Counting and the Cost

2 Samuel 24:1-17
    1 Again the anger of the LORD was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.” 2 So the king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, “Now go throughout all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people, that I may know the number of the people.”
    3 And Joab said to the king, “Now may the LORD your God add to the people a hundred times more than there are, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king desire this thing?” 4 Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the army. Therefore Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel.
    5 And they crossed over the Jordan and camped in Aroer, on the right side of the town which is in the midst of the ravine of Gad, and toward Jazer. 6 Then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi; they came to Dan Jaan and around to Sidon; 7 and they came to the stronghold of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites. Then they went out to South Judah as far as Beersheba. 8 So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9 Then Joab gave the sum of the number 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.
    10 And David's heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O LORD, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”
    11 Now when David arose in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, 12 “Go and tell David, ‘Thus says the LORD: “I offer you three things; choose one of them for yourself, that I may do it to you.” ’ ” 13 So Gad came to David and told him; and he said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or shall you flee three months before your enemies, while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ plague in your land? Now consider and see what answer I should take back to Him who sent me.”  14 And David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Please let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”
    15 So the LORD sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time. From Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men of the people died. 16 And when the angel stretched out His hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented from the destruction, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “It is enough; now restrain your hand.” And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
    17 Then David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Surely I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father's house.”

In 1 Chronicles 21:1, it says that Satan the adversary moved David to number God’s people, where here is says that the LORD did so; God seems to have used satan as an tool to test David’s heart and accomplish His plan, much as He used the adversary with Job.  Why the census itself was an evil and sinful act is not clear, but the best explanation may be that it revealed a lack of trust in the strength of the army or fruitfulness of Israel, or that it was because of the requirement for each to pay for being numbered (Exodus 30:12), which was not done here.  Either way, David pursued this census for almost ten months against his trusted commander of Israel’s forces.  He had more than enough time to stop the numbering and be left without a tally of the army’s strength, and could have required that every man give the necessary ransom for himself to the LORD, when he numbered them, that there may be no plague among them, but he persisted.  Only after the tally was reported to him did David’s heart condemn his conscience; then he realized his failure to trust and obey in his pride and arrogance as the leader under God’s authority.  The prophet Gad brought the LORD’s choices for punishment to the king: he could have suffering by famine for seven months, the humility of defeat by enemies, or death by three days of starvation.  He chose to put himself and the people in God’s hands directly with the plague instead of man’s hands, for David knew that His mercy was still possible there.  Many died (seventy thousand) in the short ravaging punishment of the pestilence until God called off the avenging angel.  David had seen the Angel at work and was cut to the heart to see the sheep of his people suffering for his evil sin, so he took responsibility and begged the LORD to put the blame and consequences on him and his descendants instead as atonement.  We find here a lesson in resisting our pride of calculating our own strength and wisdom opposed to God’s word, and of taking responsibility for the consequences when others suffer for our evil sin of seeking our own glory in accomplishments.  Let us always put ourselves in the Lord’s hands of mercy when we fail to count the cost of disobedience to His word and sin against Him (Psalm 51:4-5) instead of doing the good which we know to be right (1 John 1:9, Hebrews 4:16).  Amen.  May it be so!