”
11 So Gad went to David and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Take your choice: 12 three years of famine, three months of being swept away[a] before your enemies, with their swords overtaking you, or three days of the sword of the Lord—days of plague in the land, with the angel of the Lord ravaging every part of Israel.’ Now then, decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”
13 David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”
14 So the Lord sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead. 15 And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was doing so, the Lord saw it and relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
16 David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown.
17 David said to God, “Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted? I, the shepherd,have sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Lord my God, let your hand fall on me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on your people.”
David Builds an Altar
18 Then the angel of the Lord ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.19 So David went up in obedience to the word that Gad had spoken in the name of the Lord.
20 While Araunah was threshing wheat, he turned and saw the angel; his four sons who were with him hid themselves. 21 Then David approached, and when Araunah looked and saw him, he left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.
22 David said to him, “Let me have the site of your threshing floor so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped. Sell it to me at the full price.”
23 Araunah said to David, “Take it! Let my lord the king do whatever pleases him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this.”
24 But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”
25 So David paid Araunah six hundred shekels[d] of gold for the site.26 David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the Lord, and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.
27 Then the Lord spoke to the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. 28 At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there. 29 The tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon. 30 But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord. 1 Chronicles 21 NIV
I included the sister passage to this as well, and let it be noted that Satan can only do this as the tool of the Lord's wrath against Israel. Let nothing befall me that I do not reckon as from the Lord. What has David to gain here but his own glory, and Joab warns him of this sin, does Israel belong to you or to God?
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 12 “When you take the census of the children of Israel for their number, then every man shall give a[c]ransom for himself to the Lord, when you number them, that there may be no plague among them when you number them. 13 This is what everyone among those who are numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (a shekel is twenty gerahs). The half-shekel shall be an offering to the Lord. 14 Everyone included among those who are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an [d]offering to the Lord. 15 The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when you give an offering to the Lord, to make atonement for yourselves. 16 And you shall take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shall [e]appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of meeting, that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before the Lord, to make atonement for yourselves.” Exodus 30: 11-16
When I come across the same story again in a different area of scripture, I wonder what else it holds, and then I realize that I could read the Bible a thousand times and still be dumbstruck. Now these same children are several generations separated from those that came out of Egypt. The plagues that were placed upon the Egyptians did not destroy the Israelites, and that final and horrible plague was only avoided by ransom. No matter who you are, your standing, poor, wealthy, God is not a respecter unto these things, the cost is the same. Look again, you wanted to be in the house marked by the blood on the door. The deluge of waters, the flood of God's just wrath, was against all of creation, and to survive you needed to know that it was coming, to heed His instruction, to build the ark and at the appropriate time, go inside. This was a very costly and yet generous endeavor. The half shekel went to the maintenance of the tabernacle where men learned through the word of the law and of the sacrifices, that there must be atonement.
We look further and though Joab was against this numbering for vane glory, the king wins out, and 10 months are wasted on this thing. I won't go so far into David's pride or the ruin of those who would call themselves shepherds in this day, but I did more so in the link above. It is also of interesting note that Joab intentionally left out two tribes from the count, that of Levi, for they were the servants of the tabernacle, the carriers of religion, and Benjamin, which some subscribe to the idea that they had already been so greatly reduced for their failure in the rape of the woman at Gibeah. They would not repent of their sin, and they struck down and defiled that which was made in the image of God.
Now, like the pastor, who for years has taught his people that God is more concerned with their comfort and their self esteem, filling the pews, but no, no, what is this? It is called light. Well it is making everything I should want or take comfort in look so ugly to me, please take these things away. Lord, remove my iniquity, take away my shame, but really how bad is it? We don't naturally realize where this stands, and now as king, you represent a people, your decisions are multiplied over many. David chooses three days of plague and it is at God's hand for He alone is truly just, but it is also horrible and extensive. As one writer puts it, it is a noble choice, for David's wealth protects him from famine, and he is too old to fight, but there is nothing between the plague and his own house. He sees the angel at the threshing floor, and like a good shepherd he wants to protect his sheep, this is my sin. Yes and no, David did sin, but all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In the sister passage it says, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. Spurgeon puts this all so well:
“Abraham taught the fact of the sacrifice, while to David the reason of that sacrifice of Christ was explained. He was sacrificed to stay the plague — the plague of sin, the punishment of our iniquities.” (Spurgeon)
After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” Genesis 22:1-2
This brings us to the threshing floor, Moriah, So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” David sees the angel with sword drawn, held over Jerusalem, stayed from God's judgment in this moment. This is the embitterment of holiness, when darkness approaches such light, it can only disappear. Pride does not stand up so well, and if we cover our eyes, hide under rocks, well God made those too. Here is the heart after God, that David repents. He recognizes God's justice, his own sin, and he is directed to buy the threshing floor from Araunah, who has also seen the angel. He is more than happy to give the property to David, for the king's use, but David will not make an offering to the Lord that cost him nothing. That would be Araunah's offering, and he is not the king, that would be pride again, that I have bought it with my position, my looks, my pedigree, no, I shall count the cost and I shall pay everything. What is the full price of the land? David make the burnt offering that is for atonement for sin and the peace offering that is for fellowship with God, the institution of religion.
then to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord. Deuteronomy 12:11
This will be the site of Solomon's temple and later the site of the fulfillment of all history, the angel held back the hand of Abraham, for in Isaac shall thy seed be called, and in Christ we have our atonement and our peace offering.
And when the sixth hour[f] had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.[g] 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 35 And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” 36 And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” 37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he[h] breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son[i] of God!” Mark 15: 33-39
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