1-2 Samuel Week Fifty-Three: 2 Samuel 24:1-25

¹ Now again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.” ² The king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, “Go about now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and register the people, that I may know the number of the people.” ³ But Joab said to the king, “Now may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see; but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?” ⁴ Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to register the people of Israel. ⁵ They crossed the Jordan and camped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad and toward Jazer. ⁶ Then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi, and they came to Dan-jaan and around to Sidon, ⁷ and came to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites, and they went out to the south of Judah, to Beersheba. ⁸ So when they had gone about through the whole land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. ⁹ And Joab gave the number of the registration 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 Now David’s heart troubled him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.” ¹¹ When David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, ¹² “Go and speak to David, ‘Thus the Lord says, “I am offering you three things; choose for yourself one of them, which I will do to you.”’” ¹³ 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 foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now consider and see what answer I shall return to Him who sent me.” ¹⁴ Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us now 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 pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. ¹⁶ When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough! Now relax 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 down the people, and said, “Behold, it is I who have sinned, and it is I who have done wrong; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let Your hand be against me and against my father’s house.”

¹⁸ So Gad came to David that day and said to him, “Go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” ¹⁹ David went up according to the word of Gad, just as the Lord had commanded. ²⁰ Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him; and Araunah went out and bowed his face to the ground before the king. ²¹ Then Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be held back from the people.” ²² Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight. Look, the oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. ²³ Everything, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God accept you.” ²⁴ However, the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. ²⁵ David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Thus the Lord was moved by prayer for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel.

—2 Samuel 24:1-25

Sermon Outline

1. Sin Is (MULTILINE)
2. God Is (MULTILINE)
3. Salvation Is (MULTILINE)

References

Weekly Study Guide

I was thinking this week about how I wanted to close out our study guides for this 1^st & 2^nd Samuel series. We have covered so much ground and hopefully reoriented our thinking regarding how Israel fits within the plan of God. The goal was that, when we now read about Israel in these Old Testament books, we might see it in a new light. We might feel a connection to Israel we have never felt before. And we might rightly recognize how Israel is the thread that ties the beginning and end of scripture together.

One thing I hope we might take away from this journey is the ability to recognize and appreciate the role that seeing the big picture has on our understanding of God and His plan—and our part in that plan. When the big picture makes sense to us, then all the little pictures along the way are more rightly and precisely understood in, and because of, their context. So many of the questions I am asked about particular passages of scripture often stem from a lack of clarity regarding what God’s overarching plan is really all about.

But another very important takeaway from this particular study is that seeing the truth about how we choose to read the Bible makes all the difference in the world. Satan does not want us to read scripture correctly and he will do whatever it takes to cause those errors to happen. We have briefly explored how, in the early church, Satan influenced some of those leaders to believe that we have permission to rewrite scripture and inject our own meanings into well-established biblical terms and ideas. It’s the same lie Satan used on Eve, “Did God really say…” It is easy to see the diabolical genius of this approach. If we can convince ourselves that the text doesn’t really mean what it appears to mean on the surface, then the power of scripture is distorted and neutered. God’s commands can now be seen as suggestions, or they can be altered to mean something completely different.

The sad truth is that, for most of church history, we have been affected by that insidious allegorical method of reading scripture. Again, this is one of those big-picture ideas. It requires us to investigate what is going on behind the scenes regarding how and why particular passages are interpreted differently by different people. We must ask the “why” question. Why do some people think it’s ok to throw out the Old Testament and teach that it no longer has relevance today? This is the “truth behind the truths” we have been exploring when it comes to the identity, role, and future Israel has in God’s plan. These study guides have been an apologetic for stepping back and seeking out the bigger picture.

In previous study guides, we discussed some of the ramifications of this dangerous method of reading scripture in a less-than-straightforward way. One of these ramifications was that, in the minds of some in the early church, Israel began to lose its status as God’s chosen people. This allegorical method of reading scripture, fueled by Greek Platonic presuppositions, began to teach that since (according to them) matter was evil and spirit was good, then the Bible’s plain teaching about God’s Kingdom promises to Israel must somehow mean that this coming Kingdom would not be an earthly kingdom, but some sort of Heavenly or spiritual one. They redefined Israel to now mean “the church”. As a result, an evil anti-Semitism sprang up in the early church. This developed for several reasons. First, the Jews were blamed for the death of Messiah. Also, the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 A.D. was seen as God’s punishment and rejection of the Jews. But then too, the persecution of early Christians by some in the Jewish community added to this fervor.

In addition, there was an in-house debate within Christianity about how Jews and Gentiles fit together in the family of God. The Jews were fiercely protective of their privilege and position as God’s chosen people, and the idea that Gentiles would have this new access was very difficult for early Christian Jews to accept. The precise issue that much of the church was wrestling with in the book of Acts was the idea of “Gentile inclusion” into the family of God—without these Gentiles having to become Jews first. God revealed to Peter, and then other leaders, that the dividing wall of separation had been taken down, and Gentiles now have access to God’s family, as Gentiles. But this anti-Semitism quickly turned this issue of “Gentile inclusion” into “Jewish exclusion”. No longer were they arguing about Gentiles having access to God’s promises and blessings, they had turned the discussion to how the Jews had disqualified themselves from these promises.

By the time of Justin Martyr (c. 100-165 A.D.), not only was Gentile inclusion taken for granted (since the majority of the church was almost exclusively Gentile by then), but Jewish exclusion was widely accepted as well. Even within the church, Gentile Christians were intolerant of Jewish Christians living out their cultural Jewishness. As Jen Rosner says: “The increasingly Gentile church adopted a zero-tolerance policy for Jews maintaining their Jewish identity.”

In fact, the anti-Jewish fervor was so pronounced that truth itself was turned inside out in support of this zeal. Absurd claims were made by influential church leaders. H. Wayne House reports, “So much did the church view itself as the true ‘Israel’ that Justin Martyr said, ‘They [the Jewish Scriptures] are not yours but ours.’” And another church father, Ignatius, was so bold as to say, “Christianity did not base its faith on Judaism, but Judaism on Christianity.” These outrageous statements clearly reveal the passion with which these convictions were held; so much so that non-sensical statements like these came from the lips of those in positions of influence over the doctrine of the early church. But this irrational hatred for the Jews was not only seen in the early years of the church, but it continued on through history.

In the fourth century, this anti-Semitism grew and festered in the church, with Augustine cementing into dogma this anti-Semitic lens through which the church would read and apply scripture—a lens which persists in much of the church even up until our own time. It seems understandable that Satan would have success fomenting anti-Jewish hatred outside the church, but what history shows us is that sadly, Satan’s attacks on Israel would also come from within the church as well. In the 4^th century, the church actually started persecuting Israel. As David Guzik says, “The institutional church started cleansing itself from any connection to Judaism. It was like a tree cutting off its own roots.” So much for passages like Romans 1:16 which says: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (emphasis added). Or, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem…” (Ps 122:6). Or perhaps most importantly, the verse we spent many weeks on, Genesis 12:3, where God lays out as a universal, foundational, principle of life, namely the idea that our own blessing is directly tied to how we treat Israel.

Also in the fourth century, John Chrysostom, the most famous preacher in the early church, said, “Brothel and theater, the synagogue is also a cave of pirates and the lair of wild beasts … living for their belly, mouth forever gaping, the Jews behave no better than the hogs and the goats in their lewd grossness and the excess of their gluttony … Jews are possessed by demons.” This was a consequence of the church coming into political power. Those with this anti-Semitic bias influenced the political powers into institutionalizing and setting into stone this hatred of the Jews. And this anti-Semitism continued to spread throughout the church.

In the year 1215 A.D., Pope Innocent III made this pronouncement: “The Jews, against whom the blood of Jesus cries out, although they ought to be slain lest the Christian people forget the divine law, ought nevertheless to be dispersed over the earth as wanderers, so their countenance might be full of shame…” Here the Pope himself was expressing the kind of perverse logic that the church, for centuries, has used to justify its persecution of the Jews. Countless pogroms and persecutions perpetrated on the Jews occurred throughout the Middle Ages. The Crusades were a horrible time for the Jews, with atrocities being committed against them (falsely) in the name of Christ. If you want to know one of the primary reasons why Jewish people are so difficult to evangelize today is that to them, Christians are Jew-killers. This history is firmly affixed in their memory. For them, the cross was a symbol of persecution and terror. Shamefully, for hundreds and hundreds of years, this is what the “so-called” Christian Church did to God’s chosen people.

David Guzik puts it like this:

Through the centuries, every problem in Christian Europe was blamed on the Jews. For example, the plague of the “black death” was blamed upon the Jews of Europe and they were murdered, drowned, burned, buried alive, and tortured to death because of this. And this type of discrimination and fury continued in virtually all of Christian Europe under the Roman Catholic Church.

There are far too many examples to name here, but one such instance speaks volumes as to the effect that this diabolical theology has had on the world. A very famous leader once said:

“First, their synagogues should be set on fire … secondly, their homes should be broken down and destroyed … thirdly, they should be deprived of their prayer books and Talmuds … fourthly, their rabbis must be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb … fifthly, passport and traveling privileges should be absolutely forbidden to the Jews … sixthly, they ought to be stopped from usury [charging interest on loans] … seventhly, let the young and the strong Jews and Jewesses be given the flail, the ax, the hoe, the spade, the distaff, and spindle, and let them earn their bread by the sweat of their noses … we ought to drive the rascally lazy bones out of our system … therefore, away with them. To sum up dear princes and nobles who have Jews in your domains, if this advice of mine does not suit you, then find a better one so that you and we may all be free of this insufferable devilish burden, the Jews.”

When reading this, many people say, “Wow, Hitler was really bad, wasn’t he?” The sad reality is that this was not written by Hitler, it was written by Martin Luther. For some reason, later in his life, Martin Luther became passionately anti-Semitic. In those later years, Luther wrote a work that is full of these kinds of statements: On the Jews and their Lies. He goes on to say regarding the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., “This work of wrath is proof that the Jews, surely rejected by God, are no longer his people, and neither is he any longer their God.” He also wrote, “Therefore, dear Christian, be advised and do not doubt that next to the devil, you have no more bitter, venomous, and vehement foe than a real Jew…”

Now to be perfectly clear, this, in no way, represents anything the Lutheran Church today teaches. But it demonstrates the ramifications of the festering undercurrent of anti-Semitism that grew directly out of an allegorical hermeneutic in the church, the purpose of which was to rewrite the Bible through disenfranchising and disinheriting the Jews. The Protestant Reformation, beginning in the 16^th century, cast the mold for the next 450 years of biblical interpretation. Thus, the latent anti-Semitism continued.

But these kinds of statements also gave excuses for people outside the church to justify their evil persecution of the Jews. One example of this is seen in Adolf Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf: “Today I believe I am acting with the will of the almighty creator by defending myself against the Jew. I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” Hitler drew upon some of this vile anti-Semitism present in the writing of a German hero, Martin Luther, to justify his hatred and treatment of the Jews. Hitler was the farthest thing from being a Christian that one can imagine, but, as Jen Rosner says, “…it is significant that he twisted Christian theology to accomplish his aims, using Luther as an ally and champion of his cause.” She goes on to say that this fact should shake us to our core since the words of Luther, which were used to justify concentration camps, also form the foundation of much of Protestantism.

In contrast, one of the most amazing works of God of the last hundred years is the change that has taken place within the heart of evangelical Christianity regarding their view of Israel. God began this work in England in the 1600s, and it slowly grew into what we know as Zionism today. And in 1948, against all odds, God culminated this work by Israel becoming a nation again. In theory, 1948 should have seen the end of the attempts to spiritualize the meaning of Israel in Scripture. Yet, it is never wise to underestimate the ability of mankind to rationalize and adapt to changing situations in order to fit sometimes-disjunctive data within already securely held allegiances. Even still, God is changing hearts. Christians are starting to understand the horrible nature of the mistake the church made in persecuting God’s chosen people. Sometimes you can even see Christians today being more supportive of Israel than secular Jews are. And the Jewish world is beginning to notice. I believe God will use this revolution in Christian thinking—the realization and recognition of the centrality of Israel in the plan of God—to help draw Israel back to Himself.

I imagine this information is a bit of a revelation for many of you, but I wanted to save it until we had a firm foundation in what God’s Word actually says about Israel—and until our worldview was firmly set within the context of Satan’s long war against God and the ramifications that holds. Satan hates Israel because they are, and always have been, the key to his downfall. Israel gave the world the Messiah, and Israel’s restoration ushers in Messiah’s return.

After the journey we have taken together through scripture—witnessing all that God has done in and through His beloved people Israel—my hope is that your heart breaks, as mine does, in reading all that people who call themselves Christians have done to hate, persecute, and even kill the Jewish people. God’s heart surely breaks as well. And we have only scratched the surface of all that history would confess regarding this evil anti-Semitism. But also, we might mourn the reason why this all happened—that it is directly tied to the church adopting this allegorical method of hermeneutics. This is why I continually call it “insidious”. Words matter. Ideas matter. And how we use them has consequences. Redefining the church as “the new Israel” and claiming that Israel has been abandoned by God is so much more than just a decision about how to interpret particular passages. It is satanic in origin and has spawned hatred, persecution, pogroms, and genocide throughout history. But it also has far-reaching theological ramifications that affect you and me as well. The idea that Israel could lose its promised inheritance, or that the church somehow supersedes Israel as the benefactors of those promises, would, in fact, require God to break the covenant He made with Abraham. But we must see that if God does not keep the covenant He made with Abraham, then we Gentiles are in trouble, too. For that covenant is the foundation and anchor of our salvation as well.

(MULTILINE)

Discussion Questions

1. When you were punished by your parents as a youngster, what was the one punishment that you dreaded the most? (MULTILINE)
2. In verse one of our passage we see that the anger of the Lord incited David to number the people. In the parallel passage (1 Chron 21:1-2), we get the clarification that it was Satan that tempted David in this way. What was Joab’s reaction, and why do you think he reacted so strongly? What are some possible reasons why you think David wanted to do this? Why do you think David was so conscious-stricken after he completed the census? Why do you think God gave David three options for his consequence? How do you reconcile the people being punished for David’s sin? (MULTILINE)
3. What is significant about the place where God told David to build Him an altar (2 Sam 24:16)? What message was God communicating to David about what this place represented? Read 2 Chronicles 3:1 and Genesis 22:2, 14. What else did God have in mind for this special plot of land? What richer and fuller meaning can we ascribe to this place, seeing that it was the place of Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac, and was the place where another Father did indeed sacrifice His Son on our behalf? (MULTILINE)
4. Describe the consequences of David’s decision to number the people on the people themselves. What does this say about fairness and justice? How does this relate to the effects that leaders’ decisions can have on others today? Where do you see this principle at play today? How can we apply this story to our own lives in seeing the consequences we face for our decisions? (MULTILINE)
5. What do you make of David’s statement in v. 24? How can we apply this sentiment to our own lives? As we come to the end of 1^st & 2^nd Samuel, what are some of the things you’ve learned about David throughout our time together? Has studying these books in any way challenged your understanding of who God is and what He’s like? If so, how so? How has this study broadened your understanding of God’s plan throughout the ages and how God has revealed the promise of the coming Kingdom? How has studying about David helped you to love, trust, and worship Jesus more fully? (MULTILINE)

Going Deeper

1. God didn’t choose David because he was a good king. He chose David and molded him into a great leader. He chose a heart He could work with—one that would remain true to Him, even in the midst of battles and in the middle of discipline. Some have summarized the life of David as: “If you pursue and obey God, you will be blessed.” What do you think of that statement? (MULTILINE)
2. What relationship do you see between sin, sacrifice, and punishment in v. 25? How does this connect to the sacrifice of Jesus for our sin? How does David’s decision to disobey God in this way so late in his life reflect what we have been learning about David all throughout these books? What do you now think it means that David was a man after God’s own heart? (MULTILINE)

Transformational Activity

Worship

It can easily be argued that the threshing floor of Araunah is the most important plot of land on earth. What do we learn about worship from the choice of this particular piece of land? How is worship related to sacrifice, sacrificial giving, justice and mercy, repentance, and faith? How does all of our worship ultimately connect back to this plot of land? In this story, God accepted David’s sacrifice. On that same spot, God accepted the sacrifice of His Son. Seeing that all of life is worship, what would a sacrifice of worship look like in your life?