Reflections on 2 Samuel 24

2 Samuel 24 (Contemporary English Version)

1. The LORD was angry at Israel again, and he made David think it would be a good idea to count the people in Israel and Judah.
   
2. So David told Joab and the army officers, "Go to every tribe in Israel, from the town of Dan in the north all the way south to Beersheba, and count everyone who can serve in the army. I want to know how many there are."
   
3. Joab answered, "I hope the LORD your God will give you a hundred times more soldiers than you already have. I hope you will live to see that day! But why do you want to do a thing like this?"
   
4. But when David refused to change his mind, Joab and the army officers went out and started counting the people.
   
5. They crossed the Jordan River and began with Aroer and the town in the middle of the river valley. From there they went toward Gad and on as far as Jazer.
   
6. They went to Gilead and to Kadesh in Syria. Then they went to Dan, Ijon, and on toward Sidon.
   
7. They came to the fortress of Tyre, then went through every town of the Hivites and the Canaanites. Finally, they went to Beersheba in the Southern Desert of Judah.
   
8. After they had gone through the whole land, they went back to Jerusalem. It had taken them nine months and twenty days.
   
9. Joab came and told David, "In Israel there are eight hundred thousand who can serve in the army, and in Judah there are five hundred thousand."
   
10. After David had everyone counted, he felt guilty and told the LORD, "What I did was stupid and terribly wrong. LORD, please forgive me."
    
11. Before David even got up the next morning, the LORD had told David's prophet Gad
    
12. to take a message to David. Gad went to David and told him: You must choose one of three ways for the LORD to punish you: Will there be seven years when the land won't grow enough food for your people? Or will your enemies chase you and make you run from them for three months? Or will there be three days of horrible disease in your land? Think about it and decide, because I have to give your answer to God, who sent me.
    
13. (SEE 24:12)
    
14. David was really frightened and said, "It's a terrible choice to make! But the LORD is kind, and I'd rather have him punish us than for anyone else to do it."
    
15. So that morning, the LORD sent an angel to spread a horrible disease everywhere in Israel, from Dan to Beersheba. And before it was over, seventy thousand people had died. When the angel was about to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD felt sorry for all the suffering he had caused and told the angel, "That's enough! Don't touch them." This happened at the threshing place that belonged to Araunah the Jebusite.
    
16. (SEE 24:15)
    
17. David saw the angel killing everyone and told the LORD, "These people are like sheep with me as their shepherd. I have sinned terribly, but they have done nothing wrong. Please, punish me and my family instead of them!"
    
18. That same day the prophet Gad came and told David, "Go to the threshing place that belongs to Araunah and build an altar there for the LORD." So David went.
    
19. (SEE 24:18)
    
20. Araunah looked and saw David and his soldiers coming up toward him. He went over to David, bowed down low,
    
21. and said, "Your Majesty! Why have you come to see me?" David answered, "I've come to buy your threshing place. I have to build the LORD an altar here, so this disease will stop killing the people."
    
22. Araunah said, "Take whatever you want and offer your sacrifice. Here are some oxen for the sacrifice. You can use the threshing-boards and the wooden yokes for the fire.
    
23. Take them--they're yours! I hope the LORD your God will be pleased with you."
    
24. But David answered, "No! I have to pay you what they're worth. I can't offer the LORD my God a sacrifice that I got for nothing." So David bought the threshing place and the oxen for fifty pieces of silver.
    
25. Then he built an altar for the LORD. He sacrificed animals and burned them on the altar. The LORD answered the prayers of the people, and no one else died from the terrible disease.
    

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    This last chapter of 2 Samuel is a little puzzling when it tells us, "The LORD's anger burned against Israel again, and it stirred up David against them." (24:1) Why was the Lord angry with Israel and why did He stir up David to sin? 1 Chronicles 21:1 offers some help in attributing David's temptation to Satan instead of God: "Satan stood up against Israel and incited David to count the people of Israel." God's part, then, was to allow Satan to do this as in the case of Job. On first reading one may come away with the impression that this was all about David and the people had to suffer because of his sin. Though David sinned and 70,000 died as a result, the first verse tells us the Lord was angry with Israel, not David, and that David was stirred up against "them," meaning Israel. So this whole incident was punishment for Israel for some unidentified sin which begs the question as to why the Lord didn't just punish Israel rather than have it come as a result of David's sin?
    
    Nevertheless, David was tempted and succumbed to taking a census. Though verse 1 states that David was stirred up to count the people, David's instructions to Joab were to, "Go through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba and register the troops." (24:2) The report he received was that, "There were 800,000 fighting men from Israel and 500,000 men from Judah." (24:9) As soon as David received this report his conscience bothered him and he confessed his sin to the Lord, "I have sinned greatly in what I've done." (24:10) What was the sin in this? The passage only hints at this, but was most likely a matter of pride so he could boast of his military strength rather than simple dependence on God for military strength. Joab touched on this in his reply to David's orders to take the census: "May the LORD your God multiply the troops 100 times more than they are--while my lord the king looks on! But why does my lord the king want to do this?" (24:3) God could multiply the troops however much was needed. There was no need to count them.
    
    David, having confessed his sin, was sent a message from the Lord through the prophet Gad: "I am offering you three choices. Choose one of them, and I will do it to you.'" (24:12) So David got to choose the punishment. The choices were three years of famine, three months of fleeing from enemies, or three days of plague. David chose the plague saying, "Please, let us fall into the LORD's hands because His mercies are great, but don't let me fall into human hands." (24:14) It was a wise choice, for God stopped the plague before doing its ultimate damage. Even then, "70,000 men died." (24:15) The fact that only men died suggests that it might have been men from the troops who had been counted. If so, God was diminishing the military strength upon which David placed his pride and maybe also his dependence.
    
    The number of casualties might have been much higher except that as the angel spreading the plague approached Jerusalem the Lord said, "Enough, withdraw your hand now!" (24:16) The angel was at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite when he stopped. It was there David was instructed to build an altar and sacrifice to the Lord. The account tells of how Araunah offered to give David the threshing floor and everything he needed to offer the sacrifice, but David refused the gift saying, "I will not offer to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing." (24:24)
    
    Historians tells us that the threshing floor of Araunah was the likely spot where Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice and also the site where Solomon built the temple. In this whole account I am prompted to ask myself, "what of mine am I inclined to take stock of to assess my strength or abundance either to assuage my pride or to offer security in place of God's security?