1 Chronicles 21:3, commentary and pictures

Joab protested the census by asking why the king required it when all the people were already his servants, and by expressing the wish that the Lord would make His people a hundred times more than they were. He warned that to carry out the numbering would make David a cause of trespass and guilt to Israel and would make him responsible for leading the people into sin. Despite that protest the king's command prevailed and the numbering went forward. The census was intended to ascertain the military strength of the kingdom in connection with a plan to extend military service, a plan that left Israel dissatisfied. The undertaking violated the principles of a theocracy and was a foolish sin, because it encouraged Israel to trust in numbers and strength instead of God.

The sin in numbering and counting Israel was selfishness that sought to turn the gifts of heaven into a local and national benefit, excluding the rest of God's family in the world and making a monopoly of eternal life. That same selfish numbering of Israel is the sin of selfish people in every age. Against that selfish exclusion Christ proclaimed that mercy and love and eternal life are as unconfined as air and water and are free to all the world, to every nationality, tribe, and clan, to all who will receive Him as a personal Saviour.

To number Israel is not to work after God's order. God does not lead His workers to take a course that brings on the time of trouble before its time, nor to build a wall of separation between themselves and the world by advancing their own ideas while the message of warning has not yet reached large numbers in the cities close at hand. Abundant earnest work still remains to be done in cities that have not been worked, and the work to be done is to enlighten souls with simple, stirring teaching on faith and love.