We have been looking at the life of David through the lens of 1 Chronicles. Israel would have known David’s life story, including his spiritual successes and spiritual failures. Up to this point in the book, the only recorded failure has been in Israel’s attempt to worship God. David noted that they did not seek the Lord according to his commands (1 Chronicles 15:13). Now the Chronicler has another failure of David that needs to be looked at as he teaches the remnant how to return to God after their failures and sins. Open your copies of God’s word to 1 Chronicles 21.
David’s Failure (1 Chronicles 21:1-8)
The chapter begins with the temptation. Satan is standing against Israel and the means of his opposition will be through King David. Satan incites David to number the people of Israel. David instructs Joab and his commanders to count the Israelites and let him know how many there are. But Joab tries to prevent David from doing this in verse 3. Joab proclaims, “May the Lord add to his people a hundred times as many as they are!” Joab immediately puts the blessing on God. What does it matter how many people there are? God is the one who has made Israel what it is and God will be the reason for the people’s continued blessed condition. Joab also notes that doing this will bring guilt on Israel. Now we cannot find a specific command where God said that the people were never to be numbered. But based on Joab’s answer, Joab sees that this is an act of pride. It seems that David wants to know the greatness of his kingdom. It appears that David wants to revel in the greatness of his rule by counting how many belong to his rule. This is about personal glorification. I think we should note that it says a lot when Joab rejects what David is doing. When you read 2 Samuel, you will see that Joab does not always have the most holy intentions or the greatest amount of integrity. So for Joab to tell David that this is bad should have been something that caused David to reconsider. But David overrules Joab’s objection and the command goes forth (21:4). This is often how temptation goes. We are tempted and we know we should not do this. But we cave into our desires and do what we ought not to do anyway.
The count happens revealing that there were 1,100,000 men in all Israel and 470,000 in Judah. But Joab did not count the tribes of Levi and Benjamin because this command was so detestable to him. Not only was this command repulsive to Joab, what David did was evil to God and he afflicted Israel. We are not yet told how God afflicted Israel. We will read how in just a few verses. But for the moment there is a strong point that is being made about sin that we must recognize and admit. Sin has consequences and those consequences affect more than just yourself. What David has done has affected all of Israel. We just do not want to look at our sins in this way. We want to pretend that our sins do not hurt anyone. If we are willing to admit that there are consequences for our sins, then we pretend that our sins only hurt ourselves. This is one of the biggest lies and greatest deceptions that Satan puts into our minds. We are not hurting anyone and our sins is not a big deal. But what David has done has affected everyone in Israel.
We need to see that our sinning does the same thing. The consequences of our sins have ripple effects on people we know and do not know and last longer than we can ever imagine. We can read this account and wonder why David’s sin afflicts all of Israel. Friends, that is what sin does. Your sin affects your spouse, your children, your parents, your extended family, your friends, your church, your co-workers, your acquaintances, and people you do not know and people who may not yet be born. Sexual immorality is the sin that just keeps on giving you far-reaching, timeless consequences. My mother cheated on my father which led to divorce. Without going into all the details, I can confidently tell you that the sin committed 40 years ago continues to have consequences and pain to this day. It still affects my and my family. It has affected my children. It affected the church and other churches. It affected friendships. A sin like sexual immorality lies and tells us that no one is getting hurt when in fact everyone is getting hurt. Sin is like taking a large rock and casting it into the middle of a lake. You will watch the ripples go all the way until they reach the shore of the lake. The most powerful ripples are right at the impact point. But the ripples keep going and going and going.
Now I want us to observe David’s response to his sin in verse 8. David confesses to God that he has greatly sinned and that he has acted foolishly. David does not deny what he has done. David does not say, “What is the big deal?” David understands the gravity of his sin and pleads to God for forgiveness. David understands that he immediately needs the forgiveness of God for himself and for what he has done to his people.
Sin’s Consequences (1 Chronicles 21:9-15)
I want you to notice that just because David was seeking forgiveness from God did not make all the consequences for his sins disappear. Getting right with God is the most important thing you can do in your life. But please understand that getting right with God does not mean that the consequences and outcomes from your prior decisions will disappear. Your guilt will be removed but you will still have the problems that come from those decisions. But David is placed in a unique position. God allows David to choose what the consequences will be. He must choose between three years of famine, three months of devastation by the sword from your enemies, or three days of plague on the land destroying every part of Israel. Please consider that there is not a good answer. These are all very severe consequences for David’s sin. So what would you choose? I want you to notice how David chooses because it continues to reveal his heart and his understanding of God.
David said to Gad, “I am in great distress; please let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are very great. But do not let me fall into human hands.” (1 Chronicles 21:13 NASB 2020)
Please think about how David thinks about our Lord. These are horrible consequences. But here is what he knows. He will put himself in God’s hands because his mercies are very great. Being in the hands of God is far better than being in the hands of people. Do we think of God in this way? I think we might have grown up being taught that people are more merciful and kinder and that God is wrathful and torches people for blinking wrong. David understands that we have a God whose mercies are very great. The best place for him to rest his life is in the hands of God. Now what we are told next is going to show this amazing mercy of God.
In verse 14 we see the Lord sending a plague on Israel and 70,000 people die from it. Then God sends an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the Lord saw it, he relenting concerning the disaster and told the angel to stop. The point where the angel stops was at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Now here is the big question. Why did the Lord stop? Why does the Lord not fully carry out the consequences for the sin of David and the sins of Israel (cf. 2 Samuel 24:1)? Our first answer to this question is the great mercies of God. But why was it here and why was it at this moment that God stopped the plague against Israel?
Engaging God’s Mercies (1 Chronicles 21:16-30)
Verses 16-17 show David and the elders are clothed in sackcloth and on their faces pleading on behalf of Israel. David asks for the Lord’s hadn’t to be against him and his house and not on the people. Why did David do this and how did this engage the mercies of God? What we need to know that verses 18-30 explain what happened. The Chronicler does not want to leave you without the explanation of why God stopped the plague against Israel. So we are told the outcome. But now it is time to show what happened and why.
In verse 18 we read that an angel of the Lord tells Gad the seer to tell David to build an altar to the Lord on Ornan’s threshing floor. Now I want us to think about what God is doing because it is really important. God has proclaimed judgment for David’s sin and the plague has begun. But then God tells David what he needs to do in this moment. God explains what needs to be done for rescue. An altar needs to be made on behalf of the people. David does what God told him to do (21:19). David comes to Ornan and tells him that he needs this threshing floor so that he can build an altar to the Lord so that the plague may be stopped (21:22). Now pay attention to the details of this transaction. Ornan happily says that David can have the threshing floor along with oxen and threshing sledges for the sacrifices. But listen to David’s response in verse 24. David says that he must pay the full price. He is not going to offer burnt offerings that cost him nothing. David pays Ornan 600 shekels of gold for the site. Then David builds the altar and sacrifices burnt offering and peace offerings to the Lord as he called out to him. I believe we can say that David called out to the Lord with the words that we read back in verse 17. David is pleading on behalf of his people. He is interceding and asking for the punishment to be on him alone. Notice in verse 26 that the Lord answers with fire on the altar and in verse 27 the Lord stops the angel as he came to Jerusalem (cf. 21:15). This is the place where the punishment was averted and David offers sacrifices there. Now notice how the account ends. This is the place where the temple of the Lord would be built and where the offerings for Israel would be made (22:1). This was the future site for Solomon’s temple where God would live with his people and sacrifices for their atonement would be made.
Our Story
Friends, this is our story. This is the story for all humanity. We have sinned greatly against the Lord. We are worthy of punishment and judgment. The apostle Paul plainly declared that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). He also proclaimed that we are dead in our sins as we followed the direction of this world (Ephesians 2:1-3). But then God reveals what needs to happen. An altar needs to be built and a sacrifice needs to be made. But the sacrifice cannot be cheap or free. It is a costly sacrifice to pay the price necessary for the sins we have committed. This is why we needed the perfect Son to come from heaven and sacrifice his life for us. The apostle Peter proclaims that the price paid for your sins was not perishable things like silver and gold. The writer of Hebrews would say that would it not animal sacrifices that were sufficient to take away our sins. Rather, the price paid was “the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:19). The place of mercy was established and it was not cheap or free. The place for mercy is in the sacrifice of Jesus. He died to avert the disaster that rightly should have come upon us. He paid the full price for the sins we committed. Isaiah prophesied this picture as well.
Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6 NIV)
Jesus interceded for us with the sacrifice of his own blood. Unlike David who was worthy of judgment falling on him, Jesus bore our pain and carried our sorrows, not because of himself, but for us.
Friends, sin and judgment do not need to have the final say in your life. God has proclaimed that disaster can be averted. This is what the apostles were preaching throughout the book of Acts. Sin and judgment do not need to be the final word over your life. First, respond with repentance and confession. Do not deny your sins. Do not hide your sins. Do not pretend that your sins are inconsequential. Friends, your sins are destroying you and destroying others that you know and love and even people you do not know. Not only this, but your sins have you in the place of judgment before God, worthy to pay the full price for your sins. You do not want to stand before God in judgment and receive the full recompense for your sins. I ask you to be like David. Confess your sins to God and decisively turn from those sins.
Second, ask for God’s mercy and put your life in God’s hands. You need to trust him. See God as someone you want to put your complete trust in because his mercies are very great. Now you might wonder how you put your trust in God. The first step of faith is being immersed in water for the forgiveness of sins.
You were also circumcised in him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, when you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. (Colossians 2:11-12 CSB)
Notice that your first step of faith is to trust him to remove your sins when you go down into the water and come up from it. The apostle Paul says that you are raised with Christ through faith in the working of God. Then you continue to trust God with your life, listening to what he says rather than listening to ourselves. Listening to ourselves is what put us in our sinful state before God in the first place. So we are forsaking our ways and thoughts and adopting God’s ways and God’s thoughts.
But how does any of this matter? God can be merciful to us because Jesus is the sacrifice we need. It would not matter how much we pleaded, how much we were sorry, or how much we desired forgiveness if the necessary sacrifice wasn’t made for our sins. God offered his Son so that you would respond to our sins with sorrow, repentance, confession, immersion by faith, and continuing to live your life trusting in your Lord because his mercies are very great.