Take the mercy.

A Safe House

(1 Chronicles 21, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, February 18, 2018)

[1] Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel. [2] So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army, “Go, number Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, and bring me a report, that I may know their number.” [3] But Joab said, “May the LORD add to his people a hundred times as many as they are! Are they not, my lord the king, all of them my lord's servants? Why then should my lord require this? Why should it be a cause of guilt for Israel?” [4] But the king's word prevailed against Joab. So Joab departed and went throughout all Israel and came back to Jerusalem. [5] And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to David. In all Israel there were 1,100,000 men who drew the sword, and in Judah 470,000 who drew the sword. [6] But he did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, for the king's command was abhorrent to Joab.

[7] But God was displeased with this thing, and he struck Israel. [8] And David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing. But now, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.” [9] And the LORD spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying, [10] “Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the LORD, Three things I offer you; choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’” [11] So Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Choose what you will: [12] either three years of famine, or three months of devastation by your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the LORD, pestilence on the land, with the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.’ Now decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.” [13] Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercy is very great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”

[14] So the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel, and 70,000 men of Israel fell. [15] And God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but as he was about to destroy it, the LORD saw, and he relented from the calamity. And he said to the angel who was working destruction, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. [16] And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD standing between earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. [17] And David said to God, “Was it not I who gave command to number the people? It is I who have sinned and done great evil. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O LORD my God, be against me and against my father's house. But do not let the plague be on your people.”

[18] Now the angel of the LORD had commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and raise an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. [19] So David went up at Gad's word, which he had spoken in the name of the LORD. [20] Now Ornan was threshing wheat. He turned and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. [21] As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David and went out from the threshing floor and paid homage to David with his face to the ground. [22] And David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of the threshing floor that I may build on it an altar to the LORD—give it to me at its full price—that the plague may be averted from the people.” [23] Then Ornan said to David, “Take it, and let my lord the king do what seems good to him. See, I give the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for the wood and the wheat for a grain offering; I give it all.” [24] But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will buy them for the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” [25] So David paid Ornan 600 shekels of gold by weight for the site. [26] And David built there an altar to the LORD and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings and called on the LORD, and the LORD answered him with fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering. [27] Then the LORD commanded the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath.

[28] At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there. [29] For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time in the high place at Gibeon, [30] but David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the LORD.

[22:1] Then David said, “Here shall be the house of the LORD God and here the altar of burnt offering for Israel.”

There are at least two questions that the contemporary reader would be puzzled by in looking at our passage this morning. From 21:1, What's so bad about taking a census? And from 22:1, What's so essential about a central and singular place of worship? We'll deal with each one in it's place.

Satan, David, and the Lord God Almighty

The Lord is able to use even His most formidable adversaries and David's ugliest sin in bringing about His perfect plan. “Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel.” So? This was apparently an obvious violation of the Lord's good order—so obvious that the biblical authors don't really explain the problem to us who are slow to see what Joab and the readers of 1 Chronicles certainly knew. The taking of a census (for war) which was to be accompanied with a tax (Exodus 30:11-16), should have been for the Lord's purposes and not David's. David was usurping God's place in Israel.

A Pestilence on Israel

Though God was sovereign over all that happened through this unusual episode (2 Samuel 24:1), the guilt belonged to David, and by the nation's association with the king, to all of Israel. God was ready to punish the people even though David suddenly came to his senses. Through the “seer” Gad, the King of heaven gave the king of the Jews a choice of punishments. David chose “three days of the sword of the Lord, pestilence on the land, with the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel” rather than face Israel's “foes” or a long period of famine. His reasoning: “Let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is very great.”

The extent of this plague was horrific. “70,000 men of Israel fell” and even Jerusalem was about to be destroyed. David and his elders “fell upon their faces” and interceded for the city of God. The king asked the Lord to come against him and his dynasty for what had been his fault. Only the Lord could spare Jerusalem from utter destruction.

“Here shall be the house of the Lord God”

In this moment of humble repentance and worship, Yahweh revealed the location of the singular place of worship for Israel throughout the remainder of the Old Covenant period. The plague of death would be stopped because of an acceptable sacrifice at the one place that would be authorized by the Almighty. The one who rules over men and angels was able to spare the lives of thousands of additional Israelites.

David was instructed to build a sacrificial altar at this very spot in order to stop the plague. The king insisted on paying for the property. He told the owner, “I will not take for the Lord what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” After David “presented” burnt offerings and peace offerings to God and “called on the Lord” the God of power commanded and a might angel “put his sword back into his sheath.” It was then that David saw the good that God had ordained through the suffering. “Here shall be the house of the Lord God.” But was it safe? Could fear really give way to faith?

Why one temple? This singular site would lead us to one person we could fully trust—the Jesus of John 2:18-22. God's wrenching story of death and mercy (See Genesis 22:2 and 2 Chronicles 3:1.) was fulfilled on the cross of Christ. David's sin and God's plan to bring hope to the world prepared the Jews for the coming of Jesus as our blood Substitute and the better “temple” of the Holy Spirit. Sin can only truly be atoned for through one sacrifice that is acceptable to God and paid in full by the Son of God. The God of heaven will not allow Satan or our failings to defeat His own plan of GRACE. The Father has sent His Son to be our only safe refuge from eternal disaster. Take the mercy.

Old Testament Reading—Psalm 45 – The King Will Desire Your Beauty

Gospel Reading—Matthew 12:15-21 – One Healer, One Chosen Servant, One Holy Temple