The Sin of the Census (Level 3 | 118)

0:00Music Reality is often clouded by only using our physical senses. We can see, hear, and touch, but even with all our faculties involved, we can miss the true nature of what's going on in the world. The mistake is in thinking that the world itself is merely physical. It's a mistake that our modern age often makes because of our respect for science. We've had centuries of technological progress, largely based on scientific discoveries and advancements. However, what crept into our minds through this is that science is not A means of understanding reality, but the exclusive means of understanding reality. This is an error. The scientific method of observation, hypothesis, testing, and conclusion is a wonderful way to discover the systems that God has created for us to explore.

1:03But alone, it is only descriptive. It explains the what of something, but science can never get to the why of something. Science can tell us what a star is, but it can't tell us why they paint the night sky. Science can tell us how two parents contribute partial DNA to make a baby with wholly unique DNA. But it can't tell us why that baby has such a happy and curious personality compared to other babies. What is important, but why is even more important? So today, we're going to discuss why a pestilence swept through Jerusalem for three days. The what of a pestilence is simple enough, but the why will give us a window into reality that we rarely get to see. David had endured years of tumult and trouble. Since his sins of murder and adultery, he had seen the death of many children, including Amnon and the rebel Absalom.

2:10He'd seen the rebellion of Sheba and a several-year famine in the land. Many of these troubles were direct consequences of his sins, and he suffered severely as his family was ripped apart as the fruit of his disobedient actions. Yet David, the man after God's heart, continued to pursue Yahweh and continued obedience to him, even with his detours of the past. This was especially true in his continued wars for the land of Canaan. God had commanded the people through Moses that they were to love God, obey the law, and take the land. David continued this obedience. This was explicitly seen in further wars against the Philistine threat. Apparently, large relatives of Goliath had come against David's army, and in a series of short wars, David's forces systematically beat all of them through the power of God. God was again blessing the nation with victory as they were led by their righteous forgiven King.

3:10The former successes of David before his sin were again shown in this latter part of David's renewed kingship over the nation. Yet in the latter part of David's reign, we see yet another stumble, a stumble that David identifies as a great sin against God. It's a sin involving a census. David's sin is the what of the passage. But amazingly, in this particular account, we get a view into the reality of why, a reality that we rarely get to see. So let's read the beginning, starting in 2 Samuel, chapter 24. Again, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, go, number Israel and Judah. Okay, so the context for this account has set up very quickly and very abruptly. God is again angry with Israel, and David is incited against them.

4:12Apparently, God is inciting David to take a census of Israel, and the purpose of God's inciting David is because of God's anger kindled against Israel. We're not told why God is angry at Israel, though understanding their history could give us some guesses. Maybe idolatry, maybe complaining, maybe something else. The passage doesn't seem all that concerned about what Israel did to make God angry. Instead, it focuses on the fact that God is angry at their sin, and so David is incited to number the people. Now this sets up a context for this account as we find it in the book of Samuel, but we find a parallel account in the biblical book of 1 Chronicles. Similar to the four gospels expressing four different aspects of Jesus' life, in the Old Testament we have some parallel historical accounts, illustrating different aspects of historical happenings. This story of the census is one such event that has two tellings in the Old Testament.

5:15Now as we read the account in 1 Chronicles chapter 22, we read this, then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel. Now, this appears to be quite a different beginning to the account in the book of Samuel. In Samuel, we read that the Lord incited David because of his anger at Israel, but in Chronicles, we read that Satan incited David because Satan stood against Israel. These apparently contradictory statements help us see something of a reality that we don't often get to see. A war of intentions and motivations, part of that ancient war that began between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent that's been waging since the garden. Here we get a window into spiritual reality and see something that perhaps looks like this. The Lord is angry at Israel. Satan is against Israel and the Lord permits Satan to tempt David to take a census of Israel so that through the census somehow God will judge Israel.

6:23Satan is pleased to have this opportunity because Satan is against Israel. David, for his part, is allowed to be tempted by Satan through the permission of the Lord. David isn't robbed of his free will, but he's allowed to be tempted by an adversary with a particularly honed set of skills. Satan succeeded in tempting the sinless Eve, who's to say he couldn't be just as successful against the corrupt and sinful David. We see here Satan's war against Israel. God's judgment upon Israel and David's succumbing to temptation brought to him by Satan. Lots of intense and lots of motivations expressed in the same moment and the very same act. We read this next in the Samuel account. The King said to Joab, the commander of the army who is with him, go through all the tribes of Israel from day into year Shiba and number the people that I may know the number of the people.

7:23But Joab said to the King, may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are while the eyes of my Lord still see it. But why does my Lord the King delight in this thing? But the King's word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the King to number the people of Israel. Here we see Joab of all people resisting the King's command to number all the men of fighting age in Israel. Joab apparently intuitively understands that the motivation for this census is not right and that the census is not being done for a righteous reason. Perhaps he'd since the new pride in David or a new fear of David that his army might not be powerful enough to withstand enemies. In any case, Joab, the rash and vengeful commander of David's army, resists David. But to no avail, the King will have his census. We continue with this.

8:24But David's heart struck him after he had numbered the people and David said to the Lord, I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly. And when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet, Gad, saying, Go and say to David, thus says the Lord, three things I offer you. Choose from one of them that I may do it to you. So Gad came to David and told him and said to him, Shall three years of famine come on your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days pestilence in your land? Now consider and decide what answer shall I return to him who sent me. Then David said to Gad, I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hand of the Lord for his mercy is great, but let me not fall into the hand of man.

9:25At some point after the census is taken, David suddenly realizes what a blunder it was to number the people. He confesses his sin to God and pleads for forgiveness. Yet sin, even forgiven sin, has its consequences. God sends a prophet to give David three options for consequences, a famine, an enemy invasion, or a plague of pestilence. David then makes a decision that demonstrates his great knowledge of God and his trust in God's mercy. He chooses the pestilence rather than the other two options, and his reasoning is this. He knows that any plague directly caused by God would be subject to God's great mercy, whereas any consequences involving mankind would result in a much less merciful result. David says, let us fall into the hand of the Lord for his mercy is great, but let me not fall into the hand of man.

10:25After being incited to choose a census, when given the new choice of a consequence, David wisely chooses a plague. No doubt this was a dissatisfying result for Satan. If God is the one to meet out consequences for sin, his judgment will be just and right and merciful. God wouldn't destroy Israel like Satan no doubt desired. It turns out, actually that despite Satan tempting David to sin, the results are exactly as God intended. God judges Israel for some undisclosed sin that had angered him, and he judges David for his sinful reasoning to conduct a census. Next we read this. So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and there died of the people from Dan to Beersheba, 70,000 men. And when the angel of the Lord stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who is working destruction among the people,

11:28it is enough. Now stay your hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Ahranah the Jeb Yuzai. Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people and said, Behold, I have sinned and I have done wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father's house. Over a period of three days, 70,000 people throughout Israel die in the plague that God sends upon the nation. A number that reminds us of the many thousands of Israelites who died in the wilderness back in the time of Moses when they disobeyed. But God in his mercy stops the plague before the destruction of Jerusalem. The angel of Yahweh halts his judgment when he's in a particular location, the threshing floor of a Jeb Yuzai. Now this might be a small detail, or at not perhaps the most important detail in the whole narrative. Because next, the prophet Gad tells David to raise an altar to Yahweh

12:31at the very place where the angel of Yahweh had appeared. David buys the property, builds the altar, and God responds to David's pleas by bringing the plague to a full stop. This narrative is as informative as it is odd and interesting. We see God's purpose, Satan's purpose, and David's purpose. We get a view into the spiritual realm as we see the angel of Yahweh appear as he's striking Israel. But by the end of this account, we discover an important truth. Yahweh's purposes always went out, despite any other purposes of mankind or its adversary. Yahweh always wins. He will even use the sinful actions of mankind to bring about his just and good purposes. God's purposes always prevail. Remember we saw this with Joseph as well a long time ago in the Bible. He was sold into slavery through a wicked plot from his brothers.

13:34But he eventually rose in Egypt to be the primary leader through a famine. Years later, commenting to his brothers on these events, Joseph says this. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive. Joseph understood that God's purposes and intents always win. And we see that again here at the threshing floor of Aranah. God carries out his just judgment upon Israel. He carries out his just judgment on David's sin, and he demonstrates his mercy by stopping the plague upon David's pleas. But more than that, God also sets up the next major phase in the Bible story. A phase where the tabernacle is put away in favor of a more permanent house. The house that David wanted to build for God would be built right here on the threshing floor of Aranah, on real estate that David just purchased.

14:36God's plans are deeper and longer term than we can ever know. In this plague created a context for his plans to come into even more fruition. This would be a place of sacrifice, a place of holiness. At this threshing floor in Jerusalem, the ark of the covenant would come to rest, because here would be the sight of the great temple of the Lord. Join us next time as we hear some of the final words of David. Words not merely from David, but from the Holy Spirit of God. For Bible readings, reflection questions and quizzes, don't miss the Bible Brief app. Available on iOS and Android, so you can go deeper into the story. The Bible Brief is a project of the Bible Literacy Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to helping you learn the Bible.

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