“Why does my lord want to do this?  Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”  Even an opportunist and manipulator like Joab recognizes David is playing with fire and risking all the success the nation enjoys.  After all, it was only recently that the Lord gave David victory everywhere he went. (18:13) He had nothing more to prove. The nation was at the heighth of its success.  But, that is nearly always the place of insidious temptation.  It is at that moment when David succumbs to pride and instead of confidence he is bloated with needing to prove to himself and others how great he and the nation are.

There is a difference between confidence and pride.  Confidence is based in gratitude for God’s faithfulness.  Pride is saying, “I did this myself.”  Pride is fear that boasts of its own power.  For David, who was nearing the end of his life, it was a way of bolstering his sense of security that he had not needed before.  David had always attracted champions but now David was interested in numbers even more.  How many and not what was the character of the few.

It is one of the sad ironies of life that we often do not become more trusting of God having seen his hand in our lives.  Instead, we become more fearful about the future and the need for taking care of ourselves.  We become even more susceptible to the temptation to count, to control, to not listen to counsel and to expose ourselves to the consequences of pride and sin.

As some of you know, for 30 years I have been friends with Bill Hybels, the co-founder with his wife Lynne, of Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago.  That church has been rocked by the discovery of Bill’s blatant and long time abuse of his leadership powers – especially with women working for him.  He has stepped down from his position and recently the entire elder board and church pastoral leadership stepped down as an admission that they had not taken seriously the accusations of dozens of women.  No one wanted to go up against him until the end of his career and Bill ignored all the signs of his giving in to his own demons.

I introduced Bill when he spoke for The Gathering years ago and I’ve been thinking about the final part of that introduction after telling everyone about Bill’s extraordinary accomplishments and leadership – especially his self-discipline.  It was the words of an interview with Bill that brought to mind David’s own situation here in this story.

”In Acts 27:13 Luke describes the ship taking Paul to Rome as waiting for a gentle wind and then sailing close to shore. Nothing could be further from reality for Bill. He’s never waited for gentle winds or sailed close to shore in his life and, as he said in a recent interview, “As I get older my risk profile is going up – not down…Since the day I became a Christian I’ve wanted everyone in my life to experience saving grace the way I experienced it on a hillside in Wisconsin when I was seventeen years old.”

Vanessa Redgrave said this, “Integrity is so perishable in the summer months of success.”

Our own risk profile goes up as we get older, doesn’t it?  We don’t expect that.  We expect Satan to have forgotten about us or gone looking for better prospects.  But, he doesn’t ever stop pursuing us or holding out invitations.  It is relentless and permanent.  As we’ve said before, I believe the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness were not one time only.  I think those tempted him all his life and he resisted them all his life.

What could possibly be gained by snaring someone in the later part of their lives?  Doesn’t it make sense that more damage can be done if they fall early and have the rest of their lives to regret it and the damage will be even greater to those around them?

Not really.  How many men died as a result of David’s sin in the final years of his life?

70,000 men in three days.

Never underestimate the power of our sin to affect other lives – no matter how insignificant we might think it is.  It is old and worn but I believe this:  “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.”

We live, as C.S. Lewis says, in enemy-occupied territory

Had it been Nathan instead of Joab, David might have been reminded of God’s words in Deuteronomy:

Before the people come into the land from the wilderness God speaks to them through Moses and says, “The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples…When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.  Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and decress that I am giving you this day.  Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settled down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God…You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth and so confirms his covenant…If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.”

Just shortly before this, David composed a song of praise to celebrate the victories and the hand of the Lord being on him and the nation of Israel.

2 Samuel 22:21ff

“The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.
 For I have kept the ways of the Lord;
I am not guilty of turning from my God.
All his laws are before me;
I have not turned away from his decrees.
I have been blameless before him
and have kept myself from sin.
The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to my cleanness in his sight.
“To the faithful you show yourself faithful,
to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
to the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the devious you show yourself shrewd.
You save the humble,
but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low.

I pursued my enemies and crushed them;
I did not turn back till they were destroyed.
I crushed them completely, and they could not rise;
they fell beneath my feet.
You armed me with strength for battle;
you humbled my adversaries before me.
You made my enemies turn their backs in flight,
and I destroyed my foes.
They cried for help, but there was no one to save them—
to the Lord, but he did not answer.
I beat them as fine as the dust of the earth;
I pounded and trampled them like mud in the streets.
“You have delivered me from the attacks of the peoples;
you have preserved me as the head of nations.

People I did not know now serve me,
foreigners cower before me;
as soon as they hear of me, they obey me.
They all lose heart;
they come trembling from their strongholds.
“The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock!
Exalted be my God, the Rock, my Savior!
He is the God who avenges me,
who puts the nations under me,
who sets me free from my enemies.
You exalted me above my foes;
from a violent man you rescued me.
Therefore I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
I will sing the praises of your name.
“He gives his king great victories;
he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed,
to David and his descendants forever.”

So shortly after saying you save the humble but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low. How quickly we forget!

Yet, the text says that the anger of the Lord burned against Israel and not just David.  There was more than individual pride.  There was a corporate sense that they had done this with their own hands and had forgotten it was God who had given them the ability to produce wealth.  The sin of pride had infected the people, the leadership, and not just the king.  Yes, it is always true that an organization or even a nation is the shadow of a powerful individual or personality.  They set the standard and the tone for all the leadership around them.  Psalm 16 reads:

“Help, Lord, for the godly are no more;
The faithful have vanished from among men.
Everyone lies to his neighbor; their flattering lips speak with deception.

The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men.”

When the wicked behavior of leadership is honored and considered the standard then we see even more wickedness and displays of vileness.

But, there is also a sense in which God gives people the leadership they deserve.  The leadership is not the cause of vileness but the inevitable effect of the waywardness of the people.  Psalm 106:13-15 reads:

”In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wasteland they put God to the test.
So, he gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting disease upon them.”

This is, perhaps, what happened in Israel.  It was not just David’s wanting to boast about his power before the world and to display Israel’s greatness.  It was not just David’s pride and arrogance.  It was also God giving the people the kind of leadership they had desired as well – and God sent a plague and a wasting disease among them.  They were complicit in David’s sin and he in theirs.

But then David comes to his senses and recognizes his foolishness.  God gives him three options. Three years of famine, three months of the sword of their enemies, or three days of plague ravaging every part of Israel.  Of course, David pleads that the Lord would punish him alone.

“I am in deep distress.  Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men…Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted?  I am the one who has sinned and done wrong.  These are but sheep.  What have they done?  O Lord my God, let your hand fall upon me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on your people.”

But, it is never that easy, is it?  “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.”

That had to be a nightmarish three days – almost like the angel of death passing through Egypt taking the lives of all the first born or the angel of death passing through the camp of the Assyrians who annihilated the entire army – 185,000 men.  Except this time it was Israel’s men and boys who were sacrificed.

We don’t know how many might have died had the Lord not intervened just as the angel was about to take out all of Jerusalem.  But God commands him to stop just as he is standing at the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite.

Then the angel told David through the prophet Gad to go and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor where the angel had been told to stop the killing.  As soon as David calls on the Lord and offers the sacrifice, the angel puts away his sword and the plague is over.  While 70,000 died as a result of David’s pride and sin it could have been so many more.

Yet herein lies one of the main lessons of the incident.

“The eternal purpose of God moves onward, unresting and un-hasting; its quiet and irresistible persistence finds special opportunity in the hindrances that seem sometimes to check its progress.”

And we know what became of that altar built to atone for David’s sin and for the saving of the remainder of the people.  We know what happened because we can visit it now.  It is no longer called the threshing floor but the Temple Mount.  It is the site picked by God himself for the location of the Temple and the altar where the blood of sacrifice and atonement for sin was to be offered.

We don’t know if God would have led David there under other circumstances than as atonement for his sin and the threat of the annihilation of his people.  All we know is as a result of what Satan intended for permanent harm God used for good.  It was not free.  It cost thousands of lives and I don’t think anyone can say that God overlooked David’s pride, arrogance and vileness to accomplish a greater good.  I don’t think anyone can say that God approved of his boasting and self-aggrandizement but God used the place of his repentance to build something greater.

One commentator spoke for me when he wrote:

”There are times when God seems to refrain from any intervention with some of the evils of the world and we are prone to ask in our impatience:

Is there not wrong done by men that goes beyond atoning?
What are these desperate and hideous years?
Have you not heard the whole creation groaning?”
How long will the wicked prosper?”

Psalm 73:

”They have no struggles;
their bodies are healthy and strong.
They are free from common human burdens;
they are not plagued by human ills.
Therefore pride is their necklace;
they clothe themselves with violence.
From their callous hearts comes iniquity;
their evil imaginations have no limits.
They scoff, and speak with malice;
with arrogance they threaten oppression.
Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
and their tongues take possession of the earth.
Therefore their people turn to them
and drink up waters in abundance.
They say, “How would God know?
Does the Most High know anything?”
This is what the wicked are like—
always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.”

But then I read in the last several verses of that same Psalm:

”When I tried to understand all this,
it troubled me deeply
till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final destiny.
Surely you place them on slippery ground;
you cast them down to ruin.
How suddenly are they destroyed,
completely swept away by terrors!
They are like a dream when one awakes;
when you arise, Lord,
you will despise them as fantasies.
When my heart was grieved
and my spirit embittered,
I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you.
Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.”

”Where today we can see nothing but the destroying angel with his flaming sword, future generations shall behold the temple of the Lord.”

I have to believe that.