We are in a privileged position in that we have the knowledge of hindsight.
We know what David’s character is capable of – we have seen the taking of Bathsheba and the murder of her husband. As we approach this study, knowing what we do, there are a couple of passages in the appendix to 2 Samuel (chapters 21-24) which might be mystifying. The first one is a psalm in chapter 22 (Psalm 18)
At first sight this appears to be a psalm of praise to God. It is thought it was written during the seven year period when David was living in Hebron and consolidating his kingdom. He hadn’t yet captured Jerusalem and made it his capital city.
All was going well for him, the nation was at last at peace from the surrounding nations and David has had time to be creative.
Let’s read this psalm (in sections starting with) 2 Samuel 22:1-19
1 David sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.
2 He said: “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
3 my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield and the horn of my salvation.
He is my stronghold, my refuge and my saviour—
from violent men you save me.
4 I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.
5 “The waves of death swirled about me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
6 The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.
7 In my distress I called to the Lord; I called out to my God.
From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came to his ears.
8 “The earth trembled and quaked, the foundations of the heavens shook;
they trembled because he was angry.
9 Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth,
burning coals blazed out of it.
10 He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet.
11 He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind.
12 He made darkness his canopy around him—
the dark rain clouds of the sky.
13 Out of the brightness of his presence bolts of lightning blazed forth.
14 The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded.
15 He shot arrows and scattered the enemies,
bolts of lightning and routed them.
16 The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of breath from his nostrils.
17 “He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
18 He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
19 They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support.
Are you happy with this so far?
Basically a psalm in praise of God, David’s Rock, Fortress and Deliverer.
Now let’s read verses 33-51 (We’ll come back to 20-32)
33 It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.
34 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights.
35 He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
36 You give me your shield of victory; you stoop down to make me great.
37 You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn over.
38 “I pursued my enemies and crushed them; I did not turn back till they were destroyed.
39 I crushed them completely, and they could not rise; they fell beneath my feet.
40 You armed me with strength for battle;
you made my adversaries bow at my feet.
41 You made my enemies turn their backs in flight, and I destroyed my foes.
42 They cried for help, but there was no-one to save them—
to the Lord, but he did not answer.
43 I beat them as fine as the dust of the earth;
I pounded and trampled them like mud in the streets.
44 “You have delivered me from the attacks of my people;
you have preserved me as the head of nations.
People I did not know are subject to me,
45 and foreigners come cringing to me; as soon as they hear me, they obey me.
46 They all lose heart; they come trembling from their strongholds.
47 “The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God, the Rock, my Saviour!
48 He is the God who avenges me, who puts the nations under me,
49 who sets me free from my enemies. You exalted me above my foes;
from violent men you rescued me.
50 Therefore I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations;
I will sing praises to your name.
51 He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed,
to David and his descendants for ever.”
What do you notice about these verses? Who is this section about? How many times does I, Me and My come in this section? (I made it 41 in this translation)
If we were being picky would we want to re-phrase some of this?
Now let’s read the verses we missed: verses 20-25
20 He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.
21 “The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.
22 For I have kept the ways of the Lord;
I have not done evil by turning from my God.
23 All his laws are before me;
I have not turned away from his decrees.
24 I have been blameless before him
and have kept myself from sin.
25 The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to my cleanness in his sight.
Are we comfortable with this?
Is it right to say that the Lord blesses us on the grounds of our righteousness?
The more righteous we are the more he will bless us?
Is it possible to say ‘I have not done evil by turning from my God’ but at the same time fail the verse 24 test?
Is it possible to be selective Christians? Do we know and love the Lord, take delight in the righteousness that is ours through Christ, and yet still persist in doing things that we know displease him?
Verse 28 is prophetic.
28 You save the humble,
but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low.
We now move to a much later time. David is established in Jerusalem and he and the people are again enjoying a time of peace.
It seems inevitable that when a nation enjoys a time of peace and prosperity, people begin to carelessly forget the worship of God. We don’t know the background, but it seems that out of a clear blue sky we read
2 Samuel 24:1-4
1 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.”
2 So the king said to Joab and the army commanders with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enrol 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 enrol the fighting men of Israel.
What’s going on?
First there is Almighty God.
Then there is a nation (Israel) that God has chosen to be his special people.
Then there is David, chosen by God to rule his nation
It seems that throughout the Bible, the thing that caused the Lord the greatest anger was when anyone, small or great, took the glory that was due to him alone. At this point in our study of David, who was more guilty – the people or the king?
Israel? - Possibly the people simply following David’s example and had a pride in their nation, and what they had achieved. But we have already seen that they were not really whole heartedly for God’s anointed king: they seemed quick to switch allegiance if it would be to their own benefit.
Would you say they were whole heartedly for God? Or did they simply use God when times got tough? And ignored him when life was easy?
David? - What may have been the worst thing in numbering his fighting men was that David did it out of pride. Like Hezekiah showing his treasures to the visiting Kings, it was pride in his own greatness. As if the increase in the numbers of people was somehow down to him.
It was also perhaps pride in his own strength. By announcing to the world the number of his fighting men, he may have been thinking that if anyone was contemplating attack they would think twice because of the size of his army; rather than David putting his trust in God alone.
But what do we make of ‘He incited David’ (v 1)?
God is not the author of sin – he tempts no-one. Turn to the parallel passage in
1 Chronicles 21:1
Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.
Satan suggested it for a sin, in the same way as he was allowed to test Job, and to put it into the heart of Judas to betray Christ. God, as righteous Judge, permitted these tests, but as we have seen, disobedience has consequences, and will not go unpunished. Here the ultimate reason may have been to turn the hearts of God’s people back to him.
It is interesting to notice that even Joab seemed to understand what was going on in David’s mind – and the fact that God would not be pleased.
Again, look at the parallel passage in Chronicles
Read 1 Chronicles 21:3
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?”
Let’s continue for a while in 1 Chronicles. The passages are similar, although the details are a bit different.
1 Chronicles 21:4-8
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.”
What has happened? What has caused David’s understanding? Can David (and Israel) be forgiven? Did the Holy Spirit prompt David’s conscience?
1 Chronicles 21:9-10
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.’ ”
As in the case of Bathsheba, God would forgive – but there would also have to be a punishment: a punishment that would fit the crime (How? His army would actually be reduced by 70,000) and a punishment that also affected the whole nation - each tribe lost thousands of their best men.
1 Chronicles 21:11-12
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 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.”
As if to further point out who is in charge, David is told he must choose the punishment. And whatever he chooses it will result in the death of many thousands of his people. David, as God’s anointed, is still king over Israel, but now he can’t save them, he can only choose their fate at the hands of Almighty God.
1 Chronicles 21:13
13 David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress.
How often is the greatest distress caused by our own actions?
1 Chronicles 21:13-14
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 the hands of men.”
14 So the Lord sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead.
Note the phrase in verse 12 ‘with the angel of the Lord ravaging every part of Israel’ The passage in 2 Samuel has ‘seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba, died’ . All within three days. This suggests a selective plague, hitting the whole country at once, and seemingly only striking down men of military age. Certainly not a natural disaster.
1 Chronicles 21:15
15 And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was doing so, the Lord saw it and was grieved because of the calamity 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.
Do you remember when someone else was standing on this same spot, with a dagger in his hand, about to slay his son in obedience to God’s command, when the word of the lord told him to stop? Abraham with Isaac. (Genesis 22:2)
God had already instructed the angel, but now he opens the eyes of David so he can see potentially what might happen.
1 Chronicles 21:16-17
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 face down.
17 David said to God, “Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted? I am the one who has sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? O Lord my God, let your hand fall upon me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on your people.”
What does the mention of sheep remind us of? A saviour prepared to take the punishment for the sins of others? At a spot not far from there.
1 Chronicles 21:18-22
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 that 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.”
Look again at verse 18 ‘Araunah the Jebusite’ David had taken Jerusalem from the Jebusites who lived there. This land was just outside the city walls, so David could easily have assumed it was already his.
1 Chronicles 21:23-30, 22:1
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 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 desert, 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 enquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord.
1 Chronicles 22:1
1 Then David said, “The house of the Lord God is to be here, and also the altar of burnt offering for Israel.”
(The peak of Mount Moriah, where the Temple was built (2 Chronicles 3:1), is now covered by the ‘Dome of the Rock’)
(All actual land was considered to belong to the god of the nation. The land in Israel, taken from the local gods, belonged to Jehovah God. But any benefit you had from land you personally occupied – a building, a fenced field, a planted vineyard, a cave, a threshing floor – this could be sold or let out (although rules for Israelites meant that allocated, inherited land had to be freely returned in the year of Jubilee.)
