I
C H R O N I C L E S
CHAP. XXI.
As this rehearsal
makes no mention of David's sin in the matter of Uriah, so neither of the
troubles of his family that followed upon it; not a word of Absalom's
rebellion, or
Sheba's. But David's sin, in numbering the people, is here related, because,
in the atonement made for that sin, an intimation was given of the spot of
ground on which the temple should be built. Here is, I. David's sin, in
forcing Joab to number the people, ver. 1-6. II. David's sorrow
for what he had done, as soon as he perceived the sinfulness of it, ver. 7, 8.
III. The sad dilemma (or trilemma rather) he was brought to, when it was put
to him to choose how he would be punished for this sin, and what rod he would
be beaten with, ver. 9-13. IV. The woeful havoc which was made by the
pestilence in the country, and the narrow escape which Jerusalem had from
being laid waste by it, ver. 14-17. V. David's repentance, and sacrifice, upon
this occasion, and the staying of the plaque thereupon, ver. 18-30. This awful
story we met with, and meditated upon, 2 Sam. xxiv.
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The
Giants Subdued.
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B.
C. 1017.
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1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and
provoked David to number Israel. 2 And David said to Joab and to
the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and
bring the number of them to me, that I may know it. 3 And
Joab answered, The LORD
make his people a hundred times so many more as they be: but, my lord
the king, are they not all my lord's servants? why then doth my lord
require this thing? why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?
4 Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab
departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem. 5
And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they
of Israel were a thousand thousand and a hundred thousand men that drew
sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that
drew sword. 6 But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for
the king's word was abominable to Joab.
Numbering the people, one would think, was no bad thing. Why should not the
shepherd know the number of his flock? But God sees not as man sees. It is
plain it was wrong in David to do it, and a great provocation to God, because
he did it in the pride of his heart; and there is no sin that has in it more
of contradiction and therefore more of offence to God than pride. The sin was
David's; he alone must bear the blame of it. But here we are told,
I. How active the tempter was in it (v. 1): Satan stood up against
Israel, and provoked David to do it. Is is said (2 Sam. xxiv. 1) that the
anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David to do it.
The righteous judgments of God are to be observed and acknowledged even in the
sins and unrighteousness of men. We are sure that God is not the author of
sin--he tempts no man; and therefore, when it is said that he moved
David to do it, it must be explained by what is intimated here, that, for wise
and holy ends, he permitted the devil to do it. Here we trace this foul stream
to its foundation. That Satan, the enemy of God and all good, should stand
up against Israel, is not strange; it is what he aims at, to weaken the
strength, diminish the numbers, and eclipse the glory of God's Israel, to whom
he is Satan, a sworn adversary. But that he should influence
David, the man of God's own heart to do a wrong thing, may well be wondered
at. One would think him one of those whom the wicked one touches not. No, even
the best saints, till they come to heaven, must never think themselves out of
the reach of Satan's temptations. Now, when Satan meant to do Israel a
mischief, what course did he take? He did not move God against them to
destroy them (as Job, ch. ii. 3), but he provoked David, the best
friend they had, to number them, and so to offend God, and set him against
them. Note, 1. The devil does us more mischief by tempting us to sin against
our God than he does by accusing us before our God. He destroys none but by
their own hands, 2. The greatest spite he can do to the church of God is to
tempt the rulers of the church to pride; for none can conceive the fatal
consequences of that sin in all, especially in church-rulers. You shall not
be so, Luke xxii. 26.
II. How passive the instrument was. Joab, the person whom David employed, was
an active man in public business; but to this he was perfectly forced, and did
it with the greatest reluctance imaginable.
1. He put in a remonstrance against it before he began it. No man more forward
that he in any thing that really tended to the honour of the king or the
welfare of the kingdom; but in this matter he would gladly be excused. For,
(1.) It was a needless thing. There was not occasion at all for it. God had
promised to multiply them, and he needed not question the accomplishment of
that promise. They were all his servants, and he needed not doubt of their
loyalty and affection to him. Their number was as much his strength as he
could desire. (2.) It was a dangerous thing. In doing it he might be a cause
of trespass to Israel, and might provoke God against them. This Joab
apprehended, and yet David himself did not. The most learned in the laws of
God are not always the most quick-sighted in the application of those laws.
2. He was quite weary of it before he had done it; for the king's word was
abominable to Joab, v. 6. Time was when whatever king David did pleased
all the people, 2 Sam. iii. 36. But now there was a general disgust at
these orders, which confirmed Joab in his dislike of them, so that, though the
produce of this muster was really very great, yet he had no heart to perfect
it, but left two tribes unnumbered (v. 5, 6), two considerable ones,
Levi and Benjamin, and perhaps was not very exact in numbering the rest,
because he did not do it with any pleasure, which might be one occasion of the
difference between the sums here and 2 Sam. xxiv. 9.
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David's Numbering the People.
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B.
C. 1017.
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7 And God was displeased with this thing;
therefore he smote Israel. 8 And David said unto God, I have
sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do
away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
9 And the LORD
spake unto Gad, David's seer, saying, 10 Go and tell David,
saying, Thus saith the LORD,
I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it
unto thee. 11 So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith
the LORD,
Choose thee 12 Either three years' famine; or three months to be
destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee;
or else three days the sword of the LORD,
even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD
destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself
what word I shall bring again to him that sent me. 13 And David
said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD;
for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of
man. 14 So the LORD
sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand
men. 15 And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as
he was destroying, the LORD
beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed,
It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD
stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. 16 And David
lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD
stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand
stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were
clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. 17 And David said
unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered?
even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these
sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD
my God, be on me, and on my father's house; but not on thy people, that they
should be plagued.
David is here under the rod for numbering the people, that rod of correction
which drives out the foolishness that is bound up in the heart, the
foolishness of pride. Let us briefly observe,
I. How he was corrected. If God's dearest children do amiss, they must expect
to smart for it. 1. He is given to understand that God is displeased; and that
it is no small uneasiness to so good a man as David, v. 7. God takes
notice of, and is displeased with, the sins of his people; and no sin is more
displeasing to him than pride of heart: nor is anything more humbling, and
grieving, and mortifying to a gracious soul, than to see itself under God's
displeasure. 2. He is put to his choice whether he will be punished by war,
famine, or pestilence; for punished he must be, and by one of these. Thus, for
his further humiliation, he is put into a strait, a great strait, and has the
terror of all the three judgments impressed upon his mind, no doubt to his
great amazement, while he is considering which he shall choose. 3. He hears of
70,000 of his subjects who in a few hours were struck dead by the pestilence, v.
14. He was proud of the multitude of his people, but divine Justice took a
course to make them fewer. Justly is that taken from us, weakened, or
embittered to us, which we are proud of. David must have the people numbered: Bring
me the number of them, says he, that I may know it. But now God
numbers them after another manner, numbers to the sword, Isa. lxv. 12.
And David had another number of them brought, more to his confusion than was
to his satisfaction, namely, the number of the slain--a black bill of
mortality, which is a drawback to his muster-roll. 4. He sees the destroying
angel, with his sword drawn against Jerusalem, v. 16. This could not
but be very terrible to him, as it was a visible indication of the anger of
Heaven, and threatened the utter destruction of that beloved city. Pestilences
make the greatest devastations in the most populous places. The sight of an
angel, though coming peaceably and on a friendly errand, has made even mighty
men to tremble; how dreadful then must this sight be of an angel with a drawn
sword in his hand, a flaming sword, like that of the cherubim, which turned
every way to keep the way of the tree of life! While we lie under the wrath of
God the holy angels are armed against us, though we see them not as David did.
II. How he bore the correction. 1. He made a very penitent confession of his
sin, and prayed earnestly for the pardon of it, v. 8. Now he owned that
he had sinned, had sinned greatly, had done foolishly, very foolishly; and he
entreated that, however he might be corrected for it, the iniquity of it might
be done away. 2. He accepted the punishment of his iniquity: "Let thy
hand be on me, and on my father's house, v. 17. I submit to the
rod, only let me be the sufferer, for I am the sinner; mine is the guilty head
at which the sword should be pointed." 3. He cast himself upon the mercy
of God (though he knew he was angry with him) and did not entertain any hard
thoughts of him. However it be, Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for
his mercies are great, v. 13. Good men, even when God frowns upon
them, think well of him. Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. 4.
He expressed a very tender concern for the people, and it went to his heart to
see them plagued for his transgression: These sheep, what have they done?
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Ornan's
Threshing-Floor.
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B.
C. 1017.
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18 Then the angel of the LORD
commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar
unto the LORD
in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19 And David went up
at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the LORD.
20 And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons with him hid
themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. 21 And as David came to
Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshingfloor, and
bowed himself to David with his face to the ground. 22 Then
David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshingfloor, that I
may build an altar therein unto the LORD:
thou shalt grant it me for the full price: that the plague may be stayed from
the people. 23 And Ornan said unto David, Take it to thee,
and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: lo, I give thee
the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for
wood, and the wheat for the meat offering; I give it all. 24 And
king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price:
for I will not take that which is thine for the LORD,
nor offer burnt offerings without cost. 25 So David gave to Ornan
for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight. 26 And David
built there an altar unto the LORD,
and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD;
and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt
offering. 27 And the LORD commanded the angel; and
he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof. 28 At that time
when David saw that the LORD
had answered him in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he
sacrificed there. 29 For the tabernacle of the LORD,
which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were
at that season in the high place at Gibeon. 30 But David could not
go before it to enquire of God: for he was afraid because of the sword of the
angel of the LORD.
We have here the controversy concluded, and, upon David's repentance, his
peace made with God. Though thou wast angry with me, thy anger is turned
away. 1. A stop was put to the progress of the execution, v. 15.
When David repented of the sin God repented of the judgment, and ordered the
destroying angel to stay his hand and sheath his sword, v.
27. 2. Direction was given to David to rear an altar in the threshing-floor of
Ornan, v. 18. The angel commanded the prophet Gad to bring David this
direction. The same angel that had, in God's name, carried on the war, is here
forward to set on foot the treaty of peace; for angels do not desire the
woeful day. The angel could have given this order to David himself; but he
chose to do it by his seer, that he might put an honour upon the prophetic
office. Thus the revelation of Jesus Christ was notified by the angel to John,
and by him to the churches. The commanding of David to build an altar was a
blessed token of reconciliation; for, if God had been pleased to kill him, he
would not have appointed, because he would not have accepted, a sacrifice at
his hands. 3. David immediately made a bargain with Ornan for the
threshing-floor; for he would not serve God at other people's charge. Ornan
generously offered it to him gratis, not only in complaisance to the king, but
because he had himself seen the angel (v. 20), which so
terrified him that he and his four sons hid themselves, as unable to bear the
brightness of his glory and afraid of his drawn sword. Under these
apprehensions he was willing to do anything towards making the atonement.
Those that are duly sensible of the terrors of the Lord will do all they can,
in their places, to promote religion, and encourage all the methods of
reconciliation for the turning away of God's wrath. 4. God testified his
acceptance of David's offerings on this altar; He answered him from heaven
by fire, v. 26. To signify that God's anger was turned away from
him, the fire that might justly have fastened upon the sinner fastened upon
the sacrifice and consumed that; and, upon this, the destroying sword was
returned into its sheath. Thus Christ was made sin and a curse for us, and it
pleased the Lord to bruise him, that through him God might be to us, not a
consuming fire, but a reconciled Father. 5. He continued to offer his
sacrifices upon this altar. The brazen altar which Moses made was at Gibeon (v.
29), and there all the sacrifices of Israel were offered; but David was so
terrified at the sight of the sword of the angel that he could not go
thither, v. 30. The business required haste, when the plague was
begun. Aaron must go quickly, nay, he must run, to make atonement, Num.
xvi. 46, 47. And the case here was no less urgent; so that David had not time
to go to Gibeon: nor durst he leave the angel with his sword drawn over
Jerusalem, lest the fatal stroke should be given before he came back. And
therefore God, in tenderness to him, bade him build an altar in that place,
dispensing with his own law concerning one altar because of the present
distress, and accepting the sacrifices offered on this new altar, which was
not set up in opposition to that, but in concurrence with it. The symbols of
unity were not so much insisted on as unity itself. Nay, when the present
distress was over (as it should seem), David, as long as he lived, sacrificed
there, though the altar at Gibeon was still kept up; for God had owned the
sacrifices that were here offered and had testified his acceptance of them, v.
28. On those administrations in which we have experienced the tokens of God's
presence, and have found that he is with us of a truth, it is good to continue
our attendance. "Here God had graciously met me, and therefore I will
still expect to meet with him."
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