Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

In the course of time, Nahash king of the Ammonites died, and his son succeeded him as king. David thought, “I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, because his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father.
When David’s envoys came to Hanun in the land of the Ammonites to express sympathy to him, the Ammonite commanders said to Hanun, “Do you think David is honoring your father by sending envoys to you to express sympathy? Haven’t his envoys come to you only to explore and spy out the country and overthrow it?”    So Hanun seized David’s envoys, shaved them, cut off their garments at the buttocks, and sent them away.
When someone came and told David about the men, he sent messengers to meet them, for they were greatly humiliated. The king said, “Stay at Jericho till your beards have grown, and then come back.”
When the Ammonites realized that they had become obnoxious to David, Hanun and the Ammonites sent a thousand talents of silver to hire chariots and charioteers from Aram Naharaim, Aram Maakah and Zobah. They hired thirty-two thousand chariots and charioteers, as well as the king of Maakah with his troops, who came and camped near Medeba, while the Ammonites were mustered from their towns and moved out for battle.
On hearing this, David sent Joab out with the entire army of fighting men. The Ammonites came out and drew up in battle formation at the entrance to their city, while the kings who had come were by themselves in the open country.
Joab saw that there were battle lines in front of him and behind him; so he selected some of the best troops in Israel and deployed them against the Arameans. He put the rest of the men under the command of Abishai his brother, and they were deployed against the Ammonites. Joab said, “If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you are to rescue me; but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will rescue you. Be strong, and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. The Lord will do what is good in his sight.”
Then Joab and the troops with him advanced to fight the Arameans, and they fled before him. When the Ammonites realized that the Arameans were fleeing, they too fled before his brother Abishai and went inside the city. So Joab went back to Jerusalem.
After the Arameans saw that they had been routed by Israel, they sent messengers and had Arameans brought from beyond the Euphrates River, with Shophak the commander of Hadadezer’s army leading them.
When David was told of this, he gathered all Israel and crossed the Jordan; he advanced against them and formed his battle lines opposite them. David formed his lines to meet the Arameans in battle, and they fought against him. But they fled before Israel, and David killed seven thousand of their charioteers and forty thousand of their foot soldiers. He also killed Shophak the commander of their army.
When the vassals of Hadadezer saw that they had been routed by Israel, they made peace with David and became subject to him.
So the Arameans were not willing to help the Ammonites anymore.

• 1 Chronicles 19:1-19

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, Joab led out the armed forces. He laid waste the land of the Ammonites and went to Rabbah and besieged it, but David remained in Jerusalem. Joab attacked Rabbah and left it in ruins. David took the crown from the head of their king—its weight was found to be a talent of gold, and it was set with precious stones—and it was placed on David’s head. He took a great quantity of plunder from the city and brought out the people who were there, consigning them to labor with saws and with iron picks and axes. David did this to all the Ammonite towns. Then David and his entire army returned to Jerusalem.
In the course of time, war broke out with the Philistines, at Gezer. At that time Sibbekai the Hushathite killed Sippai, one of the descendants of the Rephaites, and the Philistines were subjugated.
In another battle with the Philistines, Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver’s rod.
In still another battle, which took place at Gath, there was a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He also was descended from Rapha. When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of Shimea, David’s brother, killed him.
These were descendants of Rapha in Gath, and they fell at the hands of David and his men.

• 1 Chronicles 20:1-8

Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.”
But Joab replied, “May the Lord multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord’s subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”
The king’s word, however, overruled Joab; so Joab left and went throughout Israel and then came back to Jerusalem. Joab reported the number of the fighting men to David: In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who could handle a sword, including four hundred and seventy thousand in Judah.
But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, because the king’s command was repulsive to him. This command was also evil in the sight of God; so he punished Israel.
Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly by doing this. Now, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”
The Lord said to Gad, David’s seer, “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’”
So Gad went to David and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Take your choice: three years of famine, three months of being swept away before your enemies, with their swords overtaking you, or three days of the sword of the Lord—days of plague in the land, with the angel of the Lord ravaging every part of Israel.’ Now then, decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”
David said to Gad, “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 human hands.”
So the Lord sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead. And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was doing so, the Lord saw it and relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown.
David said to God, “Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted? I, the shepherd, have sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Lord my God, let your hand fall on me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on your people.”
Then the angel of the Lord ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. So David went up in obedience to the word that Gad had spoken in the name of the Lord.
While Araunah was threshing wheat, he turned and saw the angel; his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Then David approached, and when Araunah looked and saw him, he left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.
David said to him, “Let me have the site of your threshing floor so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped. Sell it to me at the full price.”
Araunah said to David, “Take it! Let my lord the king do whatever pleases him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this.”
But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”
So David paid Araunah six hundred shekels of gold for the site. David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the Lord, and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.
Then the Lord spoke to the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there. The tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon. But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord.

• 1 Chronicles 21:1-30

 Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

1 Chronicles 19:13 ‘God is right.’: “Righteousness is who God is. God’s righteousness endures forever (2 Corinthians 9:9) and ‘reaches to the skies’ (Psalm 71:19).
“God is righteous. His decrees are righteous (Psalm 119:38). His judgment is righteous. (Romans 2:5). His requirements are righteous (Romans 8:4). His acts are righteous (Daniel 9:16). Daniel declared, ‘Our God is right in everything he does’ (Daniel 9:14).
“God is never wrong. He has never rendered a wrong decision, experienced the wrong attitude, taken the wrong path, said the wrong thing, or acted the wrong way. He is never too late or too early, too loud or too soft, too fast or too slow. He has always been and always will be right. He is righteous. “

• Max Lucado, Traveling Light

1 Chronicles 21:1-13 ‘A Punishment for Taking a Census’: “[2 Samuel 24 provides the more detailed story compared to 1 Chronicles 21:1-13.] For reasons not provided within the narrative, the Lord’s wrath was provoked by David having undertaken a census (24:1-9). Upon receiving the compiled census data, David realized his sin and repented (24:10). The prophet Gad presented three calamities from which to choose for God to unleash judgment upon Israel: three years of famine, three months of enemy pursuit, or three days of plague——the intensity of each calamity rising in proportion to its brevity (24:13-14). The outcome of David’s choice of pestilence is documented in 2 Samuel 24:15-25. The entire account reminds us of the seriousness of impetuous acts of pride which may result in dire consequences. It also serves to emphasize the importance of doing all things to God’s glory and not our own.”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

1 Chronicles 21:1 ‘Satan … moved’: “Second Samuel 24:1 reports that it was God who ‘moved’ David. This apparent discrepancy is resolved by understanding that God sovereignly and permissively uses Satan to achieve His purposes. God uses Satan to judge sinners (cf. Mark 4:15; 2 Cor. 4:4), to refine saints (cf. Job 1:8-2:10; Luke 22:31, 32), to discipline those in the church (cf. 1 Cor. 5:1-5; 1 Tim. 1:20), and to further purify obedient believers (cf. 2 Cor. 12:7-10). Neither God nor Satan forced David to sin (cf. Iames 1:13-15), but God allowed Satan to tempt David and he chose to sin. The sin surfaced his proud heart and God dealt with him for it. number Israel. David’s census brought tragedy because, unlike the census in Moses’ time (Num. 1; 2) which God had commanded, this census by David was to gratify his pride in the great strength of his army and consequent military power. He was also putting more trust in his forces than in his God. He was taking credit for his victories by the building of his great army. This angered God, who allowed Satan to bring the sin to a head.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Chronicles 21:6 ‘he did not count Levi and Benjamin’: “Levites were not soldiers (v. 5) and were not numbered in the Mosaic census (Num. 1:47-55). Benjamin had already been numbered (7:6-11) and the register preserved in the archives of that tribe. From the course followed in the census (2 Sam. 24:4-8), it appears Judah and Benjamin were last to be visited. Before the census could be finished in Judah and begin in Benjamin, David recognized his sin and called for it to stop (Cf. 27:24).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Chronicles 21:25 ‘six hundred shekels’: “The fifty shekels reported in 2 Samuel 24:24 was for the instruments and oxen alone, while the price here includes the whole property, Mt. Moriah, on which Solomon’s temple stood. The threshing floor of Ornan [Araunah] is today believed by some to be the very flat rock under the Moslem mosque, the Dome of the Rock, inside the temple ground in Jerusalem.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Chronicles 21:29 ‘high place … Gibeon’: “The ark of the covenant resided at Jerusalem in a tent (ch.15) awaiting the building of the temple on Ornan’s threshing floor, while the Mosaic tabernacle and altar remained in Gibeon until the temple was completed (cf. 1 Kin. 8:4).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Chronicles 21:30 ‘the sword’: “Cf. 21:12, 16,27. David continued to remain at the threshing floor and offer sacrifices because the Lord had appeared to him there (2 Chr. 3:1) and because he feared a menacing angel at Gibeon, the center of worship.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

 

My Thoughts

In 1 Chronicles 19 we see a battle between cousins.  The Ammonites were not Canaanite.  They descended from the incestuous relationship between Lot and his younger daughter, but when Nahash died, Hanun listened to the wrong advisors who told him that David’s emissaries were up to no good.  As a result, Hanun mustered a great army and obtained allies, especially the Arameans from the area of Damascus.  They outflanked Joab’s army.  Joab led the best fighters against the Arameans while Abishai led the main body of the Israelite army against the Ammonites.  They agreed that if either enemy got the better hand, the other Israelites would come to the rescue.  But when the Arameans were routed, the Ammonites fled also.  The people in each Ammonite town were subjected to hard labor, in other words, consigned to saws, iron picks, and axes.  I have worked using all three and it is hard labor.  But David heard of the Arameans fleeing.  He cut them off and subjugated them so that they would never again help the Ammonites.

The story of the emissaries is interesting.  The garments cut at the buttocks is definitely humiliating, but the beard was a sign of being a wise elder, and being shaven was equally humiliating.

But 1 Chronicles 20 finished the story of the attack on Rabbah of the Ammonite nation.  This is the city they were attacking when David had his tryst with Bathsheba and subsequently had Uriah the Hittite killed.  Thus, these two major sins of David, the affair/murder involving Bathsheba and the census were both near the end of David’s reign.  Like in the last study, the 2 Samuel version had some differences.

The rest of 1 Chronicles 20 hits the highlights of the continued war with the Philistines, but now they were defeated.

In 1 Chronicles 21, Satan tempts David and David orders a census.  To make matters worse, Joab, the commander of the army cautions David against doing it.  This is an important factor in that David could have claimed that he was a little drunk or he was running a fever that day, but no, with Joab’s admonishment, David knew what he was doing was wrong – not that David had a lot of confidence in Joab, in military matters, yes, but he tells Solomon that Joab is among those he will have to deal with when Solomon becomes king.

David had gotten too big for his britches as the saying goes. I had a moment like that once. As soon as I said the wrong words, I wanted to retrieve them, and there is still a hurting memory of that moment – knowing that I must remain humble or I might do it again.

The punishment for not trusting God and having bragging rights for a large army was three years of a famine, three months with the sword, or three days of a plague.  David wanted to be cast upon the mercy of God rather than man.  God showed mercy when he reached Jerusalem.  Most plagues in history have greater spread in cities where the people are more densely populated, but this was God’s avenging angel doing the plague.

And in seeing the angel, David and his elders dropped down and begged that God’s anger be quenched.  Even with the avenging angel turning away, David from fear or guilt or really a combination of both, refused to go to Gibeon.  He built an altar at Araunah’s (Ornan) threshing floor.  In so doing, this pinpointed where the temple would be built.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

“1 Chronicles 19: 1. ln what area of your life are you feeling the need for ‘reinforcements’? How might your small group come to your rescue?
“2. How confident are you in taking risks? In escalating risky confrontations (as David did), even when you’re in the right’? What’s the difference between ‘stepping out in faith’ and risk-taking?
“3. How can children learn loyalty and trust, so that their parents‘ friends can become their genuine friends too?
1 Chronicles 20: 1. Do you feel you are getting proper credit for the for the jobs you do well? What reward are you working for?
“2. What ‘giants’ have you fought for your King? What ‘giants’ are you preparing for? Training others for? How might the group help you?
1 Chronicles 21: 1. How are you like David — proud but insecure in ‘numbers’? When are you tempted to lean upon your superior assets, rather than in weakness depend on God? When have you, like David, pulled rank instead of listening to your ‘Joab’?
“2. Taking a cue from Israel’s emphasis on body language (falling facedown, etc.), how could you non-verbally express your fear, penitence or needs?
“3. Are you ready to say to your King, ‘Take whatever pleases you’? What ‘freebies’ would you willingly give up? What costly items do you fear he might take that you want to keep?
“4. What does this story say about the link between sin and suffering? Between sin and sacrifice? Between humility and service? Between wrath and mercy? What bearing does this have on your confidence that God brings good out of the trials we endure? How is that true for you?
“5. The Lord God accepted David and his sacrifice. Has the Lord your God accepted you?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

1 Chronicles 19 – 21 each have one set of questions.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.