[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us
[email protected] be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast, Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: So we only have two classes left on David, and if you guys remember, our first class back in January, we talked about David and Bathsheba. We talked about the chaos that happened last week. And I've just been thinking to myself, like, I've studied this a lot, but honestly, like, after the Bathsheba stuff and Absalom, a lot of David's life is kind of skipped over. So I had put this box right here. And then I really studied it over the last week or two at the same time that we had a youth retreat this weekend and all this other stuff. And in the midst of all of this, I realized that there's a lot more of David's life, a lot more than I had thought about, that really doesn't get taught about too often. And then fun times for me in the midst of bringing a bunch of teenagers down to the Gulf, I realized, oh, two of these chapters have two of the biggest issues that I've run into in the midst of this whole section. One deals with a critical scholarship, which is just like what the text says, can we trust the text, stuff like that. And the other one deals with a situation that is very difficult to explain. And we'll get into that in the next little bit. But just as a refresh from last week, this is kind of David's life right now. You have him kind of there, protected in the middle, but ultimately his sin with Bathsheba and the impact of that has spread to everything around him. We went through 2 Samuel 13 through 19 this past week, and I told you guys like a million different short stories. And the point of that and the point of why I think the author of Samuel is trying to get across is that after this sin, after this awful moment in David's life, though he's repented, though God has restored him the chaos that just results because of that sin is almost unbearable.
And David is really, really, really going through a difficult time.
We're going through the last few chapters of 2 Samuel in this class. We're going to be covering 2 Samuel 20 through 24 at the same time as that though, we're going to look at 1st Chronicles 21 ish through 27 ish for a little bit because that's all sort of the same time frame.
Then next week we're going to get into 1st Kings 1 and 2, the end of 1st Chronicles and look into some comparisons on how David compare contrast to Jesus, but also like how David's part was a part of God's whole big wide picture for the salvation of mankind.
Before we get into a section of scripture that is very strange in 2 Samuel 21:24, we have one more short story that I did not get to last week, and this one is just as awful. And going back to this slide before, it just shows the chaos that is everywhere in David's life following the sin.
In 2 Samuel 20 you've just gotten past the section where Absalom is sort of taken out like he's been fighting against David for the Kingship. It's been 1v1. Finally, David's men went out. Joab kills Absalom. Very sad scene. And you initially think like, alright, this is over, like maybe David is going to finally find some peace now that every is united.
But then you have another person come the picture, and that is Sheba. Sheba is from the tribe of Benjamin. And Sheba comes in and essentially says, hey, which was Saul's clan. Hey, we're going to gain back control over David. Everyone follow me now. And if you're reading this text after this whole thing with Absalom, over chapters and chapters and chapters, after all the chaos that's heard, when Sheba comes into the picture, I think it's supposed to be this way. You're just kind of exhausted. You're like another person, another person to challenge David in the midst of all of this. Even though he's God's anointed, even though he's repented at this point.
Well, what ends up happening is very, very strange. You have Sheba. It says that he gathered at least the tribe of Benjamin, but the text literally says all of Israel.
So the northern nation began to follow after him. And Sheba's getting this army together. And David decides, hey, we need to put this guy down asap. I'm going to send this guy Amasa, who I made the leader of my army in 2 Samuel 19. And Amasa is going to be given the job of tracking down Sheba, capturing him, and killing him.
So Amasa goes out and he's given three days to procure an army. In the midst of this, he does not get the army together as he was supposed to. We have no insight on what he was doing or why. It took a while, but honestly, three days isn't a lot of time in a place that doesn't have text messages or cell phones or anything else to gather army anyway. But Amasa is out and he's delayed.
So David sends another portion of his army along with Joab to then track down Sheba. In the midst of this, Amasa comes along and he greets Joab and the army and he says, hey, you're finally here. Welcome. We're going after Sheba. It says that Joab walks towards him and drops his sword. After he drops his sword, Amasa comes up and. And it says that Joab takes Amasa by his right hand to. This is obviously something that we don't understand in our culture today.
To give him a kiss as he grabs his beard so he's going for that, and then picks up the sword and plunges it into him. And it's this awful, gruesome scene where it says like, and it's meant to make us feel just ick. Like it says amasses inside spill across the ground, and the men behind him freeze. And Joab all of a sudden now has the power of the army that he must have been craving this whole time.
And everybody's frozen. So Joab then has another man come across the road, pick up Emma Massa, put him on the side of the road, throw a blanket over him as he's dying, and then the rest of the army passes by.
Do we feel very good about Joab at this point?
No.
In fact, earlier on in first and Second Samuel, he's already done this at least two other times where he has tricked people and ultimately put them to death in a way that was not honorable, in a way that David was not asking him to do. Ultimately, this is going to lead to something we talk about in class next week, though. So just keep in mind, basically, Joab equals bad.
But after all of that, Joab leads the army, gets to this city area, and he calls to the city and he says, we're going to destroy you. And they start building this mound, which essentially would have helped them to get over a wall in the area. As they're building the Mound. Another wise woman, which we've already heard of another wise woman last week gets up and says, hey, what do you want?
Don't destroy this city. And he says, all I want is Sheba. And the woman essentially says, one sec. And walks back into the city. And then it says that they launch Sheba's head over the wall.
And then Joab's just like, all right, we're good. And they go back home to David. So as you're reading this text, it's gruesome and it's crazy and you're just wondering what in the world's going on? Like, why are we running into this again? But the point of all of this is once again for us to just feel the weight of the chaos that's going on.
And it's actually going to get even a little bit worse before it gets better.
2nd Samuel 20, just. You see David's battery almost running low.
And then you get through second to second Samuel 21 through 24. Has anybody read this book before? The Giver?
Alright, so to me, I had to read this book, I guess, when I was in high school. And it is one of the most frustrating books to me ever.
Only because of the ending, essentially, like, well, a. Because I was forced to read it in school.
But the ending is just.
It's this person in a society that you don't understand. You're wondering, like, in what universe or in what age or like, whatever, blah, blah, blah, like, how is this society existing? How do I make sense of this? And at the very end of the story, this young boy, along with another young child escape this, like, society that's all messed up and weird and crazy and. And they sled down a hill to a village and then the book ends and you're left, like, this whole time I've been locked in wondering, like, what is happening here? What is the purpose of all of this? And then you see him sled to a village and you have no idea how it ends. It was one of the most frustrating books of all time. And I want to make the argument that that is exactly how 2 Samuel ends.
Second Samuel ends with 4 incredibly confusing, frustrating chapters. It ends just kind of like that, without many answers answered or many questions answered, I guess. But what I also want to point out, though, and this is just a total side note, is First Kings, which we'll get into next week. And First Chronicles do answer some. Some of these questions that are very, very strange. And believe it or not, the Giver answers some of those too. I found out like two months ago, that there's a second, third and fourth book of this series. Never knew it. I read all of them. They're not really that great, but it did answer some questions. So we'll get into 2 Samuel 21:24 and just think to yourself in the midst of all of this, like, this is how the author of the book of Samuel is, is choosing to end this book. So this is a hard, hard one. So stay with me. 2 Samuel 21, verses 1 through 14 during the reign of David. And I want to point out this as we get started.
While all or Most all of first and Second Samuel thus far is chronological, most scholars believe that 21 through 24 is not exactly chronological, that those three or four chapters could fit in a couple areas of the text. Which also tells me that the author purposefully added these things in almost as an extra meat at the very end to attempt to get a point across. But, but if you just read 2 Samuel really fast from beginning to end, you're wondering, like, that is the most nonsensical ending I could have ever imagined. So 2 Samuel 21 during the reign of David. So that's a 40 year period at some point during this reign. And we get some hints to where it was, but we don't know exactly when.
There was a famine for three successive years, which would be awful in agrarian society.
So David sought the face of the Lord and the Lord said it is on account of Saul and his blood stained house. It is because he put the Gibeonites to death. Interestingly enough, in 1st Samuel 1 and 2, you never hear of Saul doing anything to the Gibeonites. You do hear about him going across this land and taking out a bunch of people. And also in Judges chapter nine, the Gibeonites strike a deal with Israel that was more than just a deal. This is important, actually.
They cut a covenant with Israel. And to cut a covenant, if you weren't in this class earlier, in this ancient society, and this was not just the Old Testament Hebrews, this was an ancient Near Eastern idea.
Multiple societies in this day and time would do this, to cut a covenant. Essentially they would cut an animal in half, they would stand on each side of it and they would walk through the center of that animal. And the essential thought process was, if we do not abide by this covenant, may what happened to this animal happen to us and recognize that this is once again not simply an Israelite thing. This was an ancient Near Eastern code. If you read Hammurabi's code, which is earlier than a lot of our Old Testament books. You're going to find them cutting covenants with one another and walking through this animal. So they did that. In Judges, chapter nine, the king, so this is David, summoned the Gibeonites and he spoke to them. Now, the Gibeonites were not part of Israel, but were survivors of the Amorites. The Israelites had sworn to spare them, but Saul, in his zeal for Israel and Judah, had tried to annihilate them.
David asked the Gibeonites, what shall I do for you? How shall I make atonement so so that you will bless the Lord's inheritance? So the people of Israel?
The Gibeonites answered him, we have no right to demand silver or gold from Saul or his family, nor do we have the right to put anyone in Israel to death.
What do you want me to do for you? David asked. They answered the king, as for the man who destroyed us and plotted against us, so that we have been decimated and have no place anywhere in Israel, let seven of his male descendants be given to us and be killed and their bodies exposed before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul, the Lord's chosen one.
So the king, David answered, I will give them to you.
The king spared Mephibosheth, which, as we know, was a son of Jonathan, a son of Saul, because of the oath between David and Jonathan.
But the king took Armoni and a different Mephibosheth, the two sons of AI's daughter Rizpah, who she had borne to Saul, together with five sons of Saul's daughter Merab, whom she had borne to Adriel, son of Barzillai, that Miholathite.
So David handed these seven men over to the Gibeonites, who killed them and exposed their bodies on a hill before the Lord.
The exact word used here can also apply to hanging or impaling.
All seven of them fell together, and they were put to death during the first days of the harvest, just as the barley harvest was beginning, Rizpah, so one of the mothers, the daughter of AI, took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock.
From the beginning of the harvest till the rain poured down from the heavens on the bodies, she did not let the birds touch them by day or the wild animals by night. When David was told the AI's daughter Rizpah, Saul's concubine, had done, he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh Gilead. They had stolen their Bodies from the public square where the Philistines had hung them after they struck Saul down at Gildoa. David brought the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from there. And the bones of those who had been killed and exposed were gathered up. They buried Saul, Jonathan, and all of these boys. Bones where Saul's father Kish had been buried in the land of Benjamin.
After that, God answered prayer in behalf of the land.
All right, what in the world do we make of this passage?
You have a situation that's just almost too awful to describe. You have this group of young men at this point in time who are essentially being given over by David to a group of people so that they can kill them, so that they can hang or impale their bodies on a wall. And then after that, God says, all right, famine over.
What do we make of this chapter? And when I read it, honestly, I just sat there for a while saying, what do I make of this chapter? This seems crazy. I'm having these verses pop through my head. Like, there are passages in the Old Testament where the sin of the father is not supposed to be used on the son to punish them.
You have other passages in the Old Testament that talk about God will bring about justice. It's not mankind who's supposed to bring about justice. Well, these people seem like they're bringing about justice by killing these people.
[00:18:42] Speaker A: And.
[00:18:42] Speaker B: And then the midst of all of this, you have these seven young men die this horrific death in the middle of them all. David willingly handed them over. And I'm thinking to myself, well, maybe I can make a situation about this where David just went too far. David thought, this is what I'm supposed to do. But was one of those situations where you're reading a text and you're like, all right, like, yeah, they did this thing, but it never says God supported it. But then you get to the very end of the text, and God's just like, famine over.
What do we make of the death of these six or seven young men? Well, there's a couple questions I want to ask really quickly to all of you guys.
If anybody has thoughts, they would be welcomed now, because I will at no point have a great answer for this.
Why do you think God allowed this horrible situation to be a valid atonement for the Israelites?
Was Gibeon. Was Gibeah one of their tribe? Was it one of the tribes that was supposed to be annihilated when they got. When the Israelites entered the promised land? Yes, but in Judges, chapter nine, to my knowledge, Gibeon essentially tricks Israel. And upon tricking Israel, they do strike and cut a covenant. And that covenant says we will not be touched by the Israelites. So Saul had broken that.
And part of me leans towards the striking of that deal, because who did break the covenant in the midst of all of this? Saul.
Can this punishment be taken out on Saul? No. It can, I guess, maybe be taken out on others in his family.
There are multiple passages and other not passages. There are multiple studies and writings and other things about this passage that I found. And, man, y', all, like, I found probably 15 different opinions on what's going on here.
But the only thing that all of them had in common was, here's our theory. We really don't know. And we also don't understand ancient Near Eastern contexts, like thousands of years later, and what they would have done because the Gibeonites were not Hebrews. This was something that they were doing, but also God was acting on the people.
It's this weird, crazy situation. But in the midst of reading all of this while I'm not going to sit up here and, like, give you guys the exact. Here's why it's justifiable for God and everything.
I do want to point out one thing that I think we can get from this passage, and it's simply the idea of how bad sin is.
I was reading a book that was talking about this for a little bit, and an incredible quote came across in the midst of this passage.
And here's something I want to just talk about for a little bit.
If you've ever grown numb to the brutal, not brutality, brutality of Golgotha, Gibeon will wake you up.
And the entire idea that I think is supposed to, or the core idea that I think is supposed to be passed down through this text is when you're reading this, you feel disgusting.
While you're reading this, you're seeing seven young men given over and die.
You're seeing a mother come out and wail while her sons hang from a wall, laying on sackcloth and beating away the buzzards. And everything else that's coming by, it just makes you feel nasty, horrible, everything else. And that is simply the nature of what sin does, when we get down to the root of it.
We sit in this really nice, pristine building. But for thousands of years, Christianity has involved serious persecution and death. And it's all built upon a guy being beat and crucified and suffering in a tremendous, awful way for us.
There was a line at this youth conference this past weekend where one of the speakers was talking, and his line was, only Jesus recognized the true seriousness of sin, and he was willing to come and die for it. In the end, I think a lot of us, as we're reading these passages, as we're thinking about the sin in our own lives, can easily forget the death that is required on account of sin, the awfulness that is required on account of it. And as we're reading passages like this, if there's a core principle that we can get down to, I think that's something that we need to stick on. So here's my question for you all.
How can we seek to not grow numb to the impact of sin?
Because if you're like me, if you're like me, there's certain sins that I really do believe are probably, at least in many ways, are worse than some other types of sins. I'm thinking of murder. I'm thinking of adultery. I'm thinking of other things. But ultimately, all sin separates us from God. Ultimately, all sin equals death. All sin. And when I say equals death, like, it's one of those things that you hear things so many times in your life that you start to forget the significance of it. In the end, all sin requires death.
That's horrible. That's nasty.
That's a huge part of our religion that we just skip over sometimes. So how do we get to where we aren't people that are just numb to the impact of sin in our lives?
I would say that I reflect on what you just said, that sin is separation from God. It's separation from the person that died for me and he didn't have to. Yeah, it's the person that forgives me when I.
When I fall short. So I would reflect on the fact that I don't want to be separated from the person that loves me, even when I don't deserve it. That's perfect, Sam. And I think a lot of that leads to, like.
In order to have that perspective, there's going to have to be a couple qualities about us. I think humility has to be one of those qualities. I think understanding how weak we are as has to be one of those qualities. Like, if you're just going through life thinking your success is enough to get you anywhere, it's not.
And passages like this really open us up to that.
That's all I really want to say on that chapter. If you are really having issues with this, I do have some excellent articles that you guys could read and stuff that have different opinions and stuff. But this is a difficult, difficult passage. And just kind of want to leave it there.
So I literally put this picture on the screen to tell me to talk about this quickly.
So the end of 2 Samuel 21 brings up, well, the rest of these, and then we'll get to 24. The rest of this section kind of goes fast paced, but it's interesting and it's there for a reason. We have the other Philistine giants for those who have the theory that isn't founded anywhere in Scripture that David picked up five stones in order to kill, like Goliath and his five brothers.
It's all based upon this section of scripture right here. And essentially what we find out is that there are at least four other big giant dudes from the Philistines who are killed in battle by different ones of David's mighty men. But in the midst of that, we also have this verse that's very significant. David went down with his men to fight against the Philistines and he became exhausted.
And physically, this is one of the first times that we notice David going downhill.
Then we have second Samuel 22. In the midst of this, I challenge all of you guys to read 22 and 23. We're not going to spend a lot of time on it right now, but David praises how God has worked so many wonders in his life. And it's just fascinating to read 2 Samuel 22. This was more than likely written after his situation with Bathsheba. And in the midst of writing this, he's just like saying, like, God, you have made me so righteous and I am so on your side and I am so in love with you, and I am clean, and it's great.
And you're reading this thinking like, but Bathsheba, but this situation and that situation. But ultimately, and this is something I try to get in line with our teenagers quite often. Ultimately, the best thing about this, that I think this text can teach us is it's not our opinion of ourselves as followers of God that determine who we are. It's God who determines who we are.
I don't care how smart some of you engineers might be in here. If any of you came to me and said, one plus one equals three, then I'd say you're wrong.
You're not going to be able to prove that. That's nonsensical. But can God make one plus one equal three?
I mean, theoretically, God can do whatever he wants to do. And one of the best things about God's grace and his mercy and his kindness towards all of us is after that sin With Bathsheba, after the sins that I've committed in my life, I feel nasty. I feel ick about them. David feels nasty. He sees the repercussions around him at all times. But he can still go deep down and say, in the end, God says, I'm clean.
And if he says Richard is clean, even if Richard disagrees with it, even if the world around him is in chaos, what God says is what's correct and what goes there.
And that kind of makes 2nd Samuel 22 just this wonderful, amazing passage where David is talking about the goodness of God in his life. 2nd Samuel 23. Honestly, I have no idea what to make of it. It says the last words of David. But we'll talk next week in first and Second Kings, in First Chronicles, and somewhere else we have last words of David, and they're all different.
So apparently David talked a lot when he was about to die.
But those are at least some of the last words of David. And then we find out about his mighty men. That's one of the passages where we find out that Uriah the Hittite was a mighty man, one of the men that David killed.
What's the core principle of these chapters? Following the chaotic section before, and this includes. This includes David giving up the seven young men, I think David is once again we find here trusting and following God's lead, which also means he's accepting his own weaknesses.
I'm thinking about Paul saying, when I am weak, that's when the Lord is strong.
David had risen up so high in his life, and like we talked about last week, he's in a pit now.
It's like the only thing he has left to cling to is God.
But that's the thing that he needed most all along. In the midst of all of this, in the midst of his suffering, in the midst of the pit, it's almost like that's where God wants him to be, because he wants David to learn. It's not about relying on yourself, it's about relying on. On me.
And then we get to 2nd Samuel 24, which has an equal passage, 1st Chronicles 21. These are almost the exact same two chapters. And I want to see if you guys can spot the difference real quick, because this is a pretty big difference that a lot of people have issues with when it comes to the text. So we'll read it together. 2nd Samuel 24:1.
And the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he God, because this pronoun is referring to God. And his anger incited David against them, saying, Go and take a census of Israel and Judah. Everybody got that? All right, same passage.
The rest of the chapter is almost identical. First Chronicles 21, Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.
Satan rose up against David or against Israel, and inside David take a census. All right, so that's a pretty big difference, right?
I mean, it's literally exact opposites. We have one verse that says the Lord incited David to do this thing. And we have another verse, the devil incited David to do this thing. So the question, at least for me, is, what's going on here?
So when you read this, man, I got into a neat little deep study for a while on the way that Hebrew people thought.
And I think this is kind of cool, but also it will make you maybe think about things a little bit differently.
They very much like us, like the New Testament authors and stuff like that, would agree that God tempts no man.
However, the way that Hebrews thought. And I think this is the best explanation for this passage and how these texts go hand in hand.
The way that they thought is that if God has all power, then ultimately he is the one allowing any being to work.
God is the one allowing Satan to work.
So in Hebrew theology and Hebrew thought, not just every good thing, but literally everything that occurs is because in some way God has allowed it or caused it in the end.
So even if Satan is working in an evil way, ultimately God has the power even over him, to even allow him to do that.
And in their line of thinking, ultimately everything will end up justly. Ultimately, God may allow things to happen without being the tempter himself, but because he allowed things to happen, he does take at least some form of responsibility for when Satan does what God is allowing him to do.
So in this passage, we have God. This is my understanding of it. This is how almost everyone that you read on this subject will talk about it.
God has now allowed Satan, because of God's anger towards Israel, he has allowed Satan to tempt David to take a census.
And then if you're sent back, you're wondering, well, what in the world's wrong with the census?
Well, there's different answers there as well. There's a passage in Exodus, chapter 30 where they write that there's a particular way to take a census. And when you read this passage, they don't take the census in that way. But there's also an idea that's referred to later on in these chapters, which is the idea of David is no longer trusting in God. He's trusting in numbers if he's taking a census.
I think of the story of Gideon in Judges, where Gideon had however many men, and God is like, send the ones home that are scared. And those men went home. He only has 10,000 men. He says, all right, have them drink water in a weird way. And then he's stuck with 300 men in the end. And that's what he attacks with. And it's because you're not supposed to rely on what you have, you're supposed to rely on what God is giving to you. So a census in their ideology would have been a direct no, no to reliance on God.
And then you have the rest of 2 Samuel 24, starting in verse 10.
So this is after the census.
David was conscience stricken after he had counted the fighting men. And he said to the Lord, I've sinned greatly in what I've done. Now, Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.
Before David got up the next morning, the word of the Lord came to Gad, the prophet David's seer. Go and tell David. This is what the Lord says. I'm giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you. So Gad went to David and said to him, shall there come unto you three years of famine in the land? Which, by the way, has has already happened, or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you, which, by the way, has already happened, or three days of plague in your land?
Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.
David said to Gad, I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord. And this is a very important portion of the text. For his mercy is great, but do not let me fall into human hands.
So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and 70,000 people from Dan to Beersheba died. When the angel stretched out his land to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, enough. Withdraw your hand. The angel of the Lord was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, when David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said, lord, I have sinned. I, the shepherd, have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family.
On that day, Gad went to David and said to him, go up and build an altar to the Lord, on the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite. So David went up as the Lord had commanded Gad. And when Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming towards him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground. Araunah said, why has my lord the king come to his servant to buy your threshing floor? David answered, so I can build an altar to the Lord that the plague on the people may be stopped. Araunah said to David, let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering. Here are the threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. Your Majesty, Araunah gives all this for the king. Araunah also said to him, may the Lord your God accept you. But the king said to Araunah, no, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God. Burnt offerings that cost me nothing.
So David buys this threshing floor, this.
A threshing floor, essentially. Imagine, like, a large stone in the midst of, like, a land filled with dirt and trees and everything, an area where the ground rises up.
David buys it, builds an offer to the Lord, and they sacrifice there. Then the Lord answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.
And that's the end of 1 and 2 Samuel.
That's how it ends, right there in the midst of all this. So I have a few questions for you guys real quickly.
What does this passage, 2 Samuel 24 in particular, that we just read about this census and David's reaction and Araunah and everything else. What does this passage tell us about God?
I think a core principle of this passage that is very, very, very difficult to understand in our context, especially when we see that there was this disease or pestilence or whatever else that killed 70,000 people, is that God is merciful.
Isn't that weird to say when you read a passage that's all about this? But if you're a person living in that day and age, you're thinking mercy.
And the question is, why? Well, in the midst of this awfulness, in the midst of the sin, in the midst of everything else, God still does not abandon his people.
He still sticks with them. In the midst of all of this, I just, being honest, am not able to know the Lord's ways. It's kind of like. I think it's C.S. lewis who. What does he say? I think C.S. lewis says, try to imagine an Ant attempting to think in the way that we think.
Is that Ant going to be very successful at thinking like us?
No, it's not. And then CS Lewis makes the comment, I am much closer to an ant than I am to God and to knowing the mind of God.
The big thing to take away in this is we may not understand the why behind certain passages like this, but the mercy must be recognized. What's something we can take away from this chapter with regard to our own faith? Just quickly, David, in the midst of this, like, his responses are just so meaningful.
I've sinned. I, the shepherd have done wrong. These are sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me.
Speaking to Arauna later on, I insist on paying you. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God. Burnt offerings that cost me nothing. Why does the chapter choose to end the book of Samuel here?
I think a couple reasons, but I want to talk about one specifically.
All of this started with the idea of God looking at his people and saying, you don't need a king, you need to follow me.
That's how all of this starts.
And if that had been the path that they had taken, none of this would have happened.
It wouldn't have gone nasty, it wouldn't have gone bad. In studying all of this, there's this big idea in ancient Near Eastern thought and in Hebrew thought, where they're not in an individualistic society where the thought process was, you're punished if you do something wrong. They're in a collectivist society. So if you do something wrong, you're also representing the family that's behind you.
Your family is punished in this sort of a society. These societies still exist today across the world, and it's hard for us to wrap our minds around it sometimes.
But this punishment was understood as righteous in their society.
And none of this would have happened if from the very get go, they just started with let's make the Lord our king rather than man.
And then we just see this path move along. But we also see something else. God recognized, even going back to Exodus, that they would choose a king someday.
And he makes commands in the midst of that to us, and essentially says, in the midst of the times when you will sin, I will still love you, I will still have mercy on you, and for those whose heart is for me, you will find peace.
And that's something we have to draw out of a passage like this as well, just at the end.
I also finally think that we're starting at the end of 2 Samuel to make sense of how Bad Saul was early on.
He's called out by Samuel in 1 Samuel 15. But I did obey the Lord, Saul said. I went on the mission. The Lord assigned me. I destroyed them.
Samuel replied, does the Lord delight in these things? No. To obey is better than sacrifice. I've sinned. I violated the Lord's commands and your instruction. I was afraid of the men, so I gave in to them. Now I beg you Samuel, forgive my sin and come back with me so that I can worship the Lord in the midst of other people.
After reading that, compared to David's response to sin, you start feeling a little bit nastier about Saul.
And it's supposed to make us then reflect on our own lives.
Are we real about our sin?
Do we understand the death, the death and destruction and awfulness of it. And in the midst of all of that, only once we get to that point, when we understand how bad sin is, how much we need God because of it, can we begin to recognize the love and mercy that that God has for us.
God will always stand by us, even in the midst of our worst times.
And we also have to be self reflective and consider just how bad we are, as non optimistic as that sounds, and just how good God is. And I think that's one of the things that first and Second Samuel is trying to teach us. So next week we'll study the end of David's life, his plans for the temple, and then we'll look into some cool stuff in that last class about David and his correlation with Jesus. I'll post these challenges on our groupme. But that's class.
