1 Chronicles 21:5
And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword. And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.
Joab's report to David gave the sum of the census as 1,100,000 men that drew sword in Israel and 470,000 men that drew sword in Judah. The numbering was done to measure the strength of the kingdom and to enlarge military service, and it was driven by pride and ambition rather than trust in God. It encouraged reliance on the size of the army instead of reliance on God. Joab protested the order, warning that carrying it out would bring guilt upon Israel, but the king's command prevailed over his objection. The counting was still unfinished when David recognized his sin and asked forgiveness, and the sin brought judgment when Gad was sent to offer David his choice of punishments.
The verse belongs to the larger account in which sacrifice offered at Ornan's threshing floor turned aside the destroying angel's sword. That turning aside of the sword by sacrifice was a symbol of the Savior's sacrifice and mediation in behalf of guilty people. In that same account David's sacrifices to stay the destroying angel's sword were answered by fire sent from heaven, at the very place where the temple was later built. The numbering also reveals a sin of selfishness, an attempt to count the people in order to confine heaven's gifts and eternal life to a local and national benefit while excluding the rest of God's family in the world. That same selfish exclusiveness appears in every age, including among the scribes and Pharisees, and it stands opposed by Christ, who came to break down every wall of partition. He proclaimed mercy and love as free as air and water to all who receive Him, for with God there is no nationality, tribe, or clan.
Applied spiritually, numbering Israel apart from God's order brings the time of trouble before the time. It builds a wall of separation between God's workers and the world by advancing human ideas and notions. God's order instead is to carry the warning message to the large numbers in the very cities close at hand that have not been reached. That means abundant earnest work in cities that have not been worked, with pen and voice enlightening souls in simple, stirring presentations of faith and love.