1 Chronicles 21:1-17--David's Census Brings Pestilence

1 Chronicles 21:1-17
English Standard Version

David's Census Brings Pestilence
21 Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel. 2 So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army, “Go, number Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, and bring me a report, that I may know their number.” 3 But Joab said, “May the LORD add to his people a hundred times as many as they are! Are they not, my lord the king, all of them my lord's servants? Why then should my lord require this? Why should it be a cause of guilt for Israel?” 4 But the king's word prevailed against Joab. So Joab departed and went throughout all Israel and came back to Jerusalem. 5 And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to David. In all Israel there were 1,100,000 men who drew the sword, and in Judah 470,000 who drew the sword. 6 But he did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, for the king's command was abhorrent to Joab.

7 But God was displeased with this thing, and he struck Israel. 8 And David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing. But now, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.” 9 And the LORD spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying, 10 “Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the LORD, Three things I offer you; choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’” 11 So Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Choose what you will: 12 either three years of famine, or three months of devastation by your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the LORD, pestilence on the land, with the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.’ Now decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.” 13 Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. 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.”

14 So the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel, and 70,000 men of Israel fell. 15 And God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but as he was about to destroy it, the LORD saw, and he relented from the calamity. And he said to the angel who was working destruction, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 16 And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD standing between earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. 17 And David said to God, “Was it not I who gave command to number the people? It is I who have sinned and done great evil. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O LORD my God, be against me and against my father's house. But do not let the plague be on your people.”

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This is one of those times like in the book of Job where we see behind the veil and are told that this set of events happens as a direct result of temptation to David from the devil, whose objective was to try to get David and Israel to sin.  The temptation here was for David to take a census which the LORD had not commanded.  The kings were not simply to count their people to glory in the size of their kingdom, nor for the purposes of collecting more tax revenue, nor to put faith in the size of their armies.  The LORD had all these things under control.  The only time the LORD commanded a census was to be taken was when He was showing the people that He was still faithful to fulfill His covenant (and usually the timing coincided with something so different happening that the people would say, "I'm a part of that generation").  For instance, there was the generation that wandered through the wilderness and died--they were counted at the beginning of the book of Numbers, but there was a new census taken of the people that were going into the Promised Land to take possession of it.  They were part of a new generation no longer under the curse of the previous generation and the LORD used this second census in Numbers as a "reset button."

There is no such "reset" being initiated by God in this passage--just a temptation from Satan and David giving into his flesh.  David is getting older, and though the LORD has gone ahead of the armies of Israel and won the battle for them, David is unsure if the armies of Israel will be successful without his direct leadership and command, and so he starts to think that maybe if he is sure he had the superior numbers, then victory could be ensured.  David forgot that it was never about the number of troops in the armies of Israel though because the LORD commands the angel armies who fought for them, and all the angelic warriors were ready to be dispatched at their Lord's command to fight for His people.  "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we trust in the Name of the LORD our God."

Joab, the commander-in-chief of the LORD's army knew this was a bad idea, knew that David was being tempted, and tried to persuade David not to do this thing, but David had his mind set on it.  We don't usually see Joab as a man of principle, character and integrity, but we do see that here--typically Joab was the one ready to kill or even murder anyone who got in his way or that he perceived got in David's way.  In this case though, Joab was a good counselor and friend to David and David should have listened to him.  Joab knew the command was wrong, so he only partially obeyed the command and refused to count the Levites and the tribe of Benjamin.  David had his census, but he immediately knew he had done something wrong.  Hearing the number of fighting men didn't make David feel more secure at all, and it made David know that he had been rebellious.

Since David was the federal head of the nation, when David sinned, the whole nation had to pay the price.  David wanted to take all the punishment upon himself, but the whole nation went along with this--we are not told of anyone other than Joab that stood up and opposed David and even Joab eventually went along with it, even though he knew it to be wrong.  God gave David three choices for what would happen to the nation--three year of famine, three months of devastating war with the enemy nations around Israel, or three days of pestilence and plagues executed by the LORD Himself.  There is no good option here and there is nothing to say that more people will die in three years than will die in three months or three days.  David said he would rather put the fate of the LORD's people in the hand of the LORD Himself than to give the enemies of God a victory to brag about in their rebellion against the LORD.  However, the plagues are much worse than David imagined, and 70,000 men of Isarel died in this plague.

Had the LORD not stayed the hand of the angel of the LORD (Christ), He would have destroyed the whole nation, had that been the command.  However, the angel of the LORD was stopped before He entered Jerusalem, but He stood ready to attack at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.  Here David would go and make atonement for his sins and the sin of the people, and this would be the place chosen by David and Solomon to build the LORD's Temple--it would be a place where atonement would be made for the nation.  Today, this place is called The Temple Mount.

David wishes that the plague could come only against him and his house so that the rest of Israel could be saved, but that can't happen because a covenant has already been cut with the LORD that the Messiah would be the Son of David.  This temptation and incitement by Satan were partially to see if the LORD would break His covenant with David and would kill David and his descendants to that the Davidic Covenant could not come to pass.  There are many examples of this, and sometimes it is the LORD that puts His own people to the test like He did with Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah (very near this same place, some people think it might have been exactly the same place, though I think Mount Moriah is the same place where Jesus was later crucified that was called Golgotha).  Atonement needed to be made, and no matter how much David wanted to die for the people of Israel, he could not because he was a sinner deserving of death too--the same kind of conversation happened with Moses and the LORD when the people worshiped the Golden Calf.  God does not break His covenants--not with Abraham, not with Israel, not with David and not with us!  God had something important for David and his family still (Jesus was coming), so David and his family did not die, even though he was the one who was guilty.  The price for David's sin would be paid by Jesus on the cross when the Son took the wrath upon Himself that we all deserved.