Consequences of the Census (2 Samuel 24)

  So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel because they had rebelled against His decision.... again. God used David's sin to enact punishment against the entire nation of Israel. When we left last time, the prophet Gad had relayed God's message to David. David had a choice to make about the punishment that would be executed against the nation of Israel. Here were the three choices. Either three years of famine, three months of fleeing from their enemies or 3 days of a deadly plague.

  If you had a tough decision like this, what would you choose? I know what I would NOT choose. Since I would be the king, I wouldn't have to worry about a famine, because the king had plenty of food stored up. Or I wouldn't have to worry about fighting off the enemy, because as king, I would be protected at all cost. I wouldn't pick the plague, because death could strike anyone at any time. As king, I would be as vulnerable as anyone else in the kingdom. So that would definitely NOT be one of my choices..... but that is exactly what David chose. He knew that he had sinned. (he takes full blame at the end of the chapter) and he says in verse 13., "Let me fall into the merciful hands of our Lord. If he sees fit to inflict me, then so be it."

  So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel and it last three days. Seventy thousand people died throughout the nation. But as the death angel was in Jerusalem, he stopped at the threshing floor of Araunah. (A threshing floor was a hard floor where a wheat farmer would crush his crop to remove the grain from it's husk by having oxen drag a large heavy board over it) When David saw the angel of the Lord. He prayed that the plague would end and that if anyone else should die, it would be David himself. Just then Gad the prophet came to David and said, "Build an altar to God on this very site. So David went to Araunah, the man who owned the site where the altar was to be built. Araunah was a little nervous because the king wanted to talk to him. "Why have you come my lord?" he asked.
  David replied. "I have come to buy your threshing floor so that I could build and altar to the Lord there, so that He will stop the plague."
 "Please take it my lord. And here are some oxen for the offering and wood to make the fire. I will give it all to you, and may the Lord your God accept your sacrifice." Araunah answered.
   David insisted. "No. I must pay you for the place, the oxen and the wood. For what kind of sacrifice would it be if it cost me nothing?"

  The word sacrifice itself means to give up something. If David took the threshing floor, the oxen and the wood and offered it up to God, it would have been Araunah's sacrifice. We must remember that when we live our lives for Jesus, we are giving up our own desires and plans and replacing them with God's. But the amazing thing is that God loves us so much! His desires and plans for us are for our own good. He wants the best for us! The Bible says that the more we give up for Him, the more we have! That is called a paradox, and the Bible is full of them. (The last shall be first..... the humble will be exalted... to name a couple of examples.)

 So David bought the threshing floor, the oxen and the wood. Then he built and altar and sacrificed to the Lord. The plague stopped right there at the threshing room floor!

  The amazing thing about where that threshing room floor was located was that it was on Mount Moriah. The same place where Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac to God a thousand years earlier. And it is also the same place where Jesus sacrificed his life for us on the cross a thousand years later! God is so amazing!
 Well that finishes the books of First and Second Samuel. Next time we will be starting First Kings.

David Takes a Census (2 Samuel 24)

 So now Israel was enjoying a time of peace and unity. However, God's anger burned against Israel. David was God's own anointed king. The people had sided with Absalom because he seemed more kingly to them. He was tall, good-looking and charming. But David was God's chosen king. God was going to discipline the people and He used David's pride and yielding to the devil's temptation to do it.

 David knew God's Word. In Exodus 30:12 it says not to count the people because counting equals ownership..... and Israel is God's people. But David gave in to the temptation and called in his general, Joab. After David finished explaining how he wanted Joab to go throughout the kingdom, from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south, and count the people, Joab replied. "May the Lord allow you to live long enough to see a hundred times the amount of people in the kingdom as there are today. Please do not sin against God by doing this." Never the less,  the kings word prevailed over Joab and the captains of the army. (The captains warned David as well. When there are several objections to your plan, it is time to rethink what you are about to do.)

 Why did Joab object so vehemently to David's plan. Perhaps he knew how it would affect the people, or he was looking out for the king. Or maybe he was thinking about himself. he was a general after all. Why should he stoop so low as to be a people counter. His pride was at stake! Speaking of pride, by ordering the census, David was feeding his own ego. Israel had grown enormously, he wanted to take the glory and the credit for himself.
 Pride is the sin of all sins. It was pride that toppled Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden. Pride is a preoccupation with ones self. What letter is in the middle of pride? I. And what letter is in the middle if sin? That's right....I. Putting ourselves above everyone is sinful pride. Pride also puts God in second place. God should always be first, and at the center of everything we do or say.

 So the census was taken. It took about 10 months to count the people. David had 10 months to change his mind and stop the census, but he didn't. God will always give us a way out of yielding to temptation. (1 Corinthians 10:13) When faced with temptation. STOP and pray. God has an exut strategy for you and He will show it to you. Sometimes it is simply saying "no".

  It turns out that there were 130,000 fighting men in the kingdom, which translates to 6 million people. Do you think David confidently sat back after the census was complete and said, "That's what I'm talking about!"? No. He did just the opposite. He felt guilty. He knew that he had sinned.
  Why do we feel guilty when we sin. It is because The Holy Spirit convicts us. We have Jesus living inside of us (If we have made Him the Lord of our life. Here is a link from a past blog telling how we can have this.  http://mrbiblehead.blogspot.com/2010/03/choosing-god.html). And Jesus would not be content with sin. So it is time to repent. I know, the word repent sounds harsh, but it is simply being sorry and turning from our sin and toward God. And that is just what David did. However, there was still a consequence. When I repent, I do not get off scott free. There is a price to pay. God was going to discipline Israel because of their recent actions, so he sent a prophet named Gad to give David this message.  "Choose one of these 3 punishment and I will do it says the Lord. Will you choose three years of famine, three months of fleeing from your enemies, or three days of severe plague throughout the kingdom."

"This is a desperate situation!" David replied. But he knew how he had to answer.

Next time we will see which punishment king David chose, and why.

The 10 plagues (part 2) and Passover

 Last time we checked in on Moses and his brother Aaron, they were leaving the king of Egypt after he had promised them that he would let the Hebrews go if God would get rid of all the frogs, but he lied.
 So far God has turned Moses’ staff into a snake. He has turned the Nile river to blood and He has covered all of Egypt with frogs. God knows that it will take 8 more miracles before the king finally lets the Hebrews go.  Here is a list of the first nine. (We’ll look closer at number ten, because that’s the one that finally freed the Hebrews from slavery.)

 1. The Nile river turns to blood. All the fish die and the Egyptians have to dig new wells for water.
 2. Frogs come up from the water and cover the land. When they die, all of Egypt smells really bad.
 3. Gnats (which are those teeny tiny bugs) come up from the dust and swarm over all of Egypt.
 4. Flies swarm over all the land, causing all kinds of problems with sickness and food and comfort.
 5. The cows and donkeys and sheep in Egypt will get sick and die except for the Hebrew’s livestock.
 6. Sores (called boils) break out on all the Egyptians, all over their bodies, but not on the Hebrews.
 7. A great hailstorm destroys the crops in the fields and kills many of the Egyptian’s livestock.
 8. A swarm of beetles called locusts swarms over the fields and eats the remaining plants and crops.
 9. Total darkness covers all of Egypt for three days, however the Hebrews still have light.

By number 8, the Egyptians were begging the king to let the Hebrews go, but he was so hard-hearted that he still refused. So what finally convinced the king to let the Hebrew slaves go?
 God told Moses and Aaron that the king will finally let the Hebrews go, and that the Egyptians would be so happy to see them leave, they would give them valuables.  He told Moses to tell all the Hebrews not to make bread because it takes too long. Instead make crackers.  He said that all of a sudden, the king would tell the Hebrews to leave at once. God even told them not to put on their pajamas at night so that they would be ready.

“Tonight an angel of death will fly over Egypt. The firstborn son of every family will die except for the families that put the blood of a lamb on their door. “ God told Moses.
 Moses went to all the Hebrew families and told them to put the blood of a lamb on their doors and God would spare their oldest son. So they did and the angel of death flew over Egypt and all the firstborn sons died except for the families that put the lamb’s blood on their door. The angel of death passed over them and that is why the Hebrews celebrate Passover till this day. Jesus is our lamb. He died and shed His blood so that if we believe that He is God’s son and that he died and rose for us, God’s judgement would pass over us and we will live forever with Him!
 The king woke up in the middle of the night  to the queen’s cry because their oldest son had died. He went right away to Moses and told him to leave Egypt. All the Egyptians were so glad to be rid of the Hebrews, that they gave them gold and silver and clothing! Just like God said they would. It’s a good thing that the Hebrews weren’t in their pajamas and they didn’t have any bread in the oven, because they were told to leave at once! But  soon after they left.... the king changed his mind again. He and all his men went out to the desert to bring them back. Next time we’ll find out if they catch up with them.

 About 2 million Hebrews left that night. In the Bible it is called the exodus which is where the name of the second book in the Bible came from. The Hebrews were  slaves to the Egyptians for 430 years! To us that seems like such a long time. But the Bible says that 1000 years is like a day to God. (2Peter 3:8) So in “God years” they were only slaves for about 11 1/2 hours.