24. Second Samuel 24. You'll notice something if you get to second Samuel 24, and that is it is the what? It's the last chapter in second Samuel. So we've been in second Samuel off and on here for a while.

Actually, we're gonna go back in next week and hit second Samuel 23. So we we skip 23. We're gonna go back to it. So we do have at least one more message out of out of second Samuel. But second Samuel 24, there's a story that's that's kind of out of place.

I don't know exactly where it fits. It seems it's it's relatively in chronological order near the end of David's reign. In second Samuel 22 last week, we looked at some wonderful things David had to say, there about, the Lord, his rock, his fortress, his deliverer. All of these, wonderful things remind us of the Psalms that he wrote and of his trust in the Lord. And then, like we are sometimes, you get to chapter 24 and David kind of backpedals.

And there are still consequences when we backpedal. And that's even true for the child of God. Praise God. Our sins are forgiven and they're off the books of heaven because our name's written in the book of what? The book of life through faith in Jesus Christ.

But David, once again, backpedals a little bit here. And if we're not careful, we are prone to the same. Until we get to heaven, we we drag this flesh around with us and it it causes us to stumble. It pulls us down. It tempts us, as we will see.

And, but, praise God for his grace and his mercy that he is he's still there. And, he said he'd never leave us nor forsake his children. And, and so we see that in this passage as well, and in particular, in the latter half. So let's, begin in verse one of second second Samuel 24. We're gonna read verses one through four and then verses eight and nine.

And again, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah. To number means, you know, to take a a census. Okay? Verse two. For the king said to Joab, the captain of the host, captain of his army, you remember Joab, don't you?

Which was with him. Go now through all the tribes of Israel from Dan even to Beersheba and number ye the people that I may know the number of the people. He's kind of consumed here with knowing the number of the people. The number that Joab's gonna come back with is is males of fighting age, so it's mainly the number that he's mainly concerned about is those that are military age. Verse three, Joab said unto the king, now the Lord thy God add unto thy people, how many soever they be?

A hundredfold. And that the eyes of my Lord the king may see it. But why doth my Lord the king delight in this thing? In other words, may the Lord multiply your people by a hundredfold. But it isn't necessary to do this.

Verse four, notwithstanding, the king's word prevailed against Joab and against the captain of the host. And Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel. In verse eight, it says, so when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. So a rather lengthy period of time that they were doing this that David asked for. And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people under the king.

There were in Israel 800,000 valiant men that drew the sword, and the men of Judah were 500,000 men. So so this is a report they brought back to David. So so we start out let's go back to verse one. And, we'll see, first of all, David succumbing, to temptation, in the first few verses here. It says, and again, the anger of the Lord kindled against Israel.

And he moved against moved David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah. First of all, is it a sin to be tempted? No. It is a sin to what? Yield to temptation.

Okay? David did not sin by being tempted. He sinned by yielding or succumbing to the temptation itself. Bible tells us that Christ was tempted many times by the devil during his forty days of fasting and yet he did not what? He did not sin.

He did not yield to, the temptation and did not sin either in his heart or in his actions. The Bible also tells us we are never tempted or enticed to sin by who? By God. Okay? For he is neither a sinner nor does he tempt others to sin against himself.

That wouldn't make a whole lot of sense anyway, tempt people to sin against yourself. But God does not tempt. Why? Well, the Bible tells us in James one thirteen and fourteen. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God.

For God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth thee any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. The temptation or the enticement to sin comes from where? Well, primarily from within. Now that started with Satan in the garden.

He enticed who? Eve. Eve did not have an internal enticement to sin. Therefore, Cain, I mean, not Cain. Satan came to Eve and tempted Eve to sin and enticed her to take of the fruit of the tree.

And then Satan and Eve enticed Adam and he ate of the fruit of the tree and thus here we are. Okay? And, we are born with a sin nature and we are easily enticed from within. But did God entice Adam and Eve to sin? The answer to that is no.

Did he give them a test to see if they would obey or disobey? The answer to that is yes. But he did not entice them to sin. No. That was the prerogative of who?

Of Satan. Okay. Satan is the tempter. He is the one he is a liar. He is a murderer.

He is a deceiver. He is the tempter. When it says here that the air of the Lord was kindled against Israel, we're not exactly sure why. It doesn't tell us in this passage enough to know that God knows what he's doing and God must have had a good reason. And David was tempted but was not tempted by God.

No. There's a parallel passage to this. This is not only recorded in second Samuel 24, it's also recorded in first Chronicles twenty one one. There's a lot that's written in second Samuel that is also written in first Chronicles. They're parallel accounts record of the history of Israel.

And in first Chronicles twenty one one, it says, and Satan stood again up against Israel and provoked God provoked provoked David to number Israel. So who was it that actually enticed David to sin? It was Satan. It was not who? It was not God.

Okay? Now, is this the only place in scripture this takes place? No. No. Get to Job chapter one and I see there that God has a plan to test who?

To test Job. Not that he would fail, but that he might succeed, that he might learn, and that he might grow. But who else was involved? Satan was involved. Satan said, well, you let me take everything away that he has and he'll curse you.

And God says, no, won't. Satan says, yes, he will. And God says, no, he won't. Satan says, yes, he will. And we could go on.

You get the point. And God says, okay. Go ahead. Take it all away. Why was Satan taking it away?

To entice Job to curse who? To curse God. By the way, did it work? The answer is is no. But God did permit Satan to tempt Job.

But God never does the tempting. It's always who? It's always sin and Satan. Jesus was tempted, as we mentioned, forty days in the wilderness fasting. He was tested.

Who led him into the wilderness to be tested? Matthew four. The spirit led him into the wilderness to be tested. But he was tempted by who? Again, Satan.

Again, like Eve, Jesus didn't have a sin nature. He had to be tempted from without enticed. Praise the Lord. Unlike Eve, he succeeded. And whereas in Adam all die, in Christ shall all be made, what?

Alive. Because the first Adam failed, but the second Adam, praise the Lord, didn't fail. And he he succeeded. Was it God's will for Jesus to go to the cross? Yes.

Did Jesus pick Judas knowing what Judas was gonna do? Yes. Yes. It's repeated in the gospels. He knew what Judas was.

He needed Judas as part of the plan. But who was it that entered into Judas to actually go and betray Jesus? That was Satan that did that again. And so Satan in our own sinful nature is that which entices us to do wrong. But God, at times in scripture, we see allows Satan to do that enticing.

Most of the time when you sin, you can't make the claim the devil made me do it. Okay? Number one, as a Christian, the devil can't make you do anything. Secondly, as James points out here, in most cases, the devil is not directly involved. Indirectly, yes.

But not directly because Satan can only be at one place at one time. He has minions, demons that help him. But most of the time, we are tempted by our own what? By our own lust. Yeah.

We're tempted by our own own lust and enticed. Should we yield, then we sin. There was something, a lesson that needed to be learned by Israel and David. God allowed Satan thus to tempt David to bring this about. God knows what he is doing, and we need always to trust in him.

The Bible tells us in Lamentations, it's of the Lord's mercies that we are not, what, consumed because his compassions they fail not. We all deserve punishment. We all deserve the the horrors of of sin. But praise the Lord, he has rescued us from the horrors of hell, and he's promised never to leave us nor forsake us. And how many times we do not even know has he delivered us from our own foolishness and from other dangers that wait in our path for he is a good, good God.

However, like us, oftentimes, David succumbed to temptation. That was not God's fault. That was whose fault. That's David's fault. When we sin, it's not when we fail the test, that's that's not God's fault.

That's our fault. David sadly did yield and despite the protest of Job, most certainly not the most spirit filled man as we've learned in our study, he persisted and commanded Job to number the people thus taking a census. It's not so much probably the census itself that was a sin, but it was the reason, the motivation behind it. What is what is often the motivation behind sin in our life? One word.

I heard I think I heard it. Pride. Yeah. And that seems to be the case here. David either wanted to to have near the end of his life this this this number this huge number of people that that he was king over to pamper his pride, or he wanted to know how mighty his army was to pamper his pride.

But whatever the case may be, it was out of pride and out of misplaced trust in the arm of flesh and not in the glory and the might of God that David decided to number the people. Earlier in Psalms, he had wrote, some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God. But he seemed to forget that forget that here. And so sin often comes with what? Consequences.

And some of them quite grave. We often like to sweep sin under the carpet and gloss over. It's just no big deal. Everybody's doing it. No.

It cost Christ his life on the cross. All of that beating, all of that suffering, that judgment from his own father in heaven that he took upon himself, that that was all because of our what? Because of our sin. And sin still has ugly destructive consequences. And so we see some of those ugly destructive consequences here in verse 10.

Verse 10. David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. Well, that's good. It's about time. But remember, this had been going on for nine months.

So this wasn't a oops, I you know, this was nine months long that they had been numbering the people. But finally and this is before you get all we we tend to get all over David's case. But before you get all over David's case, don't pretend that you haven't been persisting in something, a sin in your life for quite a while before you finally are smitten in your heart and decide to do something about it. Praise God. He's a merciful and patient God or else we would we would all be doomed.

So but praise the Lord. After time, David's heart smote him. And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly and that I have done. And now I beseech thee, o Lord, take away thy iniquity of thy servant for I have done very foolishly. So David prayed and asked God, oh Lord, I I sinned.

I know I sinned. It was wrong. Just just forget it and I'll just let it go. But sin has a what? Sin has a cost.

It has a price. There are consequences to sin. And God can forgive me in light of eternity. That doesn't mean all the consequences here on earth are just completely let go. And so we continue in verse 11.

For when David was up in the morning, the word of the Lord came unto the prophet Gad, David Seer, saying, go and say unto David, thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things. Choose thee one of them that I may do it unto thee. So Gad came to David and told him and said unto him, here are your options. No. God's not gonna take your life.

No. Not at this time. He's not gonna take the kingdom from you. I probably should, but no. Not at this time.

But nonetheless, the consequences were dire. Shall seven years here's your option. Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? Number one option. What happens in a famine?

Well, people don't have food and therefore, what happens? People die of starvation. Seven years, that's a long time to have to deal with the consequences of his sin. Or wilt thou flee three months from thine enemies while they pursue thee? So seven years of famine, three months of being overwhelmed by your enemies.

And by that, God probably doesn't just mean David himself, but the people of Israel. Okay? Which again would result in a great deal of death. Or that there be three days pestilence in thy land. Now advise and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.

Which would be God that sent Gad. David said unto Gad, I am in great strait. Well, I imagine he is because none of those sound very pleasant. Every one of those options are gonna result in death for many of his people. Can't imagine the weight of that upon his on his shoulders.

One of the commentaries I was reading pointed out, we look at David's sin with Bathsheba and the essential murder of Uriah the Hittite is being a far greater sin than numbering the people of Israel. But yet, actually, the consequences for this were far greater in our way of thinking than the consequences for the other. It's gonna result in the loss of 70,000 people. The previous loss of life was much lower, primarily four of his sons. But sometimes we look at some sins and I'll think, well, that's no big deal.

But it is a big deal to who? It is a big deal to God. Yeah. Our estimation is not always always his. So David had a choice to make.

He was betwixt, just couldn't decide. He goes on, verse 14, David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait. Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord for His mercies are great, and let me not fall into the hand of man. What did that mean? It means David picked option number three.

Not seven years of famine. Can't imagine that. Not running from his enemies. Did not want to be put in the hands of his enemies. But option number three, pestilence and being placed in the hand of God, hoping for his mercies because David knew that he served a merciful God.

So we see that God brought consequences for sin. Sin carries consequences. Sin brings punishment. There is a price. This be paid to tell we're told in numbers, be sure your sin will what?

We'll find you out. And how did it find him out? Well, verse 15, so the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed, and there died of the people from Dan, that's the furthest point North, even to Beersheba, furthest point south, 70,000 men. When the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord repented him of the evil and said to the angel that destroyed the people, it is enough. Stay now thine hand.

And the angel, Lord, was by the threshing floor of Aruna, the Jebusite. So in a short amount of time, this pestilence took the lives of how many? Seventy thousand people died because David decided to pamper his ego. That's terrible. But sin has consequences and sometimes our sin affects others as much as it affects who?

Us. Especially if you're in a position of leadership. In the home, in church, over business, over mission. Sin has consequences and they're especially great upon leaders and those whom they they lead often suffer greatly from sin, even the sin of pride. And the 70,000 people died.

But David chose wisely. Sadly, he had to choose because when God got when the angel got to Jerusalem, God said what? Stop. That's enough. Was the three days over?

I don't think so. It indicates here that it wasn't completely over. God decided to stop early because he is because he is a merciful God. And to a repentant and humble David, God gave him a way of escape. God gave him a way to deliver those people in jeopardy in Jerusalem, the city of David from death.

And so we we continue. Verse 17. David spake unto the Lord when he saw the angel that smote the people and said, lo, I have sinned. I have done wickedly, but the sheep, what have they done? So let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me and against my father's house.

Now that is true what? That is true repentance. Why? What's the difference between that verse and the one in verse 10? Any thoughts?

Well, in verse 10, David said his heart smote him. In other words, he he felt remorse because he did the wrong thing. And in verse 17, he told the Lord, quit. Stop destroying the people. Punish who?

Me. He didn't say, God, just excuse my sin. Just let it go. Don't bring punishment. No.

He said, quit punishing the people and punish you and punish me. That is humility and that is repentance. And when David repented, who listened? God did. And God provided a way to end to end the suffering.

When we are willing to accept responsibility for our sins and face the punishment which is due us rather than making excuses, rather than denying, rather than justifying, then God lives up lifts up the humble and provides a way of escape for the contrite of heart. Psalm fifty one seventeen. After David's sin with Bathsheba, he writes, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, o God, thou will not despise. What are we told in the New Testament in first John? If we, what?

Confess our sins. That means don't glaze them over, don't sugarcoat them, but be honest and true and open with the Lord. If we confess our sins, a heart of repentance, he will what? Forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all. He'll take that burden off of you.

He already bore it on the cross, but he'll take it off of your conscience. He will bring cleansing and forgiveness, and you can move on in service of the Lord. And so he did for David. He made, as he says he will, a way of escape. What was that?

Well, verse 18. Verse 18. Gad came that day to David and said unto him, go up, rear an altar. What's the it means build. Okay.

Rear, build. An altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Aruna, the Jebusite. Now in first Chronicles, in the parallel passage, his name is Ornan, but Ornan and Aruna are the same person. And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as the Lord commanded. Just another side note, it says a run of the Jebusite.

The Jebusites were the people that lived in Jerusalem before who took it before David took it. So they were the the previous owners of of Jerusalem and David took it from them. And this is one of those people, but clearly one that had turned to faith in who? To faith in God. And so so he went to the threshing floor of this man, the Jebusite.

David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as the Lord commanded. Aruna looked and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. And Aruna went out and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground. And Aruna said, wherefore is my Lord the king come to to his servant? And David said to buy the threshing floor of thee, to build an altar unto the Lord that the plague may be stayed from the people.

And Arunah said unto David, let my Lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him. Behold, here be oxen for burnt sacrifice and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood. All these things did Aruna, as as a king, give unto the king. And Aruna said unto the king, the Lord thy God accept thee. And so, David came to Aruna and, as the Lord had instructed, came to this man who was not not an Israelite, okay, who owned this piece of property.

And, he came to make a sacrifice unto build an altar unto the Lord there. And when Arunach saw him, what did he do? Well, being humbled by the presence of king David and maybe a little bit afraid, I'm not sure, Arunach said to David, okay, just take any anything you want for the sacrifice. Here it is. Take it.

Use it. You owe me what? You owe me nothing. I think that's what I would have done if I had been a runa. You know?

There's a plague killing people over there, and here's the king. I'll just here, take the land. Take the well, take whatever you need. Just go ahead. But I I find this as one of the one of the quotations in scripture that sticks often in my head.

Verse 24. The king said unto Aruna, nay or no, but I will surely buy it of thee at a price. Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver. And David built there an altar unto the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

So the Lord was entreated for the land and the plague was stayed from Israel. David said, I will not offer to the Lord that which cost me, what? Nothing. A sacrifice is only a sacrifice if it what? If it costs you something.

If it doesn't cost you anything, then it isn't a what? Then it's a sign of sacrifice. So quit using that term. Sometimes we do that. Always, I sacrificed this for the Lord.

Well, was it really a sacrifice? You know, I quit eating chocolate for two weeks. Really? That's a sacrifice? No.

That's good. I should quit eating chocolate for two years, not just two weeks. It would serve me a lot better. It's not a sacrifice. We bemoan and talk about sometimes, think about how great our sacrifice, Lord, when it when it basically costs us what?

Costs us nothing. And that's not true for a lot of Christians around the world. They serve the Lord sometimes at great great peril and make great sacrifices for the cause of Christ. Some losing their own life, some losing family members, some being cast out by their family, having a a a casket buried like they were in it, and their family never speaks to them again. Some are cast in prison, some are beaten.

We we use that word sacrifice sometimes, I think, a little too loosely because some of the sacrifices we think we make really really are not sacrifices to speak of. But there is one who made a sacrifice above all other sacrifices to stay the hand of God, to save humanity from the just wrath of God. And who is that? And that's Jesus Christ. And did it cost him something?

Yeah. It did. It cost him his life. It cost him great suffering, the shedding of his blood on the cross, the humiliation that he bore as he hung there practically naked before the world so that we would not have to suffer the enmity of hell and the lake of fire. Praise the Lord for his sacrifice for us because he made that same choice.

I will not offer that which cost me what? Which cost me nothing. And our salvation cost him dearly. Yes. We are saved by grace through faith.

It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast, but don't forget for one minute that it did not come at great, great, great cost that we might be saved. And there's there's more to this story, interestingly. For in the place where David purchased the the place that David purchased the land, he commanded his son Solomon to construct a building after his death. What building would that be? The temple.

So where David built an altar that day for the Lord on that mountaintop that David purchased was where Solomon would build a magnificent structure as a testimony to the world of the Lord and as a place for God to dwell with his people and a place for them to worship and a place where atonement would take place on the day of atonement every year and every day of the year as sin offerings were made for the people at that that temple where lamb's blood was slain for the remission, the covering of sin until the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world came. As the blood was sprinkled upon the mercy seat there on the hill where David built the altar. But it there's a little more to it than that. You see, back in Genesis 22, God told Abraham to go and sacrifice who? Isaac, his son.

And he told him he to go to a mountain that was three days journey away. Three days. Now, I don't know if that corresponded to the three days that Jesus was in the grave or I I no. But three days was the length of time it took for Abraham and Isaac to get from where he was to that mountain. Now, why what's important about that mountain?

Well, when he got to the mountain, Isaac asked his dad, where's the sacrifice? And Abraham says, God will provide himself the sacrifice. Now that could mean that God would himself provide a sacrifice, which God did for Isaac and the ram that was caught in the thicket. Or it could mean that God would provide himself as the sacrifice. And he goes on to say, in the mount of God, it shall be seen.

What mount? Well, the mount where God told Abraham to take Isaac. You wanna guess where that was? On the same site that David just built an altar. On the same site where the temple was later built.

And on the same site that was only a short distance from the place where Jesus Christ hung on the cross for the sins of the world. Where God promised to provide himself as the means of atoning for the sins of the world once and for all. For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. For he hath brought us together with God, restored our fellowship as he died the just for the what? The just for the unjust.

For he became sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the what? Righteousness. He was wounded for our what? Transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement upon his of our peace was upon him and by his stripes, we are we are healed.

Healed from the ravages of sin and Satan. All took place where David just bought a piece of land to make a sacrifice. All pointing the last chapter of second Samuel to what the Bible is really all about. And that is God's plan of redemption for mankind, for all of those who will put their trust in him. Like David, our salvation came at a great cost also, but to our savior.

By his costly sacrifice, God's just wrath has passed over the children of Adam as it did the children of Jacob at the Passover. And here again near the end of David's reign. Praise the Lord for his mercy. David put his life and the lives of others in the merciful hands of God, and again, he found that to be the right decision to make. But in closing, just a few thoughts.

Number one, sin has consequences. And sometimes not just the one who sinned. Sometimes our sin affects others. So we might wanna think a little more seriously about sin than sometimes we do. Sins penalty must be paid.

God's holiness must be must be satisfied. Praise God. Christ satisfied the eternal wrath of God by his death and resurrection. Christ Jesus paid the price for us on the cross to absolve us of our eternal debt. But we must humble ourselves in faith to what?

To receive it. David humbled himself and God brought deliverance to David and to his people. We need to be willing to humble ourselves and even as Christians to humble ourselves and truly be repentant when God points his finger in our heart and life and says, this needs to go. It's wrong. If we will, we will find the mercy of God, forgiveness and cleansing.

And we take it often too much for granted what it cost our savior. And then finally, as I mentioned, we are too quick to label things sacrifices for Christ in our lives, which cost us little. Just think about what it cost him. And the sacrifices that we make will seem a little bit what? A little bit smaller because we can never pay back what he did for us.

Praise the Lord. He does not demand that. But certainly, he does deserve our gratitude and our sacrifice. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for your mercy that you've shown toward David, towards us, and most of all, in the person of your son, Jesus Christ.

Lord, may we be more grateful and, Lord, may we look more for opportunities to truly show our gratitude and our sacrifice to the Lord. May, Lord, we be sensitive and of a humble heart. May we may we be willing to confess, truly confess our sins and not sweep them under the rug or pretend they're they're not that offensive. Lord, thank you for all that you have done for us. Forgive us of our our foolishness and our pride, and thank you, Lord, that you do.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If