The Greatest Blessing • 2 Samuel 24
1:00:17 Teaching begins
Notes
This chapter is similar to the Book of Job. God disciplines Job and humbles him so that He blesses him. In 2 Samuel 24 God keeps David and the nation of Israel from departing from Him. He humbles them, so that He blesses them in the end.
The purpose is that we understand that God works in our lives to make us humble, that the first and greatest blessing is humility, because God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
I’m reading in 2 Samuel 24.
1. This first part of the chapter shows that God is in charge of our lives, vv. 1-9.
A. Notice that God is behind what happens here. He is angry because of the whole nation of Israel. It’s not just what David does, it’s all Israel that provokes the Lord.
B. You might ask, what in the world moves God to be angry? The answer is sin. Especially the tendency of God’s people to trust in something else than God to meet their needs. That’s called idolatry.
C. David is part of the nation of Israel, he wants to indulge himself in pride.
1. That’s why he wants to number Israel. You need a standard to judge how you are doing. If you’re doing a good job as king there should be lots of prosperous people. David wants to know how many so he can say, “Look at you, David! You’re doing a good job shepherding people in the fear of God. What a good king you are!”
2. I would think this is what all Israel is thinking: what a great nation we are! We farm well, we fight our enemies well. We’re doing great! We can prove this by our prosperity. We can measure how well we’re doing. David is just one instance of pride in Israel.
D. What makes God angry is that all that blessing comes out of relationship with God, but His people ignore that and take the credit themselves.
1. When they do this, they ignore God, the giver of blessings, and go after the blessings directly. This is idolatry, worshipping and serving the creation rather than the Creator.
2. It’s offensive to God because Israel was created to testify to the truth, and instead of testifying that God is good, they are testifying we are great farmers and soldiers. We are the best.
3. Deuteronomy 8:16-20 In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end. Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. It shall come about if you ever forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish. Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so you shall perish; because you would not listen to the voice of the LORD your God.
4. Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling.
E. God’s anger incites David to act. He allows Satan to work.
1. 1 Chronicles 21:1-2 Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel. So David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, “Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan, and bring me word that I may know their number.”
2. That means God first left David open to temptation and stopped guarding David’s heart. He left David free to do what he wanted to do, which was be proud about being a good king. All Satan did was encourage David to do what he wanted to do.
3. Just like in Job, Satan could do nothing to David without God’s permission. That means that God is in control of Job’s life, David’s life, your life, my life.
4. Just like in Job, God is not going to destroy David but discipline him and humble him greatly.
2. Joab and the commanders resist David because you are not supposed to count Israel.
A. This is not clearly stated in the Bible, but it’s something that persists to the present day. You don’t number Israel.
B. Part of this is in the promise to Abraham, Genesis 13:16 I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered. You can’t number the dust of the earth, therefore you can’t count Israel. To this day, Jews count themselves by saying, “Not one, not two, not three.”
C. Not only this, but David is not counting Israel according to Scripture.
1. Exodus 30:11-16 The LORD also spoke to Moses, saying, “When you take a census of the sons of Israel to number them, then each one of them shall give a ransom for himself to the LORD, when you number them, so that there will be no plague among them when you number them. This is what everyone who is numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as a contribution to the LORD. Everyone who is numbered, from twenty years old and over, shall give the contribution to the LORD. The rich shall not pay more and the poor shall not pay less than the half shekel, when you give the contribution to the LORD to make atonement for yourselves. You shall take the atonement money from the sons of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may be a memorial for the sons of Israel before the LORD, to make atonement for yourselves.”
2. In redemption each man is reckoned the same, rich men the same as poor men. Each man is just a man in need of redemption before God.
3. David is completely ignoring this, and we’ll see that it results in plague.
3. David gets his way by using his God-given authority to indulge in sin.
A. One indication that this is sin is that David cannot be reasoned with. He is bent on what he wants and he refuses to listen to any counsel.
B. Lust does not have a conscience, and doesn’t think. Not just sexual lust, but strong desire that is sinful. It is fixed on what I want, not thinking about anyone else, just what I want.
4. That census goes on for nine months.
A. David might be thinking that everything is okay. No lightning bolt from heaven, no earthquake to say, “You have done wrong.”
B. You can get your own way and for a while it looks like it’s okay. It’s not. God sees it and He has prepared for it.
5. David realises he has sinned and the Lord disciplines him, vv. 10-15.
A. After months of denial the truth breaks in on David because he can’t silence his conscience. Deep inside he knows he did wrong against God.
B. Having that thing he knew he shouldn’t have takes all the joy out of it. He can’t indulge his pride for being a good king because good kings don’t disobey God and men. It’s awful to get that thing you wanted and there’s no joy in it because you got it in the wrong way.
C. So he prays for forgiveness, please take away my sin. And God will do that, but He also disciplines David.
D. God sends the prophet Gad with three choices for David.
1. This fits David’s sin, because it was David’s choice to sin. Now David has to choose his punishment.
2. God could give seven years of famine. This is a long time of lack, not enough food, and death. God gives good harvests. Are you such great farmers? What will happen when God doesn’t give good harvests?
3. God could give three months of you running from your enemies. They would win battle after battle because you’re on your own. God won’t give you victory.
4. God could give three days of pestilence. God gives health. If He relaxes His care for you, you can’t keep yourself alive.
5. All these things you take for granted. You think yourself capable and sufficient for life. But good things all come from God. As Daniel told Belshazzar the king, “But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and all your ways, you have not glorified.”
6. Apart from God you are powerless, insufficient, helpless. Now you will experience it.
E. David says to God, “You choose because You are merciful. Don’t let me fall into the hand of man.” That’s a wise choice, to depend on God’s mercy.
6. God sends the plague, vv. 15-17.
A. 70,000 people die in three days.
B. David says, “I’m the sinner, You should judge me. These sheep haven’t done anything.” But that’s not true. God knows each person in the whole nation. He knows exactly what He is doing.
C. He knows when He has achieved His purpose. The angel is about to destroy Jerusalem and God says, “That’s enough.” God has compassion on Jerusalem. As a Father in heaven He knows what it takes for His children to develop and grow right. He will discipline us to share His holiness. It’s not too extreme.
7. God works this out so that David buys the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, vv. 18-25.
A. Araunah is interesting.
1. Jerusalem used to be called Jebus, after the Canaanites that lived there. David took the city to be his capital after becoming king over all Israel.
2. Why Araunah was still there is a mystery. He’s a Gentile. Israel was supposed to completely destroy the Canaanites lest they learn their idolatry and desert the Lord.
3. But Araunah is a great humble man. He learned the Israelite ways instead. He is completely submissive to David. When he learns that David needs to build an altar there, he wants to give to David the whole property with the oxen and wooden parts as fuel for the sacrificial fire. May the Lord receive your offering!
B. David refuses the gift, by the way. If this sacrifice is nothing to me, why should God count it as worth anything? If it’s valuable to you, then it’s worth something to God. Think about it. If you don’t feel your offering to the Lord, He doesn’t feel it either. God gave Jesus, and He felt it because Jesus is worth more than all of creation. God gave and He felt it deeply.
C. It’s only in 1 Chronicles 22 that David says, “This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel.”
1. This happened also in the Book of Job. God humbled His man Job and blessed him greater in the end than in the beginning.
2. God not only dealt with growing pride, He made it turn out for good by revealing this is the place for the temple to be built. God is going to increase His presence in the midst of Israel. He is giving grace to the humble.
8. So what?
A. Realise that if you have received Jesus, God is in control of your life, not the devil, not anyone else, but God alone. You belong to Him.
B. God is first and foremost working to make you like Jesus, and that first characteristic is humility.
1. That is the greatest blessing, because all the blessings of God come through humility. God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. That’s Proverbs 3:34, 1 Peter 5:5, and James 4:6. If God says something three times, that’s significant.
2. Humility is the character of Jesus Himself, it is the character of the Father. If you abide in Jesus, then you need to be living like Jesus. Not my will, but Yours be done.
3. If God seems to be thwarting you, not letting you get your way, realise He is humbling you. Woe to you if you get your own way! You always want His way.
C. How you cultivate humility is notice what God is doing for you all around you and acknowledge it by giving thanks.
1. If you do this you’ll be happy, because you’ll be noticing how many good things God does for you. Come into His presence with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise. Thanks is the first step towards God.
2. If you don’t notice what God is doing for you, you lose consciousness of God. You start taking credit for what’s going right. It’s my skill, my brains, my experience. Not noticing God’s goodness is the first step away from God, David found.
3. That’s why we take time to tell what God did right this week. We are worshipping God for thinking of us and taking care of us. We’re humbling ourselves by speaking up and saying, this is what God has done for me. It shows your dependence upon God.
D. If you want God to bless you, ask Him to make you humble, like Jesus. Everything else comes out of that greatest blessing.
Let’s pray.