Wednesday Bible Study: The end of all things- 2 Samuel

 

This is a chapter we studied at least once before, in my look at the mistakes made by David.  And even then, I believe I noted the discrepancies between the telling here and the retelling in 1 Chronicles 24.  I have always said that you know the Bible is true because a God who made the universe can keep his Word the way He wants it over time.  But there are seven spots of contradiction here that seem to put that in doubt.  Or do they?  Now you can study them contradiction against contradiction, and try to find a common truth the hard way.  But as I set myself to do that, I was moved to say, look at these contradictions versus the seven things that stay the same.  And here we get a perspective on what's important to man vs what's important to God.

First, a thumbnail of the events:

 Because of some way that Israel had angered God, David gets the idea to take a census- something only done previously when God requested it. Joab tries to fight him on it, but has to submit.  As soon as it was done, David knew he messed up, and repented.  So God, through the seer Gad, gave him three choices of punishment.  David nebulously asked to be put at the mercy of God and not man.  God took that as the choosing of a plague to strike Israel.  As the plague- symbolized as the Angel of the Lord striking the nation- reached to Jerusalem, David realized his second mistake and pleaded for mercy.  But God had already put things on pause, and had David buy the threshing floor on the top of Mount Moriah to build an altar on.  That would go on to be the spot David pickled for Solomon to build the Temple.

The contradictions:

1- Did God incite David (Samuel), or did Satan (Chronicles)?  'Who's to blame' is the question man asks.  But God already showed us in the Book of Job that He can use Satan's wrath to reach His ultimate goal,

2- Joab went through all the land (S) versus he skipped Levi and Benjamin (C).  This isn't even a contradiction- Levi did not have land of its own, and Benjamin was part of Judah.  This is a semantic difference, important to man but not to God.

3- The numbers don't match- was it 1.3 million (S) or 1.57 million (C)?  The number was, at the time, important to David- but not to God.  God doesn't rule by statistics.

4- Is his name Araunah (S) or Ornan (C)? Considering it was a foreign name (He was, after all, a Jebusite) and there was at the least 300 years between the writings, this is more or less an "is his name Bill or William" question.

5- Did David see the Angel in Jerusalem, or "Standing between Heaven and Earth" approaching it- and were the elders with him or not? If you remember Paul's conversion, what was seen by Paul was only perceived as a bright light to those who were with him.  In either event, this is picking nits.

6- Did Araunah see just David (S), or did Ornan see the Angel as well (C)?  A/O is important to this story for one reason, and this ain't it.

7- The biggie to men:  Did David pay 50 sheckels of silver (S) or 600 of gold (C)?  I want you to keep this in mind: There is only one time an amount of money was important in the Biblical narrative- the 30 pieces of silver that Judas received for his betrayal, because it was the amount paid for a slave in Exodus, and prophesied by Zechariah.

Now, the things important to God, which stayed the same:

1- Joab even tried to convince David against it, but David had closed his mind to everything but his sin at this point.  I feel this closed-ness when I sin, too.

2- David repented as soon as the deed was done- he recognized as soon as the deed was finished it was wrong- because that's when Satan lets you go and starts accusing you.

3- God gave David the choices of punishment.  And those choices were, basically, YOU will suffer, SOME will suffer, or ALL will suffer.  Whatever his motivations, David chose the "some" option. To men, misery loves company.

4- Here is the one census number important to God- 70,000 died from David's sin and David's choice.  This is called the consequence of the choice, children.

5- Before David even fell on his face to beg God to relent, God had already called a halt to the deaths- though not to the danger. It was all under God's control- right down to David's actions.

6- But yet, David repented of his choice- his second error in the mess, perhaps- and pled with God to spare the people.  At last, he had been brought to a point of thinking of others instead of himself.

7- God commanded the altar be built, which was the finish of the three things God intended to accomplish.  And those three were:

- to punish Israel for angering Him;

-to bring David out of selfishness to truly care about those he led;

- and establish the Temple where He wanted it- on the top of Mount Moriah, current home of the threshing floor of A/O the Jebusite.

So see, when you read a passage from what GOD thinks is important, and not by what man does, it all makes sense.  Did God let this passage get messed up because of this lesson?  Who can truly say? What we can say, though, it is in there because God willed it.