The Book of 2 Samuel

Word Study

"number," Hebrew manah (מָנָה), "to count." David's sin was not counting in itself, for God Himself sometimes commanded a census (Numbers 1), but the pride and self-reliance behind it: to "number" his fighting men that he might glory in his military strength, trusting in the size of his army rather than in the LORD. Even the rough soldier Joab sensed it was wrong and objected.

"number," Hebrew paqad (פָּקַד), "to muster, take a census." The companion word is the term for calling up and reviewing an army, which is exactly the work Joab and the captains spent nine months and twenty days doing before they "gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king." The parallel account says, "Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel" (1 Chronicles 21:1), while our verse says the LORD "moved David"; both are true, God, in judgment, permitted Satan to incite the pride already in David's heart, as He gave Israel over to their own way. It is a solemn window into how sin works: an outward act, seemingly harmless, springing from an inward pride that forgets God. "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God" (Psalm 20:7). The temptation to measure our strength by numbers, resources, and reputation, rather than by the presence and blessing of God, is a snare to which even great and godly leaders fall.

Explanation

The book's final chapter opens on a note of judgment: God's anger against Israel (for sins not detailed) becomes the setting in which David is moved to number the people. David commands Joab to take a census of all the fighting men. Joab, unusually, resists, sensing the pride and folly in it and wishing the people multiplied without such counting; but the king overrules him. The census takes over nine months and covers the whole land, yielding a total of 1.3 million men who drew the sword. The very grandeur of the number exposes the sin: David wanted to glory in the might of his kingdom. What looked like sound administration was, at root, a act of pride and self-trust, a turning of the heart from the LORD who had made Israel great to the strength of Israel's own arm.

Gospel Focus

David's census warns against the subtle sin of self-reliance and pride in our own strength. It was not the counting but the confidence, glorying in numbers and might rather than in the LORD, that offended God. The same temptation besets us: to measure ourselves by size, success, resources, and reputation, and quietly to trust those things instead of God. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts" (Zechariah 4:6). Even a man after God's own heart, and a blunt soldier like Joab could see the danger he could not, fell to this pride in his old age. Let us beware measuring the Lord's work by human metrics and trusting the arm of flesh. The kingdom of God does not advance by our numbers but by His power and blessing, and the moment we begin to glory in what we have built, we are already turning from the God who built it. "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:31).

Word Study

"let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great." Given three choices of judgment, David makes a revealing decision: rather than flee before human enemies, he chooses to fall directly into God's hand, "for his mercies are great." Even under judgment, David trusts the mercy of God more than the mercy of men; he would rather be chastened by a merciful God than spared by a cruel man. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31), yet for the penitent it is also the safest thing, for "his mercies are great." And when the plague falls and the destroying angel reaches Jerusalem, David's shepherd-heart breaks: "these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me." He offers himself in the place of the people, a true shepherd pleading to bear the stroke for the flock. In this he faintly foreshadows the Good Shepherd, the Son of David, who did not merely offer to die for the sheep but actually laid down His life, the Good Shepherd who "giveth his life for the sheep" (John 10:11), bearing the full stroke of judgment we deserved. The shepherd-king's cry finds its perfect answer in the Shepherd-Saviour.

Explanation

As soon as the count is done, David's conscience smites him. He confesses plainly, "I have sinned greatly... I have done very foolishly," and pleads for forgiveness. God, through the prophet Gad, offers David a choice of three judgments: famine, flight before enemies, or pestilence. David chooses to fall into God's hand rather than man's, trusting God's great mercy. A three-day plague sweeps Israel, killing seventy thousand. As the destroying angel reaches Jerusalem, God in mercy halts him, "It is enough: stay now thine hand", at the threshingfloor of Araunah. Seeing the angel, David intercedes with a shepherd's heart, taking the blame on himself and pleading for the innocent "sheep": let the judgment fall on me and my house, not on them. The king who sinned longs to bear the punishment in the people's place.

Gospel Focus

Two gospel truths shine here. First, "let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great." For the penitent, there is no safer place than the hand of God, even His chastening hand, for His mercy is greater than any man's. When we have sinned, we must not flee from God but flee to Him, casting ourselves on the mercy that is great. Second, David's cry, "these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand be against me," is the cry of the shepherd who would die for his flock, and it points beyond David to the Good Shepherd. David could only offer to bear the stroke; Jesus, the Son of David, actually bore it; the Good Shepherd "giveth his life for the sheep" (John 10:11), taking upon Himself the judgment due to His sheep, "the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). Where David pleaded, Christ paid. The destroying angel was stayed at a threshingfloor by the halting of judgment; our judgment was stayed at a cross by the bearing of it. Flee to the God whose mercies are great, and rest in the Shepherd who took your stroke.

Word Study

"that which doth cost me nothing," the principle of costly worship. When Araunah generously offers to give David the threshingfloor and the oxen for free, David refuses with a golden sentence: "neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing." True worship must cost the worshipper something; a sacrifice that costs nothing is no sacrifice at all. David pays the full price and builds the altar, and "the LORD was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed." This site is no ordinary ground: it is Mount Moriah, where Abraham had offered Isaac, and where Solomon would build the temple, "in mount Moriah... in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite" (2 Chronicles 3:1). From this altar of stayed judgment would rise the house of sacrifice for all Israel, and near this place, on the same mountain range, the greater Sacrifice would one day be offered. Fittingly, the book that began with a barren woman's prayer ends at the altar where atonement is made and the temple would stand. And it ends with the great principle of the cross: worship, and salvation, cost everything, for God did not spare His own Son (Romans 8:32); let us not offer Him what costs us nothing.

Explanation

God directs David, through Gad, to build an altar on the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite, the very spot where the destroying angel was stayed. Araunah, seeing the king, generously offers to give him the land, the oxen, and the wood for free. But David insists on paying full price, unwilling to offer God a sacrifice that costs him nothing, and buys the threshingfloor and oxen for fifty shekels of silver. He builds the altar, offers burnt and peace offerings, and "the LORD was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel." This threshingfloor, as Chronicles tells us, is Mount Moriah, the site where Solomon would build the temple. So the book closes at the place of atonement, where judgment was halted by sacrifice, the very ground from which Israel's worship would rise for centuries to come.

Gospel Focus

The book ends at an altar, and that is no accident. Judgment fell, but at the threshingfloor it was stayed by sacrifice, "the LORD was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed." This is the pattern of all redemption: wrath halted at the place of atonement. And the ground itself preaches, for this is Mount Moriah, where Abraham offered Isaac, where the temple would stand, and on whose mountain range the true Lamb of God would be offered. From David's altar of stayed judgment, the whole history of sacrifice points forward to the cross, where the plague of sin was stayed for ever by the blood of Christ. And David's refusal to offer "that which doth cost me nothing" declares the costliness of real worship and real redemption: our salvation cost God His own Son, "he that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all" (Romans 8:32), and true worship answers with a life that holds nothing back. Do not offer God what costs you nothing; He gave you everything.