Monday 25th November
Read 2 Samuel 24:1-4
“Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, ‘Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.’
2 So the king said to Joab and the army commanders with him, ‘Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enrol the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.’
3 But Joab replied to the king, ‘May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?’
4 The king’s word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders; so they left the presence of the king to enrol the fighting men of Israel.” (NIVUK)
There are mysteries within mysteries in this passage. Most of them revolve around the nature of God’s wrath. David is yet to get to grips with what it means. We don’t know when this event occurred in David’s reign. He was clearly still king though, and in full command (v4a). A census seems benign today, but in ancient times may be a precursor to war. David sought to know ‘his’ strength.
We can deduce that David did not hear a voice telling him that what he was about to do would be cause for God’s wrath to break out against Israel. It was entirely David’s idea and he will take responsibility for his decision fully when the time comes. But the narrator wants us to know that the decision was an outworking of God’s wrath against His people. The Chronicler attributed David’s census to Satan (1 Chronicles 21:1-4), and by doing so demonstrates that everything is under God’s sovereign rule.
Whilst all this is mysterious indeed, the greatest mystery is why the Lord’s anger broke out against Israel at all? Let alone ‘again’. There is much to meditate on in the absence of any reason. We know that there was one, for the Lord is righteous in all things. We also know that those reasons are not necessary for us to know, as much as we feel we are owed an explanation! We may like to think we are muddling along just fine until we make a foolish decision and reap the consequences. It may not be as random as we sometimes think. Life calls for meditation and prayer, even when everything seems fine. Mysterious indeed.
