With God, success is not about numbers – 2 Samuel 24, Part 2

Have you ever been punished with a “pick your poison” method? You misbehaved and your parents give you a choice about which punishment you will receive. It feels awful, doesn’t it? You must not only wrestle with your guilt and any hurt your disobedience caused others, you now have to choose the consequences. You are taking some ownership of the seriousness of what you’ve done, perhaps even making some recompense. But you also would rather not deal with this. You might it all to go away. Or you might want your parents to just choose the punishment and get it over with.

In 2 Samuel 24, David has just committed a grievous sin, and God makes David pick his punishment. What grievous sin? A census.

David’s census revealed that his Kingdom can muster a 1.3 million strong army.  With those numbers, David can rest in peace, as he hands the nation over to his son.  The Kingdom of Israel is secure. 

When his generals report the census results, however, David is not feeling peaceful at all.  In verse 10 we read, “David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”

What foolish thing did he do?  Take a census?  David says that his counting of the fighting men was an act of sinning greatly, that it was very foolish, and he is feeling terribly guilty.  He pleads with God for forgiveness.   But why?

Scholars have speculated that the census was such a bad idea because David’s heart in taking the census was an act of trusting in his military numbers and strength, rather than trusting in God. 

When David takes the census, he is taking matters into his own hands.  He knows that with 1.3 million fighting men, he has a large enough fighting force to deal with a variety of enemies.  In other words, David is not placing his trust in God.  David is placing his trust in his 1.3 million soldiers. 

But God wants his people to trust in him.  It’s never about numbers when it comes to God.  Remember the exploits of the Mighty Men that we studied last week?  One soldier, empowered by God, was victorious over 800 men.  One versus 800?  It’s a no-brainer.  The 800 win every time.  Except when God is involved.  When we trust in God, it is not about numbers. 

David, however, made it about numbers, and when the census report came back, he realized his mistake, thinking “I’ve not trusted in God.”  David is broken up about it.  He confesses his sin and seeks the Lord.  How will God answer?  Get ready because God’s answer makes this messy story even more messy than it already is.

In verses 11–13, we read that God sends the prophet Gad to David, and Gad conveys a message from God. The punishment for David’s sinful act of unfaithfulness is going to go one of three ways, and David must choose.  Each of the three choices are awful. 

Here are the three choices: Three years of famine, three months of fleeing from enemies, or three days of plague.  No matter which David picks, the result is going to mean lots of death.  Which would you choose?  Why? 

Three years of famine would be grueling, as people slowly starve.  What’s more, the Hebrew text of 2 Samuel 24 says that the punishment is seven years. The Greek text and the parallel account in 1 Chronicles 21 list the punishment as three years. Whether three or seven, that’s a long time. Throughout world history, famine has led to millions of deaths.  Three straight years of no rain. would be devastating.  I live in lush Lancaster County farmland. If it didn’t rain for three years, we could pump water all over the county.  But ancient Israel did not have that kind of infrastructure.  Three years of famine would cause the death toll to rise high.  There’s no way David can choose this.

What about the shorter time-frame options?  How about the three months of fleeing enemies?  In late 2024, the Syrian government was overthrown in two weeks.  Three months of losing battles could cripple even a powerful nation such as what Israel had become.  Three months of losing battles would mean a massive loss of life.  Everything David had worked and fought for all his life could be lost in three months.  Nope, David can’t choose that either.

What about the three days of plague?  It’s only three days.  Three days fly by.  But it is the plague. This is the bubonic plague. The Black death.  In our day, there are fewer than 1000 cases per year in the US, and we have medicine to treat it.  But in ancient Israel, the plague was devastating.  This one likely had to be a short period because the plague was so intensely dangerous to human life.  There is no way David can choose this punishment.

Notice that all three punishments undermine David’s trust in the size of his military.  All three punishments will surely decrease that 1.3 million number.  Through these punishments, God is directly responding to David’s act of not trusting in God when David took the census.  But now David is in a horrific position.  He must choose a course of action that will lead to the death of many people.

Which of the three would you choose? 

Which punishment does David choose? We find out in the next post.

Photo by Liane Metzler on Unsplash