2 Samual 24 Part 2

Prayer for the Gathering and the Incarnation of Christ

Bethany, would you open us up in a word of prayer?

Well, we thank you for this day. We thank you for loving us and bringing us here as your people. We thank you for the gift of laughter. And we thank you that you've given us this time of year to celebrate the birth of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we just pray that you would be with us as we open your word. Even Brother Mike, as he leads us through it, we pray, Lord, that we would leave this place with a better understanding of who you are and who we are in you.

For it's in Christ that we pray, amen.

Amen.

Comparing 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21

2 Samuel 24, we read that last week. So if you wanna keep your finger there, and I want you to turn over to, yeah, 1 Chronicles 21. Did anybody read that this week by chance? Anybody, anybody? See, there is some differences there.

And that's why this will take this week and next week to finish it, because I do want, there is some discrepancies. I think that needs to be dealt with. 1 Chronicles 21, so keep your finger at 2 Samuel 24, and then go to 1 Chronicles 21.

And I'm gonna read the chapter, and then we'll start putting some differences on the board. And I'll need somebody to stay. One of you guys would stay in 21 so we can go back and forth and compare. Verse one of chapter 21 of Chronicles.

We ready? We good? We good?

All right.

Then Satan stood up against Israel, and he moved David to number Israel. So David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, go number Israel from Beersheba to Dan, and bring word that I may know their number.

Joab said, may the Lord add to his people a hundred times as many as they are. But my Lord, the king, are there not all the Lord's servants? Why does my Lord seek this thing, and why should he be a cause of guilt to Israel?

Nevertheless, the king's word prevailed against Joab. Therefore, Joab departed and went throughout all Israel, and he came to Jerusalem. Joab gave the number of the census of all the people to David, and all of Israel were 1 .1 million men who drew the sword, and Judah was 470 ,000 men who drew the sword.

But he did not number Levi or Benjamin among them, for the king's command was abhorrent to Joab. God was displeased with this thing, so he struck Israel. David said to God, I have sinned greatly, and that I have done this thing, but now please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done foolishly.

The Lord spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying, go, speak to David, saying, thus says the Lord, I offer you three things. Choose for yourself one of them, which I will do to you. So Gad came to David, and he said to him, thus says the Lord, take yourselves either three years of famine, three months to be swept away before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days, I'm sorry, yeah, or else three days of the sword of the Lord, even pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.

Now, therefore, consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me. David said to Gad, I am in great distress. Please let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are very great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.

So the Lord sent a pestilence over Israel. 70 ,000 men fell in Israel, and God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but as he was about to destroy it, the Lord saw and was sorry over the calamity, and said to the destroying angel, it is enough, relax your hand.

And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite. Then David lifted up his eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, and his drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem.

Then David and the elders covered with sackcloth and fell to their faces, and David said to Gad, is it not I who have commanded the count of the people? Indeed, I am the one who has sinned and done very wickedly.

But these sheep, what have they done? Oh Lord, my God, please let your hand be against me and my father's household, but not against your people. They should be plagued. Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad, said to David, and David should go up, you should build an altar to the Lord at the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite.

So David went up at the word of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the Lord. Now Ornan turned back and he saw the angel and his four sons who were with him hid themselves and Ornan was threshing wheat.

As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and he saw David and he went up, I'm sorry, went out from the threshing floor and prostrated himself before David with his face to the ground. Then David said to Ornan, give me the site of this threshing floor that I may build an altar to the Lord for the full price.

You shall give it to me that the plague may be restrained from the people. And Ornan said to David, just take it to yourself and let my Lord the King do what is good in his sight. See, I will give the oxen and the burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for wood and the wheat for the grain offering.

I will give it all. But King David said to Ornan, no, but I will surely buy it for full price for I will not take what is yours for the Lord or offer a burnt offering which cost me nothing. So David gave Ornan 600 shekels of gold by the weight for the site.

And David built an altar unto the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And he called on the Lord and he answered him and the fire from heaven of the altar and burnt the offering. And David, I'm sorry, and the Lord commanded the angel to put his sword back into his sheep.

And at that time, David saw that the Lord had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite and he had offered sacrifice there where the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the wilderness and the altar of the burnt offerings were at the high place at Gibeon at that time.

But David could not go before it to inquire of the Lord for he was terrified by the sword of the Lord of the angel.

Good morning.

The Source of David’s Census and the Problem of the Text

So last week, you may remember some differences. Just from the last week where one, we can say just right, if you have your Bible, we're in 2 Samuel 24, and then we're going back to 1 Chronicles 21 because it's a parallel passage.

So, if you remember last week, we talked briefly, passage in 2 Samuel says, who incited him?

God did.

And the Chronicles passage, Satan. Now, I did bring the set Britons and we use a different, correct? We use a different translation.

It is.

And what the Britain Septuagint translation translates it this way. And this is left up here because remember there was no noun connected to this verb in there. There's none. There's no subject. So the translators have put, if you remember, Mike, the King James says he?

Yeah.

You got NIV?

Yes.

What does yours say? In 2 Samuel?

24 verse one.

Verse one.

You know what, I may have it right here. I may have it right here.

Oh, here it is, okay. And the anger of the Lord burned against Israel and he incited David. So basically, it says the same thing that yours says. So the translators, but in the NIV, it doesn't capitalize he.

Is yours capitalized, Mike?

He?

It says God.

No, it says he.

It says he?

And he moved David against them.

And it's a lowercase h. Lowercase h. Now, normally when it's speaking of God, and it capitalizes that. So you can see where some of the confusion is. One, if we see it as God inciting David to sin, we know that's not consistent with the revelation of Scripture.

Does God cause anyone to sin? Does God tempt anyone?

No.

So we have to understand, by taking the two together, what is it saying? Now, this is the Septuagint's translation, and I do think this is the most accurate based on the not having a noun and not having a subject to go with the verb, okay?

In the original language. It says, and the Lord caused his anger to burn forth against Israel, and Satan stirred up David against them. Okay, we don't know why. I think we got briefly into this last week.

Do we know why God's anger was burned against, or wrath was angered against Israel? Do we know exactly?

We don't.

We can draw some conclusions. Our great theologian, Ms. Deborah, said disobedience, and that is true. That is exactly, look, everything, all sin is rooted in disobedience and idolatry. So we can say that is certainly the case, but we don't know the specific sin.

My making the conclusion that the specific sin, based on the chronology of the book and how it's structured, that if you remember right before we get to David's song of deliverance, his last words, what were the two things that happened right before that?

The nation of Israel had turned against David and rebelled. So is that disobedience?

Sure.

Is not being committed to God's anointed king idolatry? Yes, it is. So that is where I would say that's what's in view. Is there rebellion against God's anointed king, David? And anybody that went against David being God's anointed king, what happened?

God's wrath was against them, whether they lost their life, they were disciplined. However you want to coin that. Now, so Satan, as Mr. Evers said last week, God can use Satan to do his bidding, per se.

And people don't like that. But what Satan did was already wickedness in the heart of David. Would we agree? We would, okay? Now, now we have to get to the reason why David took the census was what was the sin in view?

David says, what I have done was sinful, correct? Yeah, did anybody read Exodus 30 by chance? You read it, Mike?

That was the instructions on whenever you take a census, you have to take a

Atonement tax.

Yeah.

Atonement tax. And it was specifically what would happen if they didn't? There would be a plague. And that's where I made the connection. Now, I do want to, I can't move in these clothes.

Some say it was his problem, the census itself, okay? And what I mean by that is David had no reason.

To take a census and that this itself, in and of itself was the sin. And then I'm going to say it was a procedural problem, okay? Why would anybody think, how many of y 'all have heard it was David's pride?

Anybody else?

Pride, have you heard that too? Why would someone say it was David's pride?

I wouldn't be able to say, I've got this many people.

Yeah, and we can draw that. I know how they come to that conclusion, although I disagree with that conclusion. Okay, just to let you know, the third one's always the one I tip my hand to. I disagree with that, okay?

Although I understand how they come to their conclusion. Because even Joab's response in both chapters goes, well, wait a minute, why do you want to do this? May the Lord add more and more and more. And then I think it's in the second Samuel passage that says, why would you delight in this?

So I understand how they come to the conclusion, okay?

Although I don't think this is it, okay?

If you hold that position, I'm fine, y 'all do. Why would the census of itself be wrong?

Anybody?

No, just taking a census period was wrong. God didn't command him to, okay? I understand how they come to this conclusion too. In Exodus, when he was told to give the census, who was commanded to do that?

God commanded him to do it. Matter of fact, two in numbers. One in the beginning and one in the end. Did God command David to take a census here? No, so they say, hey, he didn't have no business doing it.

He wanted to do it on his own. Therefore, that's the sin in view. And I would disagree with that too, because Saul took a census. David took a census when they separated in second Samuel. Remember, the war went on.

He wanted to see how many people were with him. He took a census of how many people he had. And King Saul did it when they were trying to find out how many men they had left in first Samuel. He did the same thing, and there was no plague.

And the question is, well, they didn't take the, they didn't take an atonement tax. Well, we don't know that they didn't, but we know this, the plague didn't take place. Therefore, they did it procedurally correct.

That's how I would understand it, okay? Now, the procedure in Exodus 30 was when you go and you number the people, you take a half, I think it's a half a shekel as an atonement for the people's lives to be paid for the Lord, because the Lord redeemed them out of Egypt.

That is in Exodus 30, if y 'all want to read all of that and how to do it. But we don't see anywhere where Joab has taken the atonement money to bring it into the, quote, house of the Lord or temple complex, this future temple complex or whatever.

We don't see that. But there is a connection with it. If you don't do it this way, there's going to be a plague. And what is the word that's used in both second Samuel and first Chronicles that happens?

God sends a plague. That is why this is my position. All these could be true. I just want you to know that, okay? They could be, because we really don't know exactly what the reason was other than as soon as David realized what he had done, he was pricked in his heart and he was realized that he had sinned.

So back in, let's see, back in second Samuel 24, Joab begins to go out, we're not gonna walk through all of this because we've got to be able to get to some of the discrepancies. They basically started in Jerusalem.

They crossed here and they started in Gilead. So basically what they did is they did a counter-clockwise.

Actually, let me fix this because I don't know if y 'all noticed,.

It says he went up into Tyre and Sidon.

That strike y 'all being odd. Now, maybe he had men posted up here, but they went into the pagan land and it says he went into the land of the Canaanites.

To do that.

So did David have men there as well? And it was basically went down like this.

And they came back.

You may remember how long that took. Nine months, 20 days. Now, we can say when he was asked to do that, when he told Joab to do it, Joab says, hey man, we shouldn't do this. Joab could have been the reason for him not wanting to do it.

He goes, man, look at all the issues that are going to arise with me doing this. But we don't know that. Could he actually have says, hey, you're going to sin against the Lord by what you're doing? Could be.

That's out of Joab's character because we don't see anywhere where Joab really cares about what God thinks. He cares about what the kingdom thinks and what's gonna make Joab look like. So, but Joab goes and he does that counterclockwise kind of thing.

And then it goes where in verse eight, so they had gone about through all of the land of Israel and they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and 20 days and Joab gave the number of the registration there were in Israel.

How many?

Okay, hang on just a second.

Hey, if I'm not explaining this good enough, let me know, okay? It's basically with those three. Because I'm pretty sure most nobody ever heard of the procedural problem, probably. Okay, everybody uses, I've always heard it was pride, okay.

All right, how many was it? 800 ,000. In 2nd Samuel?

800 ,000.

Okay.

Who's got the second Chronicles, first Chronicle passage? Was it 1 .1 million?

And the other one was 470?

470 ,000. Judah in Chronicles?

I think it was.

It is? Yeah.

470 ,000 Judahites.

Okay, those are not the same, correct?

All right.

One says, so how are we going to explain this? I'm just gonna let you know. People that attack the Bible use the passages like this to say, look, here is an absolute contradiction and error.

Okay?

Now, we look at the, it says that 800, bless you, 800 ,000 valiant men who drew the sword.

And you go to passage.

All the men who drew the sword.

Now I'm gonna put here,.

Some of you men that have studied the Bible army.

Can correct me if I'm wrong, or say this may be 20 years old and up.

Okay? Okay.

So the difference being, go ahead, you see it, you're fixing to say something, go ahead.

Valiant men, you got the Seals, and then you got the Nazis.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you got these guys who have intestinal fortitude.

Okay?

And then you have these other guys who are just regular men of war.

That can go.

Now, it also says that Joab didn't do what?

You remember what he said he didn't do?

He didn't report. And they weren't supposed to number Levi, because they, yeah, he didn't. But I did find something. If you turn over to 1 Chronicles 27,.

This is talking about when David sent him out.

And remember, Chronicles isn't in chronological order, okay? It's kind of, that is one thing about Hebrew revelation, man. And it's just, sometimes it's all over the map. It's bits and pieces here, here and here, how it's revealed.

But here, go look at verse 23 of chapter 27. But David didn't, let me back up. Yeah, 23. But David did not count those 20 years of age and under, because the Lord had said he would multiply Israel as a star.

And Joab, the son of Zariah, had began to count them, but he did not finish. Because of this, the wrath came upon Israel, and the number was not included in the account in the Chronicles of King David.

There's your, hey, Joab could have brought this number back. He could have brought this number back. It says here, he didn't even complete what he was supposed to do, because Joab knew what David was doing was wrong, okay?

So, if this ever comes up,.

And you're talking about, well, this says this,.

And this says that, well, here's the reason being. One is valiant men. The other has to do with just men of war, anybody 20 years of age and over. And then you can go to chapter 27,.

And it says, well, ultimately,.

He brought him back two different numbers, because Joab didn't want to make the census complete, because he thought what David was doing was wrong. And obviously, whether it was procedural, whether it was pride, or whether just taking the census or whatever, Joab knew what David did was abhorrent to God.

How do we know that? It says it right there, okay? So, we good so far? Okay, making sense, or not making sense? Confusing people?

No? Okay.

David’s Repentance and the Three Judgment Options

So, we handled that issue. Now, we get to chapter 24 of 2 Samuel, verse 10. Now, David's heart troubled him. So, remember, after this comes back, soon as it comes back, the numbers come back, it says that David's heart troubled him, and he numbered the people.

So, David said to the Lord, I have sinned greatly in what I have done. What's the difference between David and Saul, when they had sinned? What, I mean, this is, every time David is confronted, or his heart is broken, what happens?

He does, hey, I have sinned against God. I have sinned. I have sinned. And interesting, in this case, he doesn't even try to cover this up. He makes no excuses. He says, I have sinned. But now, oh Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.

And when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came from the prophet Gad, which was David's seer, saying, go and speak to David. Thus says the Lord, I am offering you three things. Think about that.

Where else in Scripture does God offer you, hey, I'm gonna give you some terms and conditions of, hey, I'm gonna punish you, and I'm gonna give you an option?

Nowhere. Nowhere.

And he says, you shall have, now here it is.

Another Samuel passage says, what does it say, seven? Seven years.

Okay.

Anybody remember what the other said?

The Chronicles passage? The Chronicles passage was three, three, and three.

So seven, three, and three. Chronicles passage says three, three, and three.

And it says, verse 13, shall seven years of famine, okay? Seven years of famine, or three months in flight from your foes, okay?

And foes, three months from your foes. And what was the other right after that?

Three days.

Three days, pestilence, right? And when you get to the Chronicles, these are the same, just this is different.

It says three.

Now, I'm gonna be honest,.

The explanation that's given for some critical scholars on this, I am not, I don't like their explanation.

But they say here, based on the structure of the book, okay, and you might, tell me if you've heard something different, okay? Structure of the book, if you remember, what did David, just a few chapters ago, have to deal with the famine?

You remember how many years?

Three.

Three, for what Saul did.

You remember?

You remember?

So what they have done here is taken the three years that had already happened, the year that they're in,.

Plus the three for the punishment. That's how they come to that. So, correct, because of the sinfulness of a king, that's how they come to that conclusion. I'm just gonna let you know, that doesn't suffice me.

But that's the explanation. You're asking, do I have an explanation? No, I don't. I don't have the explanation. But that is where they get, the three years of Saul, the year that they're going to be in now, and then the three years, that gives you a total of seven.

But you'd have to be reading a lot into that.

It is, I don't agree, I want you to know, I don't agree, I don't agree with that. So I don't have that explanation. Now, some say that the Chronicles passage is the actual, more accurate to the Masoretic text.

And I'm going, wait a minute, both of those things come out of the Masoretic text. Both of them. So, do I have the answer for why one says seven, and the other says three?

No.

Is this an explanation for it?

Yes.

Is it sufficient for me?

No.

I'm just gonna let you know, it's not. So I don't have an answer that probably would suffice. Anybody. Bert, any?

I'm, no, I've never.

Okay.

Hey, most people, I'm just gonna be honest with you, I bet most people don't even know, until you take the parallel passages and you put them together, you're going, well I would have never have noticed that.

So most people didn't realize the discrepancy.

In the numbers.

But when I'm doing my studies, I get parallel passage, and I wanna, sometimes it fills in some bits and pieces, well then sometimes it makes it a little more complicated. Okay? Some believe there could have been a scribal discrepancy here.

Could be. I mean, it happens. We know this in its original writings, it was without error.

Okay?

So, he says, the three pestilence, now consider and see, and this is in the end of 13, now consider and see what shall I return to him who sent me? He's thinking of dad's gonna return to God, and you tell him what you want him to do.

And David said to Gad, I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are great, and do not let me fall into the hands of men.

Now,.

That is a profound statement from David.

Concerning God's judgment on him, is it not? He's saying, wait a minute, God's gonna do all, God's wrath is not merciful. But he's saying, look, you've gotta do what you want to to me, because I know that you are merciful, that you are kind, and your loving kindness endures.

So he throws, basically, what does he do? Throws himself in the court. Just whatever you wanna do with me. I have sinned, I have no way of explaining my sin away, whatever you wanna do. And it says here in verse 16, so the Lord sent the pestilence.

Upon Israel from morning until the appointed time. And hey, look how many died. 70 ,000 Israelites.

Let's just go back for a minute from David's sin. You had Uriah, right?

We know he died. But what about, we don't know how many other that died because of his foolish sin with Bathsheba. Remember when he sent them to the wall? He said, send them up to the wall, and when it gets hot, back up.

Well, how many other died before that?

We don't know.

We know for sure here, but we know others. As far as count, we don't. So from David's sin, we know Uriah and some others.

When we get to here, David's sin,.

70 ,000 Israelites.

It says men, but you're saying women, children.

I think it's men.

All right, so do you think it's men?

Yes, ma 'am. I think it's men.

And do you think it would have been?

That I have no idea.

It doesn't say. No, it doesn't say,.

But I do believe it's men. I do believe it was men. And I don't have, this is making an inference. I'm basing that based on men being the federal head of, just like, all right, why are these men dying?

Because David, as their representative, did what?

Sinned.

Go back to Saul. When Saul killed the Gibeonites, he tried to slaughter them. God sent a famine for three years into the land. Well, who was bearing the punishment, really, the wrath of God, because of Saul's sin?

The people, why? Because this king was the federal representative. So now, because of David's sin, who should have died?

David.

That should, in our mind, we go, man, that just, I know people say, that's not fair. Hey, man, but God, they were sinners.

When you consider that they were disloyal.

Yes, and if you understand how I made the point of, hey, they have sinned against God by rejecting their anointed king, his anger is turned against Israel, but he uses David's sinful action to now punish Israel.

They're not all that angry.

No.

I mean, what you have going on, the theological argument is called concurrence and compatibilistic determinism. Those are big words. We don't have time to get into that today, okay? But that's what is happening, okay?

David's sin is being used as a judgment against the people that rejected God's anointed king. That's my conclusion, okay? Because it says that God's anger was burned against Israel.

Now.

Do you believe he chose that because that would be the least death?

Well, and well, if we do the three, let's just, let's use the Chronicles passage for less confusion.

It was three years, right? Three months, three days.

I believe this, because it's stretched out, is less intense. But the shorter span, the more intense it gets. So David says, you know what? I'd rather endure whatever the Lord gives me, which could be the most intense.

And I do believe that that was the most intense. This would have been long, drug out.

Children would have been starving.

Sure, in this case, he says, whatever the Lord wants to do. And that obviously was probably the worst. Because the smaller you get, the more intense. Is that what you were asking?

Yeah, more or less, I think he was trying to say, hey, look, this would at least be the least path of resistance.

Yeah, well, and they would at least be able to rise up armed against their foes. Think about that. Hey, they could be out there tilling the ground trying to get the famine to go away. They could try to get water coming in from the nasty Jordan River to try to get food.

Okay, they could do that. But once they throw themselves to the hands of the Lord for a plague, there's nothing that they can even try to push against it.

Why?

Because who's gonna raise their hand against the sword of the Lord? Nobody. Nobody.

Does verse 14 kind of answer that question, too? Like at the end there?

Oh, in the second Samuel passage? Or are you in the Chronicles?

Samuel.

Okay.

It says, 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. So it's like he'd rather fall into the hands of the Lord.

Than the hand of man.

Sure, because are men by nature merciful? No, they're merciless. I mean, think about if someone committed a crime against you or your family and you had the opportunity to dispense retribution. Are you gonna be merciful?

I ain't.

I'm not. I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm not. I'm gonna inflict as much pain and suffering on that person as I can because of the pain and suffering that they have inflicted on me. And one, I can't do it justly.