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001

 

 

I Chronicles

Chapter 21
{Note: This chapter shows the sin of an extremely spiritually mature believer - David. As with Satan before him, a creature who is great has to contend with one of the greatest sins for a mature person to overcome - arrogance.}

1~~And Satan stood up against Israel,
and persuaded David to number Israel.

{Note: God commanded David to NOT number the people. If David is influenced by Satan here and does number the people, he will be going against the will of God - and that is a sin.}

2~~And David said to Joab {chief of staff}
and to the rulers of the people,
"Go and number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan . . .
that I may know it
and bring the number of them to me.

{Note: David is showing arrogance here. He is being influenced by Satan to go against God's will for David's own desire - "so I may know it". He is looking at the progress of the Davidic Covenant from God.}

{Grace Appeal of Joab - It is Jehovah/God Blessing Israel}
3~~And Joab answered,
"The Jehovah/God make His people
an hundred times so many more as they be
but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants?

Why then does my lord {David} require this thing?

Why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?"

{Note: The pride in the mind of Israel will overflow to Israel and as a result 70,000 people will die.}

{Submission to the Authority of the King - Right or Wrong}
4~~Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab.

Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel,
and came to Jerusalem.

{Note: A census invades the privacy of the people and is against God's laws - even one taken in the U.S. today. But, just as with Joab, we must obey the evil command.}

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 who drew sword.

6~~But Levi and Benjamin he did not count among them . . .
for the king's word was abominable to Joab.

{Note: Joab never finished the census. He missed the priests and he missed the very tough Benjaminites who might have strongly resisted this evil.}

7~~But 'Elohiym/Godhead was displeased with this thing.

Therefore He smote Israel.

{David Confesses Directly to God His Sin (Rebound)}
8~~And David said unto 'Elohiym/Godhead,
"I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing.

But now, I beg You,
do away the iniquity of Your servant . . .
for I have done very foolishly."

{Verses 9-10: God Gives Message to David through the Prophet Gad - Choose your own Punishment}
9~~And Jehovah/God spoke unto Gad, David's prophet, saying, 10~~
"Go and tell David, saying,
"Thus saith Jehovah/God,
I offer you three things . . .
you choose one of them, that I may do it unto you."

11-12~~So Gad came to David, and said unto him,
"Thus saith Jehovah/God, you choose: 12~~

Either three years' famine . . .
  {Choice 1 - 3 years of economic collapse - a depression}

or three months to be destroyed before your foes,
while that the sword of your enemies overtakes you . . .
  {Choice 2 - 3 months of military defeat - about the length of a
  summer campaign}

or else three days the sword of Jehovah/God,
even the pestilence, in the land,
and the angel of Jehovah/God
destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel.
  {Choice 3 - 3 days of disease throughout the land - maybe a virus
  or flu situation}

Now therefore advise yourself
what word I shall bring again to Him Who sent me."

{David Back to Grace Orientation}
13~~And David said unto Gad,
"I am in a bind/'great strait'.
  {David rebounded and the cursing will be turned to blessing, but
  the pressure is still there}

Let me fall now into the hand of Jehovah/God . . .
for very great are His mercies {grace in action}.
  {David chooses choice 3 - the Angel of the Lord IS the Lord and
  David, back in fellowship, understands how great is the grace of
  God - as opposed to how wicked it can be under the 'hand of
  man'}

But let me not fall into the hand of man."
  {choices 1 and 2 have involvement of 'man' - only choice 3 is
  directly administered by the Lord}

{God's Discipline of David for taking the Census}
14~~So Jehovah/God sent pestilence upon Israel.

And there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.

{Note: So, King David sinned. But these 70,000 who died were 'over due'. God is fair and He knows these 70,000 had all the chances He prescribed for each individual. Had David chosen military men, great men of valor would have been destroyed}

15~~And 'Elohiym/Godhead sent an angel
unto Jerusalem to destroy it.

And as He was destroying,
Jehovah/God beheld,
and He repented him {David} of the misery/evil {ra`},
and said to the angel who destroyed,
"It is enough, stay now your hand."

And the angel of Jehovah/God
stood by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

16 And David lifted up his eyes,
and saw the angel of Jehovah/God
stand between the earth and the heaven,
having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem.

Then David and the elders of Israel,
who were clothed in sackcloth,
fell upon their faces.

{David Dabbled in Evil}
17~~ And David said to 'Elohiym/Godhead,
"Is it not I who ordered the numbering of the people?
  {requires a YES response}

Yes, I am the one who has sinned.

And, in doing evil . . . I have caused evil.
  {David knew a lot of doctrine - he distinguishes between his sin -
  and his evil - different things}

But these sheep . . . they have done nothing wrong.

Please/'I pray You' . . . let Your hand be on me
O Jehovah/God my 'Elohiym/Godhead
and on my father's house . . .
but not on Your people . . . that they should be diseased.

18 Then the angel of Jehovah/God commanded Gad to say to David,
that David should go up,
and set up an altar unto Jehovah/God
in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

19 And David went up at the saying of Gad,
which he spoke in the name of Jehovah/God.

20 And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel.

And his four sons with him hid themselves.

Now Ornan was threshing wheat.

21 And as David came to Ornan,
Ornan looked and saw David,
and went out of the threshing floor,
and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.

22 Then David said to Ornan,
"Grant me the place of this threshing floor,
that I may build an altar therein unto Jehovah/God.

You shall grant it me for the full price . . .
that the plague may be stayed from the people."

23 And Ornan said unto David,
"Take it to you, and let my lord the king
do that which is good in his eyes.

Lo, I give you the oxen also for burnt offerings,
and the threshing instruments for wood,
and the wheat for the meat offering.

I give it all."

24 And king David said to Ornan,
"No; but I will verily buy it for the full price . . .
for I will not take that which is yours for Jehovah/God,
nor offer burnt offerings without cost."

25 So David gave to Ornan for the place
six hundred shekels of gold by weight.

26 And David built there an altar unto Jehovah/God,
and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings,
and called upon Jehovah/God.

And He answered him from heaven
by fire upon the altar of burnt offering.

27 And Jehovah/God commanded the angel.

And he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof.

28 At that time when David saw
that Jehovah/God had answered him
in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite,
then he sacrificed there.

29 For the tabernacle of Jehovah/God,
which Moses made in the desert,
and the altar of the burnt offering,
were at that season in the high place at Gibeon.

30 But David could not go before it
to inquire of 'Elohiym/Godhead . . .
for he was afraid
because of the sword of the angel of Jehovah/God.