And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel.
The thing that displeased God was David's numbering of Israel, and for it He struck Israel with a punishing blow. The numbering was provoked when Satan worked upon David's mind as David cherished pride, ambition, and self-sufficiency and trusted military strength rather than God alone as Israel's strength and defense, contrary to his former declaration and to the principles of Israel's theocracy. The act taught the people to rely upon their own strength instead of depending on the Lord alone for sufficiency and defense in every emergency. Even Joab, with less experience in the workings of the Spirit of God, discerned that the request did not originate from God or spring from right motives, found the king's word abominable, and left Levi and Benjamin uncounted.
By His displeasure and smiting God upheld His purpose to preserve Israel as a theocracy standing in the strength of God, fearing, loving, serving and obeying Him as ruler, separate from rebellious nations as His peculiar holy people whose safety depended on obedience in all things, as He had shown by delivering them from Egyptian bondage with mighty power and instructing them by signs, wonders, and precept upon precept. Although David acknowledged his sin, judgment fell on Israel as well as on the king because the people also shared the sins that had prompted his action. The smiting taught all Israel that God is not to be trifled with, that He is the invisible Leader of His people, and that He is a God of justice as well as mercy, so David's sin could not be passed over even though he confessed that he had sinned greatly and done foolishly.
The stroke came as a pestilence that killed seventy thousand, and when the angel's destruction threatened Jerusalem, God stopped it. David confessed his sin and pleaded for the people, and God accepted his repentance and the costly sacrifice offered at Araunah's, or Ornan's, threshing floor, where David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to stay the destroying angel's avenging sword and God answered him with fire from heaven and the ascending flames turned aside the sword. The sacrifice that turned aside the destroying angel's sword is a fitting symbol of the Saviour's sacrifice and mediation for guilty people.
The numbering was selfishness, the same selfishness in every age that would make a monopoly of eternal life and turn the gifts of heaven into a local and national benefit while excluding the rest of God's family in the world, and it stands opposite to Christ's work to break down every wall of partition and show mercy and love as unconfined as air and water, free to all the world with no nationality, tribe, or clan. To number Israel is not to work after God's order, so God's workers must not take a course that brings on the time of trouble before the time, must not build up a wall of separation between themselves and the world by advancing their own ideas and notions when the message of warning has not reached large numbers in the cities close at hand, and must leave numbering aside for abundant earnest work in cities that have not been worked, using pen and voice to enlighten souls in simple, stirring articles upon faith and love.
The thing that displeased God was David's numbering of Israel, and for it He struck Israel with a punishing blow. The numbering was provoked when Satan worked upon David's mind as David cherished pride, ambition, and self-sufficiency and trusted military strength rather than God alone as Israel's strength and defense, contrary to his former declaration and to the principles of Israel's theocracy. The act taught the people to rely upon their own strength instead of depending on the Lord alone for sufficiency and defense in every emergency. Even Joab, with less experience in the workings of the Spirit of God, discerned that the request did not originate from God or spring from right motives, found the king's word abominable, and left Levi and Benjamin uncounted.
By His displeasure and smiting God upheld His purpose to preserve Israel as a theocracy standing in the strength of God, fearing, loving, serving and obeying Him as ruler, separate from rebellious nations as His peculiar holy people whose safety depended on obedience in all things, as He had shown by delivering them from Egyptian bondage with mighty power and instructing them by signs, wonders, and precept upon precept. Although David acknowledged his sin, judgment fell on Israel as well as on the king because the people also shared the sins that had prompted his action. The smiting taught all Israel that God is not to be trifled with, that He is the invisible Leader of His people, and that He is a God of justice as well as mercy, so David's sin could not be passed over even though he confessed that he had sinned greatly and done foolishly.
The stroke came as a pestilence that killed seventy thousand, and when the angel's destruction threatened Jerusalem, God stopped it. David confessed his sin and pleaded for the people, and God accepted his repentance and the costly sacrifice offered at Araunah's, or Ornan's, threshing floor, where David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to stay the destroying angel's avenging sword and God answered him with fire from heaven and the ascending flames turned aside the sword. The sacrifice that turned aside the destroying angel's sword is a fitting symbol of the Saviour's sacrifice and mediation for guilty people.
The numbering was selfishness, the same selfishness in every age that would make a monopoly of eternal life and turn the gifts of heaven into a local and national benefit while excluding the rest of God's family in the world, and it stands opposite to Christ's work to break down every wall of partition and show mercy and love as unconfined as air and water, free to all the world with no nationality, tribe, or clan. To number Israel is not to work after God's order, so God's workers must not take a course that brings on the time of trouble before the time, must not build up a wall of separation between themselves and the world by advancing their own ideas and notions when the message of warning has not reached large numbers in the cities close at hand, and must leave numbering aside for abundant earnest work in cities that have not been worked, using pen and voice to enlighten souls in simple, stirring articles upon faith and love.