And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel.
Under a spell
(Compare 2 Peter 1:21):--
I. All the world seems to be under a spell or charm; inward influences move men as steam moves a ship. There am three spells.
1. One is that of parentage. The spell of a virtuous parentage influences its children’s children, like a good charm, for thousands of generations; but, on the other hand, the wickedness of a parent generally ceases to influence his offspring at, as the Second Commandment says, “the third and fourth generation.”
2. Another spell is the outward influence of our surroundings. Faithful parents, wise teachers, inspiring books, virtuous companions, healthy atmosphere, and suitable food will train up a child in the way God and men would have him go; but many a bright apprentice lad has been cursed by bad example.
3. The third spell is that of inward influences. One of these is said in the Bible to be the movement of the devil, and the other that of the holy God.
4. What can be greater than the spell which moves the human appetite to intoxicating drink? To obtain drink people will sometimes descend to the lowest degradation of meanness. Yes; the evil spell of the appetite for drink upon its victims is great and overpowering. Drink may be no temptation to you and me, but many people find it a spell which moves them as the tide and wind sometimes drives a feeble ship on the rocks. And what stronger spell can there be than the inclination to war between men, and churches, and nations?
5. Again, is there a stronger spell than the desire for money, the greed of gold? See how men under the spell of an insane ambition for wealth sometimes forget honour, and become actual thieves!
II. Now, let us consider the good spell over mankind. One of these is the heaven-born spell of true love; it is a most powerful influence for good. Thus love will reform the prodigal life. There is no stronger spell than true love; God is love. It is by the wisdom of love that He converts mankind. God’s object in winning men to love Him is that they may be prompted to self-denial in themselves and to do good works to others. (W. Birch.)
David’s sin and repentance
I. David’s sin.
1. Its occasion: pride and vainglory--“that I may know it.”
2. Its unseen but real source: Satan (1 Samuel 24:1).
II. The Lord’s displeasure because of his sin (1 Chronicles 21:9-17).
III. The atonement for his sin, made on the site of the Lord’s house (chap. 20:1-2; 1 Kings 6:1-38; 1 Kings 7:1-51; 1 Kings 8:1-66); as the foundation of the spiritual house (2 Corinthians 6:16-17; 1 Peter 2:4-5; Ephesians 2:21-22). The temple therefore rests as it were on--
1. An atonement for sin (Romans 5:11).
2. Sin put away, 1 Chronicles 21:17 (Daniel 9:24).
3. Wrath averted by sacrifice (verse 16:26-27; 2 Samuel 24:16; Isa 42:21; 1 Peter 1:18-19; 1 Peter 2:24; Colossians 1:20; Colossians 2:14-15). (Clergyman’s Magazine.)
David’s self-confidence
I. The sin of David in numbering the people was self-confidence, pride in his own strength, and forgetfulness of the source of all his strength, even of God. It was the greater sin in him because he had had such marvellous, such visible, witnesses of God’s love, and care, and guidance. Past experience might and should have taught him that his strength was not in himself, but in his God.
II. The sins of pride, and self-confidence, and forgetfulness of God are only too common amongst ourselves. When men dwell securely, in full peace and health, they grow careless in religion. God is not much present with them; they seem sufficient of themselves to keep themselves and to make themselves happy. (R. D. B. Rawnsley.)
David numbering Israel
I. Man, through the devil, bringing tremendous evils on the world. “Satan stood up,” etc. The existence and influence of this grand chief of evil agencies are here, and everywhere through the Bible, stated as facts too well authenticated to require argument. He tempted the progenitor of the race; he assailed the Redeemer of the world; and he leads humanity captive by his will. He now had access, by means not stated, to the mind of the monarch of Israel. One might have thought that age, which had cooled in him the fires of life, would also have extinguished all the fires of worldly ambition; but Satan can rekindle the smouldering embers of evil within us: he did so now. The ambitious feeling awakened was not one of those passing waves of emotion that rise from the depths of the soul and break upon the shore and are no more; it took the form of an obstinate purpose.
1. That Satan’s influence on man, however successful, interferes not with man’s personal responsibility. David was held responsible for the crime which the devil suggested to his mind. Great is the might of Satan, and great are the influences which he can bring to bear upon us; albeit he has no power to break down our wills by force, no power to coerce us into the wrong. We feel we are not mere engines in what we do, that our actions, good or bad, are our own.
2. That one man’s sins may entail misery on thousands. It was so now: David’s sin brought death on thousands and agony into the heart of the nation.
3. That the Eternal has agents ever at hand to execute His judgments. (Homilist.)
Sinful counting
It is easy for us to rise in petulant indignation against David, and to declare that he ought not to have counted his men; but let us beware, lest in so doing we provoke the spirit of David to retort that it is possible for us to count our money so as to disclose the very motive and intention which in him we condemn as vicious. Yes there is an atheistical way of counting money. A man may go over coin by coin of his property, and look at it in a way which, being interpreted, signifies, this is my strength, this is my confidence; so long as I have all these coins it is impossible that I can get far wrong, or know much trouble, these will be my answer and defence in the day of accusation and adversity! (J. Parker, D. D.)
The impotence of numbers
Palestine fills a large place in history, but a very insignificant one on the map. David’s enemies were on every side, and they were all mighty in war. He had the sea to his west but did not command the coast. That (with its harbours of Tyre and Sidon) belonged to the Phoenicians, who overlapped him also on the north. To the east were the barriers of Moab; to the south the plains, cities, and hosts of the Philistines. We do not wonder that he wished to know upon what swords he had to depend. And yet we are told that it was an ungodly thing for him to number Israel.
I. What made this deed ungodly? The answer is that it was a departure from the place he held in the kingdom of God. He was losing the heart which could make him say, “I am small and of no reputation, yet do I not forget Thy commandments.” Such a mood, such a ranging of himself with neighbouring powers, was a grievous departure from David’s position as king of a chosen race. Think for a moment how unique that race was. Nothing is so wonderful in history as the survival of the Jews. They were set in the midst of mighty nations which far outnumbered them, but which all lost their place and power in the world while the Jews remained. And yet in the early days of this race they were in danger of being spoilt, and really degraded, by an attempt to set themselves on the level of the nations around. David’s act was a forgetfulness of, a departure from, God’s purpose. In seeking to realise his material resources, and count the swords which he could draw, he so far gave up that unseen vital force, which distinguished his people the most, and descended to the meaner level on which those around him took their stand.
II. What is the lesson to be learnt from this incident? That in the conduct of society and of our lives, dependence on mere numbers may prove disastrous.
1. In national economy. The consent and unanimity of a thousand fools does not render the folly of one man harmless; it may arm it with the power to do a thousand-fold more harm. We should be specially cautious in finding our course by that weathercock public opinion.
2. On a small as well as a large social scale. A prominent tendency to-day is to uphold the value of company and co-operation. In many respects this is well. Union is strength. But along with this may grow up a new tyranny. In passing from a selfish individualism to the recognition of a righteous socialism, we are in danger of having our personal convictions overridden. In presence of all the associations, societies, and committees in the world, we must not forget that some of the greatest things the world owns and cherishes, have taken their beginning and drawn their power from solitary source, some halfhidden spring which the crowd would pass by or trample down. The Bible would point to Noah, Daniel, and Job, and above all to the “lonely cross.”
3. In the religious life. No persuasion may be taken as true because it is accepted even by all. There was a time when the whole world believed that the sun moved round the earth. The great convictions and changes in history are irrespective of numbers. They come like little seeds which spread until they cover the land. Faith in numbers is a slavery worse than Egyptian, which shows itself in the discharge of our business and the profession of our faith. It is the deadly hindrance to which David exposed himself and his people. It is the temptation which besets us in the formation of our opinions and the doing of our work. We are all tempted to number the people. It is of the first importance that we should be true to the voice of our Father in heaven, who never leaves His children to walk alone if they will only take His hand. (Harry Jones.)
Census reflections
I. References to and reflections on two official numberings of the children of Israel (Numbers 1:26.).
II. Some general reflections on our national census.
1. The number of inhabitants of England and Wales at this moment is definite.
2. The number of the living inhabitants at this moment on the earth is definite.
3. The number of individuals who compose the whole human race is definite.
4. The number of the elect, or of those who shall ultimately be saved is definite.
Application: I would address--
1. Those who were numbered at the last census.
2. I would call to your remembrance those who have appeared and again disappeared during this interval.
3. The object of numbering suggests consolation. “The very hairs of your head are all numbered,” this is one of the sweetest pledges of our heavenly Father’s personal care over us.
4. It also suggests warning. “Lord, let me know mine end and the number of my days.” For what purpose? “That I may know how frail I am.” (W. Bramley Moore, M. A.)
Man, through God, arresting the great evils that have come upon the world
1. Profound contrition for sin. “And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing; but now, I beseech Thee, do away with the iniquity of Thy servant, for I have done very foolishly.” In Samuel it is said, “David’s heart smote him.” His conscience was aroused to a sense of his crime and became his chastiser. It allowed him to make no excuse; it prevented him from charging the crime even on the devil who tempted him. “I have sinned greatly,” “I have done this thing,” “Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered?” “Even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed.” Conscience, the deepest power within us, ever vindicates our personality, our freedom, our responsibility. An awakened conscience detaches us from the universe, from all, and places us as guilty personalities in conscious contact with Him who is the Eternal Judge of right and wrong. The first step to true prayer is this.
2. Unbounded trust in God. When Jehovah, through Gad, David’s seer, proposed to the monarch the choice of one of three judgments--famine, war, or pestilence--what was David’s reply? “I am in a great strait: let me fall into the hand of the Lord; for very great are His mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.” His sin had consisted in some measure in placing trust in men; why else did he require a census? Was it not because he thought that numbers were power for defence and conquest? That confidence is gone now, and God appears to him as the only object of trust. Wonderful trust is this. When all things go well and fortune smiles, when providence showers its blessings upon our path, skirting our way with verdure and flowers, we may feel some trust in Him; but when all is dreary, dark, and tempestuous, when we see, as David saw, in the black heavens the destroying angel with a sword drawn in his hands about to smite us, then to trust Him is to have a trust of the highest sort.
3. An atoning self-sacrificing benevolence.
(1) With a generosity rejoicing in sacrifice, he rears an altar. He was divinely commanded to rear an altar unto the Lord on the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
(2) With a soul benevolently oblivious of all personal interest he pleads with heaven.
1. The solemnity of man’s existence on this earth. Man here is the subject and organ of spiritual and invisible agents. The same man, as in the case of David, might be the organ of the devil and the organ of God. Under the influence of the devil, David became proud and rebellious, incurring the displeasure of his Maker and bringing ruin on his country; under the influence of God, he became profoundly contrite, trustful, and most benevolently prayerful; arresting the progress of evil and securing again for his country the mercy of Heaven. How terribly solemn is our life!
2. The ruinous and restorative dispositions in man. Selfish pride and self-sacrificing prayerfulness are the two grand dispositions which David displays in this portion of his history; the former was at once the product and instrument of the devil, bringing ruin upon his country; the latter was the product and instrument of God, counteracting the evils. (Homilist.)