v1-9 A census is taken in Israel and Judah.
Israel=800,000
Judah=500,000
v10 What was his sin? Is he taking pride in the numbers of people in his kingdom?
I Chronicles 21 gives a little insight to this. It says that Satan caused him to do it. And that Joab knew it would bring trouble.
What if God gave you a bank acount, with a debit card attached. What if He told you that you could use this card for everything you need, and that you could also use it to buy things for others who were in need. And that you would always have plenty of money in that account--that it would even compound with interest, so that you could increasingly do more and more. But He said--Don't look at the balance. Just trust Me.
Can you think of any reason God would be upset with you for checking the balance?
If you knew exactly how much money was in the account, would you be trusting in Him, or in the number? If you knew how much money was in the account, would you be tempted to spend some of it on luxuries and fun stuff--something that might bring you some glory?
This might be the issue here. I don't remember it being recorded that David could not take a census. But Joab responds with a refrence to Deuteronomy 1:11, where God promised Moses He would multiply the people before his eyes. Maybe David wanted to measure this for himself. Maybe he wanted proof that the Lord had kept His promise.
I don't fully understand what David did wrong, but I do recognize his troubled heart after it was done. Why is it, even with a true, growing relationship with the Father, that we still do things we know are wrong? Sometimes, like David did here, we even plan them out--maybe even pulling someone in with us. Why do we do this?! Are we so numbed to God's grace that we don't remember the pain attached to sin?
In David's case, it seems he remembered it as soon as the task was finished. He called out to God for forgiveness, but his sin would still cause pain. Sin always causes pain. In David's kingdom the consequence was huge.
v15 70,000 men lost their lives.
v17 David could see the angel who was doling out the Lord's punishment for his own sin. (Can you imagine the anguish!) He could not bear for anyone else to pay for his wrongdoing.
v18 They must build an alter.
v23 Araunah offers the threshing floor--and the animals for sacrifice--to David as a gift.
v24 David insists on paying for everything. And I love his reasoning. "I will not offer...offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing." No one could ever call David free from sin. But when this man repents, it is with his whole heart.
How many offerings do we give to the Lord that we don't even feel? In our American culture--even in a "recession" it takes a lot to give til it hurts.
v25 The Lord was moved by the prayer.
wow.
We serve a God who wants so much to have a relationship with us that He allows Himself to be moved by our prayers. What a fierce love our Father has for us.
Next time: A look back at II Samuel, and maybe even a modern psalm.
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