The Anointed: What A Strange Ending

Final Lesson

I’ve Learned More Valuable Information from this Study than I Could Ever Put into Words

I Understand God’s Word as an Entire Narrative Better After this Study than I Did Before

I Just Hope I’ve Been Able to Communicate this Amazing Book in a Way that God is Proud of

I’m Sad to See this Book Go, but I’m Excited to Move On as Well

2 Samuel 24

2 Samuel 24:1 (NASB)

Now again the anger of YHWH burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.”

God was Angry Again (Not the First Time)

This May Refer to Chapter 21 Where God Caused a Famine for 3 Years Because of Saul’s Treatment of the Gibeonites

Or it Might Refer to a Number of Other Reasons God had Been Angry with Israel in the Past

Most Translations Say “He Incited/Caused/Moved David to Number the People”

This Would Infer that God Incited David to Do it

But 1 Chronicles 21:1 Says that Satan Incited David to Do it

This Simply Means that God Allowed the Devil to Tempt David

2 Samuel 24:2–3 (NASB)

The king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, “Go about now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and register the people, that I may know the number of the people.”

But Joab said to the king, “Now may YHWH your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see; but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?”

From Dan to Beersheba = From the Northern Border to the Southern Border

Joab Doesn’t Understand Why David Would Want to Number the Soldiers

God Could Add a Hundred Times as Many as There Already Are

In the Parallel Account in 1 Chronicles, it is Made Plain that Joab Highly Disagreed with David Doing this

But David Made Joab Go Anyway

(Map of Census Route)

It Took Them 9 Months and 20 Days to Complete the Census

800,000 Warriors in Israel & 500,000 in Judah

2 Samuel 24:10–14 (NASB)

Now David’s heart troubled him after he had numbered the people. So David said to YHWH, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O YHWH, please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”

When David arose in the morning, the word of YHWH came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, “Go and speak to David, ‘Thus YHWH says, “I am offering you three things; choose for yourself one of them, which I will do to you.” ’ ”

So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now consider and see what answer I shall return to Him who sent me.”

Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of YHWH for His mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”

David’s Conscience Bothered Him After He Took the Census

And God was Going to Punish David and Israel Afterward

We Know that God was Already Angry with Israel

But it Seems the Census Added to God’s Anger

Why? (Here are Some Possibilities)

David Knew God was Angry and Wanted to See if He Had Enough Men to Fight Off an Invading Nation that God Sent

David was Placing More Trust in Military Strength than in God

David Didn’t Have His Men Collect the Half a Shekel from Each Man Counted

Exodus 30:12–13 (NASB)

“When you take a census of the sons of Israel to number them, then each one of them shall give a ransom for himself to YHWH, when you number them, so that there will be no plague among them when you number them.

“This is what everyone who is numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as a contribution to YHWH.

Whatever the Reason God was Angry at the Census, David Believed He Had a Right to Be

He Confessed and Asked God to Forgive Him

God Gives David 3 Choices of Punishment for Himself and Israel

3 Years of Famine (1 Chron.), 3 Months of Fleeing from His Enemies, or 3 Days of Pestilence

David Chose the 3 Days of Pestilence

His Reasoning was: God is More Gracious than Humans, I’d Rather Fall into His Judgement than Man’s

All Across the Kingdom of Israel People Were Dying, 70,000 in All

2 Samuel 24:16–17 (NASB)

When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, YHWH relented from the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough! Now relax your hand!” And the angel of YHWH was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

Then David spoke to YHWH when he saw the angel who was striking down the people, and said, “Behold, it is I who have sinned, and it is I who have done wrong; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let Your hand be against me and against my father’s house.”

David was Right, God Does Show Mercy

But Why Did God Show Mercy?

Why Did God Stop the Angel?

Because David Interceded for the Sheep, Offering Himself on Behalf of His Sheep

After the Pestilence Stopped, the Prophet Gad Told David to Build an Altar on the Threshing Floor of Araunah the Jebusite

2 Samuel 24:20–23 (NASB95)

Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him; and Araunah went out and bowed his face to the ground before the king.

Then Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to YHWH, that the plague may be held back from the people.”

Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight. Look, the oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood.

“Everything, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May YHWH your God accept you.”

Araunah Made a Generous Offer to the King

He Offered Anything that David Needed Free of Charge

2 Samuel 24:24–25 (NASB)

However, the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to YHWH my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

David built there an altar to YHWH and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Thus YHWH was moved by prayer for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel.

David Refused to Offer Anything to God that was Not a True Sacrifice of His Own

David Didn’t Do Anything for God “Half-Way”

God is Worthy of More than that

God Expects and Deserves the Best We Have to Offer Him

What A Strange Ending

The Book Ends with God Stopping the Angel from Destroying Israel

Upon Reading this Chapter, it May Cause You to Think, “What a Strange Ending to a Book!”

Even More than that, “What a Strange Ending to David’s Story!”

But When You Pay Attention to What’s Really Going On Here, the Ending Makes Perfect Sense

Let’s Zoom Out and Look at the Story Again and See What We Find

God is Angry and is Sending Judgement on the World (Israel) for Their Wickedness

The Destruction of this Wicked People is Brought on by the Messenger of YHWH

This is a Mysterious Figure that Pops Up in Seemingly Random Parts of the Old Testament

I Believe There is Good Evidence to See the Messenger of YHWH as Pre-Human Jesus

This Plague is about to Destroy Jerusalem Until the King Intercedes for His Sheep

He Offers His Own Life so that Everyone Else May be Saved

He Pays the Price

Then He Offers the Sacrifice that Needed to be Offered for All of His People to be Saved

This Place of the Offering was at Araunah the Jebusite’s Threshing Floor

Seems like an Ordinary, Insignificant Place, Doesn’t it?

2 Chronicles 3:1 (NASB)

Then Solomon began to build the house of YHWH in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where YHWH had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan (Araunah) the Jebusite.

This is Where the Temple is Going to be Built by Solomon

Mount Moriah Sound Familiar?

This is Where Abraham was Going to Sacrifice Isaac Before the Messenger of YHWH Stopped Him

The Place that Abraham Called “YHWH Will Provide” Because God Provided a Sacrifice in the Place of His Son

There’s Enough Connections Here to Make Your Head Spin

First Thing We Need to Realize: This is No Random Accident of a Chapter

This was Placed at the End of this Book for a Reason, to Cause Us to See Some Very Important Pictures of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

In God’s Wrath, We Know that the Messenger of YHWH (Oops, I Mean…) Jesus Will Return to Take Vengeance on the Wicked

His Wrath Will Not be on Everyone, Though, Because the King (Jesus Himself) has Already Interceded for His Sheep

He Offered His Life in the Place of Ours

He Payed the Ultimate Price

And He Gave Himself as the Necessary Sacrifice that Appeases the Wrath of God

The Last Chapter of the Book of Samuel May Seem Like a Strange Ending to this Amazing Story of the Anointed

But it Makes Perfect Sense When We Realize…

The Book of Samuel Ends with the Gospel