2 Samuel 24
McGeeCHAPTER 24THEME: David’s sin in taking a censusDavid commits another sin in taking a census. By now he should trust God instead of numbers. God again punishes David but permits him to choose his punishment. David casts himself upon the mercy of God. God sends a pestilence. David buys Araunah’s threshingfloor on which to rear an altar to God. David’s refusal to accept it as a gift reveals his deep dedication and devotion to God. This spot became the place where Solomon erected the temple. Although the Mosque of Omar stands there today, Israel will sometime in the future build again a temple to the Lord God of Israel on that spot.
2 Samuel 24:1
THE CENSUSActually, there are many who would not label this a sin. I call this another sin in the life of David. In God’s sight, David’s numbering the people was just as bad as his other sins. When you are guilty of breaking one part of the Law, you are guilty of all. His actions evidenced a lack of trust in God. At the beginning God had instructed David to number the people. God wanted it done in order to encourage David and to strengthen him. God wanted him to know that there was a great army behind him. Friend, faith is not a leap in the dark. It is not a gamble. Faith is not even a “hope so.” Faith is a sure thing. God never asks you to believe something that is not true. Faith rests upon a rock, a sure foundation. The Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation. Faith, therefore, is not just leaping out into space. However, there is a time in your life, my friend, when you need to live and move by faith and to recognize that you cannot live by your own effort or by numbers. Unfortunately, the church today has not learned to trust God. As a result, at the congregational meetings the spiritual victories are never mentioned. The things that are mentioned are how much we have in the treasury, how many we baptized this year, and how many members we took in. If the figures look pretty good, we consider that it is a great spiritual victory. Actually, it might have been the worst thing in the world that could have happened in that church. David sins in numbering the people at this time. Why? He is now an old king. David knows that God has put a foundation beneath him, and he knows that he can overcome the enemy. He does not need to number the people at all. I sometimes think that the curse of the church today is to have a fellow in it who is always figuring up something, always putting it down in black and white, but knows nothing about the spiritual victory that should be taking place. That is what David does here.
2 Samuel 24:10
God gives David a choice of punishment. David’s answer to the Lord is remarkable. It reveals that he is a man who knows how to trust God. I have said it before, and I will say it again: David failed, it is true; he committed sin, but down beneath the faith that failed was a faith that never failed. Basically David did trust God, as his answer to Gad reveals.
2 Samuel 24:14
God gave David a choice of three punishments. He told David to choose one of them. David did not choose any of them. Instead he told the Lord that he did not want to fall into the hands of a man. That is one of the things that I have always prayed in my ministry: “O God, never put me in a position where I am subject to a man, or men.” Fortunately, as I look back on my ministry, God never put me in the position where I had to lick shoe leather. I feel sorry today for some men in the ministry who have to go around licking shoe leather in order to continue.
God have mercy on them! David did not want to be subject to man. He was willing to fall into the hands of God because he knew how to trust God. How wonderful it is when you see David doing this. The Lord decided to send a pestilence upon Israel. David knew he would be all right in the hands of God.
This is the way you and I should feel when God punishes us. My friend, those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines. From experience I can tell you that there is a tenderness in His discipline, there is a comfort in it all, and there is a blessing in it. He alone can wipe away the tears. He alone can bind up the brokenhearted. He alone can heal the wounds that are in the heart. The doctor can sew you up when you have been in an accident, but in great emotional accidents only the Lord Jesus can bind you up and put you together again. How we need Him today in our lives!
2 Samuel 24:18
DAVID BUYS THE THRESHINGFLOOR OF ARAUNAHNow we come to the last part of this book. David wants to build a temple for the Lord. Notice that Araunah was a Jebusite, not an Israelite.
2 Samuel 24:19
David explains his reason for wanting the threshingfloor.
2 Samuel 24:22
It is a noble thing that David does. Oh, that God’s people would learn this lesson! Some folk feel that we should not mention finances in God’s work today. I recognize that there is an overemphasis on money, but consider what David did. Araunah wanted to give David the threshingfloor. David said, “You can’t give it to me.
I am going to pay for it.” Why? David continued, “Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing.” God have mercy on folk today who are taking a spiritual free ride. My friend, pay your way, and God will honor and bless you. This action of David’s is heart-searching. Are we attempting to give to God that which costs us nothing? God forgive us for being niggardly with Him.
May we give as David gaveDavid, the man after God’s own heart.