The Arithmetic of Pride and the Kindness of God Text: 2 Samuel 24:1-17
Introduction: The Sin of the Spreadsheet
We live in an age of metrics. We are a people obsessed with data, analytics, and spreadsheets. We want to quantify everything: our net worth, our social media reach, our company's growth, our nation's GDP. We have come to believe that if we can measure it, we can control it. We find security in numbers because numbers feel solid, objective, and real. We trust in the strength of our assets, the size of our armies, and the approval ratings of our leaders. This is the native language of secularism, and it is a language that Christians have become far too fluent in.
But this impulse is not new. It is as old as the pride of man. It is the desire to take stock of our own strength, to calculate our own security, and to find our confidence in something other than the bare Word of the living God. It is the sin of the spreadsheet. And in this final chapter of 2 Samuel, we see this sin laid bare in the heart of David, the man after God's own heart. This is not a quaint story about an ancient king's administrative blunder. This is a profound lesson on the nature of faith, the consequences of sin, the sovereignty of God, and the place where His judgment and mercy meet.
This passage confronts us with some of the most difficult questions in all of Scripture. Who incited David, God or Satan? Why was a census a sin? How can the sin of one man lead to the death of 70,000 others? And what does a threshing floor have to do with the gospel? The answers to these questions are not academic. They get right to the heart of how we are to live in this world. Do we live by sight, trusting in what we can count? Or do we live by faith, trusting in the God who cannot be measured?
The Text
And again the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.” So the king said to Joab the commander of the military force who was with him, “Go about now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and take a census of the people, that I may know the total count of the people.” But Joab said to the king, “Now may Yahweh 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?” Nevertheless, the king’s word stood strong against Joab and against the commanders of the military force. So Joab and the commanders of the military force went out from the presence of the king to take a census of the people of Israel. And they crossed the Jordan and camped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad and toward Jazer. Then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi, and they came to Dan-jaan and around to Sidon, and came to the fortified city of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites, and they went out to the south of Judah, to Beersheba. So they had gone about through the whole land, and they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. And Joab gave the total count of the census of the people to the king; and there were in Israel 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were 500,000 men.
Then David’s heart struck him after he had counted the people. So David said to Yahweh, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Yahweh, please take away the iniquity of Your slave, for I have acted very foolishly.” Then David arose in the morning, and the word of Yahweh came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, “Go and speak to David, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “I am offering you three things; choose for yourself one of them, and I will do that 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 adversaries while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now, know and see what word I should return to Him who sent me.” Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of Yahweh, for His compassions are abundant. But do not let me fall into the hand of man.”
So Yahweh sent a pestilence against Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and 70,000 men of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. Then the angel sent forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, and Yahweh relented of the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough! Now relax your hand!” And the angel of Yahweh was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. Then David spoke to Yahweh 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 unrighteousness; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let Your hand be against me and my father’s house.”
(2 Samuel 24:1-17 LSB)
God's Sovereignty and Satan's Malice (v. 1)
We begin with a verse that has troubled many, and for good reason. It forces us to think hard about who God is.
"And again the anger of Yahweh burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, 'Go, number Israel and Judah.'" (2 Samuel 24:1)
The text says plainly that Yahweh incited David. But when we turn to the parallel account in 1 Chronicles 21:1, it says, "Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel." So which is it? Did God do it, or did Satan? The biblical answer is a resounding "yes." This is not a contradiction; it is a revelation of how the world actually works. God is absolutely sovereign over all things, including the free choices of men and the malicious intentions of the devil. Satan is not a rival god; he is a creature on a leash. God, in His sovereign purpose, can use the malice of the devil to accomplish His own righteous ends, without Himself being the author of sin.
Think of it this way. Satan shoots the arrow of temptation with the intent to destroy David and dishonor God. But God is the master archer who aims that arrow to strike David's pride, to bring him to repentance, and to ultimately designate the very spot where the Temple of sacrifice and worship will be built. Satan meant it for evil; God meant it for good. The ultimate cause was God's righteous anger against Israel for some unspecified sin, and His purpose was to chasten His people and His king. The immediate cause was David's own pride. And the instrumental cause was Satan's temptation. All these things work together within the unshakeable framework of God's sovereign plan. This is a hard doctrine, but it is a glorious one. It means that there are no rogue molecules in the universe. Nothing, not even sin or Satan, can operate outside the scope of God's ultimate control.
The Nature of the Sin (vv. 2-9)
What exactly was so wrong with taking a census? Moses had done it twice at God's command (Numbers 1 and 26). The issue was not the act itself, but the heart behind the act.
"So the king said to Joab... 'Go about now... and take a census of the people, that I may know the total count of the people.'" (2 Samuel 24:2)
David's motive is revealed in his own words: "that I may know." This was not for tax purposes or for military conscription under God's direction. This was for David's own satisfaction. After years of military success, the king wanted to step back and admire the size of his army. He wanted to quantify his own glory. It was an act of profound self-reliance, a shifting of his trust from the God who gives the victory to the number of swords he could muster. It was David looking at his military portfolio instead of looking to his God.
The sin is so obvious that even Joab, a man not known for his delicate piety, sees the danger. His protest is remarkable: "Now may Yahweh your God add to the people a hundred times as many... but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?" Joab rightly identifies the problem as the king's "delight." He is saying, "Let God be the one to increase us, but why are you taking pleasure in the raw numbers?" But David, in his pride, is stubborn. He overrules his commanders, and for nine months and twenty days, this national project of prideful accounting proceeds. The result is a massive army: 1.3 million fighting men. This number, which should have driven David to his knees in thanksgiving to God, instead puffed up his heart with pride.
Conviction, Confession, and Consequence (vv. 10-14)
Only after the numbers are delivered does the grace of a guilty conscience arrive.
"Then David’s heart struck him after he had counted the people. So David said to Yahweh, 'I have sinned greatly in what I have done... for I have acted very foolishly.'" (2 Samuel 24:10)
This is the work of the Holy Spirit. A healthy conscience is a gift from God, and when it strikes, it is a sign of life. David's confession is immediate and total. He doesn't make excuses. He calls his sin what it is: great sin and great folly. But confession does not erase consequences. God sends the prophet Gad with a choice of three judgments. This is a severe mercy. God is disciplining His son, but He allows David to participate in the process.
The choice is between seven years of famine, three months of fleeing from enemies, or three days of pestilence from God. And David's answer is one of the most profound displays of faith in the Old Testament.
"Then David said to Gad, 'I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of Yahweh, for His compassions are abundant. But do not let me fall into the hand of man.'" (2 Samuel 24:14)
David knows that as terrible as God's judgment is, it is wielded by a hand that is fundamentally merciful. The hand of man, however, is cruel, capricious, and vengeful. David would rather be disciplined directly by his loving Father than be turned over to the abusive cruelty of his enemies. He runs toward the hand of God, not away from it. This is the heart of true repentance. It is to know that the safest place in the universe, even in the midst of judgment, is in the hands of God.
Federal Judgment and a Shepherd's Heart (vv. 15-17)
David makes his choice, and the consequences are swift and devastating. A pestilence sweeps through the land, and 70,000 men die. This strikes our modern, individualistic sensibilities as unfair. Why should the people suffer for the king's sin? The answer is federal headship. God has structured the world in such a way that the head represents the body. The sin of a father brings calamity on his household. The sin of a pastor brings trouble to his church. And the sin of a king brings judgment on his nation. We are not autonomous individuals; we are covenantally bound together.
But this principle of federal headship is not just a principle of judgment; it is the very structure of our salvation. For we too had a king, a federal head, the first Adam, whose sin plunged us all into ruin. But God provided a second Adam, a new King, Jesus Christ, whose perfect obedience is counted for His people.
As the angel of death reaches Jerusalem, God relents. He says, "It is enough!" His judgment is always measured and is always tempered with mercy. And it is at this moment, seeing the instrument of God's wrath, that David's shepherd heart is fully revealed.
"Behold, it is I who have sinned, and it is I who have done unrighteousness; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let Your hand be against me and my father’s house." (2 Samuel 24:17)
Here, David is a magnificent type of Christ. He stands in the gap. He sees the flock being slaughtered for his own sin, and he offers himself as the substitute. "Strike the shepherd," he says, "and spare the sheep." This is the cry of a true king, and it is a faint echo of the cry of the King of Kings, who saw His people under the sentence of death and said to the Father, "Let Your hand be against Me. Let the full pestilence of Your wrath fall on Me, and let these sheep go free."
Conclusion: The Threshing Floor
The angel was stopped at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. This is not a random geographical detail. A threshing floor is a place of separation, where wheat is separated from chaff. It is a place of judgment. It is on this very spot that David will buy the land, build an altar, and offer sacrifices. And it is on this very spot that his son, Solomon, will build the Temple.
This is where the story has been heading all along. God used Satan's temptation and David's sin to bring His king to a place of repentance and substitutionary pleading, and in doing so, He consecrated the ground where for centuries sacrifices would be offered, all of them pointing to the final sacrifice on another hill just outside the city.
The lesson for us is this. We must repent of the sin of the spreadsheet. We must stop counting our own resources and trusting in our own strength. Our confidence is not in our numbers, but in our God. And when we sin, when our hearts strike us, we must not run from God, but to Him, casting ourselves upon His abundant compassion. For He has already accepted the substitutionary plea of our true King. The judgment we deserved has already fallen upon Him. The angel of death has passed over us because the Shepherd was struck in our place.