II Samuel 24
Dear RTB’ers,
Today we leave II Samuel and in so doing, except for two chapters in I Kings we end our stories of David and his activities. And we leave him on a sour note – his desire for a census of the people of Israel and Judah and God’s resulting judgment on him. Scripture does not give any reason for why David wanted the census, but he went ahead with it in spite of Joab’s resistance. Later David saw that he had done wrong and repented (v. 10). The Lord, through Gad offered David three choices. We can read clearly that David did not want the second option, the foes’ pursuit. But it seems as if David is letting God decide between the first and third options, with the resulting pestilence.
An interesting connection between a couple of verses… First, David speaking: I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man. (v. 14b) Then we read of God’s mercy: … the LORD relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was working destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” (v. 16b) We can never know God as well as we would like, but it seems that David had a connection with his Lord that I certainly do not share. He knew of God’s mercy – the Bathsheba incident again? – was he that confident in God’s mercy? Then, by staying the pestilence is God rewarding David’s confidence in Him, or was that His original intent? It does seem that God changed His mind – He relented – when the angel reached Jerusalem.
Today’s reading is a confusing chapter. It ends with David’s purchase of Araunah’s land which, as STS reports is Mt. Moriah, which had previously been the location of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, then becomes the Temple site. So David now owns the land on which the Temple will be built. But we’re getting ahead…
Blessings!
See also: April 18 (2023) / Psalm 60; I Chronicles 18:14-21:30; II Samuel 24.