We’ve been spending a lot of time in the Old Testament lately, and there is another event in David’s life that I would like to look at today. Did you know David took a census? This simply means that he took an official count of the people of Israel and Judah. On the surface, that doesn’t sound like it would be a big deal. Governments take censuses on a regular basis. However, after David did this, the Lord punished Israel for David’s actions.
Before we read the text, I want to mention that there are a couple of “problems” that you might have noticed if you’ve read through both 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles’ accounts of this event before. Maybe, like me, you had a few questions. The first being, why does God get so angry when David takes a census? Another one might be, are there contradictions in the Bible? For it appears that there are a few inconsistencies in the texts. One passage says that God caused David to take the census, the other says Satan did. One says 7 years of famine, the other says three years. If you have asked yourself these questions, then I hope this sermon will be enlightening for you. And regardless of if you’ve ever noticed these discrepancies or not, I want to encourage you today with some important lessons from this story in David’s life.
Now, let’s read through both of the texts that recount this event. The first is from 2 Samuel 24:1-4,8-17 (NASB), which says:
24 Now the anger of the Lord burned against Israel again, and He incited David against them to say, “Go, count Israel and Judah.” 2 So the king said to Joab the commander of the army, who was with him, “Roam about now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and conduct a census of the people, so that I may know the number of the people.” 3 But Joab said to the king, “May the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king can still see; but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?” 4 Nevertheless, the king’s order prevailed against Joab and against the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army left the presence of the king to conduct a census of the people of Israel. […] 8 So when they had roamed about through the whole land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9 And Joab gave the number of the census of the people to the king: in Israel there were eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.
10 Now David’s heart troubled him after he had counted the people. So David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, Lord, please overlook the guilt of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.” 11 When David got up in the morning, the word of the Lord came to Gad the prophet, David’s seer, saying, 12 “Go and speak to David, ‘This is what the Lord says: “I am imposing upon you three choices; choose for yourself one of them, and I will do it to you.”’” 13 So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee for three months before your enemies while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ of plague in your land? Now consider and see what answer I shall return to Him who sent me.” 14 Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”
15 So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. 16 When the angel extended his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented of the disaster and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough! Now drop your hand!” And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17 Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking down the people, and said, “Behold, it is I who have sinned, and it is I who have done wrong; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let Your hand be against me and against my father’s house!”
Now, reading it again, but this time in 1 Chronicles 21:1-17 (NASB), it says:
1 Then Satan stood up against Israel and incited David to count Israel. 2 So David said to Joab and to the leaders of the people, “Go, count Israel from Beersheba to Dan, and bring me word so that I may know their number.” 3 But Joab said, “May the Lord add to His people a hundred times as many as they are! My lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord seek this thing? Why should he be a cause of guilt to Israel?” 4 Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Therefore, Joab departed and went throughout Israel, and came to Jerusalem. 5 Then Joab gave the number of the census of the people to David. Israel was 1,100,000 men in all who drew the sword; and Judah was 470,000 men who drew the sword. 6 But he did not count Levi and Benjamin among them, because the king’s command was abhorrent to Joab.
7 Now God was displeased with this thing, so He struck Israel. 8 David said to God, “I have sinned greatly, by doing this thing. But now, please overlook Your servant’s guilt, for I have behaved very foolishly.”
9 The Lord spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying, 10 “Go and speak to David, saying, ‘This is what the Lord says: “I extend to you three choices; choose for yourself one of them, which I will do to you.”’” 11 So Gad came to David and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Take for yourself 12 three years of famine, or three months to be swept away before your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the Lord: a plague in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout the territory of Israel.’ Now, therefore, consider what answer I shall bring back to Him who sent me.” 13 David said to Gad, “I am in great distress; please let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are very great. But do not let me fall into human hands.”
14 So the Lord sent a plague on Israel; seventy thousand men of Israel fell. 15 And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but as he was about to destroy it, the Lord saw and was sorry about the catastrophe, and said to the destroying angel, “It is enough; now relax your hand.” And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 16 Then David raised his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, with his drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, covered with sackcloth, fell on their faces. 17 And David said to God, “Is it not I who commanded to count the people? Indeed, I am the one who has sinned and acted very wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done? Lord, my God, just let Your hand be against me and my father’s household, and not against Your people as a plague.”
Did you notice the discrepancies? Before we look at the contradictions in the two accounts, we first have to understand why it was wrong for David to take the census. At other times, God had told people to take a census. Why was it so bad this time? Why was even Joab, David’s commander of the army, against the idea and didn’t want to do it? And why, after it was finished, did David know he had sinned? To understand this, let’s look at the first time the Bible talks about a census. In Exodus 30:11-13 (NASB) we read, “The Lord also spoke to Moses, saying, ‘When you take a census of the sons of Israel to count them, then each one of them shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord, when you count them, so that there will be no plague among them when you count them.’”
In God’s decree to Moses, He says that He requires a ransom to be paid. In the Benson Commentary, it explains why God would require this. He says, “Hereby they acknowledged that they received their lives from God, that they had forfeited their lives to him, and that they depended upon his power and patience for the continuance of them; and thus they did homage to the God of their lives, and deprecated those plagues which their sins had deserved. This money was employed in the service of the tabernacle; with it they bought sacrifices, flour, incense, wine, oil, fuel, salt, priests’ garments, and all other things which the whole congregation was interested in.”
Did you notice in our reading, that David did not collect a ransom from any of the people he counted? Whereas when Moses is told to number the men in Numbers 1, we see later in Numbers 3:51 that he also gave the ransom. It says, “Then Moses gave the redemption money to Aaron and to his sons, at the command of the Lord, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.”
But David did not collect a ransom or pay a ransom for the people he counted. This seems to be the reason that the Lord was angry after the census and punished the people. After all, as He told Moses, the ransom is given “so there will be no plague among them when you count them.”
Now, let’s look at the first apparent contradiction: did God or Satan provoke David to take the census? In 2 Samuel 24:1, this seems to be a matter of translation choices. In the NASB1995, they translated it correctly. It says, “Now again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, ‘Go, number Israel and Judah.’” Other translations add the pronoun “he” instead of “it.” Which, notably, in the original Hebrew, there is no subject before the word “incited.” Translators have put “he” or “it” into the text to make it make sense for the English language, but it’s not accurate. In 1 Chronicles 21:1, the Hebrew text uses the same word for incited, but it says, “Then Satan stood up against Israel and incited David to count Israel.” So, this is just my own opinion, but perhaps the most accurate understanding of what happened to David is this: As the text tells us, before any of this happened, the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and so Satan took advantage of this moment and tempted David who was already in a bad place because God’s anger was already burning against Israel for whatever justifiable reason He had to be angry at them.
I mean, isn’t this what happens to us? We do something wrong and know that God is unhappy with us. Then the devil sees his opportunity and strikes us when we are down, which oftentimes leads to us making even more bad decisions. I don’t think the devil’s strategy is unique to me. I think it’s his SOP.
But like I said, this is my understanding of the text. Most commentators have written that because God is sovereign, the devil could only do to David what God allowed, and so they say both verses are correct in translation. God allowed Satan to incite David to do the census, thus God incited David to do the census. They also cite Job as proof of this concept. I will let you decide for yourself which seems more consistent with all of scripture and God’s character. I, though, think we are responsible for our sin, and God does not let us blame Satan or Himself for our failings. We alone are held accountable for our actions.
The second apparent contradiction is this: was the first option of punishment for three years of famine or seven? At the website answersingenesis.com, they answer this question of contradiction and point out that it is, in fact, not a contradiction at all. They say the answer lies in what 2 Samuel 21:1 (NASB) tells us. It says, “Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the presence of the Lord. And the Lord said, ‘It is because of Saul and his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.’”
That means Israel had already experienced three years of famine before David numbered the people. Then as verse eight of our text in 2 Samuel 24:8 tells us, “So when they had roamed about through the whole land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days that,” we see this task of numbering all these people took almost a whole year. So if you add up the three prior years of famine, the year it took to count the people, and then add in the additional three year possible famine, the total is about seven years.
That means that contradiction is not a contradiction after all. I think that is why in the CSB and ESV translations of 2 Samuel 24:13, they write, “Do you want three years of famine to come on your land” and “Shall three years of famine come to you in your land?” respectively. I actually think it would be more accurate to translate the number written, which is seven, but then give an asterisk to that word and include a short explanation. The lesson in this is that it pays to not only read the Bible as a whole and in context when looking for answers, but also to read the Bible in multiple translations.
Now that we’ve addressed the “contradictions,” we can look at the lessons to be learned from this event. I think the counting of the census and the requirement of the ransom can be viewed as an illustration of what will happen to all people at the end of time. God knows not only how many people there are since the beginning of time, “But even the hairs of your head are all numbered” as Matthew 10:30 (ESV) tells us. And when Jesus returns in judgement, we all will be “counted” and will have to give an account of our lives. David understood this concept. In Psalm 69:28 (NLT), he makes a plea to God that the people who are seeking to kill him would not be counted among the righteous. He says, “Erase their names from the Book of Life; don’t let them be counted among the righteous.” And to be counted among the righteous, when this day of judgement happens, there must be a ransom given. In the same way that Moses was instructed to collect and pay a ransom so there would be no plague among the people, so we all must pay a ransom. This is exactly what Jesus did for us. When He died on the cross, He paid our ransom for us. Jesus Himself says in Matthew 20:28 (NASB), “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
This is not an argument for universal salvation, though. As John 1:12 (NASB) explains, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”
For in the same way that each individual had to give the shekel of payment, so each individual must individually receive the ransom from Jesus. This is why we are indebted to Jesus. He has paid the ransom and saved us from the coming plague of judgment. This is why we live for him, as 1 Peter 1:18–19 (ESV) says, “knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”
We see this same illustration worked out further at the end of this account of the census. There is still one more part to this story. After David cried out to the Lord to punish him alone and not the people, 2 Samuel 24:18-25 says this:
18 So Gad came to David that day and said to him, “Go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 Then David went up in accordance with the word of Gad, just as the Lord had commanded. And Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him; so Araunah went out and bowed his face to the ground before the king. 21 Then Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the Lord, so that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.” 22 Araunah then said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight. Look, here are the oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. 23 Everything, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God be favorable to you.” 24 However, the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will certainly buy it from you for a price; for I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25 Then David built there an altar to the Lord, and he offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And the Lord responded to prayer for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel.
Through the prophet Gad, the Lord told David to build an altar and offer sacrifice, and David did so and the plague was stopped. The place where David was to build this was the same location where the angel of the Lord had been stopped. David saw the angel and cried out to the Lord and asked Him to bring the plague only against his family since he was responsible for the sin of the census. And as verse 25 says, “And the Lord responded to prayer for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel.” That is such a powerful last statement, isn’t it?
David sinned, but then he repented, he interceded for the people, he offered a sacrifice, and the Lord forgave. All of this stands as an illustration for us today. David was foreshadowing the great Intercessor and sacrificial Lamb who was yet to come. This location even becomes the sight of the temple that Solomon builds, and the threshing floor is the spot where the Ark of the Covenant is placed. It foreshadows the sacrifice that Jesus would become for all people.
But again, you might be asking, why was taking the census so sinful that 70,000 people died for it? I think this judgement God dispensed proves to us that God demands obedience, for the ultimate sin that David committed was disobedience. He didn’t wait for God’s leading; he decided to count the people, and he didn’t even collect the ransom. Why did David do this thing? We can’t know his mind, for the text doesn’t tell us, yet we can make a guess based on the evidence. He probably wanted to know how many men were in his army. He was probably putting his trust in what he could see, instead of trusting in God’s ability to accomplish victory regardless of the amount of soldiers. So then you might be asking, but why punish the people for what David did? I think the people suffered because this is what happens when leaders make poor decisions, the people under them suffer. And maybe they were happy not to pay a ransom. We can’t know what their attitude was, but we do know that before any of this happened, the anger of the Lord was already burning against the people.
There are so many lessons for us in this story, but the final one I want to mention is that this is ultimately a lesson in trust. Instead of trusting in what we can see or what we have, we should put our trust in God alone. I’m reminded of the warning in Isaiah 31:1 (NASB) which says, “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord!”
We probably aren’t trusting in horses and chariots, but are we trusting in God? Or are we counting our salary projections, the interest in our bank accounts, the promises of help from our government or friends? Do we only have peace and confidence when things look positive, or do we have faith in God’s ability to provide for us? Even David, who at other times displayed such great faith and trust in God’s ability to help him, still wanted to count up the amount of soldiers he had. He forgot this fundamental truth: those soldiers weren’t his to count. They all belonged to the Lord.
If we forget that everything we have comes from and belongs to the Lord, then we too might find ourselves trying to take matters into our hands and take a “census.” The good news is, at the end of the story, the ransom is given through the sacrifice at the altar on the threshing floor. David is forgiven for his disobedience. Like David, we, too, can find forgiveness through the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. But let us not forget this lesson: we can trust in the Lord to provide for us. He is faithful. As the old praise song says, “Some may trust in horses, some may trust in chariots, but we will trust in the name of our God.” Let us hold to our faith, and place our trust in the Lord.
Pray: Thank You, Jesus, for giving Your life as a ransom for us. Help us to see that Your ability to provide for us isn’t tied to what we can see or count. Help us to trust in You. Thank You for forgiving us when we worry and try to do things on our own. Help us, by Your Holy Spirit, to faithfully obey You. We love You and praise Your mighty name, amen.
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