1 Chronicles 21 -- Oh, my!

This chapter starts out, “Stan was against Israel.”  “God permitted Satan to tempt David in order to accomplish the purposes He had in mind,” my commentary said.  We’ve got to remember this as these events unfold. 

David was letting pride get the better of him.  He wanted to know just how large an army he could field.  Numbering the people was forbidden in the law of Moses unless a Temple tax was being collected annually.  Why could he not have simply waited and he would have eventually found out his answer?  Instead, he willfully and knowingly sought to sin in his pride.  In fact, Israel had conducted military censuses in the past with no repercussions, but those had been done of necessity.  This one was all pride.

God was displeased, but He allowed Joab to perform the census.  “Sometimes God’s greatest judgment is simply to let us have our own way,” my commentary added.

David stood convicted of his sin sometime after Joab returned; he confessed it and sought God’s face.  “The census was willful rebellion, and David sinned against a flood of light.  Furthermore, God gave David over nine months time to repent, but he refused to yield.”  David finally came to the point of admitting his prideful mistake.

“God in His grace forgives our sins when we confess them, but in His righteous government He allows us to reap the consequences.  In this case, the Lord even gave David the privilege of choosing the consequences.  Why?  Because David’s disobedience was a sin of the will, a deliberate choice on David’s part, so God allowed him to make another choice and name the punishment,” my commentary said.

David chose disease over famine and military defeat.  He wisely knew that God was merciful, whereas humans probably would not be so.

Don’t you know that it broke his heart seeing 70,000 people dead?  But we have to remember how the chapter began:  Satan was against Israel.  In 2 Samuel 24, the companion to this chapter, it says God was angry with Israel, not with David.  He may have been punishing these particular people for their sin, according to my commentary.

“God permitted David to see the judgment angel hovering over Jerusalem … David knew that God was merciful and gracious … It was David’s sin that precipitated the crisis, but … the nation had also sinned and deserved to feel God’s rod of discipline,” my commentary added.

David paid full price for the land beneath him to build an altar there as the Lord had directed, even though the owner offered it free.  “David knew the high cost of sinning, and he refused to give the Lord something that had cost him nothing.”  In God’s sovereignty, it so happened to be the very spot where Abraham had offered Isaac as a sacrifice.  It would also become the spot where Solomon would build the Temple!

My commentary said that this episode represented one of David’s two greatest sins, the other being his adultery with Bathsheba.  “But out of those two great sins, God build a temple!”  David acquired the land here, and Bathsheba became the mother of Solomon.  “Knowing what God did for David does encourage us to seek His face and trust His grace when we have disobeyed Him.”

Father, You are so wise and so good!  Where sin abounds, Your grace abounds even more!  Help me to trust You, even when I have sinned – to seek Your face and ask forgiveness, knowing that You will always have Your best in mind for me, even when it has been modified due to my sin!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford