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Welcome to this Daily PBJ devotional. Read 2 Samuel 24, Hosea 2, and
Proverbs 23, 1-18. This devotional is about 2 Samuel
24. Again the anger of the Lord burned
against Israel, and he stirred up David against them, saying,
Go, and take a census of Israel and Judah. So the king said to
Joab the commander of his army, who was with him, Go now throughout
the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, and register the
troops, so that I may know their number. But Joab replied to the
king, May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over,
and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my
lord the king want to do such a thing? Nevertheless, the king's
word prevailed against Joab and against the commanders of the
army. So Joab and the commanders of the army departed from the
presence of the king to register the troops of Israel. They crossed
the Jordan and camped near Aror, south of the town in the middle
of the valley, and proceeded toward Gath and Gazer. Then they
went to Gilead, and the land of Tatim-Hadshi, and on to Danjan,
and around to Sidon. They went toward the fortress
of Tyre, and all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites. Finally,
they went on to the Negev of Judah to Beersheba. At the end
of nine months and twenty days, having gone through the whole
land, they returned to Jerusalem. And Joab reported to the king
the total number of the troops. In Israel there were 800,000
men of valor, who drew the sword, and in Judah there were 500,000. After David had numbered the
troops, his conscience was stricken, and he said to the Lord, I have
sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, O Lord, I beg you
to take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted
very foolishly. When David got up in the morning,
the word of the Lord had come to Gad, the prophet, David's
seer. Go and tell David that this is
what the Lord says. I am offering you three options. Choose one of them, and I will
carry it out against you. So Gad went and said to David,
Do you choose to endure three years of famine in your land,
three months of fleeing the pursuit of your enemies, or three days
of plague upon your land? Now then, think it over and decide
how I should reply to him who sent me. David answered Gad,
I am deeply distressed. Please, let us fall into the
hand of the Lord, for his mercies are great, but do not let me
fall into the hands of men. So the Lord sent a plague upon
Israel from that morning, until the appointed time, and seventy
thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. But when the
angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord
relented from the calamity, and said to the angel who was destroying
the people, Enough! Withdraw your hand now. At that
time the angel of the Lord was by the threshing-floor of Aaronah
the Jebusite. When David saw the angel striking
down the people, he said to the Lord, Surely I, the shepherd,
have sinned, and acted wickedly. But these sheep, what have they
done? Please, let your hand fall upon
me and my father's house. And that day Gad came to David
and said to him, Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing
floor of Arunah the Jebusite. So David went up at the word
of Gad, just as the Lord had commanded. When Arunna looked
out and saw the king and his servants coming toward him, he
went out and bowed facedown before the king. Why has my lord the
king come to his servant? Arunna said. To buy your threshing
floor, David replied, that I may build an altar to the lord, so
that the plague upon the people may be halted. Arunna said to
David, May my lord the king take whatever seems good to him and
offer it up. Here are the oxen for a burnt
offering, and the threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. O
king, Arunna gives all these to the king. He also said to
the king, May the lord your God accept you. No, replied the king,
I insist on paying a price, for I will not offer to the Lord
my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing. So David bought the
threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver,
and there he built an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings
and peace offerings. Then the Lord answered the prayers
on behalf of the land, and the plague upon Israel was halted. This is God's Word. Of all the
disturbing things recorded about David's life, 2 Samuel 24 is
one of the tougher ones. Verse 1 tells us that the anger
of the Lord burned against Israel. Now, God is not angry by nature. His anger is a righteous response
to sin. The problem is we're not told
what sin or sins Israel committed that angered God in this way. And so, since idols were the
biggest problem during the era of the judges, that might be
the reason, but we just are not told. The fact that God was said
to be angry with Israel without a stated reason might make you
wonder if he was angry for no reason at all. And that's the
first disturbing aspect of this passage. A second issue comes
from the phrase, also in verse 1, This phrase sounds like God
commanded David to take the census. However, in verse 10, David said,
I have sinned greatly in what I have done. So how could God
have commanded David to do something that was sinful for David to
do? The answer is that God did not
directly command David to take the census. Rather, verse 1 says
that God incited him. This word means to suggest in
the original Hebrew, and it isn't a direct command. Still, would
God suggest that anyone do something sinful? Of course not. Yet, sometimes God lets us go
our own way in order to accomplish something he has decided to do. And this phrase about inciting
David does not mean that God directly tempted David or created
evil in David's heart to take this census. Instead, God allowed
David to be tempted and to fall into that temptation. The point
of the census was to count the number of available fighting
men. That was a sin because a large army may become an expression
of pride for the king. By knowing exactly how large
his army was, David could feel very proud about himself as a
leader. And pride is a sin that beats
in every human heart. unrestrained by the Holy Spirit,
people are highly susceptible to the sin of pride. Instead
of putting his confidence in God, David would be tempted to
trust his large, highly experienced army instead. Since pride is
inherent in the fallen hearts of humanity, God did not have
to tempt David directly. All God had to do was remove
the restraints on David's life, or in this case, his thought
life, and let him think about what he wanted and do what he
wanted to do. I believe that is what happened
in this passage. David's choice to count the troops
was his sin because of the attitude of pride that prompted it. Don't
let pride become a tool for Satan in your life. Maintain a humble
spirit and cry out to God daily for his blessings as you go about
your daily life. If you found this devotional
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please share this with someone else. And I'll see you next time.
May God bless you. Hope you have a great day today.
2 Samuel 24
Series DailyPBJ Devotionals
This is a daily devotional about 2 Samuel 24 from dailypbj devotionals. For more information, visit https://dailypbj.com. To receive these devotionals every morning in your inbox, visit https://dailypbj.com/subscribe. To support my work, visit https://dailypbj.com/support/
| Sermon ID | 927251353243213 |
| Duration | 09:46 |
| Date | |
| Category | Devotional |
| Bible Text | 2 Samuel 24 |
| Language | English |
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