Where the Pestilence Stopped

Introduction

This morning we spent some time with David in 2 Samuel 22. I want to begin tonight with this question. Do you think David is in heaven? I’m pretty sure most of us are going to nod the head yes on that. And probably with a very good reason. The New Testament, long after he’s gone, a millennium, says that he was a man after God’s heart, who would do all of his will. That he served the purpose of God and his generation and fell asleep. If only those two sentiments were true of all of us, certainly that should be our aim as a church that belongs to the Lord Jesus. I also reminded of Hebrews 11, as he speaks of time failing him to go on and talk about other heroes of the faith, great cloud of witnesses that surround us.

And David is mentioned by name, but as far as specific exploits, probably verse 38, when it says, in summary, men of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in caves and deserts and holes in the ground. I think that probably has at least some specific reference to the life of David. But I would observe that David, despite these extraordinary things that are said about him, he did not serve God perfectly. And we read about some mistakes that he made. And I don’t know about you, but that comforts me on some level. Not that mistakes are good and okay, and we shouldn’t sweat the details. I certainly don’t mean that. I just mean that there’s hope for me. If this is a man that is in heaven, a man after God’s heart.

If David could make it successfully despite the glaring errors that we read about, then certainly there is hope for me. And the fact that his mistakes are chronicled, which says something extraordinary about the Bible itself. More on that in a moment, then I should also strive to learn from the mistakes of this great man, this great warrior of faith. In Scripture.

1. Be Careful of Affluence and Blessing

So Tony, don’t bloviate our word for today. Shut it down in five minutes. I’m serious, I could. I could shut it down right after this. And I don’t intend to be long because this is the no bloviate zone today and every week. Be careful of affluence and blessing. Some of the problems that David encountered were the result of his arrival. When he was running from Saul and in constant concern for his well-being, and he writes psalms from the cave, and no one cares for his soul. And those moments in his life, you know, he was driven to dedication to God and faithfulness. But it was in times of affluence when he ascends to king, when he’s reigning over his empire, it’s times of great blessing in his life that he seemed to encounter the greater difficulty.

2. Do Not Take Relationship With God for Granted

And it’s in these times that you can relax your guard against our very real adversary and his wiles. This is when you often become vulnerable to his attack. He is keenly aware of when you are susceptible to his advances. Do not take relationship with God for granted. Who could question in the times of those Psalms? David’s wholehearted commitment to God. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.

There isn’t any question about the nature of David’s loving relationship with God. But we have to be careful. We cannot rest on the laurels of a faithful past, that things were good here, and so they will inevitably be good without much effort, without much concern. Just because things were great with God in the past do not necessarily indicate that they are great with God today. And this is a good one. It’s not always easy to see yourself. You know where I’m going with that, don’t you? The David and Bathsheba story. And again, that happened in a time of affluence and blessing. When Nathan the prophet comes to David and tells the story about the guy who steals the one little precious you lamb that the other man had.

Do you remember David’s response? I did a whole sermon on it, preach it in meetings. I probably should preach it more often. David’s response to Nathan’s story was what? That man deserves to die. Okay. Capital punishment. The king says, do away with him. Obliterating from the face of the earth. Very easy to see. That’s egregious. That’s ridiculous. Nathan has to say, you’re the man. Tough to see ourselves sometimes. The hard part is faithfulness every day throughout the journey. You see, it’s the blips on the radar screen. That’s what I describe David’s downfall, that his moments that involved, of course, the Bathsheba story involves several months. David’s blips on the radar screen, the periods of weakness that bring trouble. The challenge. Be faithful every day. Okay. Classic mistake, not the David and Bathsheba story, but the story toward the end of the numbering of the people of Israel.

3. The Numbering of the People

Now, we studied this morning what chapter in 2 Samuel? 2 Samuel 22. And its corresponding passage, Psalm 18, tonight’s text, the last chapter of 2 Samuel, the only thing we’re missing between 22 and 24 is David’s last song and the exploits of his 39 mighty men that we read about in chapter 23. But like 2 Samuel 22, this story is likewise told in 1 Chronicles 21, and there’s some nuances to the story as it’s told by the chronicler, and so we’re going to be looking at both texts.

So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and that’s what incited David to number. Now, why would that, what is that saying? If he’s unhappy about David doing a thing, then how could God be inciting it? And you come over to 1 Chronicles 21, and some other factor is involved. 1 Chronicles 21 and verse 1. And you might want to put your hand like I have mine right now on both pages. 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21. If you can’t see that, I’ve got it like this. Do this on your try to do this on your electronic device. It’s tricky. Okay. Then Satan, wait a minute, Satan, where’d he come from? Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel. Well, we know God’s displeased with it.

In fact, we know that from the pestilence that results, the choice that David made. So what are we to surmise about these two differences in the text? The Lord inciting because he was upset with Israel, or Satan causing David to number the people. Well, it really isn’t that difficult. And you might have seen Job 2 and verse 3. When God declares in the story of Job as he’s speaking to Satan, who afflicted Job? Well, it was Satan, right? He had presented himself among the sons of God, and Job serves you because you put a hedge about him. You’re unduy protecting him. Let me add it. Is basically what Satan is saying. He said, okay. But you can’t take his life. And so in the aftermath of all the calamity that happens to Job, we have Job 2 and verse 3, where God says, You incited me against him.

It’s one of my favorite passages of the book of Job, because it tells us something about God’s work in the world and his sovereignty over all. God is in essence taking the blame because he even allows Satan to do this to his servant Job. I believe we’re supposed to understand about that. God could have indeed said, -no way. You’re not touching it. Leave him alone. But he allows it. I would say the same thing is true in this story. Whenever someone does evil, it is not God inciting it. It is not God causing it when he uses an evil and ruthless nation as an instrument of his judgment. As we see about in regard to Assyria and Babylon. It’s not like he’s using righteous nations with righteous purposes to accomplish these judgments.

4. No Discrepancy Invalidates Divine Authorship

And so even in this temporal judgment in 2 Samuel chapter 24, what Satan desires to do to get David to stumble actually works in concert with what God wants to do, and that is to send a wake-up call, not just to the nation, as his anger burned against them, but to even send a wake-up call to his servant David. And by the way, there’s something even larger going on here. And so I’ll make this observation that no discrepancy invalidates divine authorship. Now I put discrepancy in quotes. And the reason why I did that is some would say that what we just talked about is a discrepancy. Well, who’s doing the acting? Is it God or Satan? We have 1 Chronicles 21 in conflict with 2 Samuel 24.

Throw it all out. Don’t trust the Bible.

But that’s not where it stops in this story. Because we have the numbering of the people itself. Remember something. No discrepancy that anyone can discover will force a rejection of the authenticity of the source of this message. You know, somebody comes along in the 21st century and says, I’ve found something. I found a discrepancy in the scripture, and therefore we should not believe the Bible that it is not from God. You don’t think in the 1700s nobody looked at that verse? Or in the 1600s, it escaped their notice. We see it. You mean throughout the ages nobody’s ever seen these passages and grappled with them? Sure they have. Sure they have. But they’ve come to different conclusions, many of those students. How many drew the sword?

2 Samuel 24 9. 800,000 in Israel, valiant men who drew the sword, and 500,000 men in Judah. 800,000, 500,000. 1 Chronicles 21, 5. 1.1 million in Israel and 470,000 in Judah. The numbers aren’t the same. In fact, I’ve read that there are 18 to 20 numerical issues between the two books. Now, some of those can be resolved because they’re counting different things. When you look at the second number, for instance, 500 versus 470,000, I mean, that’s sort of a ballpark, isn’t it? And by the way, there might have been 472,322. But is that really the key to the story? We need to know down to the man exactly how many there were. Or is this just a general detail? You know, sometimes I think we put blinders on in regard to the way the Bible is telling its stories.

That somehow every single detail has to be absolutely specific, or I’m just going to throw the whole thing out. Okay, let’s go with that on the day of judgment, see how that works out for you.

It does not invalidate the very real presence of God, which the writers of this story had a lot of exposure to. So why didn’t God just fix all those little details for us? You ask him if it matters. You ask him. I’m going to tell you it doesn’t matter. Those are details to the story. It is not the essence of the story. We’re not given, for example, mixed messages in the New Testament, although some people try to do this with baptism. Christ did not send me to baptize, 1 Corinthians 1 17, versus all the other passages that talk about the role baptism plays in God’s salvation by grace through faith. And so we’re going to camp on this one verse and say we have a contradiction, a mixed message on what constitutes salvation, when we’re not even going to look at the context of 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and figure out that Paul is making an elliptical statement.

It’s a figure of speech. But there is no mixed message about morality or about what constitutes salvation before God. It is consistent and clear throughout the New Testament. And so are they counting the same things? And let me just suggest there’s some reasons why there’s some challenges in the numbers in the Old Testament, not just between this story in 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Corinthians 21, but the whole Old Testament. First of all, you have men copying manuscripts that can be worn, can have smudges, and you know the way the Hebrews did their numbers. It’s not as precise as the way we do our numbers. The numbers that we use, 0 through 9, and how we do numbers, they use their letters in a very unique way that involved little dots and things, and it was very difficult.

And if one of those dots gets removed, the number becomes different. And again, you say, Well, God shouldn’t have let them copy from the one that the dot was removed. It’s a detail. It’s a detail. If God wanted it to be fixed, he could have fixed it. Maybe he’s challenging us. And there’s something else involved in this, and that’s Joab. 2 Samuel 24, 3 and 4. So the political correctness of this. Joab says to the king, now may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my Lord and the king still see. David, your eyesight’s good, but it won’t be for very long, I think that’s what he’s saying. But why does my Lord the king delight in this thing?

You want me to number the people? Joab’s going, this is a bad idea. So he does this very politically and says, Oh, you’ve got plenty of people. Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Job and against the commanders of the army. It’s not just Joab who’s opposed to this. Everybody knows this is a really bad idea. God doesn’t want this. So Joab and the commanders went out and did what he wanted. But then there’s this further tidbit in 1 Chronicles 21, but he did, verse 6, but he did not number Levi and Benjamin among them. For the king’s command was abhorrent to Joab. And God was displeased with this thing. So he struck Israel. Let me just say, I love to study Joab. He’s one of those edgy guys in the Bible that was fiercely loyal to David, finally has to be done in by Solomon.

5. The Response of David

But there’s a lot of things to recommend this guy. He was a vigilante of sorts. He sort of fits in with the Texas mindset. Hang them on the nearest tree. That was sort of Joab’s. He would have been great as a Texan. And he would have loved carrying a gun. You know, if Joab had lived in, well, I don’t want to get too far off in this, but if Joab lived in our time, he would have an arsenal of guns and be willing to use them. Then there’s the response of David. They’ve numbered the people. It causes God to say, okay, there’s going to be consequences. There’s an aftermath of this. He’s humbling the people. And he says, you got three choices. Three years of famine.

Or three months to be swept away before your foes. Okay, let’s do this in threes. Three years of famine. That’s pretty severe. Three months to be swept away among your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtake you. Imagine that one. What impact that would have on the kingdom? Or three days of the sword of the Lord. Okay, that reminds me of the ten plagues and the last plague, somewhat. Three days of the sword of the Lord, even pestilence in the land, a plague. And the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel. Now therefore, consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me. Now, remember I’ve talked about in recent days that David woke up every morning when I awake, I’m still with you, and that one of the reasons for that is his God was very real to him.

Do you think, do you think after the aftermath of this, God had already been real to David? But do you think God is very real to David after an event like this? David doesn’t wake up. I wonder if God exists. Never entertains that thought. And so he says, I am in great distress. Please let me fall into the hand of the Lord. For his mercy very great. But do not let me fall into the hand of men. I’d rather take my punishment from the Lord Himself. Because I know He’s merciful. Verse 16, then David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven. Wow, that’s a wow. Look at what he saw with his drawn sword at his hand stretched out over Jerusalem.

And then David and the elders covered with sackcloth fell on their faces. And David said to God, Is it not I who commanded to count the people? Indeed, I am the one who has sinned and done very wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Notice David’s compassion for the people. It’s my fault. Oh Lord my God, please let thy hand be against me and my father’s household. Abe Athar, Eliab, his brothers are saying, Why are you getting me involved in this? But not against thy people that they should be plagued. Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad, the other prophet, was often sent to David to say to David, that David should go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite where the pestilence was stayed.

Alright, some observations. Can’t teach this text without bringing up 24. Remember, I said this morning there’s one verse off between 2 Samuel 22 and Psalm 18. Here’s the good thing. This verse is found in both 1 Chronicles 21 and 2 Samuel 24. And so it really works well for my mind in 2 Samuel 24 because you’ve got a 2424.

6. Where the Pestilence Stopped

And so Ornan the Jebusite says, Lord, David, my Lord, whatever you need. You need my threshing floor. The pestilence has come to this point. Wonder why God stopped it there. More on that in a moment. And David says, There, I’m going to offer sacrifice. He said, Oh, here, take whatever you need. I’ll supply whatever you need. And David said, I will not offer unto God that which costs me nothing. So let me make a couple observations about this story, then we’ll move on. About where the pestilence stopped. There is a hint, really more than a hint, in this story about the greater pestilence and plague. And I’ll just tell you, we’re talking about something greater than what’s happened here. People are dying. David’s in distress, and this is horrible.

There’s something greater here in this story. Look at 2 Chronicles 3 and verse 1. You don’t need to miss this. 2 Chronicles 3 and verse 1. Please look over there. 2 Chronicles 3 and verse 1. Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah. Where the Lord had appeared to his father David at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Interesting. This place where David offered sacrifice is the very place where Solomon, his son, would build the glorious temple. Moriah. Not just the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, but Moriah. Does that ring a bell? Where did Abraham, where was he instructed to go offer his son Isaac in sacrifice to God? At Moriah.

Do you think God just said, oh, I’m going to pick a mountain over here and let’s just go with Moriah? It’s several days’ journey, and Abraham needs a good walk. And so we’re going to take him and give him time to contemplate what I’ve asked him to do. So we’re going to go over to Moriah. We’ll just pick any random hill. And Moriah’s the hill. The pestilence comes to the threshing floor of Arana and stops there. There’s where the sacrifices are made. Do you think that’s all by happenstance and accident? This place is going to symbolize relationship with God. What’s going to happen at Moriah? When Solomon builds the temple, all these sacrifices, blood everywhere. Sacrifice, generations of sacrifice. For what reason? The problem of sin.

Problem of sin. And that took care of the problem, right? Nope. The Hebrew writer says it was merely a reminder of sin made year after year. I want to take some notes here. Note number one. All of those sacrifices at Moriah. The insufficiency of those offerings. Both from the standpoint of the priests and their weakness who offered them and the blood of bulls and goats. It was impossible to take away sin. And that’s the argument the Hebrew writer is making that for all of those sacrifices, for all of the expenditure of effort, for all of the blood that flowed, it could not take away sin. So we should note the great distress of God’s displeasure with sin. His anger burned against Israel, and he sent a pestilence.

That tells us something about the holiness of our God, and that sin is an affront to him, and that all of these sacrifices could not remedy the plague. But ultimately, the plague is remedy. And the distress and anger of God is satisfied in the offering of perfect high priest Jesus Christ, once for all. A priest who could make a sacrifice once for all, who lives and reigns forever, and his blood be applied once for all for the tragedy of man’s sin. God’s anger is appeased by that sacrifice. That’s the point that John is making in 1 John 2 and verse 2 and 1 John 4 and verse 10 that Jesus’ blood is the propitiation for our sins and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world.

We’re given insight here to the problem of sin and the hope that comes through Jesus and only through him. Why do you think God wouldn’t allow Abraham to plunge the knife? Because Isaac, that innocent boy, would not be a suitable sacrifice.

A ram was provided in the thicket. But a sacrifice was coming not far from the temple on Golgotha. When God did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all. And then the question that follows a verse that you should probably think about often, Romans 8 and verse 32 will he not freely give us all things. I want you to note, as the plague is remedied, the awful price of the sufficient. What did it take? What did it take for God to provide propitiation? It required God to take on human flesh, to choose finiteness, limitation, to come and serve and to do so perfectly and be rejected by the very people that you’ve given life and breath to. How painful is that. Not just death on the cross, as painful as that was, as shameful as that was, but to be rejected by the creature.

When you’re the creator. He came to his own, and his own received him not. We should come to appreciate how horrible sin is and the awful price that God paid, fix our problem.

Conclusion

That’s what the story of the pestilence says to me. God stayed the plague, my sin. So I want to conclude on this very practical note. Now what?

Now what? We ought to be thinking about this a lot. We ought to be moved by what our Lord did for us. We ought to be motivated to learn, change, progress into the image of Jesus.

When I see what Jesus has done for me, and the awful price that was paid that the blood of bulls and goats could not provide? When I see all throughout history, all that God instructed men to do is a reminder of sin, and that wasn’t sufficient, and when I see what Jesus was willing to endure to bring me any glimmer of hope to bring me into fellowship with a holy God to give me the hope of eternity in his presence. Wow! Now what? I need to respond appropriately. Paul said, I die daily. I am giving myself completely to the Lord. I’m going to spend. I’m going to lay out for my Lord. A couple of weeks ago, I did somewhat of a crazy thing, I guess.

I flew up to Nashville, rented a car. Della met me there. And we drove up to Cincinnati. We picked up Stacey Abear at the Cincinnati Airport. And we went and watched the Reds and Astros in Cincinnati. Crazy idea. Stacy is going around to all the ballparks. She had to see her beloved Astros play in Cincinnati. She hadn’t been there. She got quite a treat. She really immensely enjoyed it, especially the part when Cincinnati won. Glad she’s not here tonight. Okay. She took my picture while I was there. There’s a new statue out in front of Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. And it just so happens to be my boyhood hero. I wore his number on my jersey in Little League. Number 14. The now disgraced Pete Rose.

The guy who bet on baseball. That’s me and Pete.

You know what I love about this new bronze statue in front of the stadium? That was Pete Rose when he played baseball. He played with a fervor that I haven’t seen until Jose Altuve came along. How many times did I see that? Pete Rose sliding headfirst into the back. You know what that said? Pete Rose loved baseball. He expended of himself. He laid out. Oh, he made other teams mad. He would play first base, and the last out of the inning would come to him, he’d catch it, and he’d spike the baseball and run off the field. This little showboat. He was intense about the game. If Pete Rose could be that intense about baseball, do you think we should be able to develop a little intensity about our Lord?

You know, that’s really the point of Romans 11. Paul flows into this beautiful doxology. The unsearchable, unfathomable ways of God in description of the salvation by grace through faith that comes through Jesus. For from him and through him and to him are all things. What an incredible statement. Finishes that run in Romans 11 and verse 36. One of my favorites in all the Bible. Everything that’s worth anything, it comes from him and through him and goes to him. That’s the nature of this salvation. And then he says, What’s that mean in your life? Now what? I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you lay out for me. Lay out. Present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And whatever gifts that you have, in all humility, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. But in all of your gifts and abilities, employ them in service to God as you have been given ability. Do it. Lay out. I will not offer to my God. That which cost me nothing. Come. Live fully. Live for the king. Let’s stand a second.