CHAPTER 24

(1017 B.C.)

DAVIDS SIN IN TAKING A NATIONAL CENSUS IN AN UNSCRIPTURAL WAY

¹And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah. (The word again signals the fact that the Lord had been angry with Israel many times before. I Chron., Chpt. 21 says, And Satan... provoked David to number Israel. There is no contradiction. While Satan did this, it was the Lord Who allowed it to be done. Why?

The evidence seems to be that both David and Israel had grown prideful in the power of the Nation, seemingly forgetting that it was the Lord Who gave all of this.)

²For the king said to Joab the Captain of the host, which was with him, Go now through all the Tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, and number you the people, that I may know the number of the people. (The taking of the census was not unlawful or displeasing to God; however, the reason it was taken, and the neglect of the Word of God, is what made it so sinful. When a census was taken, a half-shekel of silver, with silver being a token of Redemption, was to be paid for each man numbered [Ex. 30:11-16]. This portrayed the fact that Israels blessing and prosperity were anchored solely in the shed blood of the lamb. This is the reason that all were to pay the same amount alike. In the matter of Atonement, all worshippers stood on one common ground the slain lamb. David ignored this extremely important Command of the Lord.)

³And Joab said unto the king, Now the LORD your God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it: but why does my lord the king delight in this thing? (It is easy to detect the flesh in another, and so Joab, a man of the world, readily recognized the folly of David. Davids action ministered only to his self-importance, for he said in Verse 2, that I may know.)

⁴Notwithstanding the kings word prevailed against Joab, and against the Captains of the host. And Joab and the Captains of the host went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel. (Other than Joab, the chief Officers also attempted to dissuade David, but to no avail. David had made up his mind, and would take no advice.)

⁵And they passed over Jordan, and pitched in Aroer, on the right side of the city that lies in the midst of the river of Gad, and toward Jazer:

⁶Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi; and they came to Dan-jaan, and about to Zidon,

⁷And came to the strong hold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites: and they went out to the south of Judah, even to Beer-sheba.

⁸So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

⁹And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men (portrays the fact as to how strong the Tribe of Judah actually was).

DAVIDS REPENTANCE

¹⁰And Davids heart smote him after that he had numbered the people (one of the chief Operations of the Holy Spirit is to smite with conviction when sin has been committed; the modern Church is trying to eliminate this capacity of the Holy Spirit; however, to eliminate any part of His Work is to eliminate Him altogether; He will not function with half measures). And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done (to be forgiven of sin, one has to admit that one has sinned, and do so to the Lord [I Jn. 1:9]): and now, I beseech you, O LORD, take away the iniquity of Your Servant (the Lord Alone can take away our iniquity; and He does such by virtue of Christ and what He has done at the Cross; the Cross is the only answer for sin, which was typified by the Altar of the Tabernacle [Heb. 10:12-14]); for I have done very foolishly (sin makes fools, even out of the wisest and most brilliant of men).

¹¹For when David was up in the morning, the Word of the LORD came unto the Prophet Gad, Davids Seer, saying (the Ministry of the Prophet is to call the nation and, in this case, the king, to Righteousness; while the Prophet at times foretells, the greater part of his or her Ministry is to call the nation and the Church to Repentance; most of all, the Prophet is a Preacher of Righteousness [Mat. 3:1-12]),

DAVID CHOOSES HIS PUNISHMENT

¹²Go and say unto David, Thus says the LORD, I offer you three things; choose you one of them, that I may do it unto you (there is always a penalty to sin; even though the Lord forgives and cleanses, there is still a penalty; however, it is the Lord Alone Who stipulates and carries out the penalty, and not man).

¹³So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto you in your land? or will you flee three months before your enemies, while they pursue you? or that there be three days pestilence in your land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to Him Who sent me.

¹⁴And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait (sin always puts an individual in a great strait): let us fall now into the Hand of the LORD; for His Mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man (man shows little mercy, and religious man none at all).

THE PLAGUE

¹⁵So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed (three days and nights): and there died of the people from Dan even to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men. (This is a staggering number of men to have died in so short a time. This tells us of the awfulness of sin! It might be shocking to realize that wars, pestilence, earthquakes, famine, etc., which presently plague parts of the Earth, follow in the same train of that which happened to Israel of so long ago.)

DAVID PRAYS FOR MERCY

¹⁶And when the Angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it (who instigated the plague as well), the LORD repented Him of the evil (the Repentance of the Lord is not the same as that of man; man repents of sin; God merely changes His Direction, because of certain actions on Earth), and said to the Angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now your hand. And the Angel of the LORD was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite (actually, this would be the very spot where the great Temple would be built by Solomon).

¹⁷And David spoke unto the LORD when he saw the Angel who smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep (speaking of Israel), what have they done? let Your hand, I pray You, be against me, and against my fathers house (this was true intercession on the part of David).

THE PLAGUE IS STAYED

¹⁸And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an Altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite (the only answer for sin, and I mean the only answer, is the Altar, i.e., the Cross, of which the Altar was a Type).

¹⁹And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as the LORD commanded.

²⁰And Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground (Araunah was a Jebusite and, in fact, condemned to death; his life was spared by the mercy of David).

²¹And Araunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshingfloor of you, to build an Altar unto the LORD, that the plague may be stayed from the people.

²²And Araunah said unto David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good unto him: behold, here be oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood (evidently, Araunah knew some things about the Sacrificial System of Israel, even though he was a heathen).

²³All these things did Araunah, as a king, give unto the king. And Araunah said unto the king, The LORD your God accept you (in his own words, he was praying that the Lord would accept the Sacrifice).

²⁴And the king said unto Araunah, No; but I will surely buy it of you at a price: neither will I offer Burnt Offerings unto the LORD my God of that which does cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver (all of this tells us that everything we offer to the Lord must be offered on the basis of the Lord Jesus Christ, and what He did for us at the Cross; otherwise, we are attempting to offer to God that which costs nothing, and which God will never accept).

²⁵And David built there an Altar unto the LORD, and offered Burnt Offerings and Peace Offerings. So the LORD was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel. (There is a plague called sin that is destroying this world, and causing multiple hundreds of millions to be eternally lost. There is only one cure for that plague, and that is the precious, atoning, Vicarious Offering of the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which was done at the Cross, and our acceptance of Him. All the Churches in the world will never stay the plague. All the good works, good intentions, money, religion, prestige, or education will not stop this plague of sin. Only the precious Blood of Jesus Christ can, here symbolized by the Altar.)