And again the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them saying, Go, number Israel and Judah.
God's anger burns against Israel, and out of it comes an order to count the fighting men — a census that will cost seventy thousand lives. Why was God angry when no sin of Israel is named, and how can Scripture say He moved David to do what He then punished?
The parallel account in 1 Chronicles 21:1 says Satan provoked David. Commentators read the two verses together, not against each other. One points to what the Hebrew word itself allows.
The statement, "He (God) moved David," also means in Hebrew, "He allowed him to be moved." He permitted Satan to do his work. In 1 Timothy 3:6 we read that pride is the condemnation (or as it is literally "the crime") of the devil. And Satan the accuser moves David with national pride to number the people.
Scripture does not say what Israel had done. That silence has led writers to look at the nation's condition rather than any single event.
We are not told why God's anger burned against Israel (v.1). If there was no public reason for it, then it must have come from the moral and spiritual condition of the nation. Very likely that condition showed itself in the pride that led David to want Israel counted. The nation had grown from a small people of no significance in the world's eyes into a strong empire. Had this humbled the people in thankfulness for the grace of God in so blessing them? Apparently not. We too easily glory in numbers, as though our increase in numbers makes us more distinguished than others.
The order "number Israel and Judah" treats the nation as a royal asset. One writer sees David falling into the very error that had produced the monarchy in the first place.
Oh, what a forgetfulness of the Lord! He was everything to David, and everything to Israel, yet David was now repeating the sin of Saul in principle. The people would have a king, when God was their king; and the king thinks of the people only as his own. The people forgot their highest portion was God, and wanted to be like the nations; and the king whom God gave now sought a people just like a Gentile.
The census counts men fit for war, and the shape of the order exposes what drives it. Joab sees the danger that the king misses.
It is a military order. It clearly concerns their strength for war, and it shows the spirit behind it — a spirit that king and people shared alike. And pride is the giant sin of a fallen nature, the essential evil, man lifting himself up, even against God... The evil is so obvious, and yet the man driven by it is so blind, that Joab sees at once what David cannot see.
Counting was not forbidden in itself. The law attached a condition to it, and that condition is missing here.
Turn to Exodus 30:11-16, and you will find that when Israel was counted, a ransom had to be given for their souls. Without it, a plague would break out on them. King David once numbered the people, but there is no mention of their giving a ransom. The record is, "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" (2 Samuel 24:15). God can take account of sinful men in the flesh only in judgment. If man is to be in favor before God it must be through an accepted ransom.
God's anger against Israel works out as discipline for His people. One writer traces where that discipline finally leads.
Events that happened long ago stay present before God when it is a matter of chastening or disciplining His people. David becomes the instrument of this chastening. In 1 Chronicles 21:1 we find that, as with Job, Satan was the agent used against the people and to lead David astray. "The accuser of the brothers" would have liked God to curse the people and their king. He could not know that God would use him as an unwilling servant for His plans — the final blessing and triumph of those He had chosen.
- Anger first. God is already displeased before the census. The counting is not the cause of His anger but the occasion He uses to discipline the nation.
- Permitted, not authored. "He moved David" also means God allowed David to be moved. He let Satan work on pride that was already there.
- Counted as his own. David forgot whose people Israel was. He counted the Lord's nation as if it were his own strength.
- Ransom missing. The law required a ransom whenever Israel was counted, to hold off the plague. David gave no ransom, and the plague came.
- Overruled. The accuser wanted king and people cursed. Instead he served God's purpose of blessing for those He had chosen.
And the king said to Joab the captain of the host, who was with him, Go, I pray thee, through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, and count the people, that I may know the number of the people.
David's reign closes with a command that looks harmless: send the army commander across the land to count the fighting men. Yet that order brought a plague on Israel. So what was wrong with counting?
The order covers every tribe in the land. One commentator hears in it a king surveying what he has come to think of as his own:
What a forgetfulness of the Lord! He was everything to David, and everything to Israel, yet David was now repeating the sin of Saul in principle. The people wanted a king, when God was their king; and the king thinks of the people only as his own. The people forgot that their highest portion was God. They wanted to be like the nations. And the king God gave them now wanted a people of his own, just like a foreign ruler.
David gives his reason: he wants the figure. One writer asks why a king in his position would need it:
God "had delivered David out of the hand of all his enemies" (2 Sam. 22:1). What need had he yet to know the number of his warriors? At the end of his life, at Satan's prompting, this godly king's heart went through a temptation quite contrary to his character. David had always been a humble man before the Lord and before men. It did not seem necessary for him to be on guard against pride. In the past the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh had enticed him, and he had suffered severe punishment for this. Now the pride of life tempts him. He does not resist the desire to count up his forces, to know how far he could rely on them. Chastening comes on him to teach him that he could not and should not count on anything but God alone.
Israel had counted its people before, more than once, and God approved. The difference lies in what each count was for:
The first numbering (Ex. 38:25-27) collected the silver that was to form the bases of the pillars of the tabernacle. So that count was made for the Lord, with the worship of Him in view. The second (Num. 1:2-3), at the time when Israel was about to fight the enemy, was meant to determine the number of men able to go to war. This was according to God. A third numbering (Num. 26:2, 52-65) counted those fit for military service, to divide up the land.
Numbering Israel was the Lord's right alone. David reached for it as if the people were his:
It was an offence against this particular right of the Lord that David was guilty of. He claimed something of the divine glory when he sought to number Israel, as though they had been his own people. It was a trespass on God's rights. It was an insult to the majesty of Him who was Lord and King of Israel. He might number Israel, for they were His treasured possession.
David was not the only proud one, and even his own commander saw through the order:
God allowed David to follow his natural inclination to pride in being king of so great a nation. No doubt Israel had the same proud thoughts, and God saw that this needed serious humbling. Even Joab, self-centred as he was, realised that David's desire came only from pride. He protested that it would be good to see Israel increased a hundredfold, but that taking delight in the number of the people seemed unfitting to him. It is often true that an unbeliever can see through the inconsistent ways of a believer.
The law attached a price to every census. One writer notes what seems to have been left out:
Each time Israel were numbered, each man was to give a ransom of half a shekel of silver, "that there be no plague among them, when you number them" (Ex. 30:12); and it seems the ransom money was not paid.
The chapter that begins with a proud head-count ends at a threshing floor bought for an altar:
The plague devoured thousands (2 Sam. 24). David sinned over that numbering, in the pride of his heart — in painful contrast with Him whom he foreshadowed so much. But even there mercy triumphs over judgment at Jerusalem. The threshing floor of Araunah becomes the site of the altar to the Lord, the meeting place of reconciliation for His people for ever.
- Pride starts it. The lusts of the flesh and of the eyes had tripped David before. Here the pride of life does, and he counts his forces to see how far he can lean on them.
- Ownership decides it. God may number Israel, for they are His treasured possession. When David counted them as his own, he trespassed on God's rights.
- Purpose separates it. Earlier counts served the Lord — for worship, for war, and for inheritance. This one served the king.
- Ransom covers it. The law required half a shekel from each man at every count, so that no plague would follow. It seems that price was never paid.
- Mercy outlasts it. The plague ends at a threshing floor. That purchased ground becomes the altar site — the meeting place of reconciliation.
And Joab said to the king, May Jehovah thy God even add to the people, how many soever they be, a hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see [it]; but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?
Joab was no godly man, yet he is the one who objects here, blessing the thought of a nation a hundred times larger. His protest raises the real question of the chapter: who do the people of Israel belong to, and what does a king gain by counting them?
David's order treats Israel as his own possession. One writer ties this to Israel's old demand for a king.
Oh, what a forgetfulness of the Lord! He was everything to David, and everything to Israel, yet David was now repeating the sin of Saul in principle. The people would have a king, when God was their king; and the king thinks of the people only as his own. The people forgot their highest portion was God, and wanted to be like the nations; and the king whom God gave now sought a people just like a Gentile.
Joab answers with a blessing and a question. One writer turns to the parallel record in 1 Chronicles, where Joab says more.
Satan had blinded David's eyes, but Joab saw the danger. In 1 Chronicles 21:3 we read that he said to David: "May the LORD add to His people a hundred times as many as they are! But, my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? Why then should my lord require this? Why should it be a cause of guilt for Israel?"
One writer reads Joab's objection as plain arithmetic: a census adds no soldiers.
Joab would not worry much about a sin if he could see some good come out of it. But he could not understand how a man like David would compromise himself so deeply when nothing at all would change. After all, numbering the people would not bring in one more man. Why take so much trouble and risk a sin, with no practical result?
God twice told Moses to count the people, and each time He gave a reason for it.
God directed Moses to number the people on two occasions. The first went with their camping in the wilderness (Numbers 1). The second had special reference to the different tribal allotments in the land (26:2). Each time he numbered the men from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war. This showed the fighting strength of the people. After they entered the land, God never commanded them to be numbered. There was then no occasion for this census. Joab and the captains of the army knew that well, and they urged David not to do it.
The law set a price on every man counted.
Every time Israel was numbered, each man was to give a ransom of half a shekel of silver, "that there be no plague among them when you number them" (Exodus 30:12). It seems the ransom money was never paid.
Joab never mentions that payment. One writer marks the limit of what a man like Joab could do.
He looked upon Israel as a people belonging to Jehovah; and on David, as committing a trespass in having them numbered for himself. But, like all unbelievers, though he could point out the fault, he was not able to direct David to the remedy. He did not allude to the atonement-money.
Joab is right here, and that is what makes the scene shameful.
Joab criticizes his master. This man who had never judged himself condemns the man of God. The king's word "was abominable to Joab." What a shame that a man like David should be rebuked by a man like Joab! Why should David commit this profane and useless act?
David cannot see what his general sees at once. That blindness is part of the sin itself.
And pride is the giant sin of a fallen nature, the essential evil, man lifting himself up, even against God. It is therefore the pattern of all sin, and God must show Himself against it, in His very mercy. So He brings it into the open and strikes it. It is so plain to see, and the man driven by it is so blind, that Joab sees at once the evil which David cannot see.
The same warning reaches beyond kings. One writer applies it to counting Christians:
We have sometimes seen the same kind of presumption when people boast about how many Christians there are and how well they seem to be doing. Fatal consequences always follow.
- Whose people? Joab's question exposes the flaw: David counted as owner what God owned, thinking of Israel "only as his own."
- Whose increase? Joab's blessing hands growth back to God — a hundredfold more is His to give, and counting "would not bring one more man."
- Whose command? After Israel entered the land, God never ordered another census; this one had no occasion behind it.
- Whose ransom? The law asked half a shekel for each man counted, so that no plague would follow. Joab saw the fault but never pointed to the remedy.
- Whose blindness? Pride is the one sin everybody sees except the man holding it; a self-serving general read David better than David read himself.
But the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the army. And Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And they passed over the Jordan, and encamped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the midst of the ravine of Gad, and toward Jaazer.
Joab and his officers have crossed the Jordan, and the count of Israel begins at Aroer. Why would God treat a simple headcount as a grave sin — an errand that ends in a plague?
God had ordered counts of Israel before, so the fault does not lie in the arithmetic. One writer asks what was missing this time:
The numbering in our chapter has none of these characteristics... there were still men able to go to war, but God "delivered [David] from the hand of all his enemies." What need had he now to know the number of his warriors? He told Joab his purpose: to "know the number of the people." At the end of his life Satan prompted him, and this godly king's heart went through a temptation quite against his character... now, tempted by the pride of life, he does not resist the desire to count up his forces and see how far he could rely on them. Chastening comes on him to teach him that he could not and ought not count on anything but God alone.
The law had already laid down the one safe way to take a census: every man counted had to hand over half a shekel of silver. That payment carried a meaning, and its absence explains the disaster:
Exodus 30:11-16 ordered that when the people were counted, each one, rich or poor, should give half a shekel as a ransom for his soul or life. This had nothing to do with sin. It had to do with ransom, so that there might be no plague. The half shekel was a recognition that they all alike belonged to God, and could make no human boast in numbers. David himself later brought the plague on Israel.
Joab, who led this march, saw more than he could fix:
Joab, who was given the command, was sharp enough to see that his master's desire was not from God. But, like all unbelievers, though he could point out the fault, he could not point David to the remedy. He said nothing about the atonement money.
No one collected the silver, so nothing filtered the list. Joab's route swept in people who did not belong to Israel at all:
One result of this numbering was that the count even took in cities of the Hivites and the stronghold of Tyre. That could never have happened if the silver half-shekel had been asked for. Today people who are not converted are too often counted as part of the church of God. The neglect is the same: no one asks them to openly confess their confidence in the precious blood of Christ before numbering them among the hosts of God.
The march that starts at Aroer ran on for months, and the final figure was still incomplete:
The king's desire prevails. For over nine months Joab and the captains of the army count the people. During those nine months David's conscience is silent. But once he has what he wanted, he finds it tastes bitter. How much effort spent on such a miserable goal! And something was still missing, for they had not counted Levi and Benjamin. Faced with this incomplete result, David must have felt the folly of what he had done twice over.
The pull that sent those men across the Jordan is still with us. It shows up wherever people measure strength by size:
There is a subtle desire for numbers in all of us. Why do we want statistics, numbers of conversions, numbers of "members"? Is it not because we think the power lies in the numbers?... Numbers have too often been the occasion for the pride that goes before destruction. We are not to refuse numbers for their own sake. We should rejoice over the many who receive blessing. But our eye is not to be on the many; it is to be on the Lord.
The chapter that opens with this march does not close in judgment. A place in Jerusalem became something permanent instead:
Then comes the plague that devoured the thousands (2 Samuel 24). In numbering the people David sinned in the pride of his heart — a painful contrast with Him whom he pictured so much. But even there mercy triumphs over judgment at Jerusalem. The threshing floor of Araunah becomes the site of the altar to the Lord, the meeting place of reconciliation for His people forever.
- Motive. Counting was not new or forbidden. What was new was a king who wanted to know how far he could lean on his own forces.
- Ransom. God's rule asked half a shekel from every man counted. The silver confessed that the people were His, and it kept the plague away.
- Reach. David's men skipped that price, so the count ran past Israel's borders and swept in outsiders. The same carelessness still counts the unconverted among God's people.
- Result. Nine months of marching produced an incomplete list and a bitter taste. Great effort went into a miserable goal.
- Mercy. The road that began at Aroer ended at a threshing floor. There judgment stopped, and an altar became the meeting place of reconciliation.
And they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi; and came to Dan-jaan, and to the environs of Sidon;
This verse traces one leg of a survey that swept the whole land — up through Gilead, north to Dan, then round toward Sidon. Behind these travel notes lies a harder question. Why was this count a sin, when God Himself had ordered counts before?
These place names belong to a journey that lasted most of a year. What came back was a count of soldiers, not of the whole nation.
David insisted on having the people numbered, though the commander of the army and Joab did not agree. They were the ones who had to do the job. They travelled through all the country, and the task took nine months and twenty days (v. 8). Yet 1 Chronicles 21:6 tells us that Joab did not count Benjamin and Levi, because David's order disgusted him. The number given, however, is not that of all the people. It is only their military strength: 800,000 soldiers in Israel and 500,000 in Judah.
Older translations read "Dan-jaan" here. One writer argues that this Dan is not the northern city once called Laish:
Dan is clearly not Laish; it was a name known long before, as can be seen from Jor-dan. Compare Deuteronomy 34:1 with this verse and you see the same thing: Dan-jaan was above Gilead — "all the land of Gilead unto Dan."
God had ordered counts of Israel before. Each one served a purpose He gave.
The first numbering mentioned (Ex. 38:25-27) was to gather the silver — a bekah per man — for the bases of the pillars of the tabernacle. So this numbering took place for the Lord and with a view to worshipping Him. The second numbering (Num. 1:2-3), at the time when Israel was about to fight the enemy, was meant to determine the number of men able to go to war. This was according to God. Every Israelite from twenty years old and upward needed to understand his own responsibility in the battles of the Lord.
The same writer places the sin in the motive, and in a weakness David had never had to guard against.
At the end of his life, Satan stirred up in this godly king's heart a temptation quite contrary to his character. David had always been a humble man before the Lord (2 Sam. 7:18) and before men (1 Sam. 26:20). It did not seem necessary for him to be on guard against pride. In the past the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh had enticed him, and he suffered severe punishment for it. Now the pride of life tempts him. He does not resist the desire to count up his forces and see how far he could rely on them. Chastening comes on him to teach him that he could not and should not count on anything but God alone.
The law attached a payment to every census. That payment explains why a count could be dangerous.
The law of Moses had a rule for counting the people. Everyone from twenty years old and upwards had to give the Lord a half shekel as a ransom for his soul, so that no plague would come on them (Ex. 30:11-16; 38:25-26). The numbering was an occasion when flesh might exalt itself in their numbers as a whole, and each individual was noticed as well. But they had to recognise this: the Lord could take them into account only on the ground of redemption. They needed the reminder that they belonged to God (Deut. 7:6), and each one had to pay a ransom for himself.
The one who objected was no model of godliness, which makes the objection sting.
Even Joab was alarmed and shocked. He felt that it was not only a crime, but — what he cared about far more — a blunder. Joab would not have hesitated much over a sin if it seemed useful for his politics. But he was too good a politician to be guilty of a blunder. His quick eye soon saw that numbering Israel was a fatal mistake. He did not care to please the Lord. He only wanted to avoid His displeasure, and he had the interests of the kingdom of David, his uncle, at heart.
The march that starts in this verse ends at a threshing floor.
Then follows the roll of David's mighty men on the one hand, and the plague that devoured the thousands (2 Sam. 24), about whose numbering he sinned in the pride of his heart... But even there mercy glories against judgment at Jerusalem. The threshing floor of Araunah becomes the site of the altar to the Lord — the meeting-place of reconciliation for His people for ever.
- Counting — God commanded counts before, for worship and for war. The act itself is not the offence.
- Motive — What changed was the reason. David wanted to know how far he could rely on his forces, so chastening taught him to count on God alone.
- Ransom — Every census carried a half-shekel payment. It marked the people as God's by redemption, so numbers gave them nothing to boast in.
- Reach — Joab's unwilling march covered the whole land for nine months and twenty days, and still came back incomplete.
- Mercy — The road that began in pride ends at a threshing floor turned into an altar — the lasting meeting-place between God and His people.
and they came to the fortified city of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites; and went out to the south of Judah, to Beer-sheba.
Joab's census route swings north-west to the fortress of Tyre, then through Canaanite towns, then far south to Beersheba. The place names raise a sharp question: who belonged on this list, and why did David want it?
This leg of the journey was part of one long assignment:
David insisted on having the people numbered, though the commander of the army as well as Joab did not agree. They were the ones required to do the job. They travelled through all the country, and the task took nine months and twenty days. Yet 1 Chronicles 21:6 tells us that Joab did not count Benjamin and Levi because he was disgusted with David's order. The number given, however, is not that of all the people. It counts only their military strength: 800,000 soldiers in Israel and 500,000 in Judah.
The verse ends at Beersheba, a name with its own history:
This name, meaning well of the oath, was given to the place where Abraham and Abimelech made a covenant not to trouble each other, and confirmed it by an oath... after the settlement of the land it is always spoken of as the most southern part of the land they held, as Dan is pointed to as the most northern. So "from Dan to Beersheba" was the common expression for the whole territory, even in the days of Solomon (1 Kings 4:25).
God's law had already set a rule for counting Israel, and it involved a payment:
The law of Moses said that when the people were counted, everyone from twenty years old and upwards should give the Lord a half shekel as a ransom for his soul. Then there would be no plague among them (Exodus 30:11-16; 38:25-26). The numbering was an occasion when flesh might exalt itself over their numbers as a whole, as well as each individual being noticed. But they had to recognise this: the Lord could count them only on the ground of redemption.
Nobody collected that half shekel this time, and the place names in this verse show the result:
One result of this numbering was that even cities of the Hivites, and the stronghold of Tyre, were included in the count. This could never have happened if the silver half shekel had been required. Today, unconverted people on earth are too often classed as belonging to the church of God. The same neglect causes it: no one asks them to confess openly their confidence in the precious blood of Christ before they are counted among the hosts of God.
David had no war to prepare for:
The tabernacle had been built. The Levites had taken the place of the firstborn. Most of the inheritance had been conquered. There were still men able to go to war, but God "had delivered David out of the hand of all his enemies." What need had he now to know the number of his warriors?... In the past the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh had enticed him, and he was severely punished for this. Now, tempted by the pride of life, he does not resist the desire to count up his forces and learn how far he could rely on them. Chastening comes on him to teach him that he could not and should not count on anything but God alone.
The same writer weighs what the long count produced:
The king's desire prevails. For over nine months Joab and the captains of the army number the people. During all these months David's conscience is silent. But once he has obtained what he wanted, he finds it has a bitter taste. So much effort put out for such a miserable object!
David is not the last person to want a total:
There is a subtle desire for numbers in all of us. Why the desire for statistics, numbers of conversions, numbers of "members," if people do not think the power is in the numbers?... Numbers have too often been the occasion for the pride that goes before destruction. When the numbers of the disciples increased, the murmuring began. Far be the thought that we are to refuse numbers for their own sake. We should surely rejoice over the many who receive blessing, but our eye is not to be on the many, but on the Lord.
- Route. The count ran the whole length of the land, from Tyre in the north to Beersheba in the south. It took nine months and twenty days.
- Ransom. God's rule was simple: no Israelite was counted until he paid a half shekel. The Lord counted them only on the ground of redemption.
- Reach. With no payment required, the count swelled to take in Tyre's fortress and Canaanite towns. Commentators see the same error when unconverted people are counted as part of the church.
- Reason. David counted his fighting men, but no war was coming. He wanted to know how far he could lean on his own strength.
- Result. He gained an incomplete list and a bitter taste; the lasting warning is that our eye belongs on the Lord, not on the many.
And they went through all the land, and came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
Joab and his officers finish their tour of the land and return to Jerusalem. Nine months and twenty days have passed. The verse is only a note of time. But commentators read it closely, because of what David had ordered and what happened when the figures reached his hand.
Joab spent those months counting fighting men. God had already given David rest from every enemy, so writers ask what the count was for.
There were still men able to go to war, but God "had delivered [David] out of the hand of all his enemies" (2 Sam. 22:1). What need had he yet to take knowledge of the number of his warriors?... At the end of his life, at Satan's prompting, this godly king's heart came under a temptation quite contrary to his character. David had always been a humble man before the Lord and before men. It did not seem necessary for him to be on guard against pride. In the past the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh had enticed him, and he had been severely punished for this. Now, tempted by the pride of life, he does not resist the desire to count up his forces, to know how far he could rely on them.
Where did the thought come from? One writer traces it to God's anger with Israel, and notes that Joab saw the evil first.
Israel's condition has provoked God to anger against them, and out of this comes the thought that God allows to be put into David's mind: to number the people. It is a military order, clearly having to do with the people's strength for war. It shows the spirit behind it, a spirit shared by king and people alike... And pride is the giant sin of a fallen nature, the essential evil, man lifting himself up, even against God... So plainly is it visible, and yet so blind is the one driven by it, that Joab sees at once the evil which David cannot see. He objects to the numbering, avoids it as far as he can, but is overruled by the king's command. The sum of the people is handed to the king; and only then does his conscience wake to the meaning of what he has done.
Through all those months David felt nothing.
When can man's good sense ever help against the will of God in chastening, and against Satan's malice? It is an awful thing to be given up to his power. Nine months of sin on David's part, and of patience on God's part, show us the deadly influence of the enemy. But the sin, once completed, is what wakes David's conscience. Enjoying the fruit of our sin undeceives us. It is chasing it that attracts our hearts... Happily, where there is life, conscience regains its power in such a case.
Joab's men covered the whole land. Yet the number they brought back left out two tribes.
1 Chronicles 21:6 tells us that Joab did not count Benjamin and Levi because he was disgusted with David's order. But the number given is not that of all the people. It counts only their military strength: 800,000 soldiers in Israel and 500,000 in Judah.
What David finally gained, he did not enjoy.
Once he has obtained what he wanted, he finds it has a bitter taste. So much effort spent for such a miserable goal! And something was still lacking, for Levi and Benjamin had not been numbered. Faced with this incomplete result, David must have felt the folly of his action twice over.
As far as the record shows, no one confronted David. Conviction came from God, and the answer came the next morning.
For more than nine months David seems to have been unfeeling about his sin. At last he woke up to it, without, as far as we know, any human instrument convincing him of the evil he had done. But God would not leave him indifferent about it. God worked on his conscience. He confessed his sin at night, and in the morning the prophet Gad came to him with the answer from God.
Confession did not cancel what came next. The discipline landed exactly where the pride had been.
But he must be corrected, and in the very place of his sin. He had boasted of his thousands, so his thousands must be reduced. God would now number to the sword those whom David had numbered for his pride.
- Numbered for pride. David counted fighting men he no longer needed to count, wanting to know how far he could rely on his own forces.
- Numbered in blindness. Joab saw the evil at once; the king driven by pride could not see it at all.
- Numbered over nine months. The long delay was sin on David's side and patience on God's; conscience only stirred once the sin was complete.
- Numbered and still short. The total came back bitter and incomplete, two tribes missing — effort spent on a miserable goal.
- Numbered to the sword. God struck the very thing David had boasted in, reducing the thousands he had counted for his pride.
And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to the king; and there were of Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.
David ordered a national count. Joab carried it out against his own judgment, and now the figures reach the king. The totals look like a triumph — well over a million fighting men. The chapter treats them as evidence against the king.
These figures count soldiers, not the whole nation. One commentator notes that even that count stopped short.
David insisted on having the people numbered, though the commander of the army as well as Joab did not agree. They had to do the job, and they travelled through the whole country. It took them nine months and twenty days (v.8). Yet 1 Chronicles 21:6 tells us that Joab did not count Benjamin and Levi, because David's order disgusted him. The number given, however, is not that of all the people. It is only their military strength: 800,000 soldiers in Israel and 500,000 in Judah. Judah's population was proportionately much higher than that of the other nine tribes.
Counting people is not wrong in itself. David's motive was.
This numbering was most sinful, for by it David had sought his own glory instead of the Lord's glory. He wanted to know his own resources instead of relying on those of God. Yet God had raised David up. He had taken him from the pastures and the flocks, made him prince over Israel, and given him a name like the name of the great ones on earth! What more did David want? Sadly, under Satan's prompting he wanted to make a name for himself and see what resources he could count on while leaving the Lord out. If he had succeeded, he would have glorified himself and become independent of God.
The law of Moses set a condition on every count of Israel.
The law of Moses had a rule for counting the people. Everyone from twenty years old and upward had to give the Lord a half shekel as a ransom for his soul. Then no plague would come on them (Exodus 30:11-16; Exodus 38:25-26). The numbering gave flesh a chance to boast in their numbers as a whole, and it also brought each individual into view. But one thing had to be clear: the Lord could take account of them only on the ground of redemption. They needed reminding that they belonged to God, and each one had to pay a ransom for himself.
That missing ransom is what these totals expose:
King David once numbered the people, but there is no mention of their giving a ransom… God cannot take account of sinful men in the flesh except in judgment. If man is to be in favour before God it must be through an accepted ransom.
Chronicles gives different totals for the same count. Commentators differ on why. One explanation: the two accounts set out to do different things.
A difference of purpose explains away many an apparent discrepancy. One statement is as true as the other, but it is not the same… So we see a difference in the sum Joab gave to David: in the first, 800,000 of Israel and 500,000 of Judah; in the second, 1,100,000 and 470,000. But Israel's smaller number carries the description "valiant men," while Judah's is a round number.
Another explanation: Joab never finished the survey.
We read that Joab did not finish the numbering of the people "because wrath came upon Israel for it" (1 Chronicles 27:24). So the number in Samuel may be of those counted. The number in Chronicles may include an estimate of the districts left out.
The judgment falls on the people whose numbers flattered the king.
The plans of men do not succeed, especially among God's people. The king's word was abhorrent to Joab, and God was displeased with this thing, so He struck Israel. This seems strange at first sight — why God should strike Israel — but God was wise. It was Israel that had become a snare and a boast to the king. Did he not number them? They must be reduced now. God would cut down the number, and would make David feel that, instead of being a blessing to His people, he was a curse through his folly and his pride.
Yet the chapter does not end at the plague:
In the middle of judgment mercy triumphed over it. And Jerusalem, the very city where the guilty order started, was the place where the hand of judgment stopped… The guilty one who had brought the plague on Israel pleads and is heard. It was at the threshing floor of a poor stranger — a Gentile — that the raised hand of the angel was stopped.
- Counted: The 1,300,000 are fighting men, not the whole nation. Even that count stopped short: Joab skipped Levi and Benjamin.
- Coveted: The sin was not the counting but the motive. David wanted to trust his own resources, not God's.
- Uncovered: The law required a ransom at every count. Without it, God can take account of people only in judgment.
- Compared: Chronicles gives larger totals. Commentators point either to a different purpose in the two accounts or to a count Joab never finished.
- Covered: God cut down the people David boasted in. Yet at a stranger's threshing floor the judgment stopped, and mercy had the last word.
And David's heart smote him after he had numbered the people. And David said to Jehovah, I have sinned greatly in what I have done; and now, I beseech thee, Jehovah, put away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
David has just finished counting the people, and the count took Joab more than nine months. Only now does his own heart accuse him, and he asks God to take the iniquity away — long after the deed is done.
Nothing outside David broke him down. No prophet had come, and no plague had fallen. What struck him was his own heart.
Joab, the captain of the army, David's willing instrument on other occasions, took up this task with obvious reluctance. It occupied him nine months and twenty days. When he returned with the results of his mission, David's heart struck him, and he spoke to God, saying, "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." For more than nine months David seems to have been unfeeling about his sin. At last he woke up to it, without, as far as we know, any human instrument convincing him of the evil he had done. But God would not leave him indifferent about it. God worked on his conscience. He confessed his sin at night, and in the morning the prophet Gad came to him with God's answer. "Take away the iniquity of your servant" had been David's request. But the Lord had a dispute with Israel, so His dealing with the nation in judgment could not be turned aside.
Why does the eye open at the end and not at the start?
Nine months of sin on David's part, and of patience on God's part, show us the deadly influence of the enemy. But the sin, once done, only awakens David's conscience. Enjoying the fruit of our sin undeceives us. It is the pursuit of it that lures our hearts. When Satan has succeeded in getting the children of God to commit the evil he tempts them to, he no longer cares to hide from them its emptiness and folly. Happily, where there is life, conscience regains its power in such a case.
Counting Israel was not wrong in itself, so the offence has to be looked for somewhere other than the act.
David's sin does not lie in the bare fact of numbering the people, for they had been numbered by God's command before. God looks at the hidden spring. Fleshly and worldly display, springing up in his heart, shut out the thought of God for the moment. God judged the secret motive, and later on David judges himself.
That explains why David calls his act foolish.
By it David had sought his own glory instead of the Lord's glory. He had wanted to know his own resources instead of relying on God's. It was God who had raised David up. He had taken him from the pastures and the flocks, made him prince over Israel, and given him a name like the name of the great ones on earth. What more did David want? Sadly, at Satan's prompting he wanted to make a name for himself and see what resources he could count on while leaving the Lord out. This is what made this fault so serious and so foolish for a believer like David. When he came to himself he confessed this sin, which was nothing other than independence and human self-will.
David asks God to put the iniquity away. But the prayer comes after the deed.
How David must now wish he could erase those nine ruinous months! He cannot. And so he lays hold of the only resource left to him and addresses the Lord. … The consequences of his act make him afraid, but too late; they ought to have frightened him before he went down this path. His repentance cannot lessen the guilt of the evil he committed, or make it less deserving of judgment. His repentance cannot atone for his sin or free him from its consequences. What is left for David? To submit to the judgment he would have liked to avoid.
The confession is not the end of the story.
Yet chastening must follow a sin carried out despite so much patience. But God reaches His servant's conscience. He brings the sincere affections of David's heart into play, to carry out His own sovereign purpose. David shows that never-failing mark of a heart that knows the Lord — confidence in God above all, and at whatever cost. "Let me fall into the hand of the Lord." … The plague breaks out. But in the middle of judgment the Lord remembers mercy. When the destroying angel reached Jerusalem, the Lord commanded him to hold back his hand.
- Spring. The wrong was not the counting. It was the motive — pride that wanted to measure its own resources and leave God out.
- Sleep. Nine months passed with no sense of sin. Chasing the sin blinds us; enjoying it opens our eyes.
- Strike. No prophet and no plague woke David. God worked on his conscience, and where there is life, conscience recovers its power.
- Submission. Repentance is real, but it cannot lessen the guilt or cancel the consequences. David must accept the judgment he now dreads.
- Sanctuary. The confession opens on mercy. David trusts himself to God's hand, not man's, and at Jerusalem God halts the destroying angel.
And when David arose in the morning, the word of Jehovah came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,
David had counted his people months before his conscience woke, and that night he begged God to take away his guilt. This verse brings God's reply at daybreak — not to David, but to Gad, the prophet who had stood by him since his years on the run from Saul.
David woke to his sin with no one else telling him he was wrong. Only then did the word of the LORD reach Gad with the answer.
For more than nine months David seems to have felt nothing about his sin. At last he woke up to it, without, as far as we know, any person convincing him of the evil he had done. But God would not leave him unconcerned about it. God worked on his conscience. He confessed his sin at night, and in the morning the prophet Gad came to him with the answer from God.
The man who carries the message is no stranger to the king. This verse calls him both a prophet and David's seer, and that second title has a long history behind it.
He was with David when he fled from Saul, and gave him advice. Whether he stayed with David through the years when David was rejected, we are not told. He was with him at the end of his reign, and the painful duty of announcing God's judgements on David for numbering the people fell to him. He is called David's "seer," which seems to imply that he had been with him all along.
David had asked God to take away his guilt. God heard him. But that did not cancel what the sin had set in motion.
God certainly hears his prayer. But the wrong-doing of a man in authority must bring some results in the way God governs. So God sends the prophet Gad to David to ask him to choose one of three options.
Another writer marks out what repentance cannot do:
His repentance cannot lessen the guilt of the evil he has done, or make it less deserving of judgment. His repentance cannot atone for his sin or free him from its consequences. What is left for David? To submit to the judgment he would have liked to avoid.
Gad's errand is strange: the king must pick his own punishment. One writer finds purpose in that. The choosing was itself part of the correction.
unmodernised 88-word quote; split, archaic and passive forms removed
The same writer adds that God never corrects outside His love: "Correction is always in covenant love."
David's choice among the three options shows where his trust still lay.
David, guilty as he was, chose like a man of faith. A believer shows his faith even after failing so badly. Whatever the circumstances, David prefers God's hand, even when it is stretched out against him, to the hand of man.
The message that starts here ends at a threshing floor, and judgment stops there.
But in the middle of judgment mercy triumphed over it. The very Jerusalem the guilty order came from was the place where the hand of judgment stopped... It was at the threshing floor of a poor foreigner — a Gentile — that the angel's raised hand was stopped. God would make this piece of ground, bought by the king, the site of His house.
- Conscience first. God worked on David's conscience Himself. No one else had to tell David he was wrong, and God would not leave him unconcerned about his sin.
- Word next. David confessed at night. By morning God's answer had reached Gad, the seer who had stood by him since he fled from Saul.
- Consequences still. God hears the prayer. Yet repentance cannot atone for the sin or remove its results, and the wrong-doing of a man in authority still brings them.
- Rod chosen. David had to pick the rod himself. The choosing made him weigh the fruit of his sin, humbled him further, and gave him fresh reason to lean on the God who was striking him.
- Mercy last. David preferred God's hand to man's. In the middle of judgment mercy triumphed, and the place where the angel's hand stopped became the site of God's house.
Go and say to David, Thus saith Jehovah I impose on thee three [things]; choose one of them that I may do it unto thee.
David has just counted Israel, his conscience has struck him, and he has begged God to take away his guilt. The next morning the prophet Gad brings God's answer: not a clean pardon, but three punishments to choose from — so why must a forgiven man still pick his own chastening?
The chapter opens with God's anger against Israel, not against David alone. One writer sets the numbering inside a wider pattern of how God had been dealing with king, house, and nation.
In 2 Samuel the same history comes in, but here it comes in connection with God's government of that nation, which He had redeemed to be His people forever. "The anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, 'Go, number Israel and Judah.'" God had dealt in government with David and his house. He had dealt in government with Saul and his house. Now God would deal in government with Israel, chastising them through the act of their king.
David's prayer asked for his guilt to be removed. The answer looked past David to the nation.
He confessed his sin at night, and in the morning the prophet Gad came to him with the answer from God. "Take away the iniquity of Your servant" had been David's request. But the Lord had a dispute with Israel, so His dealing in government could not be avoided.
Another writer comments on the parallel account. He notes that the third option is God's own sword, not the enemy's.
But no! Confession does not always hinder the chastening of God. The Lord had made up His mind. "I offer you three things," He said. "Choose one of them: either three years of famine, or three months to be destroyed before the foe, or three days of the sword of the LORD" — not of the enemy — "even the pestilence in the land."
David's remorse was real. But what can remorse actually do about a sin already committed?
His repentance cannot lessen the guilt of the evil he has done, or make that evil less worthy of judgment. His repentance cannot atone for his sin or deliver him from its consequences. What is left for David? To submit to the judgment which he would like to have avoided.
The same pattern shows up with the first man. God pardons, and the results of sin still run their course.
Grace forgives; but the wheels of government roll on in all their terrible majesty. Adam was perfectly forgiven, but his sin produced its own results. The guilt of his conscience was removed, but not the "sweat of his brow." He went out pardoned and clothed — but he went out into thorns and thistles.
The choice itself did something. It brought into the open what David believed about the God who was striking him.
David must choose between three alternatives. This free choice brings out his full confidence in the mercies of the Lord, which are very great. He did not want to fall into the hands of men, for he knew he could find no grace from that direction.
Another writer sees David's answer as the mark of a man who still trusted God.
David, guilty as he was, chose like a man of faith; for the believer shows his faith even after he has been so faulty. Whatever the circumstances, David prefers God's hand — even stretched out against him — to man's hand.
The next verse lists the three options. The two accounts differ over the first one, and one writer explains how he reads it:
The Lord leaves the choice to David. Either three years of famine, three months of flight or three days of pestilence. (This follows 1 Chronicles 21:12. 2 Samuel 24:13 records seven years, which must be a copyist's error.)
The three punishments were not the end of the story. Look at where the judgment stopped.
Mercy triumphs over judgment at Jerusalem. The threshing floor of Araunah becomes the site of the altar to the Lord, the meeting-place of reconciliation for His people forever.
- Government. God was dealing with the whole nation, chastising Israel through the act of their king.
- Forgiven, still chastened. Confession does not always stop God's chastening. Grace forgives while the wheels of government roll on.
- Repentance's limit. David's sorrow could not atone for his sin or remove its results. All he could do was submit.
- The choice reveals the heart. The choice brought out David's full confidence in the mercies of the Lord — God's hand, never man's.
- Mercy has the last word. Judgment stopped at a threshing floor. That spot became the altar site — the meeting-place of reconciliation for God's people.
And Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him, Shall seven years of famine come to thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine adversaries while they pursue thee? or shall there be three days' pestilence in thy land? Now be aware and consider what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.
After the census, David's conscience woke and he confessed. The next morning the prophet Gad arrived — not with a pardon, but with three sentences and an order to pick one. Why must a forgiven man still choose his own punishment?
David had already asked God to take away his guilt. One writer traces how little that prayer changed about what was coming, and why:
His repentance cannot lessen the guilt of the evil he has done. It cannot make that evil less worthy of judgment. His repentance cannot atone for his sin or free him from its consequences. What is left for David? To submit to the judgment he would have liked to avoid.
Every option on Gad's list falls on the nation, not on the king alone. A writer explains the rule behind that:
When we go wrong, discipline is needed to correct the flesh. If our error is a private one, then the chastening is private, though no less painful. If it is public, the chastening must be public, for God shows His justice to all His creatures.
The offer was not abstract. David had lived through these troubles before, so he could weigh each one. (This writer follows the older reading of seven years' famine, explained below.)
Punishment could not be avoided, but David could choose the form it would take, within the limits set for him. Years of famine he and Israel had recently experienced. For three years that trouble had lasted. What misery seven years of it would inflict on them all. During this period a Sabbatical year would fall. In that year the land must rest. The nation would have to pass through it without the gracious provision of the sixth year's plentiful crop... Flight before his enemies was not an unknown trial to David. He had lived through years of harassment from Saul, and he had fled from Absalom.
One writer, commenting on the same words in Chronicles, notes whose weapon the third option is — and why David refused the other two:
"I offer you three things," said He: "choose one of them... three days of the sword of Jehovah" — not of the enemy — "even the pestilence in the land." The indirect strokes he found repulsive, the famine first of all. He could not bear that God should seem to starve His people and condemn them to that slow death, or that the enemy should exalt themselves over Israel. The thought was hateful to him. But an open chastening from God's own hand, by the destroying angel — this he chose.
Some translations read seven years of famine here; the ESV reads three, and so does the parallel account in 1 Chronicles 21:12. Writers explain the gap in more than one way. One calls the longer number a slip in copying:
This follows 1 Chronicles 21:12. 2 Samuel 24:13 records seven years, which must be the error of some copyist.
Another writer answers the charge that the Old Testament is full of mistakes. He gives two explanations:
Numbers are easily miscopied, but the mistake belongs to the copyists, not to Scripture. In this case the Septuagint (by far the oldest of the ancient versions) gives three years in 2 Samuel, as in 2 Chronicles. A difference of purpose explains away many an apparent discrepancy: one statement is as true as the other, but it is not the same statement.
Gad ends by asking what reply to carry back. The choice itself becomes the test of what David believes about God:
Through Gad the Lord sets three choices before him, and he takes the last of them. The sword of the Lord, this two-edged sword, is more reassuring to him than the sword of man because he knows God... He puts himself into His righteous hands, because he knows that His righteousness is never separate from His mercy.
The option David picked ran its terrible course, and then broke off at a particular place:
But God's hand did not slacken. For very love, for His own name's sake, God could not and would not spare. The plague swept over the land and people as a terrible scourge. But in the middle of judgment, mercy triumphed over it. The guilty order had gone out from Jerusalem, and Jerusalem was the very place where God stayed the hand of judgment.
- Forgiven, still disciplined. God accepted David's confession, yet repentance cannot undo what sin has set in motion. He must still submit to the judgment he wished to escape.
- Public sin, public rod. God corrects a private fault in private. A public fault He corrects in the open, so everyone can see His justice.
- The choice is the test. Naming three punishments and asking for an answer forces David to say out loud whose hand he trusts.
- God's sword, not the enemy's. The option he took brings the blow straight from God's hand, not through hostile men.
- Where judgment stops. God did not soften the plague, but He stopped it — and stopped it at Jerusalem, the very city the guilty order came from.
And David said to Gad, I am in a great strait let us fall, I pray thee, into the hand of Jehovah; for his mercies are great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.
David had numbered the people against God's warning. He confessed his sin. Even so, the prophet Gad brought word that chastening would still come. God offered three forms of it, and David had to choose. His answer shows what a man thinks of God when there is no way out.
David's repentance was real, yet it did not undo what he had done. One writer states plainly what repentance could not do for him.
His repentance cannot lessen the guilt of the evil he did. It cannot make that evil less deserving of judgment. His repentance cannot atone for his sin or free him from its consequences. What is left for David? To submit to the judgment he would have liked to avoid.
The three options were not equal in David's eyes. Two would have made God look cruel or handed His people to their enemies.
David admits his soul is in great distress and confusion, but he chooses the last; and he was right. "Let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercy is very great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man." David preferred the direct hand of the LORD, and rightly, in my opinion. The other option repelled him — the famine. He could not bear that God should appear to be starving His people and leaving them to that slow death. Nor could he bear the thought of enemies triumphing over Israel. That was hateful to his soul. He chose instead an open chastening from God's own hand, by the destroying angel. So the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel, and 70,000 men of Israel fell. As the angel was destroying Jerusalem, the LORD saw it and relented, and said to him, "It is enough; now stay your hand."
One writer applies David's fear of human hands to life among fellow Christians.
Our fellow believers are not always as merciful in their dealings with us as our gracious God. God gave David the choice of three forms of chastisement after his proud blunder in numbering the people without asking Him. David asked to fall into the hand of the LORD, and not into the hand of man.
The reason David gives is not that the plague would be lighter. It is that the hand holding the rod belongs to someone he trusts.
David shows the never-failing mark of a heart that knows the Lord: confidence in God above all, whatever it costs. "Let me fall into the hand of the LORD." What a sweet and precious thought — this is what the Lord is to His people! And He knows well how to fill the heart with the certainty that He deserves its trust. Even while chastening, God is more loving, more faithful, more worthy of confidence than any other.
The parallel account in 1 Chronicles 21 records the same words with one change. There David says "let me fall," not "let us fall." One writer sees the king moving from sharing the blow to taking it alone.
In contrast with the "us" of 2 Samuel 24:14, here in verse 13 we find an important little word: "Let me fall into the hand of the LORD." Here David offers himself as a substitute. He stands alone in the gap. Further on (v. 17), he takes the whole fault on himself: "Was it not I who gave command to number the people?" He offers his life for the sheep.
Hebrews says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, which sounds like the opposite of David's choice. Writers who handle the two texts together say the situations are entirely different.
Only a real saint could have used this language — someone who had dealt with God in the past, and had learned in some measure how tender and merciful He is… In the letter to the Hebrews the apostle had been describing the dreadful case of sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth. Of such people he declares, "there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins." The Lord may chastise His people, and He does, when they turn aside from His ways. However heavily His rod falls on them, they will surely confess with David that His mercies are great.
- Strait. God forgave the sin, but David was still trapped. Repentance cannot undo the consequences God sends.
- Choice. He refused famine and flight. One would make God look as if He were starving His people; the other would let enemies triumph. He took the blow from God's own hand.
- Mercies. David chose from knowledge, not optimism. He had dealt with God before, and knew that even while chastening God is more loving than any other hand. The blow was stopped short: "It is enough."
- Substitute. In Chronicles the "us" becomes "me" — the king steps into the breach alone and offers his life for the sheep.
- Distinction. For a believer under God's rod, His hands are the safest place. The warning in Hebrews speaks to people who abandon Christ, for whom no sacrifice remains.
And Jehovah sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the set time; and there died of the people from Dan even to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men.
David's count of his fighting men ends here: a plague sweeping the land from its northern edge to its southern one, and seventy thousand dead in three days. The verse raises two hard questions — why counting soldiers should be treated as sin at all, and why the people died for what their king did.
The law had already set the terms for counting Israel.
Turn to Exodus 30:11-16. There you will find that when Israel was counted, the people had to provide a ransom for their souls. If they did not, a plague would break out among them. King David once numbered the people, but there is no mention of their giving a ransom. The record is, "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." God cannot take account of sinful men in the flesh except in judgment. If man is to stand in favour before God it must be through an accepted ransom.
Why did the blow fall on the nation and not on the king who ordered the count? One writer answers: the people were the very thing David boasted in.
The plans of men do not succeed, and least of all among God's people. "The king's word was abominable to Joab. And God was displeased with this thing; therefore He struck Israel." At first sight this seems strange. Why would God strike Israel? But God was wise. It was Israel that had become a snare and a boast to the king. Did he not number them? They must be reduced now. God would cut down the number. He would make David feel that his folly and pride had made him a curse to God's people, not a blessing.
David had asked to fall into God's hand rather than man's. What followed was a nation with nowhere to hide — and, on this reading, a nation getting what it had earned, with David's census as the trigger rather than the whole cause.
It must have been a solemn time. Throughout the length and breadth of the land death was claiming its victims. Who would be struck next no one could tell. No remedy cured the sick. No pleading, however urgent, saved the life of someone loved. All joy must have fled. God was working, and in power. Could anyone charge Him with injustice? No. They deserved the correction. David's act in counting them was the immediate cause of it. Helpless, how helpless they all were. Their only hope was in the mercy of God.
The plague ran only to the appointed time, and it stopped at the capital. Notice where this writer puts the reason — not in the king's tears.
The pestilence rages. The angel strikes from north to south, from Dan to Beersheba (v. 15), across the whole area where the numbering had taken place. He comes to Jerusalem and stretches out his sword over the beloved city. At that moment "the Lord relented" and stops the hand of the angel. He does not stop it because of David's repentance, but because of His own relenting. His judgment gives way to His grace without either being weakened or sacrificed.
David then asks for the sword to fall on him instead of the people. The writer weighs his offer against a greater one.
He takes the judgment on himself. He stands in the breach so that the sheep may be spared. He takes sin and iniquity on himself — but this sin was his own sin, and this judgment was judgment he had deserved. Another, a lone Arbiter, bore our sins without having any sins of His own. He made our sins His own and laid down His life for His sheep, saying: "If you seek me, let these men go."
The place where God stopped the angel did not stay a scene of death.
David bought the threshing floor and built an altar. There he offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then, at the Lord's command, the angel put away his sword. David said, "Here shall be the house of the Lord God and here the altar of burnt offering for Israel." The place where God accepted the sacrifice was to be the place where Israel would worship. True worship rests on the acceptance of the sacrifice.
- Ransom. Counting God's people required a price for each life. David skipped it, and the law's penalty fell.
- Reckoning. God struck the people because they were the king's boast. David had to feel that he was a curse to them, not a blessing.
- Reach. The plague ran the full length of the land, north to south, leaving no remedy and no refuge except God's mercy.
- Relenting. David's repentance did not stop the angel; God's own relenting did. Judgment gave way to grace without weakening either.
- Redemption. David offered himself for the sheep, but he deserved the judgment. A sinless Arbiter gave His life for His sheep, though He had no sins of His own. The place where the plague stopped became the place of accepted sacrifice.