2 Samuel 24:3
And Joab said unto the king, Now the LORD thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it: but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing? And Joab said unto the king, Now the LORD thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it: but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing?
Joab's reply to the king was both a blessing and a rebuke, for he wished that the Lord would multiply the people a hundredfold, however many they were, and let the eyes of the king live to see it, while asking why the king delighted in having them counted. He recognized that David's order to number Israel came from a wrong motive and not from God. His question exposed that David took pleasure in counting the people.
The census took place when Israel had prospered and increased in numbers and strength under David's rule. As they grew strong and increased in wealth and greatness they became exalted and proud, forgot the Giver of all their mercies, and were fast losing the peculiar holy character that separated them from the nations around them. David himself in that prosperity did not preserve the humility of character and trust in God that had marked the earlier part of his life.
He ordered the numbering from pride, ambition, and self-sufficiency in his prosperity, wealth, and greatness, forgetting God. He looked upon the increase of the kingdom with pride and wanted to compare the former weakness and few numbers and little strength when he ascended the throne with the present prosperous strength under his rule, taking glory to himself. In this he sought confidence in numbers rather than depending on God, who was their strength and defense.
In gratifying his ambitious feelings he yielded to the temptation of the devil, and his delight in this thing was displeasing to God and contrary to His express command and order. Such a course would lead Israel to rely upon strength of numbers instead of the living God. Numbering Israel in this way was contrary to God's order.
The work of numbering was not fully completed before David was convicted, saw his error, humbled himself before God, and confessed that he had committed a great and foolish sin in numbering the people. Yet his repentance came too late to stop judgment, because the word had already gone forth from the Lord to His faithful prophet to carry a message to David and offer him his choice of punishments for his transgression. Even then David showed continuing confidence in God by choosing to fall into the hands of a merciful God rather than be left to wicked men and their cruel mercies.
Swift destruction followed, and seventy thousand were destroyed by pestilence, while David and the elders of Israel mourned in deepest humiliation before the Lord. As the angel was on his way to destroy Jerusalem he was revealed over Jerusalem, clad in warlike garments with a drawn sword in his hand stretched out, and David with those with him saw him. But God, in pity and love for His people notwithstanding their rebellion, commanded the destroying angel to stay his work of death.
David, though terribly afraid, cried out in distress with compassion for Israel as for sheep, confessing his own sin and wickedness and pleading that God's hand should be against him and his father's house and that the people should be saved. God then spoke to David by His prophet and bade him make atonement for his sin, and because David's heart was in the work his repentance was accepted. Araunah's threshing-floor was offered to him freely as a place to build an altar unto the Lord, together with cattle and everything needful for the sacrifice, but David refused to come before the Lord with an offering that cost him nothing and bought it for full price.
He offered there burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and God accepted the offerings by answering with fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice. Then the angel was commanded to put his sword into its sheath and cease his work of destruction. The selfish effort to count Israel in this history also illustrates the attempt to treat God's gifts as the possession of one people rather than as gifts freely offered to all.