Let's read the first nine verses. And again, the anger of the Lord
was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them,
to say, Go, number Israel and Judah. For the king said to Joab
the captain of the host which was with him, Go now through
all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number
ye the people, that I may know the number of the people. And
Joab said unto the king, Now the Lord thy God add unto the
people, how many soever they be, and hundredfold. And the
eyes of my lord the king may see it. But why doth my lord
the king delight in this thing? Notwithstanding, the king's word
prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the host. And
Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence
of the king to number the people of Israel. And they passed over
Jordan, and pitched in Aror on the right side of the city that
lieth in the midst of the river Gad, and toward Then they came
to Gilead, and to the land of Timhatshai, and they came to
Danjaon, and about to Zion. And they came to the stronghold
of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites. And they went out to the south
of Judah, even to Beersheba. And when they had gone through
all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and
twenty days. And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the
people unto the king. And there were in Israel 800,000
valiant men that drew the sword, and the men of Judah were 500,000
men. Now, clearly, David displeased
the Lord by counting the people like this. But why is this such
a big deal? You know, is the Lord just angry
with David because he did something that he told David not to do?
No, it's much more than that. There are two times the Lord
told Moses to count Israel. The first time is when they very
first left Egypt and went into the wilderness. And the second
time is when they were getting ready to enter the Promised Land.
In both times, the Lord told Moses, count Israel so that you
count the people in each tribe and you could appoint land for
the tribes, the right size of land for the tribes as they camped
around the tabernacle in the wilderness, and the amount of
land that they would need when they entered into the Promised
Land. But if you look over in Exodus chapter 30, Israel was not to be counted
again unless there was an atonement made. I read these verses often. This is one of my favorite pictures
of the atonement in the Old Testament, and this is what was supposed
to happen any time Israel was counted in Exodus 30, verse 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel
after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom.
for his soul unto the Lord, when thou number'st them, that there
be no plague among them when thou number'st them. This they
shall give. Everyone that passeth among them
that are numbered, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary,
a shekel is twenty giras, and half a shekel shall be the offering
of the Lord. Everyone that passeth among them that are numbered,
from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the
Lord. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not
give less. than half a shekel when they
give an offering unto the Lord to make an atonement for your
souls. Now this is such a beautiful
picture of the atonement for sin that's in our Lord Jesus
Christ. The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give
less. The atonement price is the exact
same price for every person. The price of the atonement for
God's elect is all the exact same price. It's the blood. of
God's Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And the problem here in our text
in 2 Samuel 24 is this. David makes no mention of the
atonement when he orders this census to be taken. The reason
that David's sin is so serious is no man can approach God without
an atonement. No man can approach God outside
of the atonement that God has appointed. No man can approach
God outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God's atonement.
And when David numbered the people this way, without making an atonement,
what he's saying is, I can approach God on my own. I don't need an
atonement. I don't need a mediator. And
God's never going to allow that. The result of that, trying to
approach God outside of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, will
be death every time. Well, then why did God allow
this to happen? Well, God allowed this to happen for the exact
same reason God allowed Adam to fall. God's sovereign. He could have stopped Adam from
falling if he'd wanted to, couldn't he? But he didn't stop him for
this reason. So that God's purpose of redemption
in his son could be carried out. And God's still sovereign in
all things. God allowed this sin of David, this fall of David,
for the exact same reason. To accomplish his will and his
purpose. Now, we know God's not the author
of sin, but God is the first cause of everything. Everything
that happens, God's the first cause of it. Now, verse one says
God was angry with Israel. Maybe there's speculation about
why he was angry. Maybe he was angry with them
for idolatry. Israel fell into idolatry often,
didn't they? Could be. A lot of the writers
speculate that the Lord was still angry with Israel Because so
many of them followed Absalom and Absalom's rebellion against
David. But for whatever reason, the Lord was angry with Israel.
Not hard to find reason, was it? He's angry with Israel. And
the Lord moved David against them. Now God's the first cause
of everything. God uses means and God moved
David against Israel. And Satan moved David against
Israel. Now you'll say, I don't see that
in that text. I don't know where you're getting that from. We'll
look over in 1 Chronicles 21. The same story here is told in
1 Chronicles 21. In 1 Chronicles 21 verse 1. And Satan
stood up against Israel. and provoke David to number Israel. Now, the scripture is not contradicting
itself. All of this worked together at
the same time. God was angry. God moved David to number Israel,
but Satan stood up against David, just like he stood up against
Job. And the Lord allowed it to happen. The Lord allowed Satan
to move David to number Israel. Now, how does God work all that
together to accomplish his purpose? I don't know. But I see he does
it. That's above my pay grade. But
I see he does it. And I worship him for it. I'm
just in awe of God's wisdom and his power to work all these things
together to accomplish his will and his purpose. God's sovereignty
is not just a point of doctrine. God's sovereignty is comfort
and confidence to my soul. Nothing's spinning out of control
here. Just like Joseph, he told his brothers, you meant this
for evil. Now, in no way did they do what
they did to their brother trying to accomplish God's will. They
didn't seek God's will, God's permission in doing this. They
just did what their evil hearts wanted to do. But God meant it
for good to save many people alive by giving Joseph the wisdom
in Egypt how to provide for the world during those seven years
of famine. God overrules even sin to accomplish
His purpose. And that's what's happening here
in our text. Second, God allowed this to happen
and he recorded it in scripture for our learning, for our comfort
and for our example. If you look over Romans 15. This is not just a story for
us to, you know, what we call Bible story, you know, to read
our children. This was written for our instruction,
for our learning. In Romans 15 verse 4, But whatsoever
things are written aforetime, written in the Old Testament
scriptures, were written for our learning, that we through
patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Now this story
was written so you and I would learn, not to follow David's
example here. Now we should follow David's
example of faith and trust and many other places of scripture,
but this is one we should not follow his example. Joab warned
David. David, it's a bad idea. Don't
do this. The Lord's increased the people as much as it pleased
him to do. And he's made you king over all
of them. How much ever he's increased them, he's made you king over
all of them. What does it matter to you how many of them there
are? No matter how many people there are, they all belong to
God anyway. They don't belong to you, so
why do you care how many of them there are? And David would not
listen to Joab. Most times, y'all have not listened
to Joab, but he should have in this instance. David wouldn't
listen to Joab. Well, this was written for our
instruction. Let you and me listen to Joab here. Now, there's a
warning to us here. Be careful. When you experience
success and you experience plenty in the world, just be awful careful. Success and plenty of the world's
goods are not as great a blessing as we might tend to think that
they are. The Lord had given David much success. I mean, he is just at the pinnacle
of his reign. He's rich. All of his enemies
are defeated. He lives in a nice house. He's
well loved by everybody. I mean, David's political ratings
are just off the charts. Well, that kind of success and
ease makes a person think we don't need God anymore. I'm just
not as dependent on God. You know, that's what we think
when we're rich and increased with good. And that's when we'll
go off hat-talk and do our own thing. David didn't do this when
he was on the run from Saul, hiding in caves, and just a few
men were following him. Well, he didn't want to count
them then. He'd be discouraged how few they were. He didn't
want to count them then. David didn't make this mistake when,
in shame, he was running out of Jerusalem, crossing the brook
Chitron, running from his own son Absalom. He didn't do this
then. He did it when he was rich and
increased with goods. The same time, the same kind
of thing when he sinned with Bathsheba. He was rich and increased
with goods. He was living a life of ease.
And this is written for our instruction, for example, for us to follow.
But this is also written for our comfort. Now you say, I don't
know, Frank, I don't see much comfort there. Well, let me see
if I can make good on this. When someone dies, don't we always
tend to talk about them like they were perfect? You know,
our respect and admiration for somebody goes way up after they're
dead and gone. Historians write about Abraham
Lincoln. They make the man sound perfect.
I mean, just every president, by comparison, will always be
a failure when you compare them to the legend of old Honest Abe. But you know what? His approval
ratings were not very high when he was alive. But boy, after
he was dead, everybody loved the guy. Where were all these
people when he was alive? And now, let somebody point out
a flaw in Old Honest Abe. Why now, we just were running
my town on a rail. How dare they? Aren't you glad
the Lord doesn't record the history of his men that way? David, his
life is recorded in Scripture. And if God recorded the life
of David, like historians record the life of Abraham Lincoln,
you and I would despair. We'd say, well, I'm not like
that. I'm not perfect and upright all
the time. I'm not always loving God perfectly,
doing all these things. God couldn't love me like He
loves David. So God didn't hide David's sin
in His book. He hid David's sin under the
blood, but He didn't hide David's sin in His book. so that you
and I would not despair. David fell into this sin because
of pride. That's all it was, is pride.
It was easy for Satan to move David to count the people here.
All he had to do was appeal to the pride that was already just
naturally in David's heart. And you and I ought not fall
into pride, should we? But when we do, isn't it comforting
to have an example? The Lord forgives the sin of
His people. Sin of people just like you and
me. David's just like you and me. God forgave his sin. Well,
now that's a comfort that God is going to forgive our sin too.
And all this was that David was pride. He wanted to know how
big is my army? How many people do I rule? Well,
you know, there's no need for David to know how big his army
was. The Lord had already defeated all of David's enemies. Every
one of them is subdued. Well, who cares how big the army
is? You're never going to need them anyway. And the Lord's always
the one that fought for Israel and gave Israel the victory anyway.
It was never David's army. It was always the Lord giving
them the victory. Now, you and I, this is written
for our example, for our learning. Let's not fall into this numbers
game. All that is, is something that will puff up pride in our
hearts. If David had a very large army, the census come back and
his army was huge. Who would have gotten the glory
for all David's military successes? Would it have been David and
his large army? Or would it have been the Lord? See, knowing the
numbers is not always a good thing. Seldom, actually, is it
a good thing. If that army had come back very
large number, David would have got all the glory. The Lord wouldn't
have got the glory. He's the one that gave him the
victories all anyway. And you know what, this is the
truth. David didn't get an accurate count anyway. If you can read
this this afternoon, 1 Chronicles 21, this order David gave Joab
was an abomination to Joab. Joab didn't count to whole tribes
at all because it was an abomination even to a man like Joab. David
sent out this census because of his pride. Joab didn't even
give him the whole number anyway. And when he did, it says here
he gave it up, like David had to take it from him. Even then,
Joab didn't want to tell him. He had to give it up. David took
it from him. And the number came back a whole
lot lower than David expected. He did this to puff up his pride,
and his pride ended up being hurt. And this is also interesting. At this time, Israel had been
out of Egypt 500 years. They were in Egypt 400 years.
Israel grew far more, number-wise, they grew far more in the hardship
and trial of Egypt than they did in the relative ease of Canaan.
They grew far more under the difficulty of Egypt. So numbers
don't necessarily indicate God's blessing anyway, do they? So
third, God allowed this to happen so we'd be humbled. When we'd
be humbled when we see our sin and our sin nature, and that's
not a pleasant experience, but I'm telling you, it must happen. We must be humbled to the point
that all of our confidence in the flesh is taken away. It's
all got to be taken away. Now, David was an older man here.
David had experienced many blessings of the Lord. He'd seen the Lord
do many miraculous things for him. He should have been wise
and well-taught, shouldn't he? Even David, at this point, fell
victim to pride. And that happened to make his
sin appear even worse. Well, now, how much worse does
that make our sin and our rebellion look? We have the entire revealed
Word of God you're holding in your lap. David didn't have that. We do. Well, that makes our sin
even worse, appear even worse, doesn't it? We have the gospel
preached to us. Now, David did too. But we have
the gospel preached to us much more clearly than David did because
we have the finished work of Christ preached to us. David
just saw that far off. He didn't see that nearly as
clearly as you and I do. So that makes our sin appear
even worse. And this whole expedition, Took
almost 10 months. For 10 months, David lived in
rebellion and God was silent. For 10 months, the Lord gave
David space to repent. In any of those days, David could
have said, stop this whole thing and it would have been called
off. Joab would have been happy to do it, but he didn't. And that
just makes David's sin appear all the worse. Well, how long suffering has
the Lord been with you and me? A whole lot longer than 10 months,
hadn't it? He's long-suffering. I just honestly sometimes just
sit and I just can't believe that this world is still spinning
in space. I just can't believe God just
don't wipe it out. And the only reason He doesn't is because
His purpose in redemption is not fulfilled yet. The Lord is
holding back judgment and still giving men space to repent. And the fact that we don't makes
our sin and rebellion appear even worse. Fourth, God allowed
this to happen so we'd be convicted of our sin. After we're humbled,
we'd be convicted of our sin and we would confess our sin.
We must be convicted of our sin, confess it. And the only way
that'll happen is to fall and see the depths and the blackness
and hopelessness of our sin. We will never cry for mercy and
cry against thee and thee only have I sinned. until we're convicted
of our sin, until God shows us our sin and we've got to fall
into it for that to happen. We will never run to Christ for
refuge until we see our sin and realize there can be no other
refuge other than the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other hope
for me outside of Christ. There's nothing that will protect
me from everything that my sin deserves other than the Lord
Jesus Christ. We'll never run to Him until
we see that. Never. Just judge yourself. Look at your own sin. Judge yourself.
Pronounce condemnation on yourself and God won't judge you. But
now we cry for mercy. God be merciful. But now our
sin still must be judged. Must be. God's holiness still
demands death for sin. Look at verse 10 in our text.
2 Samuel 24, verse 10. And David's heart smote him after
that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the Lord,
I have sinned greatly, and that I have done. And now I beseech
thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done
very foolishly. For now David is confessing his
sin. His new heart smote him because
of his sin. That new heart that God gave
David in the new birth, that heart is not going to be silent
for long. That heart finally spoke up and convicted David
of his sin. And if we're going to confess
our sins right, follow David's example in this confession of
sin. You notice David didn't blame Israel for his sin, did
he? He didn't say, Lord, Israel, they angered you and so this
is their fault that you moved me to count them. He didn't blame
Israel. He didn't blame Satan. He didn't say the devil made
me do it. Even though Satan did move him to count Israel. He
didn't say, he didn't blame Satan. David took full responsibility
for his sins. I'm the problem. I'm the sinner. And God will forgive his people
when they truly repent of their sins. But now there's still going
to be a price to be paid for those sins in this world. There's
still a consequence, a natural consequence for our sin in this
world. God's going to forgive it. The sin of his people is
blotted out under the blood of his Son. But now there's still
natural consequences for our sin in this world. That's why
we all die. If you don't believe me this afternoon, run about
90 miles an hour down Winchester Avenue, running every red light
there is, and see what happens. Now that's a sin. If you don't
do that, but if you would do that, that's a sin. God will
forgive it. Now if you're one of God's children,
He will forgive that sin. But don't expect the Lord to
take away a real big ticket. Don't expect the Lord to let
you keep your driver's license. There's just a natural consequence
of sin in this world. And that's what we see happening
to David here. David took full responsibility. I've sinned,
and whatever judgment you give me is right. But what he prayed
for was pardoning mercy. Whatever judgment you give me
is right, but take away my sin. See, now that's true repentance.
Pharaoh said almost the exact same thing to Moses. Pharaoh
said, I've sinned against God. David said the same thing, but
Pharaoh didn't mean it. He changed his mind the minute
the heat was off, didn't he? David meant it. And he asked
the Lord, take away my sin. He didn't just ask the Lord,
take away the punishment, take away the judgment. That's what
Pharaoh was doing. David asked the Lord, take my
sin away. It's all mine, but take it away. Well, now, how can God take sin
away and still be holy? How can God take that sin away
and still be God? Through the atonement that David
forgot about when this whole mess began, God will take that
sin away through the atonement. And now David's heart is smitten. Now David's heart is broken.
He moved to confess his sin and ask for mercy. Well now, finally,
David's heart is prepared to hear word from God. Look at verse
11. For when David was up in the morning, the word of the
Lord came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, Go and
say unto David, Thus saith the Lord. I offer thee three things. Choose thee one of them that
I may do it unto thee. So Gad came to David and told
him, And said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto
thee in the land? Or wilt thou flee three months
before thine enemies while they pursue thee? Or that there be
three days' pestilence in thy land? Now advise, and see what
answer I shall return to him that sent me." That's pretty tough stuff. Something
bad behind all three doors, isn't there? Pretty tough stuff. But you know what? That's what
we can expect for our sins. There's no good options because
of sin. So which one of these would you
choose? I mean, if you were in David's shoes, what would you
do? My dad told me one time when he would visit, I think it was
his grandmother, she'd get in trouble. She'd make him go pick
his own switch. He said there's nothing worse
than that, having to pick your own switch. Well, that's what David's
doing here. You know, what is he going to
pick? What instrument of punishment is he going to pick? I mean,
this is. And when the Lord gave David
these three choices, this is not all despair. This is difficult,
hard, deep waters. But now listen. When the Lord
gave David these three choices, he gave David encouragement.
He did. He gave him encouragement. You
say now, he did. He gave him encouragement. David
knew he would be corrected. David also knew the Lord's not
going to cast him off. The Lord's not going to cut him
off because of this sin. So David wouldn't choose. Now
that's wise. David's heart's broken. He's
prepared to hear the word of the Lord. Now he's acting in
wisdom. He wouldn't choose. Look at verse
14. And David said unto Gad, I'm in a great strain. Let us
fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are great. And
let me not fall into the hand of man. David wouldn't choose. for two reasons. First, David
knew this. The Lord knew what was best.
The Lord would choose what's best. Would choose what's best
for God's glory and he'd choose what's best for David. So David
won't choose. Secondly, David won't choose
because now he learned, again, not to have any confidence in
flesh. David didn't have any confidence
in his flesh or anybody else's flesh, but he knew he could have
confidence in God's mercy. So he wouldn't choose. He just
threw himself on God's mercy. In verse 15, so the Lord sent
a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time
appointed. And there died of the people
from Dan even to Beersheba 70,000 men. This is from Dan to Beersheba. That's where Joab went counting. In that space 70,000 men died. Now again, there's different
speculation on the writers about this from the morning to the
time appointed. I think this pestilence lasted
less than three days. Look at verse 16. And when the
angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it,
the Lord repented him of the evil. And he said to the angel
that destroyed the people, it's enough. Stay now thine hand. And the angel of the Lord was
by the threshing place of Arunah the Jebusite. I think this pestilence
lasted less than three days because David saw this angel ready to
destroy. He's going to destroy Jerusalem. And he wouldn't have still been
preparing to strike if the three days were up. So I think it was
just the evening of the first day. Now, God didn't change his
mind. God changed his way when scripture
speaks of the Lord repenting of what he's doing. He didn't
change his mind. He's changing his way. And he
told that destroying angel, it's enough. Stay your hand. Let mercy rejoice over judgment. Well, now, wait a minute. How
can the Lord not pour out his full judgment upon Jerusalem?
How can he spare anyone? How can he spare the city? The
atonement, the atonement of the sacrifice. When David saw this
destroying angel, you know what time it was? The time of the
evening sacrifice. God spared destroying the city
because of the sacrifice. God's wrath can only be stayed
one way. Through the blood of the atonement.
The blood of the sacrifice. The sacrifice that pictured our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now look at verse 17. And David
spake unto the Lord when he saw the angel that smote the people.
And he said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly. But
these sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand, I pray thee,
be against me and against my father's house." Now, there's
a good job of confessing sin. And that's the way a good leader
should speak. This is the way the king should speak. It's my
fault. Put all the blame on me and spare the people. Isn't that
what the son of David said years later? Put all the blame on me. Put the punishment on me. Put
all the sin of my people on me. And put that punishment on me.
Let me bear the blame. Let me take the punishment. And
let these sheep go free. See, this is Christ's picture.
And I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, this is Christ's picture.
This farmer, this man Aruna. You know where he's farming?
On Mount Moriah. If you read over and you see
where Solomon ended up building the temple, you'll see this.
This is Mount Moriah. David's going to end up, we'll
look at this next week, he's going to buy this land. And the
land that David buys is the land that Solomon's going to use to
build his temple. This is Mount Moriah, the very place where
Abraham offered Isaac to God. And Isaac was delivered. Isaac
lived because a substitute died in his place. This is the spot. the Solomon is going to build
the temple, the spot where they were offered the sacrifices every
year, every day until Christ, until Christ dies. So all those
sacrifices that picture the Lord Jesus Christ are offered on this
spot. That's why God's anger could
be stayed because his judgment is going to be poured out on
the sacrifice, on the substitute and not on the people. But now
the sacrifice must be killed. It must be offered. So verse
18, And Gad came that day to David and said unto him, Go up
and rear an altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Arunah
the Jebusite." Now there can be mercy. Now the prophet says,
go build an altar. Now we're talking. Now we're
talking mercy. Here's where the atonement can
be made. Here's how the people can be spared by the sacrifice
they will offer on the altar. The only reason you're going
to build an altar is to offer a sacrifice. That's how God can
take away David's sin. That's how he can take away both
the sin and the condemnation of the sin. He can take it off
of David and put it on the substitute. And the substitute will die in
David's place. The blood of that substitute
will stop God's anger. If God told David, build an altar,
you know God intends to show mercy. God will accept the offering
that's offered on that altar. If God says, build an altar,
we're going to offer sacrifice. Now, David can be spared. He
can be accepted in the blood of the sacrifice that's offered
in the atonement that he forgot about 10 months ago when the
whole mess started. God must be approached through
the atonement. All right. Well, the Lord bless
that team.