Bible Commentaries

1 Chronicles 21:1-13

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

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

3. And Joab answered, The Lord 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 [In the place of these words we find in 2 Samuel 24:3, "And that the eyes of my lord the king may see it," a much more emphatic sentence]? why then doth my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel? [This clause does not occur in Samuel. It is perhaps added by the writer of Chronicles to show what was in Joab's mind: "Why wilt thou, by numbering them in a spirit of vainglory, run the risk of provoking God's wrath against Israel?"]

4. Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.

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 tour hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.

6. But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the kings word was abominable to Joab.

7. And God was displeased [Heb. And it was evil in the eyes of the Lord concerning this thing] with this thing; therefore he smote Israel.

8. And David said unto God [ 2 Samuel 24:10], I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.

9. And the Lord spake unto Gad, David's seer, saying,

10. Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I offer [Heb. stretch out] thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.

11. So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Choose thee [Heb. take to thee] either three years" famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the Lord, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.

13. And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the Lord; for very great [or, many] are his mercies: but let me net fall into the hand of man.

The Hands of God Better Than the Hands of Men

DAVID was tempted to number the people of Israel. He said unto Joab and to the rulers of the people,

"Go, number Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it" ( 1 Chronicles 21:2).

Joab was a wise counsellor; in this case the wisdom was with the subject, not with the king. Joab answered,

"The Lord 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 doth my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?" ( 1 Chronicles 21:3).

The protest was disregarded. When kings are mad, who can stand before them?—mad, not intellectually, but morally; the madness of the heart, compared with which mental lunacy is an unspeakable blessing. There are times when the soul seems to be given over to the power of the devil, when it is caught on every side, when religion itself becomes little better than a temptation to sin. Men are sometimes brought to suppose that they are doing things for the glory of God when in reality they are but heightening the crumbling pedestal on which their own little dignity is to be shown. David might have said to himself, I will see how many fighting men there are in Israel that can be brought up to the Lord's cause in the day of battle; I have no wish to magnify my own strength, or to put a fictitious value upon my own position; in fact, I am not concerned about myself at all in this matter, my only object is to see how many qualified men might be called up to the help of the Lord in the day of battle. In saying all this David might assure himself that he was deeply concerned only for the Lord's name and glory, and that nothing could be more unselfish than his godly concern for the welfare of Israel. There are what may be called subtle sins, as well as vulgar sins. A man may set himself in open opposition to God, and boldly say that he means to fight down the divine supremacy, and put a mark of dishonour on God's throne; he may be mad enough and vulgar enough for that and defeat his own intentions by his exaggeration. We need not argue the case with such a 1 Chronicles 21:12).

To these propositions David answered:

"I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the Lord; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man" ( 1 Chronicles 21:13).

Let us regard this answer as showing that in the saddest experiences of the heart, in the extremities of human guilt, in the allotment of penalties, and in the working out of law, it is better to fall into the hand of God than into the hands of men; that the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy, and that like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.

The doctrine 1 Chronicles 21:14-30

14. So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel [From Samuel we learn that the plague raged throughout the land, from dawn to the time of the evening sacrifice]: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.

15. And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it ["And the angel stretched out his hand towards Jerusalem to destroy it"]; and as he was destroying ["About (at the time of) the destroying;" when the angel was on the point of beginning the work of death. It does not appear that Jerusalem was touched (comp. 2 Samuel 24:16)], the Lord beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now ["Enough now, stay (drop) thine hand"] thine hand. And the angel of the Lord stood [was standing. Samuel "had come to be"] by the threshingfloor of Oman [or, Araunah, 2 Samuel 24:18] the Jebusite.

16. And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord 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. [On the bursting out of the pestilence it would be natural that David and the elders should put on sackcloth (see 2 Samuel 3:31; 1 Kings 21:27; 2 Kings 6:30, etc.); and on seeing the angel it would be natural that they should veil their faces (see Exodus 3:6; 1 Kings 19:13)].

17. And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep [verbatim as in Samuel, save that the appeal, "O Lord my God," is wanting there. (Literally, "But these, the sheep." The king was the shepherd)], what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O Lord my God, be on me, and on my father's house; but not on thy people, that they should be plagued [Literally, "and on thy people, not for a plague "].

Interrupted Judgments

THE ministry of angels is not always a ministry of salvation. We read in the epistle to the Leviticus 2:1]; I give it all. And king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings without cost. So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight. And David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the Lord; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering. And the Lord commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof" ( 1 Chronicles 21:18-27).

Another link is now introduced into this ministry of mediation. The Lord commanded the angel, and the angel of the Lord commanded Gad, and that prophet was to tell David to go up and set up an altar unto the Lord. The setting-up of an altar unto the Lord was not a mere act of masonry. Many sinners there are who would be willing to build altars and churches if thereby they could escape the penalty of their sin. There is no way into the blessedness of pardon through any golden door. How easy it would be for the rich man to claim a pardon because of the multitude of his donations, or the magnificence of the buildings for whose erection he has paid! The way of escape does not lie along that path at all. We are indeed to set up an altar, but that altar is to express the condition of the heart; in the heart itself the altar is first set up: all the building of the hand but shows forth visibly what has already been done secretly in the innermost parts of the soul. Instantly David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the Lord. David said to Ornan, "Grant me the place of this threshingfloor, that I may build an altar therein unto the Lord." David did not ask for a privilege, he asked to be allowed to purchase the site upon which his eyes were fixed. He told the object which he had in view, that object being none other than that the plague might be stayed from the people. He who had seen innumerable thousands of men slain by the sword, in the time of what he considered to be just and honourable war, could not bear to see innocent people mown down by the scythe of divine wrath. Here embodies the true idea of amelioration and all true restoration, namely, that the man must be made right with God in order that he may be made right with his fellow-men, and in order that divine judgments may be turned into divine blessings. David had nothing to say to Gad, nor had he a word to speak to the angel; these were but instruments in the divine hand: his business was to go immediately to God himself, and there, in amplest submission and deepest humiliation, make his peace with the offended Creator. Our rupture is not with our fellow-men, it is with our God. The answer to all the results of that rupture, therefore, is not to be found in political rearrangements, in social reforms, in manipulations suggested by an inventive genius; it is to be found in a deeply religious exercise, namely, the up-going of the soul to God with tears and brokenheartedness and uttermost contrition; and thus having purified the fountain the streams will all be cleansed and sanctified. When David built his altar "he offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the Lord." After all, this was work which David loved. With all his shortcomings, with his manifest and even monstrous defects, there was deep down in his heart an inextinguishable love for God and for God's house. Nor was the Lord slow to answer him; the Lord commanded the angel, and the sword was at once put up into its sheath. This was answered prayer. If we have difficulties in the matter of prayer being answered, we ought to consider whether those difficulties should not turn upon the nature of the prayer itself. What is the prayer which we offer? Is it a cry of selfish pain or selfish shame? Or is it in any way limited by merely selfish desires and considerations? If 1 Chronicles 16:39-40, and 2 Chronicles 1:3-5]. But David could not go before it to inquire of God: for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the Lord" ( 1 Chronicles 21:28-30).

This is a parenthesis, showing why David did not resort to the ancient tabernacle which stood then at Gibeon. The dwelling-place of Jehovah is set forth in contrast with Ornan's threshingfloor, or the new sanctuary. David could not go to inquire of God, for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the Lord. David could not go to Gibeon because of the sword of the angel of Jehovah—that is to say, because of the pestilence which raged at Gibeon. It has been supposed by some that the awful vision of the angel had afflicted David with some bodily weakness; perhaps it is better to suppose that the sight of the angel had made an indelible impression upon the mind of David.

There are some sights which we never wish to see repeated; so thoroughly unmanned have we been by certain spectacles that nothing could induce us to look upon them again. No man can see God, and live; and God can so show an angel to the human vision that that vision would on no account look again upon the appalling and bewildering sight. We know not what we ask for when we desire to see the invisible world. We cannot tell what is the meaning of the word "spirit"; we see one another in the body, and become familiar with one another in that relation, but who can tell what would be the effect upon the mind if we could really see the spirit of our dearest friend? Mysterious spirit! spirit of fire, spirit of life; an amazing, wondrous, immeasurable thing, palpitating in every part of the body, and yet wholly resident in none: the thing that thinks, that brings riches to the mind from afar, that wonders, schemes, plots, prays, blasphemes, and conducts the whole tragedy of life, and yet is itself invisible— impalpable! By our self-study we approach in some degree a knowledge of the nature of God. God is a Spirit. God is invisible. We are to know God meanwhile as we know one another, namely, through embodiment, incarnation, phenomena; we are to know him by the very nature that is round about us—the shining heavens, the flowering earth, the living air: all these things, rightly understood, interpret God as we are able to bear him. There is indeed another interpretation always to be desired and always to be earnestly sought for, and that is the indwelling Holy Ghost, taking of the things of Christ and showing them unto us, leading us into all truth, comforting us with appropriate solaces, and giving us confidence that the future shall be larger and brighter than the past, and that all our sorrows shall be but as dark roots out of which the flower of joy will spring. Solemn indeed ought every religious exercise to be: it should heighten the whole level of the mind, and bring to a finer pitch of harmony the action of all the powers of the soul. If we have left the altar in any other frame of mind than this, then our service there has been a vain oblation. When men go down from the house of God, their whole spirit should be marked by reverence, tenderness, submission, and a complete desire to obey and fulfil every tittle of the word of God. By this sign shall men know that they have offered acceptable worship.

Prayer

Almighty God, make us as little children. We want to be taken up into thine arms and have thine hands put upon us, and to be blessed of God. Without this we cannot live. We have tried to keep all the commandments, and the stones fall down from the top of one another, because we are on the wrong foundation and there is no binding quality in the cement we use. We cannot build these stones at all. When we try to rise upon them they and we all fall down together. Who can build himself up into heaven? Not one. So we cease to do all this, and come to Jesus Christ our Saviour, and knowing nothing, arguing nothing, questioning nothing, we want simply to be taken up by him into his arms, and to feel his warm hands upon us, and to know that his blessing is stealing into our hearts with most tender persuasiveness. This is true godliness—to know no will but thine; to know nothing of argument and controversy and fierce quarrelling of words, but to know that thou art in us and we in thee; hardly to know ourselves from thee; to be absorbed in God, to be lost in love. Then shall we prove all this by many a generous deed. We shall be out before Pharaoh in the morning, and accost him ere he bathes in the water. We shall go to Pharaoh by night when he sends for us, as all cowards do, and shall there in the darkness be as free and safe as if in heaven. We shall serve the Lord; we shall rejoice in the Lord and greatly magnify his Name; and our life shall be no scented perfume but a daily service and sacrifice, and thus an acceptable oblation. But this is a great mystery, and it concerns Christ and his Church. It is not in man to work this miracle. Man argues, and builds stones that will not hold together, and invents long and foolish words. Lord, displace this first man and set up within us the Second man, which is the Lord from heaven. Then our life shall upward go, our soul shall struggle to the skies, our whole estate shall have resting upon it the oath of consecration, and thy wing shall cover us all the day. Thou knowest who we are and what we want—the man with the burdened back, the sore heart, the scorched estate; thou knowest the broken in spirit, the weary and sad: they who laugh, when internally they are full of tears and crying bitterly: they who sit down to the feast and make believe they are eating when all the while they die of sad satiety; thou knowest the strong and the weak. Let a blessing come to every one of us—some word our own, some message all for us, some tone picked out of the general speech and meant for our attention. If thou wilt hear us in this, we shall know at the end that our prayers have been turned at the Cross into a great Amen, because of the love that shall glow in our thankful hearts, Amen.