David’s Census A Proud Heart Humbled. So the king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, “Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan [in the north] to Beersheba [in the south], and conduct a census of the people, so that I may know the number of the people.” 2Sa 24:2
THE REIGN OF DAVID
INTRODUCTION
The Second Book of Samuel is devoted entirely to the reign of David. His coronation, first by Judah and then by all of the tribes, his wars and conquests, his care for the religious life of the people, his sins, and the calamities he suffered, are impartially set forth in vivid and convincing narrative.
“A very notable thing in the books of Samuel,” says James Robertson, “is the prominence given to music and song. There is in these books an unusual number of poetical pieces ascribed to this period, and all the indications put together give ample justification for the fame of David as the sweet singer of Israel, and for the ascription to him of the origin of that volume of sacred song which never ceased in Israel, and has become embodied in the Psalms.”
49. Why was it wrong for David to number the people?
DAVID’S CENSUS A PROUD HEART HUMBLED.
Now again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He incited David against them to say, “Go, count [the people of] Israel and Judah.”
So the king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, “Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan [in the north] to Beersheba [in the south], and conduct a census of the people, so that I may know the number of the people.”
But Joab said to the king, “May the LORD your God add to the people a hundred times as many as there are, and let the eyes of my lord the king see it; but why does my lord the king want to do this thing?”
Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So they went from the king’s presence to take a census of the people of Israel.
They crossed over the Jordan and camped in Aroer, on the south side of the city which is in the middle of the river valley [of the Arnon] toward Gad, and on toward Jazer.
Then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi, and they came to Dan-jaan and around to Sidon,
and they came to the stronghold of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites, and they went out to the south of Judah, to Beersheba.
So when they had gone about through all the land [taking the census], they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
And Joab gave the sum of the census of the people to the king. In Israel there were 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were 500,000.
THE LORD’S JUDGMENT OF DAVID’S SIN
But David’s heart (conscience) troubled him after he had counted the people. David said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O LORD, please take away the sin of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”
When David got up in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying,
“Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the LORD, “I am giving you three choices; select one of them for yourself, and I will do it 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 enemies as they pursue you? Or shall there be three days of pestilence (plague) in your land? Now consider this and decide what answer I shall return to Him who sent me.”
Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hands of the LORD, for His mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hands of man.”
DAVID’S CENSUS A PROUD HEART HUMBLED.
The sin of numbering the people lay in its motive. David was animated by a spirit of pride and vainglory. He was eager to make a fine showing among the surrounding nations, and to impress them with such a conception of Israel’s greatness that they would not dare to attack any point of the long frontier line. He yielded to the temptation of trusting in chariots and horses, instead of in the victories of faith.
When the enumeration was nearly complete, David’s heart smote him. He saw how far he had swerved from the idea of the theocracy, in which God’s will was the sole guide of national policy. He had substituted his own wisdom for the divine edict. A night of anguish followed on this self-discovery, but David submitted himself to God’s dealings.
It was wise to choose to fall into the hands of God. They are very loving and tender hands, but David viewed them as punitive and not redemptive; and the plague, which devastated the people, cut him to the quick.
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