Title David's Census/2 Samuel 24:1-17
Content "David's Census" <2 Samuel 24:1-17>
As I preach, I always have this kind of pressure on you. My sermons are always going to have to be a sermon that excites you, but it would be great if I had a sermon that gave you a positive sermon, a sermon that you would be blessed by doing this, and a sermon that gives you strength and courage. I am stingy with compliments, and I only say things that kill the church members with negative and stingy words. As you can see, if you preach the gospel, more and more members will flock to you, and the financial problems of the church will gradually improve, but it is always the same. I think it does.
However, it is not that this idea is wrong in not preaching about blessings first. Humans do not know what blessings are even when they are given blessings, and due to the distorted concept of blessings, the abundance of material on earth and the increase in the number of church members are regarded as blessings. Because you are misunderstood. These thoughts are the result of ignorance of the Bible. And when was there ever a time when you were told not to evangelize? He clearly told them to do evangelism and they said that they should do evangelism. Just as preaching the word of the cross is evangelism, we have to spread the word of the cross, but the problem is that we are hoping for something. It is far from the Bible to think that if we spread the message of the cross in this way, many people will come. This is because the way of the cross contains elements that make people go through the thirty-six commandments (Galatians 1:10).
The lesson for us from David's census is to condemn the way we humans think of always thinking that bigger is always better, but more is always better. Most people think that a lot of numbers indicate stability and success. And if the number is small, we feel anxious and have an obsession with failure. This is a human limitation and it is a great sin in the sight of God. According to the Abrahamic covenant, God's promise was to make them as numerous as the stars in the sky and like grains of sand on the seashore. This promise is not made by human power, but God will do it, and it is entirely up to God. Therefore, it is a warning of how foolish it is to simply distinguish between blessings and curses based on the large or small number of numbers.
2 Samuel 24:1 "The LORD was again angry with Israel, and he moved David to strike against them, saying, Go and take a census of Israel and Judah." 1 Chronicles 21:1 "Satan rose up against Israel, and stirred up David to number Israel."
For those who believe and love the Lord Jesus Christ, the assurance of God's blessing and faithfulness is not in the heads of men, but in believing and loving Christ and his promises (words). People who value the number of heads try to use the number as the standard of being a true church and a fake church, but if you look at the word of the Lord, you can see how wrong that is. Matthew 18:20 “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them” The standard of being a church here is that if two or three people love the Lord and gather together, that is the church. What is the use of thousands or even tens of thousands of people who do not love the Lord? They are all just human desires.
Therefore, David knows that what he has done is a sin and confesses it. 2 Samuel 24:10 "After David had counted the number of people, he rebuked himself in his heart and said to the LORD, "I have committed a great sin in doing this. Now, LORD, I beg you, forgive your servant's sin. I am very foolish." I have done it.”
Because of this, God's punishment came. Three plagues were foretold through the prophet Gad. The first was that there would be a famine for seven years, the next three months of being chased by the enemy, and the last three days of pestilence (verse 13). In these words, we can see David leaning on God's mercy. He said that he wants to never fall into the hands of men again, but fall into the hands of God. In other words, it is an expression of the will to live, entrusting everything to God's intervention rather than relying on the number of people, that is, the strength of the military. As a result, 70,000 people were killed by the plague for three days, and all problems were settled.
This shows the reality of the Davidic covenant, which is the fact that David is not the subject of the covenant, but the Messiah who will come as a descendant of David, the new king. The Davidic Covenant is the fact that if one king obeys God's word, the whole people will be blessed, whereas if the king disobeys the whole people will be cursed. Therefore, the fact that the human David cannot obey perfect obedience and that what is given to the people is only a curse, not a blessing, and it shows the justification that both David and the people of Israel can only hope for the Messiah to come together. In this way, we all look to Jesus Christ, who is completely obedient to the Word of God, and we can only expect His mercy.