The Accuser Stirs David to Count Israel
21 1 Now the Accuser rose up against Israel and incited David to count Israel. 1 1 v1 The Accuser is FHB's name for Satan, the spiritual adversary who opposes God's people. 2 So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army, "Go, count Israel from Beersheba to Dan, and bring me a report, so that I may know their number."
3 But Joab said, "May our Father add to his people a hundred times as many as they are! Are they not all, my lord the king, my lord's servants? Why does my lord seek this? Why should it bring guilt upon Israel?"
4 But the king overruled Joab. So Joab went out and traveled throughout all Israel, and then came to Jerusalem. 5 Joab gave David the count of the people. All Israel had one million one hundred thousand fighting men, and Judah had four hundred seventy thousand fighting men. 6 But Levi and Benjamin he did not count among them, for the king's command was detestable to Joab.
David Confesses and Trusts Our Father's Mercy
7 This was deeply wrong in our Father's sight, so he struck Israel.
8 Then David said to our Father, "I have sinned greatly in doing this thing. But now, please take away the guilt of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly."
9 And our Father spoke to Gad, David's seer: 10 "Go and say to David, 'This is what our Father says: I am holding over you three things; choose one of them, and I will do it to you.'"
11 So Gad came to David and said to him, "This is what our Father says: 'Take your choice— 12 either three years of famine, or three months of being swept away before your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or three days of the sword of our Father—plague upon the land, with the angel of our Father destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.' Now decide what answer I should bring back to the one who sent me."
13 David said to Gad, "I am in great distress. Let me fall into the hand of our Father, for his compassion is very great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man."
The Plague Falls; David Intercedes
14 So our Father sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell. 15 And our Father sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but as he was destroying, he saw and relented from the calamity, and said to the destroying angel, "Enough! Now stay your hand." The angel of our Father was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16 David looked up and saw the angel of our Father standing between earth and heaven, with a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown.
17 David said to our Father, "Was it not I who gave the command to count the people? I am the one who has sinned and done great wrong. But these sheep, what have they done? O my Father, let your hand be against me and against my father's house, but do not let the plague be against your people." 2 2 v17 David, the shepherd-king, begs that the punishment fall on himself instead of his people—pointing ahead to Jesus, the Good Shepherd who would willingly take his people's judgment upon himself.
An Altar Raised; Our Father Answers with Fire
18 Then the angel of our Father commanded Gad to tell David to go up and set up an altar to our Father on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19 So David went up at Gad's direction, which he had spoken in the name of our Father.
20 Now Ornan turned and saw the angel, and his four sons with him hid themselves. Ornan had been threshing wheat. 21 As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and he left the threshing floor and bowed down to David with his face to the ground.
22 David said to Ornan, "Give me the site of the threshing floor, so that I may build on it an altar to our Father; give it to me for the full price, that the plague may be held back from the people."
23 Ornan said to David, "Take it, and let my lord the king do what is good in his eyes. See, I give the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering; I give it all."
24 But King David said to Ornan, "No, I will surely buy it for the full price. I will not take for our Father what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing."
25 So David paid Ornan about fifteen pounds of gold for the site. 26 David built there an altar to our Father and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and he called on our Father, who answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.
27 Then our Father commanded the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath.
28 At that time, when David saw that our Father had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there. 29 For the tabernacle of our Father, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time at the high place in Gibeon. 30 But David could not go there to inquire of our Father, for he was terrified of the sword of the angel of our Father.