CHAPTER 21

(1017 B.C.)

DAVIDS SIN IN TAKING A CENSUS

¹And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. (II Sam. 24:1 says, God moved David to do such. Is there a contradiction?

No. We learn from these Passages that Satan can do nothing against a Child of God, but that God allows it. He permits Satan a limited power in bringing merited judgment upon men. Why did the Lord allow this against David? The following Passages will tell us.)

²And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it. (What the Philistines, Ammonites, and Syrians failed to effect, this mental weapon of subtle temptation accomplished. It was pride!

What could be more laudable than to verify the truthfulness of the promise made to Abraham that his children should exceed the stars in multitude? However, to seek to carnally verify a Divine Promise brings deadness to the soul! And such a desire leads not to the Bible, but from the Bible.)

³And Joab answered, The LORD make his people an hundred times so many more as they be: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lords servants? why then does my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel? (It was not wrong to take a census; however, to do so, Exodus 30:12 demanded a half-shekel of silver be paid for each individual. It was referred to as ransom money, meaning, in essence, that all the Children of Israel were purchased by the Blood of the Lamb, for silver was a type of Redemption in Old Testament terminology. In ignoring this command of the Lord to pay the ransom money, a half-shekel of the sanctuary for each person taken in the census, David was bypassing the Cross, which God can never allow!)

⁴Nevertheless the kings word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem. (It is doubtful that Joab would have known of the admonition of the payment of the half-shekel, but he felt that what David was doing was wrong, which it was. It seems, as well, that David never bothered to consult the Word, even as he didnt bother to consult the Word concerning the transportation of the Ark [Chpt. 13]. God cannot abide a violation of the Word, even in His most choice servants, as David. The results will not be pleasant!)

⁵And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men who drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men who drew sword. (The numbers do not tally with II Sam., Chpt. 24. The explanation is: Chronicles says, All Israel were 1,100,000 men who drew sword, while II Samuel says, 800,000 valiant men who drew sword. Evidently, 300,000 were young soldiers that could not justly be deemed as valiant. Similar details appear respecting Judah. II Samuel states that the men of Judah were 500,000; Chronicles records the number as 470,000. Evidently, therefore, the remaining 30,000 were either untrained men or non-combatants.)

⁶But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the kings word was abominable to Joab. (Joab was a man of the world. He had not the spiritual insight of David; and yet, at times, such will have a better spiritual insight than a self-willed Believer. Such is the case here!)

DAVID CHOOSES HIS PUNISHMENT

⁷And God was displeased with this thing; therefore He smote Israel. (The Lord was displeased because David had ignored, when taking the census, the payment of the ransom money of silver, which typified Redemption, which, of course, typified Calvary. The Lord will smite all who follow this course. In fact, He has no choice. It is the Judgment of God on Christ, which speaks of the Cross, or its Judgment on the people. If the Cross is ignored, Judgment is the inevitable result.)

⁸And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech you, do away the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly. (Let all know and understand, to treat the Cross with disdain is a great sin. All who ignore the Cross do so foolishly!)

⁹And the LORD spoke unto Gad, Davids Seer, saying (the Lord presently is speaking to His Prophets, at least what precious few there presently are; regrettably, the modern Church is not hearing and obeying the Message, as David did),

¹⁰Go and tell David, saying, Thus says the LORD, I offer you three things: choose you one of them, that I may do it unto you.

¹¹So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus says the LORD, You choose

¹²Either three years famine; or three months to be destroyed before your foes, while that the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the Angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the coast of Israel. Now therefore advise yourself what word I shall bring again to Him Who sent me. (As stated, sin has to be addressed, whether in Christ and what He did for us at the Cross, or Judgment upon men. Let all understand, the only answer for sin is the Cross of Christ [Heb. 10:12].)

¹³And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait (sin does exactly that; it puts a person in a great strait): let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are His Mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man (very bad, at any rate, but an extremely wise choice!).

¹⁴So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men (in Exodus 30:12, the Lord said there would be a plague among them, if the half-shekel was not paid as ransom money for each person; it should be understood here that God means what He says; what type of pestilence it was, we arent told!).

¹⁵And God sent an Angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and He repented Him of the evil, and said to the Angel who destroyed, It is enough, stay now your hand. And the Angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. (The word repented, as used of the Lord, doesnt mean that God changes, for, in fact, He never changes [Mal. 3:6]; however, His Direction may vary according to the obedience or disobedience of man.

It was not coincidental that the Angel stood by the threshingfloor. As always, the wheat must be separated from the chaff, and it takes a threshingfloor to do that [Mat. 3:12].

We find from this Text that the sin of ignoring the Cross is at least one of the worst sins, if not the worst sin, that can be committed. The degree of judgment, 70,000 men dying, guarantees that fact.)

¹⁶And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the Angel of the LORD stand between the Earth and the Heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces (the sackcloth denoted humility and Repentance; God has promised to look with favor at such [Isa. 66:2]).

¹⁷And David said unto God, Is it not I who commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is who has sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? let Your hand, I pray You, O LORD my God, be on me, and on my fathers house; but not on Your people, that they should be plagued. (In a sense, David stood here similar to Moses, when the Lord was about to destroy them, as it regards the golden calf [Ex. 32:11-14]. As well, and even more importantly, David is here a Type of Christ, Who, at this moment, is interceding for all Believers [Heb. 7:25-26].)

DAVID BUYS THE TEMPLE SITE; BUILDS AN ALTAR; MAKES ATONEMENT

¹⁸Then the Angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an Altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. (This would be the exact place where the Temple would be built. So, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound [Rom. 5:20]. That which David had ignored in taking the census, the Altar, which typified the Cross, must be erected here. This is why Paul said, We preach Christ Crucified [I Cor. 1:23]. The modern Church presently casts about in its dilemma, trying to find a solution. The only solution is the Cross. The Church must go back to the Cross.)

¹⁹And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the Name of the LORD (the true Prophets of God are saying the same thing presently to the modern Church, Build an Altar; but, regrettably, they are little heeded).

²⁰And Ornan (who owned the threshingfloor) turned back, and saw the Angel; and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. (The picture is striking: the wrath of God about to fall upon the city, the guilty king confessing his sin, the spotless Sacrifice slain, the judgment of God vindicated and honored.

This Grace is the more apparent and all-embracing, when it is noticed that the ground upon which this most satisfactory Sacrifice was offered up belonged to a Gentile, Araunah, the Jebusite.)

²¹And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshingfloor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground (he was evidently surprised at seeing the king at this place).

²²Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshingfloor, that I may build an Altar therein unto the LORD: you shall grant it me for the full price: that the plague may be stayed from the people.

²³And Ornan said unto David, Take it to you, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: lo, I give you the oxen also for Burnt Offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the Meat Offering; I give it all (it seems that this Jebusite was very well acquainted with the various Offerings of Israel).

²⁴And king David said to Ornan, No; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is yours for the LORD, nor offer Burnt Offerings without cost (sin can never be atoned for without the full price of the Blood of Calvary; the problem with the Church is bloodless altars and a cross-less salvation; in fact, such do not exist; man cannot be redeemed by half measures; as stated, it has to be the full price the Precious shed Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ [Jn. 3:16]).

²⁵So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight (about $60,000 in 2004 money).

²⁶And David built there an Altar unto the LORD, and offered Burnt Offerings and Peace Offerings, and called upon the LORD; and He answered him from Heaven by fire upon the Altar of Burnt Offering. (The lightning coming from Heaven and striking the Sacrifice is a picture of Gods Judgment on sin the Judgment, we may quickly add, that should have fallen on David, and on us, for that matter, but, instead, fell upon Christ. The choice belongs to man! Man can accept the Judgment that fell on Christ, and do so by accepting Christ, which sets the sinner free. Or he can rebel against Christ, and suffer the lightning-strike of Judgment upon himself. There is no alternative!).

²⁷And the LORD commanded the Angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof (the only thing that stands between Judgment of the entirety of this planet and God Almighty is the Cross of Christ).

²⁸At that time when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there (Verses 28-29 proclaim to us that the Lord told David that this site would now become the site of the Temple, soon to be constructed).

²⁹For the Tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the Altar of the Burnt Offering, were at that season in the high place at Gibeon (about 5 miles northwest of Jerusalem).

³⁰But David could not go before it to enquire of God: for he was afraid because of the sword of the Angel of the LORD (the Tabernacle represented the Law, but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ [Jn. 1:17]).