David Numbering The People

Feature 3 –December 2016 – Grace & Truth Magazine

DAVIDNumbering The People

“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.” —1 Chronicles 21:17 KJV

Generally speaking, the books of Samuel and Kings look at the kings and the people as under responsibility to God, while Chronicles emphasizes God’s counsels, or plans, of grace. This is the reason Chronicles mentions the history of Saul in only a few verses, compared with the details given in 1 Samuel. He was the people’s choice but not the man of God’s counsels.

David was the man after God’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14). Yet, he was still responsible to the LORD, and 1 and 2 Samuel show us this aspect of his history. Unlike Saul, the grace of God is seen in David’s recovery from his various failures. How thankful we can be as believers for this same grace, which is so magnified in our lives day by day!

We mention these things since many Christians wonder if Chronicles is simply a repetition of Samuel and Kings. With what we have said we hope that our readers will see something more of the great design in God’s wonderful book: our Bible.

The distinct character of these books explains why David’s failure in fleeing to the king of the Philistines from Saul (1 Sam. 27) and his great sins of adultery and murder (2 Sam. 11) are passed over in silence in 1 Chronicles. However, his other great sin in numbering the people is recorded in this book, and we may rightly inquire, “Why?”

Who Instigated The Numbering?
Our first question might naturally be, “Who actually moved David to number the people?” In 2 Samuel 24:1 we are told that the LORD moved David to number the people, but 1 Chronicles 21:1 tells us that Satan moved David to do so. Is there a contradiction? No, both accounts are, of course, true.

According to 2 Samuel there was fresh failure among the people which kindled the anger of the LORD against them. He moved David to number the people in order that judgment might fall upon them. This also exposed David’s pride in wanting to know how great the kingdom was over which he ruled. Both David and his people were in a condition that called for the LORD’s discipline.

Second Chronicles tells us that it was Satan who provoked David to number the people. Satan was the instrument used to accomplish the Lord’s purpose, though no doubt he had his own evil intent in moving David. Satan sought to thwart God’s purposes of blessing. We find a similar account in 1 Kings 22:19-23 where the Lord used a lying spirit in the mouth of Ahab’s prophets to lead that wicked king to his destruction.

Joab Reproves King David
David instructed Joab and the rulers of the people to go and number Israel so he would know the size of his army (1 Chr. 21:2-3,5). Although other sins of his were more connected with the lust of the eye and the lust of the flesh, here we see the pride of life (1 Jn. 2:16). Until then, David had always been humble. From this example may we learn that we can never trust ourselves.

As we grow in the Lord we discover areas of weakness where we are more prone to sin, and we need to rightly guard ourselves in them. But may we never let down our guard in other areas where we think we are safe, for it is just there in an unguarded moment when we may fall. “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12).

We should notice too that although Joab was a worldly, self-seeking man, he rightly reproved David as to this plan: “The Lord make His people an 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?” (1 Chr. 21:3). This should have caused David to pause and consider what he was about to do! But sadly, we read: “Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab” (v.4).

David’s Confession And Choice
We read in Exodus 30:12-16 that whenever the people were to be numbered the silver atonement money was to be gathered – a reminder of the necessity of redemption for each individual who was counted among God’s people. David did not collect this atonement money. We read that “God was displeased with this thing” (1 Chr. 21:7), and in some undefined way David must have realized that it was God who began to smite, or strike, Israel.

David immediately recognized and confessed his sin. How often does the rod of chastisement open our eyes to our sins! Not all the trials and difficulties in our lives are because of sin, but we believe that, as with Job, the Lord has something to teach us in every trial and burden that we face. We do well to have a listening ear to hear what He would say to us during such times. “Speak, LORD, for Thy servant heareth” (1 Sam. 3:9) should always be our attitude.

The LORD offered, through the prophet Gad, three possible options to David for his sin: three years of famine, three months of fleeing before his enemies or three days of pestilence in the land, while the angel of the Lord smote the people (1 Chr. 21:9-12). We see in David’s response that he knew the heart of God: “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” (v.13). It is better to fall into the hands of God than into the hands of man!

Continuing, we discover at least three points illustrating the gospel of the grace of God.

God’s Sovereign Grace To Spare Jerusalem
First Chronicles 21:15 says, “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 threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.” As our first point, we see that the sovereign grace of God intervened to spare Jerusalem. Another has said, God always falls back on what He is, and that is grace. Grace is God acting according to what He is and what is in His own heart, rather than what we are and what is in our hearts. It is God acting in undeserved and unexpected favor. So too for us today, “for the grace of God which carries with it salvation for all men has appeared” (Ti. 2:11 JND).

When did this grace come? Was it when we asked for it or deserved it? No. Romans 5:8 tells us that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (KJV). Likewise, when the angel was about to destroy Jerusalem, David’s royal city, God, in His sovereign grace and mercy, intervened to stay the angel’s hand.

David The Mediator
The second point is that we see David in these events as a mediator. He saw the sword stretched out over Jerusalem and stood, as it were, between God and the people, requesting that God’s hand be on him and that the people be spared. Read 1 Chronicles 21:16-17: “And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of Jehovah stand between the earth and the heavens, and his sword drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. And David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces. And David said to God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? It is I that have sinned and done evil; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Thy hand, I pray Thee, Jehovah my God, be on me and on my father’s house; but not on Thy people, that they should be smitten” (JND).

David is one of two people in the Old Testament who offered themselves to be judged in place of the people. The other is Moses in Exodus 32:31-32. However, neither David nor Moses was the sinless Mediator that God required: “Let Thy hand be upon me.” Only One blessed Person, our Lord Jesus Christ, could endure what it would mean to have God’s hand against Him as the Substitute for His people. He is the perfect Mediator according to God’s thoughts. “For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus; Who gave Himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:5-6 KJV). He is the true “Daysman” – another word for “Mediator” or “Umpire” – whom Job looked for to lay His hand upon both God and man (Job 9:33).

The Altar And The Sacrifice
First Chronicles 21:18,26 brings us to our third point: the provision of the altar and the sacrifice. The passage says, “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 threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite ... 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.”

Both the altar and the sacrifice speak of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. In Matthew 23:19 the Lord Jesus points out that the altar was greater than the sacrifice. When we study the altars in the Bible, in particular the altars connected with the tabernacle, we find that they especially speak of the person of Christ, while the sacrifices speak of His work on the cross.

David was told by the prophet Gad to build an altar in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, a place where the chaff was separated from the wheat and discarded. It speaks of discriminating judgment. There is only one, wonderful Person who could stand in the place of judgment that we deserved: our Lord Jesus Christ!

Then we read that David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar. The burnt offering was wholly for God and offered up entirely upon the altar (Lev. 1:1-17). It pictures our Lord Jesus as the One who always did what was pleasing to the Father, and who offered Himself “for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour” (Eph 5:2).

The peace offering is sometimes called the “fellowship offering.” It pictures the work of the Lord Jesus as that which has brought us into communion with God (1 Jn. 1:3). Like Mephibosheth, we have been brought to sit at the King’s table as one of the King’s sons (2 Sam. 9:11). In the peace offering there was a portion for God, the priest, the man who brought the offering and all his family. All who were clean could partake of it (Lev. 3:11, 7:11-34).

The angel was instructed to put his sword away when David offered the sacrifices. In type, the judgment has fallen upon the sacrifice rather than the people. For us, we rest not on an animal sacrifice but on the once-for-all sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross. “For by one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:14).

God’s Counsels – The Site Of A Future Temple
We now return to the question that we asked earlier in our article. If the books of Chronicles emphasize God’s counsels of grace, and therefore omit most of David’s failures, why is his sin of numbering the people included in this book? When we come to the reign of Solomon we find the answer: “Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite” (2 Chr. 3:1).

The temple, the house of the LORD, was to be built on Mount Moriah in the exact place where David had previously built the altar after numbering the people. The spot had been marked out through that sacrifice. We might well wonder in the ways of our God, but as a hymn writer said, “He is greater than all our sin.” He is able to make everything serve His purpose.

This of course does not excuse our sin. Seventy thousand Israelites died because of David’s sin of numbering the people. Let us never think lightly of sin! For ourselves, we must often prove that we reap what we sow (Gal. 6:7-8), and this by bitter experience. Yet, may we rejoice and marvel at the greatness of our God, that out of the ruin of our sin He is able to fulfill His purpose. We see this in its fullness at the cross of Calvary. Where was man’s sin ever brought to light in such a terrible way – crucifying the Son of God?

Yet, what glorious results our God has brought from that very same cross. He has declared, surely, that He is love (Rom 5:8). We are forgiven and justified in Christ’s giving Himself for us (Eph. 1:7). “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation [satisfaction] for our sins” (1 Jn. 4:9-10).

God Will Fulfill His Purposes
May we be encouraged that God’s purposes are not and will not be thwarted by sin. Whether we consider His great purpose to glorify His Son in this world when He reigns or we think of His desires for each of us individually, how thankful we can be that He will carry out His thoughts and plans. “The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations” (Ps. 33:11).

As we have seen, this does not excuse our sin, and 2 Samuel shows us how David himself reaped the consequences of his sins during the remainder of his life. Yet, God is above all our sin and failures. His purposes of blessing will be fulfilled.

By Kevin Quartell