This evening we are turning to 2 Samuel chapter 24, not 2 Chronicles, 2 Samuel. As we look at the final chapter in this book, and we will be considering the whole chapter. Now again, the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah. The king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, Go about now through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and register the people that I may know the number of the people. But Joab said to the king, Now 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 still see. But why does my lord the king delight in this thing? Nevertheless, the king's word prevailed against Joab and against the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to register the people of Israel. They crossed the Jordan and camped in Aror on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad and toward Jazer. Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tatim-Hadshi, and they came to Dan-Ja'an, and around to Sidon, and came to the fortress of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites, and they went out to the south of Judah to Beersheba. So when they had gone about through the whole land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. And Joab gave the number of the registration of the people to the king. And there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men. Now David's heart troubled him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly." When David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, Go and speak to David. Thus the Lord says, I am offering you three things. Choose for yourself one of them, which I will do to you. 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 three months before your foes while they pursue you, or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? Now consider, and see what answer I shall return to him who sent me. 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 the hand of man. So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the people, It is enough, now relax your hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Arunah the Jebusite. 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.' So Gad came to David that day and said to him, Go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Arunah the Jebusite. David went up according to the word of Gad, just as the Lord had commanded. Arunah looked down and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him, and Arunah went out and bowed his face to the ground before the king. Then Arunah 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, that the plague may be held back from the people. Arunah said to David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight. Look, the oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. Everything, O king, Aruna gives to the king. And Aruna said to the king, May the lord your god accept you. However, the king said to Aruna, No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price. for I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Thus the Lord was moved by prayer for the land and the plague was held back from Israel. Let's pray and ask God's blessing. Lord, we thank you for this passage of your word, and we thank you for all that it reveals to us. Give us now eyes to see and ears to hear, hearts to believe and wills to obey, for we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. There are certain things that the scriptures do not tell us and that we cannot therefore know. A passage tonight contains a number of mysteries that remain unsolved. For instance, the opening verse tells us that the anger of the Lord burned against Israel. The obvious question is, why? What had they done? Why was the Lord angry with his people? What provoked his wrath against them? There is no clear, explicit answer. Deeper still, we are told that David's decision to conduct a census was sinful. Yet we know that other censuses were conducted and that God himself sometimes commanded that a census be taken. So why was this particular census deemed sinful? And then there is the difficult matter of the punishment of the people for the sin of David. And even the king is perplexed by this. Why are they being punished for what he had sinfully done? What makes matters worse is that there are no clear and obvious answers to any of these questions. And that may bother us. We want answers. And if we do not get answers, then we are dissatisfied. It's almost as if we have a constitutional right to have all mysteries solved, all questions answered, all uncertainties resolved to our satisfaction. We may even secretly believe that God owes us an explanation for what He has done. And yet the Lord is under no obligation to explain Himself to our satisfaction. Sometimes we simply need to accept by faith His judgments, even if we do not entirely understand them. Humbly receiving what he reveals, we learn until he stops revealing. So as we look at our passage tonight, I want to begin with the puzzle of this passage. Then we will look at David's repentance and finish with God's provision. As I already indicated, this final chapter opens with the statement that God's anger burned against his people Israel. And again we ask, why is that? What have they done? Commentators have their theories, and some theories are better than others. John Mackay suggests that these events took place shortly after the rebellions of Absalom and Sheba the son of Bichri. Because the nation had rejected the Lord's anointed in favor of these usurpers, God was therefore displeased with them. Their disloyalty to His anointed king was provocative. and hence God's wrath burned against them. And that seems sensible to me, even relatively compelling, and yet we do not know. We cannot say with absolute certainty that that is exactly what's going on here, because God doesn't give a specific rationale for his wrath. Then there is the statement that God incited David against his people. Incited means that God influenced David to do a particular thing which would have consequences for the entire nation. But in the parallel passage in 1 Chronicles 21, we read this, then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel. So putting these two accounts together, we can see that God permitted Satan to incite David against Israel and that the devil moved David to number the people. So God granted Satan leeway to do this evil act and then Satan carried out what he intended for the harm of the nation. Another head-scratcher is David's insistence on carrying out the census. He is absolutely determined to do this thing. In a moment of irony, we hear Joab arguing for righteousness and seeking to prevent King David from doing something which was clearly wrong. Joab, of all people, is the unexpected voice of righteous reason and restraint here in our chapter. When David silences Joab's objections and overrides his truly pious counsel, Joab obediently complies with the orders of the king. But it doesn't make Joab happy. He knows it's wrong. And then after almost a year, he brings back a report to the king in order to satisfy David's curiosity. No sooner was the report delivered than David was cut to the heart over his folly. He knew he had sinned, and he confessed that fact freely. God sends his servant, the prophet Gad, to deliver some bad news to David. God would punish David and his people for his sin. though the exact form of the punishment was left up to David. He could face seven years of famine, three months of fleeing from his enemies, or three days of pestilence. When David chose this final option, God's curse fell upon Israel, and from Dan to Beersheba some 70,000 people died. The angel of death was stalking in the land, spreading this pestilence, slaughtering the Israelites. And many more would have perished had the Lord not shown compassion and extended mercy by restraining the angel of destruction." Now, stepping back a bit from the story itself, we can see the puzzle. Here you have the holy God of heaven permitting Satan to incite David to conduct a sinful census, what commentator Dale Ralph Davis terms a senseless census. Say that ten times fast. God then punishes the people of Israel to the extent that 70,000 Israelites die. They are under his wrath and his curse for an undisclosed reason. Now we know that God is not the author of sin. The Lord does not tempt anyone to sin as James reminds us. He does not make people sin because that would go directly against his righteous and holy character. And yet it seems, at least superficially, that God is driving this whole process. Here is the high and holy mystery. Again, God is never the author of sin, although sin is included in His eternal decree. Moreover, God uses sin sinlessly to accomplish His righteous purposes. We can and we should affirm that these things are true even if we do not entirely comprehend how all of the pieces of this complex puzzle fit together into one coherent whole. But I would suggest to you that this is the nature of faith. Faith believes even when it doesn't fully understand. Faith trusts that God is true, that He is consistent and righteous in all His ways, even when it appears to our limited perspective that somehow He is causing sin and evil to take place. And faith says, I know God to be God. And if there is a problem in understanding this thing, this puzzle, this mystery that's before me, then the problem must be with me, not with God. My finite creaturely limitations are such that I cannot wrap my arms around this mystery, much less solve it. But I believe God is who He says He is. and acts according to his holy nature at all times." I think this is true in our own personal lives as well. Isn't it the case that sometimes things happen to us that are difficult, disheartening, where things happen where we do not understand what the purpose or meaning is, and we know that God's hand is in it, But we simply do not understand what He is doing. In fact, I think I can speak for myself, that is the case more often than not. It is very infrequently that I completely, fully understand in the moment what God is doing in my life. It is almost always the case that I am just a child clinging to the hand of my parent as he leads me along. And I am praying, Lord, I trust you, I believe in you, but I don't understand what you're doing. And I don't get it, but I trust you. And so even as we read a chapter like this where there's so many things unexplained, We take it in faith that God is doing all things well, and that he is carrying out his purposes perfectly. For there is no doubt that David's census was sinful. He himself confesses that in verse 10 when he says, I have sinned greatly in what I have done, but now, O Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly. Neither the Lord nor the prophet Gad dispute David's assessment of his conduct. They do not comfort him and reassure him that, oh, you've done nothing wrong, David felt guilt, and it was not false guilt. He had sinned. He had acted very foolishly. He had committed iniquity against the Lord. But again, the question is, why? Why was it sinful? And as I said in my introduction, there were other censuses taken in Israel's history. God sometimes commanded that a census be taken. And so there is nothing inherently sinful about counting the people taking a census. But in David's case, even Joab could see that this was inappropriate. In 1 Chronicles 21, the parallel passage, it states that the king's command was abhorrent to Joab. If an unsavory character like Joab finds your tactics abhorrent, then they are certainly despicable. But why? Why was David's conscience troubled so deeply? What was it that troubled him? John McKay proposes an explanation that once again sounds reasonable. Believing that this all happened shortly after those two rebellions, McKay speculates that David was wanting to bolster his military might in case of another uprising. And that is why he sent the army to do the counting rather than using the services of the priesthood. They were specifically supposed to number those who could draw the sword. And if Mackay is correct, then David was relying upon military power in order to uphold and protect him from further challenges. He would weaponize the nation of Israel against any and every foe, both internal and external. this would constitute an exhibition of pride in human military might rather than a humble reliance upon the Lord his God. And furthermore, this census overlooks or perhaps forgets the fact that at least Absalom's rebellion was not just some random act but rather it came as a direct chastisement from God for David's sin with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah. And again, I find McKay compelling, but absolutely certain, can't say that. Why? Because the text doesn't tell us. What is very impressive though, is the sincerity of David's regret and confession. Listen again to what he says there in verse 10. I have sinned greatly in what I have done, but now, O Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly. He comes here as his own accuser, at his own initiative, He makes no excuses. He offers no rationalizations, no weaselly explanations. He just convicts and condemns himself. He shows us here what confession looks like, what it sounds like. I have sinned in what I have done. Take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly." He shines the light on himself, and he shows himself for what he has done. And there's no trying to get away from accountability before the all-seeing eye of God. You know, it's hard to repent in a certain way, it's hard to look at yourself and be completely honest, to give an unvarnished confession of your failing. It's much easier to point the finger at someone else and say, well, it's their fault because they made me do this. or the most recent form of dodging accountability is to say, this does not represent the kind of person I am. Even though I have committed some horrendous act and done some very wicked stuff, this is not who I am. But it is what you've done. A Christian who is really repentant is willing to say before God and man, I have sinned very greatly, I have done evil in God's sight, and any guilt and shame is no one's fault but my own. I have done this. I own it. It is mine. And when we can have that kind of transparency and honesty and humility, God is greatly pleased with that. When he sees a truly contrite heart, he does not despise it, but he forgives it freely and willingly and quickly. The prophet Gad then brings God's word of judgment to David. He is guilty, and he may choose the form of chastisement he will undergo And again, David is offered an extended famine, a period of flight from foes, or three intensive days of pescalence. His choice and the rationale for his choice is revealing. It's an evidence, again, of his faith. He says in verse 14, 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 the hand of man." Now here is a man who trusts in the mercies of God and actively distrusts the behavior of his fellow men. God is kind. Man is cruel. God is patient. Man is demanding. God will forgive and relent but man will get his pound of flesh. Better to be in God's hand than in the grip of evildoers. And thus it was that the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel. We do not know exactly what form this pestilence took, but almost immediately people began dying. and in total 70,000 perished from the pestilence being spread by an angel of death. This angelic destroyer was approaching the city of Jerusalem to destroy it likewise when the Lord himself relented. And in verse 16 we read, "...the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the people, It is enough. Now relax your hand." This took place at the threshing floor of a man named Arunah the Jebusite. Arunah was a wealthy farmer who owned prime property and used his location for threshing his crops. The prophet Gad provided the necessary instruction to David. The king was to go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Arunah the Jebuzite. And in obedience to the Lord's command, David acted. When Arunah offered the site and the necessary implements to David free of charge, The king stoutly refused this kind offer. No, he would pay for the property and for the necessary items and implements for the sacrifice. He would not offer burnt offerings that he did not pay for. And then the final verse records David's full compliance to God's command. David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Thus the Lord was moved by prayer for the land and the plague was held back from Israel. And so David's guilt was removed, the wrath of God was restrained, the destructive plague was held back and the Lord was once again at peace with his people Israel. It had been resolved through God's grace and through his initiative to provide a way of escape so that the whole nation did not perish in this pestilence. A very interesting connection is made to this exact location Turn in your Bible to 2 Chronicles 3. See, I knew we would get to 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles 3 verse 1, Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite." Now this verse brings together three distinct events. The first event is Mount Moriah and the sacrifice of Isaac on Mount Moriah. back in Genesis where God commanded Abraham to take his son his only son go to the place he would choose and offer him there as a sacrifice and that took place on Mount Moriah where Isaac was received back from the dead figuratively speaking and then the events we've just read about in 2nd Samuel 24, David at the threshing floor of Ornan or Arunah the Jebusite. And so that event that we've just seen, those sacrifices were offered there on the threshing floor of Arunah the Jebusite which was on Mount Moriah. And that's exactly where the temple was built. That's where Solomon laid the foundation for the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. And so this threshing floor that David purchased, Mount Moriah where Abraham offered Isaac, is the temple where the sacrifices are offered up and where God's throne dwells. And that of course points us to Christ. who fulfills all of the types and shadows of the temple and the sacrificial system and who died not far removed from this very spot. And so as the book closes, our eyes are once again lifted to Jesus Christ who fulfills all. He is the sacrifice offered upon the altar to take away the guilt of our sin, to satisfy the wrath of God against us, and to earn and purchase for us eternal life. Through Christ we have both expiation and propitiation. Expiation is the removal of the stain of our sin. Propitiation is the satisfaction of the righteous wrath of Almighty God. through Christ and through his sacrifice, our sin is removed, our stain is washed away, and we are at peace with God, so that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And it all comes into focus here in literally the last verse of the book of 2 Samuel. And so as we've been seeing, especially through the last few chapters, as this whole story is being wrapped up, it's not David that's in the focus, but it's Christ who is the object of our faith and our hope and our trust. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you offered yourself up as a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, to pay the penalty for our many sins, to squelch the wrath of God against our iniquity and evil. And we thank you that through your completed work we now have peace with the Father and the Spirit and the Son through your finished work. Lord, help us as we reflect upon these things, as we think about these things, to grow more and more in our faith, trusting You, even when we don't understand the circumstances all around us. Strengthen us, we pray, in Jesus' name, Amen.