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The Torah says that a census can not count people, only the coins they give (Ex. 30:12). David knew this, and Yoab (Joab) did too. Why did David proceed after Yoab calls him out on this? What does it have to do with the strange land purchase in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem)?
Parallel text: 1st Chronicles 21
We read in 2nd Sam. 24:1, “…the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say…” In other words, the Lord planted this idea into David’s head.
Why did God prompt this? I’d submit to you that God wanted David to be brought to the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite to buy it for the future Temple.
Why would God impose a sin upon a person and then punish him for it?
In 1st Chron. 21:1, it was “an adversary” who “stood up against Israel” (NASB) to convince David to take the census. We often assign the Hebrew word שָׂטָן satan to one particular being, whom we call haSatan, literally “the adversary.” He’s God’s adversary and ours. However, God can be “an adversary” against rebellious people, as seen in some uses of satan in the Hebrew scriptures:
- The angel of the Lord was satan to Balaam on the donkey (Num. 22:22, 32).
- God raised up people as satan for Solomon (1st Kings 11:14, 23, 25).
This is an interesting conundrum.
Was this sin of counting the people the reason that God killed the people of Israel? It doesn’t appear to be the reason, otherwise this first verse this text would say that God’s anger was targeted against David since it was David, not the people who called for the census in the first place. David is being used as a catalyst for this series of punishments.
How accurate was Yoab’s count? Yoab said there were 800,000 men who could carry the sword in Israel and 500,000 in Yehudah (Judah) (2nd Sam. 24:9). Was Yoab’s count super accurate? I doubt it, since it’s a rounded number. It also tells us that Yoab may have purposefully fudged the numbers, because Yoab excluded Benjamin and Levi from the count (1st Chron. 21:6).
Why does the 1st Chronicles account of the census (1st Chron. 21:5) have different numbers from those in 2nd Samuel 24. Yoab may have thought the act of the census was an abomination, so he may have purposefully messed the numbers so as not to break the Torah command of counting the people.
Once David receives the numbers nine months later, he realizes he sinned (2nd Sam. 24:10). The prophet Gad gave David three options to choose as punishment (2nd Sam. 24:11–13):
- Three years of famine.
- Three months of fleeing from enemies.
- Three days of plague.
When the No. 3 shows up in the Hebrew scriptures connected with life and death, it’s usually a picture of the Messiah. How does this direct us to a part of Messiah’s life?
David chose the shortest punishment: the three-day punishment. God was angry with Israel and used David to correct the people. David responded and asked God to punish him instead (1st Chron. 21:16–17). At that point, God effectively said, “I’m done”.
That looks like a pattern of the Messiah’s life, doesn’t it (John 19:30)? God had Messiah killed to spare our lives, just as David was willing to give up his life for the people of Israel.
When the angel of the Lord arrived at Yerushalayim, God commanded the angel to stop (1st Chron. 21:15). When David saw the angel and prayed to the Lord, after God had already stopped the angel’s hand.
God, through the angel, calls on David to build an altar for Him. The angel had reached the threshing floor of Araunah the Yebusite when God called on the plague to stop. God told David to buy Araunah the Yebusite’s threshing floor and place an altar to Him there.
We know that this is the spot where Solomon later built God’s Temple. God seemed to be saying, “Don’t pollute my home with (human) blood.”
We don’t know how old David was when this incident occurred, but it’s placed at the end of this book because the next book, 1st Kings, introduces us to Solomon, whom God chose to build a temple on that spot.
Reader: Jeff. Speaker: Daniel Agee. Summary: Tammy.