(10) В¶ And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly. (11) For when David was up in the morning, the word of the LORD came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, (12) 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. (13) So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days' pestilence in thy land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.
Though David's sin seems plainly to have been the sin of presumption, in trusting more to an arm of flesh than in the LORD GOD of his salvation; yet, it must be confessed, that both in the sin, and in the proposed punishment, we have not so clear marks to form our conclusions as to speak with certainty.
That GOD should propose what kind of punishment the sinner would choose, appears difficult to explain. I confess that I am much inclined to look at the whole subject in a gospel sense, and consider the representation here made, the shadow of good things to come. And I am the more inclined to this idea from what is said concerning it in the very opening of the chapter; that the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel. It was a national sin, not a personal sin only, in the case of David's numbering the people. And as such, did it not intimate the universal state of man by sin and transgression, all subject to death and destruction! Reader! if we regard it in this point of view, how directly it leads the soul to the redemption by JESUS. When sinners are brought under a deep sense of sin, and accept (as it is called) the punishment of their iniquity; they are then brought into a state of grace for the cordial reception of the gospel of JESUS. See Leviticus 26:41.