1 Chronicles 21:16
And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
Following David's sinful order to take a census, a plague that had already killed seventy thousand in Israel threatened Jerusalem, and the angel stood between earth and heaven with a drawn sword stretched out over the city. David and the elders of Israel, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown before the Lord in humility and mourning. David was afraid yet admitted his guilt in ordering the census, accepted responsibility, called the people his sheep, and pleaded that punishment fall on him and his household rather than on them, and God in mercy stopped the angel's work of death against his rebellious people.
At Ornan's threshing floor, which became the temple site, David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to stop the destroying angel, and God answered by sending fire from heaven and turning the sword aside when the sacrifice ascended. That deliverance through sacrifice was a fitting symbol of the Saviour's sacrifice and mediation for guilty people.
The vision of the destroying angel with sword poised over Jerusalem was seen again when Christ looked toward Jerusalem and foresaw its coming destruction, with the city surrounded by hostile armies, besieged, and left in ruins. Jerusalem's coming desolation was a temporal judgment for rejecting calls to repentance and a first foretaste of the judgment to come.
The same warning of an angel with a sword as of fire stretched over Battle Creek was shown beforehand, paralleling the angel over Jerusalem, to foretell the destruction of the Review and Herald Office. The calamities followed because God was dishonored by human efforts at self-exaltation. The destruction came because the many messages God had given were disregarded and his word was despised, calling all connected with the work to earnest prayer and diligent search to see wherein they had done so.