Falling Into the Hand of the Lord
Download MP3If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to 2nd Samuel chapter 24. 2nd Samuel 24. It is also there in your worship guide. Now we still have a few weeks left in our study on the life of David, but this morning, we're going to look at the last story, that first and second Samuel have about the life of David. And it's it's a little puzzling, because this story actually comes after the author records David's last words.
Jeffrey Heine:For some reason, the author of this book decided that he would go out of chronological order when telling the life of David, and he wanted to end with this story. We, however, will not be ending the story of David with, with this text. We'll be looking at a couple more things in the weeks ahead. Chapter 24. I'm not gonna read all this in front of you.
Jeffrey Heine:We'll begin in verse 1 though. Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And He incited David against them saying, go number Israel and Judah. So the king said to Joab, the commander of the army who was with them, go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and name the people that I may know the number of the people. But Joab said to the king, may the lord your God add to the people a 100 times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see it.
Jeffrey Heine:But why does my lord the king delight in this thing? But the king's word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel. Skip down to verse 9 rather than me name a bunch of places where you don't know where they are. And my dyslexia, as usual, kicks in and I can't pronounce any of them.
Jeffrey Heine:And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to the king. In Israel, there were 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword. And the men of Judah were 500,000. But David's heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, I have sinned greatly in what I have done.
Jeffrey Heine:But now, oh Lord, please take away the inequity of your servant for I have done very foolishly. And when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, go and say to David, thus says the Lord, 3 things I offer you. Choose one of them that I may do it to you. So Gad came to David and told him and said to him, shall 3 years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee 3 months before your foes while they pursue you?
Jeffrey Heine:Or shall there be 3 days' pestilence in your land? Now consider and decide what answer I what answer I shall return to him who sent me. Then David said to Gad, 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.
Jeffrey Heine:So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning until the appointed time. And there died of the people from Dan to Beersheba 70,000 men. And when the angel stretched out his hand towards Jerusalem to destroy it, 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. And the angels of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Arana the Jebusite.
Jeffrey Heine:Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people and said, behold, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father's house. And Gad came to David and said to him, go up. Raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Arana the Jebusite.
Jeffrey Heine:This is the word of the Lord. You would pray with me. Father, we ask that in this moment through your spirit, you would open up tired minds and hearts, hearts that have often become calloused to your word. Through your spirit, may you give us soft hearts ready to receive what you would have for us. May my words fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore.
Jeffrey Heine:But, Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So it's a little odd, isn't it, that the author of 1st and second Samuel would choose to end his biography on the life of David here. I mean, not ending it with David's last words, but ending it with with this story.
Jeffrey Heine:And why this story, of all the stories that the author could have chosen to end David's life with. It's kind of anti climatic. I was reading through one commentator, and he says that after such a great biography, the author decides to end the life of David with a whimper. Which I think is a little unfair, because Samuel has his reasons. And I think the reason is this.
Jeffrey Heine:This story, more than any of the other stories about the life of David, represents the entirety of his life. If you wanna know what made David great, look at the story. If you want to look at David's failures, look at the story. If you want to see how David pointed us to the greater David, the son of David, the Messiah to come, look at this story. I think you find all of those things here.
Jeffrey Heine:But the story begins with well, it begins with a preacher's nightmare. Any of y'all have, you know, those nightmares about going to work, or maybe going to school, you know, where you don't have any clothes on, or, you just can't find a classroom? You know, I have those still. Like, I just somehow can't make it to church, no matter what I do. Sometimes that's because the Mercedes Marathon is actually happening.
Jeffrey Heine:But other times, you know, it's a dream. But the night, real nightmare is this, when you have verses like this, how the this story starts, in which you read, the Lord incited David to take a census, which was sin. The Lord incited David to sin. If you find that to be confusing, thankfully, the author of First Chronicles, he writes about the same story, and he decides to clear it up for you. In the 1st Chronicles 21, he says, Satan incited David to sin.
Jeffrey Heine:You're like, well, that doesn't clear up anything. So was it Satan who incited David to sin, or was it the Lord who incited David to sin? The answer is yes. Yes. Your home group leaders are going to discuss this with you this week.
Jeffrey Heine:Gonna make sure you have all the answers. Actually, what you have going on here is something very similar to the story of Job, in which the Lord uses Satan to do His bidding. Don't ever make the mistake of when you think of the Lord and you think of Satan, to think of like 2 equal powers that are duking it out over all of time. That's not the case at all. Satan is the Lord's pawn.
Jeffrey Heine:Or as Martin Luther used to say, yes, there is a devil. But never forget, he's the Lord's devil. He does the Lord's bidding. And we certainly see this here, that Satan is under the Lord's control. Which means that what Satan means for evil, God's gonna mean for good.
Jeffrey Heine:Satan wants to destroy your life. Satan wants to bring evil upon your life. Sometimes God allows him to do those things. But He does it for His ultimate good, your ultimate good. Of course, the place we see this most clearly is in the cross, in which all these evil things happened to Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:Every blow that He received, every lash that He received, every nail that went through His hands and feet, those things were evil. Those were sinful actions. And yet we read later, they were predetermined before all of time for our salvation, for our good. What satan meant for evil, god meant for good. Somewhere there's there's somewhere it weaves together that this mystery between God's sovereignty and our freedom.
Jeffrey Heine:I don't know how it all weaves together but we clearly see it here. Here, we see the Lord using Satan to allow him to go and to tempt David to take a census. He he doesn't make David sin. God is not making David sin here. That's why later when David repents of the sin, he doesn't point a finger at God and say, well, God, you made me.
Jeffrey Heine:No. This is on David here. David did this and He alone. And we read that the reason that God incited David to do this is because He's actually angry at all of Israel. We don't know why God is angry at all of Israel, but we've been studying Israel for a while.
Jeffrey Heine:So you pick your sin people. I mean, they they did a multitude. Pretty pretty much, you know, pick your sin. He's punishing them. He's angry at them for one of those.
Jeffrey Heine:And so David takes a census. Joab strongly objects to it. He knows it's wrong. But David says, I'm king. Do it.
Jeffrey Heine:You might be wondering what's so bad about taking a census? I mean, our government sends out a census. I've I've filled out a census before. Was that wrong? Counting numbers wrong?
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, we have an entire book of the bible called numbers. So it can't it can't be entirely wrong here. And in the past, God even commanded the Israelites to take a census. But here, God does not command David to take a census. It's clearly sin.
Jeffrey Heine:So why is it wrong? Well, first off, it's wrong because God says it's wrong. And I don't wanna just jump over that point. Something is wrong because God says it wrong and you might never know the reason why. I've I've shared this story before but I wanna share it again, because my oldest daughter is actually here this morning, so I wanna make sure to embarrass her.
Jeffrey Heine:But, when Caroline was younger, one of the things she used to do, she would love to go into the backyard, and she would get mosquito repellent, and she would drink it. So she would just get it in like like it was a breath freshener. You know, just she would just squirt it all in her mouth, and she would come to us. And she loved it because she goes, daddy, makes my tongue go numb, numb. And so we would tell her, no, no, no, no, you can't do that.
Jeffrey Heine:And she would say, why? And so as a good dad, I would sit down with her, and I'd I'd tell her the reasons why. Well, it's got all these harmful chemicals in it, you know, it's gonna hurt you. You probably already have cancer already. Like, I mean, just like try to, you know, paint this doomsday scenario for her, why it's just so harmful to her.
Jeffrey Heine:And then she'll look at me and she'll go, okay. And she put it down. So Caroline, did you obey me or not? No. She agreed with me.
Jeffrey Heine:She she just agreed with me, And that's why she put it down but she didn't obey me. She heard my rationale and she believed the argument that was gonna ultimately hurt her. She kept doing this and so she put it down. What happens to the times when you don't agree with God? What should you do?
Jeffrey Heine:You should obey Him. A a lot of the times we think we're obeying God, we're really not obeying Him at all. We just happen to agree with Him. Yes. Sounds like a good thing to do, and we do it.
Jeffrey Heine:But there's sometimes God is gonna tell us to do something or to not do something, and we're gonna disagree with Him. And at that moment, we need to remember we relate to Him like a child does to her father. In which sometimes that child's not gonna understand why their father says don't do this. Because the the the wisdom gap between a father and a child is just too great to explain. You're gonna have to trust me.
Jeffrey Heine:Don't. And because we trust our fathers, we obey without having to understand or agree. So this was wrong first and primarily because God said, it was wrong. Another reason I think it was wrong though that David took the census is because why is he counting these people? He's not counting the elderly.
Jeffrey Heine:He's not counting the widows who who might need some some government assistance. He's not counting the total number of people out there so he could see where he is king to start to allocate some of their funds. In verse 9, we read, and Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to the king. In Israel, there were 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword. And the men of Judah were 500,000.
Jeffrey Heine:David wants to know how much firepower he has. He wants to know how many men he has who can fight. And why does David need to know that number? And not just know it, but in verse 3 he says, that David takes delight in knowing this number. It warms David's heart to see just how much firepower he has.
Jeffrey Heine:And here we see something terrible is beginning to grow in David's heart. He's beginning to rely on his own strength for his security, and not on the Lord's. David didn't used to care how large his army was because the battle belonged to the Lord. I mean, he would write Psalms like Psalm 20. Some trust in chariots.
Jeffrey Heine:Some trust in horses. But we trust in the name of the Lord, our God. Okay, David. So where are you putting your trust now? I mean, David used to believe that God didn't need an army, that God could just use a boy to take on a giant, or that Gideon could use 300 people to take on 10,000.
Jeffrey Heine:But where is that belief now? And where is your belief? Where do you find your security? Okay. Show of hands here.
Jeffrey Heine:When you were little and you used to go trick or treating, and you would get all of your candy, would you go back to the house and dump it all on the floor, spread it out, and count it? How many of you did that? Okay. Just about all of you. The rest are liars.
Jeffrey Heine:So we we we all did that. So you you we we not only counted it, we we would put it out there, we spread it out, and we would group it. Remember you'd organize them, you know, bit of honeys, throw away, the whoppers, you like throw them away, but like the the Kit Kats, you know, the Milky ways, or if you like your sour gummies, like we would group all things. You knew exactly When you spread all of that out, it warmed your heart, didn't it? I just man, it just it made you feel good seeing all of that there.
Jeffrey Heine:So when did you quit counting? Have you quit counting? Are there some other numbers that you spread out in front of you that, that makes you feel pretty good when there's a lot in front of you? You know, you look at your savings account, and you feel pretty good when that number's high. You look at your 401 ks, your retirement, feel pretty good when that number's high.
Jeffrey Heine:You feel pretty devastated when it's down. I mean, I I I like every month, you know, I get my little statement, and I like looking at my 401 ks to see how much it's grown. Lately, it feels like somebody just beat me up and took my candy. But, you know, normally you you like seeing If It's Grown. Why do we like counting?
Jeffrey Heine:Security. We feel secure when that number's higher. We're no different here. There was a time when David could not have cared less about the size of his army because the lord was his strength. The lord was his shield.
Jeffrey Heine:The lord was my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. But where is that faith now? Another reason that counting your fighting men is wrong It's because you don't need to count your fighting men if you're using your fighting men for defense only. You defend your land with the men you have.
Jeffrey Heine:You assess your firepower to see what you can take on. If you're starting to look at conquering or conquering neighboring nations around you, you need to know how many fighting men you have. And so taking the senses here hints at military aggression. Up to this point, Israel didn't really have a standing army. It was more of a defense militia that would be called on to defend its land in a time of trouble.
Jeffrey Heine:But here David seems to be enrolling men. He needs to be for he seems to be forming a standing army. And God will not have His people begin to conquest people through military aggression. I actually think this is one of the reasons the Lord killed so many people here because of the census. I mean, when you're reading this, you kinda feel like the punishment was out of proportion, wasn't it?
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, David, you know, he sleeps with Bathsheba. He kills Uriah. You know, there's not that many huge consequences, certainly not over the whole land. Here, David takes a census, 70,000 people killed like that. And this might be one of those texts, one of those reasons where you honestly struggle with reading your Bible.
Jeffrey Heine:You come across passages like this in the Old Testament. You're like, why is God always smiting people? This is why I don't like the Old Testament. This is why I I can't stomach it. He just seems to always be smiting people.
Jeffrey Heine:And He does through times in the Old Testament, not as many as you think, but yes, there are certainly times where God either commands Israel to go and wipe everybody out, or God Himself does this. But if you carefully examine all of those times, what you will find is the vast majority of those times, God is judging people because of their violence. You'll see this in Sodom and Gomorrah, when God sent the flood, when God sent the plagues on Egypt. He was judging people for their acts of violence. Often acts of violence to, to other nations, but also how they trampled on the poor.
Jeffrey Heine:And God intervenes and he steps in. He goes, I will not allow this violence to continue. And so he smites these people. He takes away their ability to use the sword. You see, David here, he's at risk at turning into a nation, turning Israel into a nation just like all the other nations.
Jeffrey Heine:A nation that seeks to expand through conquering and God will not have it. By killing 70,000 people, not only does that punish Israel, but it greatly reduces their army. Now we're gonna see in a minute here that God could have killed a whole lot more people than 70,000. He actually pulls his punches here. I know 70,000 is a lot, but this number could have easily been 2 or 3 times as many people.
Jeffrey Heine:But we read that the Lord relents. In verse 16, we read that. He relents. It's you could translate that as it grieved his heart. His heart was torn as this plague was sweeping across people.
Jeffrey Heine:And so his heart broke and he stopped. What would cause the lords with the lord to relent here and have mercy? I think we see 3 things. Three things that cause the lord to have mercy here. We see David's repentance, David trusting in the lord for mercy, and then David offering his own life as a substitute.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's look at each of those. 1st is David's repentance. When Joab comes back and gives his report, I mean he's gone for like 10 months. He comes back and gives his report. We read that David immediately feels bad about what he asked Joab to do.
Jeffrey Heine:He immediately confesses his sin. Literally, in Hebrew, it says that his heart smote him. Verse 10. But David's heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, I have sinned greatly in what I have done.
Jeffrey Heine:But now, oh Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly. Now, this is huge progress for David. Because look how quickly he repents. I mean before he would let months go by, before his heart would ever be open to repenting, before, you would have to God would have to send a prophet to come and to point to David and say, you're the man who did this and call him to repentance. But none of those things are necessary here.
Jeffrey Heine:David on his own, he realizes, oh, I was a fool. And he quickly confesses his sin and he repents. And so what we see here is his heart is becoming more sensitive to the Spirit. And this is what we all should be experiencing as we are growing closer to Jesus. Some people mistakenly think that the closer we get to Jesus, the less we need to repent of our sin.
Jeffrey Heine:When actually it's the opposite that's true. The closer you get to the light, the more it exposes your darkness. The more sin you see. It's not that you're sinning more, but you can actually see more of your sin. And that's why Martin Luther, when he nailed up those 95 theses, the very first theses he put up there is that all of life, all the Christian life is a life of repentance.
Jeffrey Heine:It's the air we breathe. Every step we take, the Spirit reveals sin in us and we quickly repent. And we quickly receive that joy and new life. And we're seeing this happening more and more in the life of David. Nobody has to be sent to call him out on this.
Jeffrey Heine:The Lord exposes it. He quickly repents. He quickly receives this new joy in life. So we we see David repenting here. I will just say, if you rarely feel that need to confess, if you rarely feel the need to repent or some sin that you know you need to repent of, can I tell you it is not because you're not sinning?
Jeffrey Heine:It's just because you're not listening to the spirit point out those sins. Quiet yourself. Listen. Do not be scared of repentance. As we have been hammering home over the last few weeks, repentance is the pathway to joy.
Jeffrey Heine:Next, we see how David, he trust in the Lord for mercy. Now David is king of Israel, which means he is the representative for the people. His successes are their successes. His failures are their failures. And it was great when David did things like kill Goliath.
Jeffrey Heine:His success meant their success. It's pretty bad when David does this, because now all of them have to suffer the consequences of his sin. Interesting enough, God does not just pronounce judgment, doesn't just tell David what he's gonna do. He gives David 3 options. Like, how fun.
Jeffrey Heine:David, here are 3 terrible options for you to choose from. He said, do you want to have 3 years of famine? Do you wanna have 3 months of fleeing from your foes, or do you wanna have 3 days of pestilence? You choose. I think choosing was part of the punishment.
Jeffrey Heine:When I was younger, my dad, would make me do this when I would do something wrong. He would not just spank me. He would tell me to go into his closet and pick which belt I was to use. Man, the amount of time I spent laboring over which belt would be best, you know, do you do you want to go with a really thick belt that's not very flexible, but weighs more? Or do you wanna go with a very small, thin belt that acts like a whip?
Jeffrey Heine:And like, you're you're just you're just you're trying in verse 14, he gives his answer. In verse 14, he gives his answer. Then David said to Gad, 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.
Jeffrey Heine:What David means by this is he knew if he chose famine, well, that would drive all of Israel to go, and they would have to ask for food from their their neighbors, the neighboring nations. They would be dependent on the other nations for mercy. If he picked fleeing from his foes, well that would mean that Jerusalem had been conquered and that they're running now. But here, with this plague or pestilence, well, he sees us completely in the Lord's hands. Now thinking I think his thinking is this, you know, when I look back at the Lord's hand in my life, that's been a good place to be.
Jeffrey Heine:The Lord has sustained me in the past. The hand of the Lord has always been merciful to me. And David here, he decides, I don't want to be in anyone else's hands, especially in punishment. I want to be in the hands of the Lord because there's no safer place to be. Hear me.
Jeffrey Heine:The world is a cruel cruel place. So why would you ever go to the world and expect mercy? The world is gonna chew you up and spit you out. But the hand of the Lord, that's our hope. And so I think even in here, David choosing his punishment, he's casting off his old idolatry of trying to depend on himself, his own strength, or on the strength of others.
Jeffrey Heine:And he's once again saying, Lord, I find my security in you. I put my my whole life back in your hands. I think even in him choosing his punishment, he's repenting. Finally, we see David. He offers his life as a substitute.
Jeffrey Heine:So the Lord sends this pestilence, sweeps across the land, kills 70,000 people, and now it's approaching Jerusalem and the Lord pauses the plague. He halts it. In verse 16, we actually read that the the angel was in the act of stretching out his hand over Jerusalem. You can read about this in 1st Chronicles 21. It's actually even more dramatic.
Jeffrey Heine:What you read is that David looks and he sees the angel of the Lord with a sword in his hand. And the sword is about to come down on Jerusalem. It's it's a terrifying image that David sees here. But as this angel is looking out over the capital city where so many people lived, the Lord says, stop. Stop.
Jeffrey Heine:And God does not complete His judgment. Why? The answer is why I believe that Samuel decides to really end his biography on David here. The angel of the Lord with the sword drawn is at Arana's threshing floor. This was on top of a mountain that overlooks Jerusalem.
Jeffrey Heine:You can read about it in 1st Chronicles chapter 3, where we read the name of that mountain. It's Mount Moriah. If Mount Moriah rings a bell to you, it it should, because in Genesis 22, it's on Mount Moriah that God tells Abraham to take his son Isaac up there and to sacrifice his son. It's on Mount Moriah that we read that Abraham bound his son, put him on the altar, and held up his knife and was about to bring it down until God said, Abraham, Abraham, stop. Exact same place on Mount Moriah.
Jeffrey Heine:Mount Moriah in this exact spot on Arana's threshing floor will be the site that the temple is built. The threshing floor of verana will become the foundation for the temple that Solomon is going to build. It's gonna be the place where sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice, substitutionary sacrifice is made. Hopefully, this helps you understand the psalm we read at the beginning. Psalm 30.
Jeffrey Heine:The title of that Psalm is a song at the dedication of the temple, which is a really odd title for a song that never mentions the temple. I mean, you read through it. It's literally, it's a song dedicated, a song to be sung at the dedication of the temple, but it never mentions the temple. Instead, what you do find are all of these things of of God being angry, David pleading for mercy, David pleading for healing, people dying, pleading for more mercy. Now it makes sense.
Jeffrey Heine:When you read lines like, for His anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning. The temple was built on a place where the plague stopped and the Lord heard David's pleas for mercy. So God here, he's looking down at the place where Abraham was gonna sacrifice his son. He's looking down at the place where endless sacrifices will be made for the next 1000 years all leading up to Jesus, the perfect sacrifice.
Jeffrey Heine:And he says wait. Verse 17, We read that David said to God, was it not I who gave commands who number the people? It is I who have sinned and done great evil. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, oh my oh my lord or oh lord my god, be against me and against my father's house, but do not let the plague be on your people.
Jeffrey Heine:Notice here that David does not consider himself a king or a ruler. He considers himself a shepherd in this moment, A shepherd who now wants to offer his life as a substitute for his sheep. Does that remind you of anyone? David's pointing forward to the greater David to come, the good shepherd, who in John 10 says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for His sheep.
Jeffrey Heine:But unlike David, Jesus actually goes through with it. He actually can lay down his life for his sheep, and not just make an offer. You see, as noble as David's offer was, and it was a noble offer, David could not offer his life as a substitute for his people's sin, because He had His own sin to deal with. He couldn't pay their debt when He owed just as big of a debt. You actually need another king to come and to do this.
Jeffrey Heine:You need a righteous king, a perfect king who could come and to offer His life as a substitute for the life of the people. And we all know that this is the king that we have in Jesus. This is a great visual of the gospel in which we have the sentence of death hanging over us. All of us deserving God's judgment because of our sin, and the sword can rightly fall. But then our shepherd, the king, comes.
Jeffrey Heine:And he says, I will offer my life as a substitute. I live the perfect life for them, but I will die the death that they deserve. And so our King, He comes in and He acts as our representative, just like David was called to act as a representative. But when He represents us, we inherit that sin. But when Jesus represents us, we inherit His righteousness.
Jeffrey Heine:And Jesus steps up as a representative, and He says, I'll take that judgment for everyone. And then we have His triumph. He took the judgment of everyone, and then He rose from the dead. And when Jesus rose from the dead, we will rise with Him. When He was raised to life, we know and we look rest assured at that empty tomb and we see that someday our tomb will be empty.
Jeffrey Heine:Just as Jesus conquered death, we will conquer it as well. It will no longer have the last word. And so this is the hope that this story points us towards, the hope we have in a much better king than Jesus or king than David, our king Jesus. Is this the hope that you have? When you think of your life and you think of whose hand you've placed your life in, whose hand is that?
Jeffrey Heine:Who controls your life? Do you place your life in your own hands? Do you place your life in the hands of others, or have you placed your life in the hands of the Lord? If you haven't placed your life in His hands, I would encourage you to do so because only there will you find mercy. And pray with me.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus, thank you for coming and being the good shepherd to lay down your life for some really foolish sheep. We are not deserving of such a sacrifice, yet you willingly came and you paid the penalty of our sin. And because you triumphed over the grave, we will triumph. Death will not have the last word. What a hope we have.
Jeffrey Heine:For those here who have been running away from you, who have never placed their life in your hand, At this moment, through your spirit, would you prompt them to surrender all that they might find life. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
