{"id":1142,"date":"2012-05-18T05:32:22","date_gmt":"2012-05-18T12:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.teach4god.com\/OTS\/?p=1142"},"modified":"2014-04-02T05:23:59","modified_gmt":"2014-04-02T12:23:59","slug":"2-samuel-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/2012\/05\/18\/2-samuel-24\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Samuel 24"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=2 Samuel+24&amp;version=NASB\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-family: Trebuchet MS; color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-family: Trebuchet MS; color: #0000ff;\">2 Samuel 24<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family: Trebuchet MS;\"> (Cf. <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=1%20Chronicles%2021&amp;version=NASB\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-family: Trebuchet MS; color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-family: Trebuchet MS; color: #0000ff;\">1 Chronicles 21<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>David takes a census of his troops. The entirety of the story is not evident\u00a0unless 1 Chronicles is read\u00a0with it. David has a desire\u00a0to take a census. There is nothing wrong with this in and of itself. Comparing these two chapters has caused some difficulties for many due to the players listed behind the census. Some have compared these chapters and had to conclude\u00a0that David took two censuses, one at the beginning of his career (2 Samuel) and one at the end of his career (1 Chronicles). The former has the census being taken between 2 Samuel 5 and 2 Samuel 6. The latter taking place before David died and the kingdom was transferred\u00a0to Solomon. However, a cursory reading of the book of Job allows for the activity to be\u00a0attributed to God (2 Samuel) and to Satan (1 Chronicles) with the ultimate\u00a0responsibility bearing down on David. The only activities that Satan can be\u00a0involved in are the activities that in which God allows him to be\u00a0involved. Satan can tempt, only as God allows him. Although Satan is behind this, David is at fault for completing the activity. In all things God has the purpose of bringing glory to His name. If God is glorified then the greatest good and benefit have occurred. If it is anything less than glory to His name, then it falls short of the standard of God (which is always best and greatest).<\/p>\n<p>In this account we have three sections to consider.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Verses 1-9-God is angry over something in Israel. It isn\u2019t David but Israel with whom God is displeased. Could this be over a decline of worshiping the true God? Could it be syncretism? God allows the thought to be\u00a0placed into David\u2019s mind of taking a census. His commander, Joab, who will attempt to dispose of David in a few chapters, sees this is even a bad idea. David follows through with the plan. After nine months and twenty days of counting, David finds he has, rounded, 1,200,000 military men at his disposal. This number is different from the one given in 1 Chronicles, which we will deal with that when we get to 1 Chronicles 21. This number would bring the general population around 6,000,000 people (an estimate on my part). Some have taken the opportunity of stating the nine months of labor produced sin on David\u2019s part.<\/li>\n<li>Verses 10-17-David realized that he had sinned in taking the census. God sent another prophet to David; this time it is Gad. He informs David that God will judge Israel because of the sin of David but, we need to remember, it was His plan to use this to judge Israel for walking away from Him and keeping their idols. God allowed David to choose the discipline: three years of famine, three months of David fleeing, or three days of pestilence. Ultimately the discipline of three days was given. David\u2019s repentance was complete. David asked a bewildering question which signified that he had not fully grasped all that God was doing. He recognized his sin but called the people innocent lambs. It is their sin that initiated the process of discipline. They needed to repent even as David repented.<\/li>\n<li>Verses 18-25-David is told\u00a0to build an altar &#8220;on the threshing floor of Araunah\u00a0the Jebusite.&#8221; He does so. This will be the place that Solomon will build the Temple (<span style=\"font-family: Trebuchet MS;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=2%20Chronicles%203.1&amp;version=NASB\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-family: Trebuchet MS; color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-family: Trebuchet MS; color: #0000ff;\">2 Chronicles 3.1<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family: Trebuchet MS;\">). God was able to take the two great sins of David, adultery with Bathsheba and the census, and produce the Temple. Solomon, the son of David and Bathsheba, built the Temple on the threshing floor David purchased to make restitution for the census.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When all has been read\u00a0and discussed, we should consider how we walk as individuals, as a church body, and as a nation. If God brings discipline for syncretism, then how far are we away from His thundering velvet hand bringing discipline?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When all has been read and discussed, we should consider how we walk as individuals, as a church body, and as a nation. If God brings discipline for syncretism, then how far are we away from His thundering velvet hand bringing discipline?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,5],"tags":[268,150,200,19,40,50],"class_list":["post-1142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2-samuel","category-daily-studies","tag-census","tag-chronicles","tag-sin","tag-syncretism","tag-united-states","tag-will-of-god","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1142"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1840,"href":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142\/revisions\/1840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}