THE LORD PUNISHES DAVID

PROCLAMATIONS

“And The Lord spoke unto Gad, David’s seer, saying, ‘Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith The Lord, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.’ ”  1 Chronicles 21:9-10 (KJV)

 

EXPLANATIONS

The words of First and Second Chronicles were written as one book under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God by Ezra the scribe and priest and historical Bible scholar according to Jewish tradition.  After defeating the Philistines and the giants, King David conducted a censes and counted the population of Israel. (1 Chronicles 21:1-5)  The Lord God was displeased with David’s action and He punished Israel for it.  David knew that he had sinned against God and he prayed for Him to turn away His wrath from Israel. (1 Chronicles 21:6-8)  The Lord God spoke to David through his seer Gad.  He told David to choose between one of the three punishments he would receive.  He had a choice of three years of famine, or three months at the hand of his enemies, or three days being punished by The Lord.  David chose to let The Lord punish him. (1 Chronicles 21:9-13)  So The Lord sent pestilence upon Israel and seventy thousand men died.  Then God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it.   As he was destroying, The Lord beheld, and He repented of the evil he was doing, and said to the angel, “It is enough, stay now thine hand.”  And the angel stopped the destruction. (1 Chronicles 21:14-15)  David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of The Lord standing between the heaven and the earth with his sword drawn and stretched out over Jerusalem.  Then David fell upon his face and asked The Lord to punish him for his sin and not Israel. (1 Chronicles 21:16-17)  The angel of The Lord commanded Gad to tell David to go and set up an altar in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.  David went to Ornan and told him that he wanted to buy the threshing floor to build an altar unto God.  Ornan wanted to give the land to David but he insisted upon paying full price for it.  David bought the land from Ornan, built an altar unto The Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to Him. (1 Chronicles 21:18-26)  After this, The Lord commanded the angel to put his sword back into his sheath.  David saw that The Lord had answered his prayer.  However, David did not go before The Lord for he was still afraid of the sword of the angel of The Lord. (1 Chronicles 21:28-30)

 

APPLICATIONS

The punishment of The Lord God is severe.  However, it is better to receive punishment from God than from man because great is the mercy of God.  Because of His mercy we do not get all of the punishment which we deserve.  Be thankful for God’s grace and mercy.