Hope From the Word

Guest (Male): David sinned, but he took responsibility for it. Pastor Bill Luebkemann has this to say.

Bill Luebkemann: And 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. O Lord my God, let your hand fall upon me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on your people."

Guest (Male): The Bible teaches that we have all sinned. And if we are honest with ourselves, we must agree. The mighty King David, the man after God’s own heart, was also a sinner. But David also repented and took responsibility for his sins. That’s an example we should follow and learn from. We’ll do just that today on Hope from the Word with Bill Luebkemann. Bill is the pastor of Calvary Chapel of Marlton and is committed to taking us through the entire Bible. From 1 Chronicles chapter 21, here is Pastor Bill.

Bill Luebkemann: 1 Chronicles 21. "Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, 'Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.'"

We get this idea here that this is all Satan’s idea. And so it was, because it’s always Satan who wants to lead us off the path and lead us off the track and take us someplace where the Lord doesn’t want us to go. But if you turn back to 2 Samuel 24, where the same events are occurring here, it says there in 2 Samuel 24:1, "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.'" So it seems like the Lord allowed this because he was angry for some reason.

The writer of Chronicles has skipped over a lot of history here. If you compare Chronicles with what happened in the earlier books back in 1 and 2 Samuel, you'll see that he skipped over much of the bad stuff that happened in David’s reign. Remember that Chronicles was written after the exile, and the chronicler who wrote it wanted to present to the people who they were and how they were descended from God through Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the role of Moses, the kings, and what have you. He seemed to want to present it more in a good light than in a bad light, so he skipped over a whole lot of the bad things that happened to David here.

This whole event with him numbering the fighting men is much later in his life. It seems like the Lord allowed it because he was angry for some reason. Perhaps if he wasn't angry, he might have prevented David from doing this. But the idea here, the basic problem, comes down to pride. It comes down to being proud of what you got going here. The basic idea here is closer to the end of his life, David had conquered enemies on all sides. He had peace. His kingdom was large, about as large as it was going to be. He’s just about ready to start to put the supplies together so his son can build the temple.

And just perhaps here towards the end of his life, he was beginning to feel a little bit proud of what he had accomplished. Maybe he was starting to sit back. Solomon, at the end of his life, he really got led astray. We’ve seen that by marrying so many pagan wives. Here, David, it’s possible here that at the end of his life he just had a prideful streak or maybe starting to feel a little bit excited or proud. "Look what I’ve accomplished. Look what I’ve got."

And the idea here is in the ancient cultures, you only really had a right to count what was yours. If you owned it, you could count it. If you didn't own it, you weren't supposed to count it. The idea here is these are not his fighting men, these are God’s fighting men. By counting them, it was almost like he was stealing them from God, appropriating them from him, acting like they were his. It was a great sin in God’s eyes, in God’s sight. Satan incited David to do this, so David said to Joab and the commanders, "Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan, then report back to me so that I may know how many there are."

So here is the bottom line: "You count them, you get back to me. I want to know how many there are." He doesn't say there’s another reason here. Any other reason might be better than this. He doesn't say, "Well, let’s find out how many there are because we need to divide them into thirds. One-third is going to go straight, one-third is going to go around the back, and the other third is going to go a different way." He doesn't give any reason for it except so that I may know how many there are.

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?" Joab knew what was coming down here, and he discouraged David from counting the troops. If you look over in 2 Samuel 24 again, it seems like there were many people telling David not to do this because it says here in 24:4, "The king’s word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders." So they left the presence of the king to enroll the fighting men of Israel.

Not only was Joab telling the king not to do it, but the commanders and the army were also saying, "Don't do this." Joab understands whose troops they are. "May the Lord multiply his troops a hundred times over. May the Lord give himself as many troops as he wants. They’re not yours, but they are your subjects, my lord the king." You can get a hint of the pride that Joab thinks that David has here saying they’re the Lord’s troops and I hope he multiplies them a hundred times over, but by the way, they’re all your subjects anyway. So what difference does it make? Why do you want to do this? Why do you want to bring guilt on Israel?

But David, even though he was a man after God’s own heart, David would not change his mind. The king’s word, however, overruled Joab, so Joab left and went throughout Israel and came back to Jerusalem. Joab reported the number of the fighting men to David. In all Israel, there were 1,100,000 men who could handle a sword, including 470,000 in Judah. 1.1 million, 470,000 in Judah, that makes for 630,000 everywhere else. 1.1 million total. Some people feel if you add on the women and the children and the young men who were too young and the old men who weren't a fighting age anymore, a lot of people feel the population of Israel may have been several million at this point. I've seen even 6 million perhaps.

And this was not a fast project, either. If you go back again to 2 Samuel 24, where the parallel account of this is listed, it took about ten months, not quite a year to go about this. So you get the idea here that David had a lot of time to change his mind. Ten months' worth of time. At any point during that time, he could have said, "Oops, big mistake. Abort, abort. Crash the ship, throw out the records, burn them so we don't know what they are." Ten months to think about it, ten months to reflect on it, ten months to change his mind, but he didn't. They came back and they gave him the number: 1.1 million people.

But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering because the king’s command was repulsive to him. This command was also evil in the sight of God, so he punished Israel. Now look, Joab went out there, didn't include the priests in Levi, and there was some other reason why he didn't include those in Benjamin. The ancient rabbis in Israel had their theories on this, one of which is that the Benjaminites were basically wiped out because they had been taken advantage of a woman somewhere and they fought a battle against the rest of Israel. There weren't too many Benjaminites left, so some of the ancient rabbis felt well, maybe Joab wanted to spare them fighting in any future battles because there were so few of them left.

And those descended from Levi, being the priestly class and those working in the temple, for whatever reason, he did not include them either. But beyond which, the whole king’s command was repulsive, so he was looking for a reason not to have to do the entire thing. It was repulsive to him and it was also repulsive to God, evil in the sight of the Lord. So he punished Israel.

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." Look, you've got to take, he is after God’s own heart. A guy after God’s own heart, David is. A man after God’s own heart. He realizes what he did. Too bad he didn't realize it during one of the ten months leading up to this point, but he begs God here basically for forgiveness. "I beg you," he said, "take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing."

The Lord said to Gad, David’s seer, "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." So Gad went to David and said to him, "This is what the Lord says: Take your choice: 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."

Gad was a prophet, and God sent him to David with this message: "You're going to have to pay a price for what you've done, but I'm going to let you choose one of these three options. Either A, there can be three years of famine. Not much food in the land, crops don't survive, people die, vast amounts of hunger. Or three months of being swept away before your enemies, losing battles. Three months that you're fighting the battle and losing, people are dying, they’re pushing you back further and further and further. Or three days of the sword of the Lord, plague in the land. The angel of the Lord bringing a plague."

I read comments about what the significance was of each of these three things and why David chose what he chose. I don't know if I agree with them. This one author suggested that three years of famine, David being wealthy probably wouldn't have affected him much. He could have bought food from other places, stocked up his cupboards, made it through. Three months of losing battles, this person argued, that probably wouldn't have affected him either because he didn't go out on the front line anymore. He could have stayed home, his army would have fought the battle, and they would have been ravaged, but it wouldn't have hurt him.

This author suggested that the option that David took was the one that would affect him personally. The plague in the land could affect everybody from the king down to the poorest person, the most insignificant person. It didn't matter if you were rich or poor, royal blood or not, no matter how significant of a person you are or how insignificant, it affected everybody. This author suggested David picked this because it would affect him. In other words, he was casting David in a very noble light saying he picked the one that would affect him also.

I'm not sure that I agree with that. Three years of famine is a long time. He may have been the king, but I think he would have been affected. Three months of losing to your enemies, the enemies could have come right through Jerusalem, so I don't think you can say it would have happened somewhere else. I think personally David chose this because it was the Lord’s sword and not the enemy’s sword.

And that’s what he says here. 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." This here says the whole thing right here. He’s not talking about I want something that will punish me as much as the next guy. He’s talking about who’s going to be the implement or the tool that God uses to punish him. He said, "I don't want to fall into the hands of men. They could be merciless. I would rather have God do it himself because I know how merciful he is."

To me, that’s just a much more simple and much more satisfying explanation. I think perhaps also the fact that it was only three days also helped. I think I would want to pick the shortest thing. But to know that God himself was going to be dishing this out and that God has just got all kinds of grace and mercies and is new every morning, I think David felt like he'd rather be trusting in the Lord than in the possibility of other men coming in. When he said, "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," he was choosing this last choice here: three days of the sword of the Lord, days of plague in the land.

So the Lord sent a plague on Israel, and 70,000 men of Israel fell dead. Now we're talking about major big-time punishment here. Imagine how you would feel. You made the wrong decision, right? 70,000 men die just like that in three days. 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.

So God in his never-ending mercy, when he saw how bad it was going to be, at some point God cut it off. And this is what David said: "I’d rather be at the hands of the Lord than at the hands of some other men." 70,000 men of Israel fell dead because of his sin. It doesn't mention woman or children, but would seem to think an equal number of them died as well, perhaps. Or maybe it was just the men. Maybe it was just the men who were counted that were the fighting-age men. Either way, the angel was there about to destroy Jerusalem and at the last minute God called that off and said, "Withdraw, enough." The angel was standing at the threshing floor here which we're going to see is about to be purchased by David.

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. Imagine what that must look like. See an angel. How big was this angel? A lot of angels were seen in the Old Testament that looked like people. They weren't necessarily much bigger. But how do you draw a sword over the whole city of Jerusalem unless you're really large and you have a really big, mean-looking sword? David looked up, and the Lord granted him this vision. The Lord allowed him to see this angel standing there somehow between heaven and earth. There was an angel standing up there, and he’s got the drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem.

Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown. You can bet they were praying as fast as they could, asking God to relieve what was about to happen. They were also repentant. And 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."

Now look, here David does stand up for what he did. Here David does put himself first in line to be punished. He says to the Lord, "I’m the one who did it. The rest of these people, they’re just sheep. They just follow, they do what I tell them to do. They didn't do anything wrong. It’s my fault. Punish me, punish my family." If I was part of his family, I'd say, "Hey buddy, speak for yourself. Say punish me, leave the family out of it." But he says, "Punish me and my family, but don't let this plague remain." And the Lord heard this prayer and stopped the plague, of course.

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. David went up in obedience to the word that Gad had spoken in the name of the Lord. That’s where the angel had been standing, this threshing floor. Threshing floors were always built in high places so they could catch any breeze at all to help separate the wheat from the chaff. So this was on a high place. As we come to find out, this is the same place where Abraham offered Isaac, or almost offered Isaac. It’s roughly in the same area where Jesus was crucified. And this is the place where they’re going to build the temple, as we'll see here in a few minutes here. So this was a high place, very significant place in Jerusalem. There was a threshing floor there. David went up because God told him to go up there and build an altar. And by the way, I don't think you'll find any other commands to build altars up to this point except in the tabernacle. I think this is the first time God actually told someone to build an altar. I'm sure they built other altars, but I don't think you'll find any command to do so.

While Araunah was threshing wheat, he turned and saw the angel. His four sons who were with him hid themselves. Then David approached, and when Araunah looked out and saw him, he left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground. Araunah looked out there, saw this angel, and his sons saw it also. He had four sons there, they were so scared they hid themselves from the angel. It seems like in the Bible every time an angel appears, they’re always saying, "Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid." So they must look rather imposing: large, scary. I don't think they have horns like Satan does in all the cartoon pictures, but they’re no doubt bigger, stronger, and have more muscles than we do.

So he’s standing there, his sons are hiding. I don't know why he’s not hiding, but he sees David coming and he goes out and bows down before him with his face to the ground, recognizing who David is and showing respect towards him. David said to him, "Let me have the site of your threshing floor so 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." 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."

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." If what you're offering to God doesn't cost you anything, then it’s not worth offering. If the price that you had, he gives us everlasting life freely. Then we give back to him because he’s been so good to us. But taking what somebody else has and giving that to God, that defeats the whole purpose. God doesn't need what we give him. He has everything already. He doesn't need anything. He allows us to participate in what he’s doing by giving stuff to him. But if we're giving him stuff that didn't cost us anything, well, we're not really helping him because he didn't really need it, and we're not helping ourselves because we're not giving him something that cost us something.

And David understood that very important principle here. He didn't even want a discount. "I want to pay the full price to you so that I can offer something to God that is mine." And David paid him 600 shekels of gold for the site. It was a significant amount that he paid for it. 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 offerings.

The tabernacle still was over in Gibeon at this point. And so you're only really supposed to make offerings there. But here, like I said, the only time really you see God telling someone to build an altar and make an offering someplace else. And he offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings because the Lord’s wrath had to be satisfied. The price for the sin was the blood here. The price for this David’s sin was covered for by these animals being sacrificed here. And David understood that. When he made the sacrifice and when he called on the Lord, the Lord came down with fire and consumed that altar there to demonstrate and to show that he accepted that, that he found that an acceptable offering, an acceptable sacrifice to him.

Guest (Male): You’ve been listening to Hope from the Word. We’re currently in a study of 1 Chronicles. You can hear this message or more Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann by going to ccmarlton.org. Pastor Bill’s messages can also be found by downloading the Hope FM app on your smartphone or tablet. If you prefer to listen via podcast, you can find Hope from the Word wherever you find your podcasts.

We’d love to have you join us at Calvary Chapel of Marlton either in person or online. Our Sunday service begins at 10:00 AM and there’s a Wednesday evening service at 7:00. To catch us online, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton or just go to our website for the link at ccmarlton.org. And if you take a moment to write Pastor Bill, it would be such a blessing to us.

We’re thankful each and every time we hear what God is doing in our listeners’ lives. And we want to pray for you too. Either email us through the website at ccmarlton.org or call 856-983-1662. We’ll continue our study in 1 Chronicles next time on Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann, a presentation of Calvary Chapel of Marlton.