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2 Samuel 24 (Part 1) Bible Study (David's Census/God's Judgement of David's Sin) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh · Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago

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  Well, let's turn our Bibles to Second Samuel, Chapter 24,
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  Second Samuel 24. As we come to a close in our
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  study of this book. Our sister prayed, thanking God
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  for the past few months in this book.
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  But if you calculate our time since we started for Samuel,
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  it's been close to I think three years when you combine First and
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  Second Samuel in our study with the natural breaks throughout
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  those years. So maybe let's say safely two
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  years in our study of the story of David and what a story it is,
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  right? What a man.
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  God preserving so much concerning His testimonies, his
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  trials, triumphs, tests, mountaintops and low valleys.
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  There isn't another character apart from the person of Jesus
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  Christ that takes up so much space in our Bibles.
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  So he is an important figure. He is crucial not understanding
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  not just of what and who he points to, but the practical
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  lessons that we must absorb as things around his life are meant
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  to correlate with our Christian journey.
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  When it comes to his battles. When it comes to his
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  temptations. When it comes to his devotion.
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  Clearly, the Holy Spirit wants to set this man up, not to be
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  worshipped or venerated, but to learn from, as a model and as an
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  example. And that is no less true in the
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  final chapter of Second Samuel, as we explore the concluding the
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  concluding verses of this man's life.
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  This isn't where David ends. That's in First Kings chapter
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  one where we see his actual. Departure from the earth.
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  The record of that. Nonetheless, in this specific
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  record we have a certain scenario that the Holy Spirit
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  wants us to end our thoughts on as we bring this study to a
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  close. Our sister prayed, But I I would
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  like to pray again. Lord, we thank you for Second
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  Samuel for the months and the weeks devoted to this
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  consistently. Others might feel a little bit
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  weary and tired of hearing of the same man over and over
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  again. And yet we are in a room filled
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  with people who want to ring out every single drop of insight
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  that your word would provide concerning this man.
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  So we thank you for the joy and the endurance in this book.
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  Now, Lord, as we come to the final chapter, we pray that your
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  voice would be loud and clear and that there would be the
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  fruit of your will transferred over into our lives as a result
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  of what this study is about. We thank you in advance for what
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  you will do. Thank you for what you have
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  done, and we give you all the glory and honor as a church
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  family. In Jesus name we pray.
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  Amen. Second same of 24 verse one.
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  Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he
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  incited David against them saying go number Israel and
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  Judah. So the king said to Job the
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  commander of the army who is with him go through all the
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  tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, a number of the
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  people that I may know the number of the people.
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  But Joab said to the king, may the Lord your God add to the
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  people 100 times as many as they are, while the eyes of my Lord
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  the king still see it. But why does my Lord the king
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  delight in this thing? But the King's word prevailed
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  against Joab and the commanders of the army.
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  So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the
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  presence of the king to number the people of Israel.
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  They crossed the Jordan and began from RR and from the city
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  that is in the middle of the valley toward Gad and onto
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  Yazer. Then they came to Gilead and to
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  Kadesh in the land of the Hittites, and they came to Dan.
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  And from Dan they went around to side on and came to the fortress
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  of Tire and to all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites.
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  And they went out to the Negeb of Judah at Beershiba.
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  So when they had gone through all the land, they came to
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  Jerusalem at the end of nine months and 20 days, and Job gave
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  the sum of the numbering of the people to the king.
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  In Israel there are 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword,
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  and the men of Judah were 500,000.
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  We have to ask two very important questions from verse
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  one that will help us frame the rest of this chapter.
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  Those questions are this. Number one, what was it that
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  Israel did for the anger of the Lord to be kindled against it?
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  And #2 what does it mean for? He being God to incite David
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  against them. So let's deal with the first
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  question. We're told here the premises
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  that the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.
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  Many people don't even consider that fact when they come to this
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  chapter. They immediately want to go to
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  David's sin and and asking for a senses when the whole foundation
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  of The thing is that no God is actually responding to a
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  previous sin, the sin of the nation.
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  The sin of the nation here is the reason for why God is about
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  to do what He's going to do, why David is going to do what he is
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  about to do. And we wonder what is it that
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  Israel has done. And here's the thing.
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  We have entered into the realm of speculation because the
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  scriptures are not clear about what the nation has done in
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  order to cause God to move in divine discipline.
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  But there might be a hint in a simple word, the word that opens
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  up this chapter. It's the very simple word again.
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  Again, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.
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  Now you and I are not unfamiliar with the cycles of sin that this
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  nation got themselves into. Throughout centuries we've read
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  and studied the Book of Judges, and even early on and First
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  Samuel, we've seen this pattern from this nation.
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  And that pattern can be summarized in this idolatry and
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  apostasy, the worship of different gods, and ultimately
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  turning their backs on God. And if the word again is meant
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  to link us to the repetitive cycle of Israel's history, then
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  we can say that perhaps what is causing God to be so angry is
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  that the people somehow have now come to a low point in false
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  worship and an unfaithfulness to their God.
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  Now that's not certain. Some would even say no, no, no,
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  this is God's anger against Israel for their guilt involving
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  within Absalom's. What?
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  His revolt and their partial partnership in the rebellion of
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  Sheba, that also is not entirely clear.
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  So we're left to just say we don't know what it is, but we
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  can say it was enough for God to say I'm going to do something to
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  discipline you, I'm going to chastise you, and he's going to
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  chastise them by doing this. And this brings us to our second
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  question, inciting David against them.
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  What does it mean for God to incite David against them?
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  Again, you might come up with different answers unless you
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  read the rest of the chapter. When you read the rest of the
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  chapter as we did, what God essentially is saying, what the
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  Spirit is saying, is that David, as a response to the sin of the
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  nation, was stirred to sin, was stirred to sin in order to cause
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  the people to sin further. Now that sounds odd because we
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  read here that he incited the the God incite David descent.
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  We know that James tells us that God tempts no man.
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  And so how do we reconcile this? Because what we see here is that
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  David is going to commit a very grievous evil.
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  Yes, very good. And first Chronicles 21 verse
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  one. We'll get there in a moment.
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  We're not. We're going to read that it's
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  actually Satan who incites David to create a senses.
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  And even if you didn't have First Chronicles 21, one which
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  is very important, and having the understanding of what's
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  taking place here, what David is doing, what God is, this is an
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  important word. Allowing is not a foreign idea
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  in the Bibles. Essentially, what's taking place
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  here is as a response to the nation's sin, God is going to
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  allow David and the nation to sin further.
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  Why? Because in sinning further they
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  were incur more judgment upon themselves while also embracing
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  the consequences of their willful disobedience.
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  In other words, one way that God judges the people one of the
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  rods that he uses is you to sin further in your sin that when
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  you persist in your rebellion, God will allow you to continue
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  in your rebellion. Because to remain in such a
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  condition is judgment in itself. And it's important to see here
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  that when he incited David, he's not the direct agent for David
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  to commit sin. Our brother just read it in
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  First Chronicles 21. One we read that it was
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  actually, say, Satan, some would see this as a contradiction.
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  No, it's complimentary. God is sovereign.
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  He superintends all things, including Satan.
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  And when we read here in First Chronicles 21 that Satan stood
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  against Israel and incited David, what this is essentially
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  showing us is how God incited David.
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  The how here is in this verse, and it was by permitting Satan
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  removing his protection, removing his grace from David
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  and the nation as a whole, and giving Satan more access to his
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  heart and to his mind to persuade him further Into
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  Darkness. There's so many examples of that
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  throughout the old and the new, and this is just one of them.
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  So what you have here is a very important theological concept.
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  When a person or a people refuse to continue to follow God, they
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  will inevitably have Satan as a substitute.
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  Push God out. You don't have neutrality.
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  Push God out. You invite the evil one.
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  When you do that in your life, when you do that in your family,
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  when you do that in your marriage, when you do it as a
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  nation. You don't want to follow God
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  anymore. You don't want to honor God
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  anymore. Then Satan will gladly lead you
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  because you're a slave to something.
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  In this life, you're always a slave.
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  You're either a slave to sin, a slave to Satan, or a slave to
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  God and a slave to righteousness.
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  You're not a free man, you're a slave.
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  But the beauty about being a slave unto God is that that's
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  where true freedom lies. And so we see here that Satan,
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  in essence, takes the place. As God pulls away, his presence
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  and his activity intensifies, and that's what we read here.
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  David receives a thought not from the Lord, but from the evil
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  one, Satan. Unlike what many people believe,
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  Satan can't read your mind. He can't.
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  Some people believe that. What a tormenting way to live.
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  He can't read your mind. God is all knowing.
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  The Bible tells us that he alone knows the hearts of all men.
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  Satan doesn't share that prerogative or that power.
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  But Satan can sow into your mind, and he can plant thoughts
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  into your mind. And that's exactly what happens
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  to David here. And it shows.
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  Something about David does it not?
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  Because the temptation comes and he bites.
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  Now we read about the poor anemic condition of Israel, but
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  we also realized that David himself was in a weak place.
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  Spiritually speaking, David allows Satan to influence him.
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  David allows this thought of clear disobedience to actually
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  overtake him. And could it be that Israel's
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  weak condition is a direct result of Israel's leadership
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  being A poor example and not being steadfast in their own
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  walk with the Lord? God only knows.
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  But allow me to say it again. One of the ways in which God
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  judges a person or people is by allowing them to sin further so
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  they can store it for themselves more judgment, while also
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  enduring the consequences of the sin itself.
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  Just in case you doubt that, this is one of my go to verses
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  to show that and to prove that, it's in Proverbs 22.
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  Verse 14, Proverbs 2214 says that the mouth of a forbidden
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  woman is a deep pit. The mouth of a forbidden woman
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  is a deep pit, meaning a woman who is promiscuous, adulterous,
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  sensual is a deep pit. You get involved with a woman
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  like that, it's going to be very hard to escape.
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  That's what it means to me. Deep pit it.
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  You won't be able to really escape the consequences as
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  easily. You won't be able to escape the
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  the the the pain, the guilt, the shame as easily.
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  It's a deep pit. It's a severe thing to fall into
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  such a way of life. But that's not the part I'm
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  focused on. It says in the second part of
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  that verse he with whom the Lord is angry will fall into it.
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  I remember first reading that just in my reading of Proverbs,
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  and it shocked me to the core. You would think it says the
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  mouth of a forbidden woman is a deep pit.
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  The one who does this, the Lord will be angry with.
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  It doesn't say that. It says he with whom the Lord is
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  angry will fall into it. In other words, in some cases,
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  when a person does fall into this pit, it's not because God
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  is angry with that particular sin, it's the fruit of a
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  previous sin. God, in essence, allows a person
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  to continue in their sin, which in many cases leads to adultery,
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  sensuality, or morality as a consequence of something prior.
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  And it made me think about so many different scenarios.
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  And one of the scenarios that we're familiar with,
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  unfortunately, is the fall of many leaders who who get
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  themselves involved in infidelity and sensuality.
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  I wonder if that is not necessary the the the sin that
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  disqualified. And I wonder if they were
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  disqualified a long time ago and that was the that was the sin
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  that ultimately disqualified them publicly from ministry.
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  But makes you wonder if there was pride in that heart, makes
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  you wonder if there was self exaltation or different vices
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  that corrupted that person. Because what we see here is one
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  of the ways in which God does chastise or judge is when he
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  says, go ahead, I remove my protective guardrails around
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  you, I remove my conviction, I remove my warnings, and I let
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  you just be. And that's what we see here with
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  David, Satan has greater access to his mind.
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  And what does Satan incite him to do?
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  Verse two. So the king set to Job the
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  commander of the army who was with him, go through all the
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  tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and number the people
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  that I may know the number of the people.
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  Are you serious? Out of all the things that Satan
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  contempt a man to do, out of all the crimes, out of all the
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  evils, the one thing that Satan resolves to convince David of is
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  to send out a nationwide report to get an update on the
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  population number. I mean, that sounds like that
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  sounds pretty innocent as it sounds so severe because there's
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  nothing inherently wrong with the senses.
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  That's true throughout the Bible.
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  But what we have to consider here are two things to see how
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  Satan is moving behind the scenes.
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  The motive behind the senses and the method of the senses.
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  The motive and the method. What is the motive do you think
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  according to verse two? What do you see in verse 2?
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  That I may know. It's all about David.
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  It's all for David. It's all to satisfy this
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  curiosity and a curiosity in order to build up
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  selfconfidence. I just want to know how many
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  people I have under my leadership in my brain.
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  I want to know how much we've grown.
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  I want to know our strength. I want to know our military
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  might, which is confirmed later on that David is not necessarily
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  interested in the wider number. He wants to know specifically
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  about his army. And Joe up here, I mean, out of
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  all the guys to protest, this job is the guy who protested.
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  That's how you know there's something fishy about this.
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  He reads David like a book, like it's all over him for why he
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  wants to do this, and that's why he he stands up and he says,
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  listen, may the Lord add to the number 100 times in your
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  lifetime, but why do you delight in this thing?
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  Why are you trying to do this? What are you?
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  What's your real motive here? And he's challenging David
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  because he can discern that. This is rooted in pride.
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  This is rooted in arrogance. There is something here about
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  David wanting to confirm and celebrate himself, and Joe AB is
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  the one who notices it. Joe AB and I thought to myself
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  reading about Joe, I said, Where was this man's courage?
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  Where was this man's conviction? And we'll get to that in a
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  moment. But this is what we're seeing
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  here. Pride is what is consuming
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  David. That was the door that Satan had
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  access through. Is David at the beginning of his
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  life, the middle of his life, or the end of his life?
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  The end of his life? Pride is always looking at every
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  point of where you're at, of every season.
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  When you're young and you're zealous, you can boast in that
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  and even in your spirituality. Even in your plans and your
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  dreams and the strength of the flesh and your beauty, you can
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  be proud. And at the end of your life,
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  upon the reflection of all your successes and all your endeavors
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  and all the things that you've done, even in the name of God,
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  pride is right there trying to destroy you.
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  Even if you have a day left to live, Pride still wants to try
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  to bring you down. So be on guard.
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  Always, always at all seasons, at all times, in all places.
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  Be alert. Here we see that this man in his
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  old age is still being threatened by pride, and
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  unfortunately, he's infected by it.
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  And first Chronicles 21 Five. That's a parallel account if you
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  want to flip back and forth. It'll make this study much
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  easier. We're told exactly what, David.
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  Wanted a number for it says here in Joe I've gave the some of the
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  numbering of the people to David and all Israel There were
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  1,100,000 men who drew the sword and in Judah 470,000 who drew
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  the sword David wanted to know specifically about.
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  His fighting men. And there's no sign in the text
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  that David is trying to get an idea of who's at his disposal
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  because there are neighboring nations ready to go to war.
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  The fact that this took several months to do shows that David is
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  doing this at a time of peace. Some people excuse David that
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  he's trying to do this to prepare himself for a potential
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  conflict. There is no sign of conflict.
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  Nine months go by and there is nothing indicating.
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  Potential danger. This is purely from a place of
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  success and wanting to relish in your success.
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  So there are only two strong possibilities to why David is
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  doing this. What do you think it is?
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  One of two? Or maybe you can get both.
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  I kind of gave a hint just now to gloat to 1, to simply just
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  boast and to and to realize how successful he was and to to
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  proclaim nationally how successful he was.
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  This was a way to trumpet. His own brilliance and
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  leadership. But what's the second reason do
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  you think? I think that's very true.
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  Here's David now putting his trust in a number of his men
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  rather than the strength of his God and and the Lord himself
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  knew the danger. God's not against numbers.
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  He has old book called numbers. OK, God's not against numbers.
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  In the book of Acts we see him counting the number of people
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  who are saved periodically. He's not Now what we do with
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  those numbers and what those numbers do to us determines what
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  God feels about us numbering. But yet God still realizes the
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  danger of numbers. And so even when it came to
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  Gideon as her brother brought up as an example, he reduced the
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  number less. The people boast in their
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  themselves after the victory. And God, even concerning kings
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  in Deuteronomy 17, gave strict protocol of what they should do
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  in terms of their army, in terms of their own material gain and
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  strength. And there should be few horses,
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  right? And all these specific rules, so
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  that constantly they would depend on their God throughout
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  the ages. And we hear we see here that
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  David potentially now loses sight of the Lord and begins to
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  try to draw hope and draw strength from that which God
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  says you don't put your trust in.
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  Either one of these reasons is enough for him to be headed for
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  trouble. These are the potential motives.
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  Now let's talk about the method. This is where people tend to
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  miss the deeper meaning of the story.
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  They tend to just stop their date of his operating here under
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  pride, self-sufficiency, self-reliance.
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  True, true. True.
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  True, but the crime is much more severe than that.
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  Did God give his people instructions of how they should
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  conduct the senses? You would know this if you were
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  with us 5-6 years ago, because we went through a book that
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  tells us plainly that there are set, detailed rules of how the
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  nation should go about sending out a report to be numbered.
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  Anybody know which book? I'm speaking about?
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  Exodus. So I need you to turn to Exodus
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  chapter 30, and let's read a few verses to understand this more
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  deeply. This is why you've heard me say
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  this. I love saying it.
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  You need to read the whole Bible, my friend.
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  Because you'll come to a story like this and you'll miss the
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  deeper meaning. So when you skip over Exodus,
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  because from 25 to 40 it's all about the Tabernacle, you're
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  like, I'm not interested. This doesn't relate to my life.
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  Then you come to the exciting book of Second Samuel and you
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  come to 24. You say all this is awesome, but
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  because you missed out on Exodus, you miss out on 2nd Sam
• 22:41
  of 24, Exodus 30, verse 11. Another reminder for us to be
• 22:47
  people who indulge in the whole thing.
• 22:50
  Verse 11 reads, The Lord said to Moses, pay attention.
• 22:52
  Now verse 12. When you take the senses of the
• 22:55
  people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life
• 22:59
  to the Lord. When you number them, that there
• 23:01
  be no plague among them. When you number them, each one
• 23:05
  who is numbered in the senses shall give this half a shekel.
• 23:09
  According to the shekel of the sanctuary.
• 23:11
  The shekel is 20 guerres half a shekel as an offering to the
• 23:15
  Lord. Everyone who is numbered in the
• 23:18
  census from 20 years old and upwards, shall give the Lord's
• 23:21
  offering, the rich shall not give more, and the poor shall
• 23:24
  not give less than the half shekel.
• 23:27
  When you give the Lord's offering to make atonement for
• 23:29
  your lives, you shall take the atonement money from the people
• 23:34
  of Israel, and shall give it for the service of the 10th of
• 23:37
  meeting. That it may bring the people of
• 23:39
  Israel to remembrance before the Lord, so as to make atonement
• 23:43
  for your lives. Fascinating.
• 23:47
  I love the Bible. I love the Old Testament.
• 23:51
  I got giddy. When I was reminded of these
• 23:52
  verses, well, tell me, tell me some things that stand out from
• 23:56
  the specific rules concerning the census.
• 24:00
  What stands out to you? There's a tax associated with
• 24:05
  the census. You could not separate the tax
• 24:09
  from the numbering. Crucial.
• 24:12
  Anything else? The tax has a specific purpose.
• 24:22
  There's actually twofold purpose, but it's referred to
• 24:25
  powerfully as the atonement money.
• 24:31
  Oh, you see where we're going here?
• 24:33
  Atonement money. What else stands out to you from
• 24:36
  these verses? The money is actually an
• 24:41
  offering to the Lord. It's an offering.
• 24:45
  So that's one of its purposes, and we're going to get to the
• 24:48
  purposes in a moment, but I want to see if anybody else sees any
• 24:50
  other details, What else stands out?
• 24:58
  Whether you're rich or you're poor, no matter what your status
• 25:00
  was in society, every single person paid the same price.
• 25:04
  Yes. Oh, very, very important.
• 25:10
  Did you see what we were reading at first?
• 25:12
  Refusal to pay the tax would invoke a plague.
• 25:20
  If you've read Second Name of 24 in its entirety, things are
• 25:23
  beginning to connect now, and I'll show you if you haven't
• 25:26
  read it before, what else You had your hand up.
• 25:32
  There is a remembrance in this act.
• 25:35
  Well, I think we've gathered enough.
• 25:36
  Unless Joshua back there in the sound booth.
• 25:38
  What are you doing in the sound booth, Joshua?
• 25:40
  Are you in charge of the life? Yes.
• 25:46
  So there is an atoning factor to this half shekel being devoted
• 25:51
  and dedicated from each individual.
• 25:53
  While we have enough now to work with something, this is the two
• 25:58
  purposes that we have concerning this tax, when the census will
• 26:00
  go out. Number one, this tax would be a
• 26:03
  means to provide the necessary funds to continue the service in
• 26:08
  the Tabernacle. We read that right.
• 26:10
  We read here that the service of the. 10th of meeting it shall be
• 26:13
  given. For the service.
• 26:16
  And then the second part there, verse 16, is that it may bring
• 26:18
  the people of Israel to remembrance before the Lord.
• 26:21
  So not only would it help fund the ministry of the central
• 26:26
  worship center of the nation, it would have an individual and
• 26:29
  immediate act upon the hearts of the people.
• 26:32
  And this was it. The senses would cause the
• 26:35
  people to be humbled because of that tax.
• 26:39
  There would be something given up by the people.
• 26:43
  So that not that nationalism would be boosted, not not so
• 26:48
  that the ego of the leadership would be stroked, but that the
• 26:51
  people would be actually brought low.
• 26:54
  And that when they were numbered, when their existence
• 26:57
  and their participation was made known to them and to the nation,
• 27:02
  they would in a sense, by giving up the shekel, saying as much as
• 27:06
  I have been led here by the grace of God, as much as I am in
• 27:09
  a place of great prosperity and blessing.
• 27:12
  I also recognize that I am in need of atonement.
• 27:18
  I also recognize that God owns me and that I need rescue and
• 27:27
  that I need to be delivered and that I need covering for my sin.
• 27:32
  That's what was being declared in that offering.
• 27:37
  And so, yes, they would be acknowledged by this senses, but
• 27:40
  they would also be humbled by this senses.
• 27:42
  And that humility would be stimulated by a willingness to
• 27:45
  give up something small but something symbolic that would
• 27:50
  cause him to say and recall their condition and feel their
• 27:54
  need to be delivered. And what makes us observe is
• 27:58
  even more special, is what the Lord says in verse 15.
• 28:01
  We we heard it already. The rich shall not give more,
• 28:04
  and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel.
• 28:07
  When you give the Lord's offering to make atonement.
• 28:09
  That's a gospel truth. What this means is no matter.
• 28:13
  Who you are among your family and society, your occupation,
• 28:19
  every single person, by giving the same amount, would
• 28:22
  essentially be confessing that they are all in equal need of
• 28:26
  the same atonement. We all need deliverance.
• 28:31
  We all need the same salvation. We all need the same rescue.
• 28:36
  And so this census with this tax actually brought everybody on a
• 28:39
  level ground. It brought everybody to to
• 28:43
  realize it. Acknowledge no matter who I am
• 28:45
  as a number in this place. Still you and I, my brother, my
• 28:49
  sister, we all need the same thing.
• 28:52
  We all need atonement. We all need atonement.
• 28:56
  And and if you can make a Bible study just on the census.
• 29:01
  So let me just give you something else to add to this to
• 29:03
  make it even more exciting. When this original census was
• 29:07
  given out, when this original set of instructions was
• 29:11
  implemented, does anybody know where the tax money went in
• 29:17
  Exodus? Anybody have an idea where did
• 29:30
  this tax money go? Well, one the shekel was silver.
• 29:33
  Maybe that's a hint. Any ideas?
• 29:41
  If you're listening to this at a later time, any ideas?
• 29:47
  You're in that general area, the Tabernacle.
• 29:52
  Give me more specifics. Yes.
• 29:55
  Yes, Josh, I'm pointing at you. The priest.
• 29:58
  More specifically, you're in the realm that I'm referring to, not
• 30:03
  the Treasury necessarily. Not the trumpets, but very good
• 30:07
  guess. Okay, I'm impatient.
• 30:13
  Exodus 38. You'll see it.
• 30:16
  Exodus. 3825 we see the direct reference of this initial census
• 30:23
  being given out and where the silver of this first generation
• 30:27
  went to Exodus 3825, are you there?
• 30:32
  The silver from those of the congregation who were recorded
• 30:34
  was 100 talents and 1775 shekels by the shekel of the sanctuary.
• 30:41
  A bake ahead that is half a shekel by the shekel of the
• 30:44
  sanctuary for everyone who is listed in the records from 20
• 30:48
  years old and upward for 600 and three 550,000 men.
• 30:54
  Now here it is, verse 27, The 100 Talents of Silver.
• 31:00
  Were forecasting the bases of the Sanctuary and the bases of
• 31:03
  the Veil. 100 bases for the 100 talents.
• 31:07
  A talent, a base. Where did that silver go?
• 31:11
  To the bases that held up the boards that would make up the
• 31:16
  edifice of the Tabernacle. Every inch of the construction
• 31:22
  of the Tabernacle has been recorded and preserved for us in
• 31:25
  the word of God. It's absolutely astounding to me
• 31:28
  to see how much of the Bible contains reference, whether in
• 31:33
  detail or by name to the Tabernacle.
• 31:35
  I always use this as an example to contrast a thought provoking
• 31:39
  idea. You have two chapters or chapter
• 31:42
  and a half dedicated to the creation of the universe, the
• 31:45
  creation of the universe, and some believe that in comparison
• 31:49
  to that you have close to 50 chapters in the Bible that's
• 31:52
  dedicated to the Tabernacle. Two for the universe around 50,
• 31:58
  for a building that has no immediate relevance to us in the
• 32:01
  New Covenant, clearly there's something important about the
• 32:04
  Tabernacle, and every corner, every material, every way in
• 32:10
  which it should be built has been kept for us because there's
• 32:14
  something greater in it than for us to see what Israel use as a
• 32:19
  means to meet with God. And here we read that the silver
• 32:24
  that was brought from the census was utilized in order to create
• 32:28
  the basis in which the main structure with its boards would
• 32:32
  be able to be established and founded upon.
• 32:35
  You don't have the basis. You don't have support.
• 32:38
  You don't have support. You don't have an existing
• 32:41
  meeting place between God and man.
• 32:43
  It's it's the base. It's the foundation.
• 32:48
  So remove the bases. What do you have?
• 32:50
  A very wobbly tent. Remove the bases and what do you
• 32:53
  have? A very shaky and unpredictable
• 32:58
  arena. So this is this is not optional.
• 33:01
  This is crucial, like anything else, when you're building any
• 33:04
  size project, to have the base in place and the base by the
• 33:09
  spirits. Insight, we're told, is used by
• 33:13
  the material of the silver. What did the silver represent?
• 33:20
  Atonement. It was a confession that apart
• 33:24
  from atonement, I cannot be who God called me.
• 33:28
  I cannot have a future. I cannot be truly a child of
• 33:31
  God. I need my sins covered.
• 33:33
  And the Holy Spirit takes that truth and applies it to the base
• 33:38
  of the Tabernacle. You know why?
• 33:40
  Because in the same way you could not have a Tabernacle
• 33:43
  without the silver bases, you can't have a relationship with
• 33:46
  God apart from the reality of atonement.
• 33:51
  That's the truth. God could Tabernacle with man in
• 33:56
  the Old Covenant on the basis of the revelation of Atonement.
• 34:01
  Christ can only Tabernacle in your heart upon the same
• 34:05
  reality, not with silver or gold, as Peter said, but upon
• 34:08
  the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 34:11
  That's the truth. Do you see how the Old Testament
• 34:13
  is exciting? Do you see how you can't skip
• 34:15
  it? You see how when you get deep,
• 34:18
  there's meat waiting for you. So even the basis of the silver,
• 34:21
  you think, why am I being told this?
• 34:23
  Well, what is a silver represent?
• 34:25
  Oh, you can't have a Tabernacle. You can't know God.
• 34:27
  You can't meet with God. You can't have the glory of God
• 34:30
  apart from me confessing I need to be atoned for.
• 34:35
  It's pointing to something. Now this is making more sense
• 34:41
  when you come to Second Samuel 20 4.
• 34:44
  Hold on. We're still in the category not
• 34:45
  of the motive, but of the method of the senses.
• 34:50
  What was the danger? What was the punishment if the
• 34:53
  people under a census did not give up their toning silver?
• 34:57
  A plague? Come back to second.
• 34:59
  Same of 24. Look at verse 15.
• 35:08
  So the Lord sent what pestilence on Israel from the morning until
• 35:12
  the appointed time, and there died of the people from Dan to
• 35:15
  Beersheba, 70,000 men, plague. It's very likely that when Satan
• 35:25
  tempted David, he not only tempted him to feed his pride,
• 35:31
  but he tempted him to create his senses while ignoring the
• 35:36
  atonement offering. And that makes sense because the
• 35:41
  guilt didn't just come upon David.
• 35:42
  Who did it come upon? The nation as a whole.
• 35:45
  The nation as a whole. And so it could be that the
• 35:50
  anger from verse one of of of God concerning the people is
• 35:55
  that they themselves had their own pride going on and inciting
• 36:01
  David to create this census. Without the need of the
• 36:06
  atonement, only expose the pride that was in their hearts.
• 36:11
  Because what you have here is a great possibility that the
• 36:15
  people neglected their participation, their
• 36:19
  responsibility, in giving up half a shekel when they were
• 36:21
  counted. What was Satan trying to do?
• 36:25
  He was trying to, in essence, cause the people to deny their
• 36:28
  need for redemption. It was an affront to God.
• 36:33
  It was an offense to God. It was them saying, yeah, we're
• 36:37
  numbered. But they divorce themselves of
• 36:39
  their need for saving, their need for redemption.
• 36:42
  How only their sins being covered is any hope for their
• 36:46
  future. And David wanted to blur that
• 36:48
  message. And so we encouraged David to
• 36:52
  create a senses, which is not inherently wrong.
• 36:54
  But when you did it your way without this key component, oh,
• 36:58
  you were sending a clear message to God Almighty and to your
• 37:01
  neighbors. We don't need atonement.
• 37:04
  Is Satan still doing the same today?
• 37:06
  Absolutely. Satan doesn't mind you
• 37:09
  acknowledging your existence. He doesn't mind you living it up
• 37:11
  here. As long as you do not see your
• 37:15
  desperate condition. He'll let you live in self
• 37:19
  righteousness. He'll let you live in a works
• 37:22
  based philosophy as long as you don't come to the self
• 37:26
  realization that I need covering.
• 37:30
  I need redemption. I need something outside of
• 37:33
  myself to rescue me. He's doing the very same thing.
• 37:39
  And we see here that this is the essence of the crime of Second
• 37:42
  Samuel, Chapter 24. A census without atonement.
• 37:47
  A census without an offering. A census without the
• 37:50
  proclamation of the desperation of the people's spiritual
• 37:53
  condition. And we're going to close to show
• 37:56
  just how severe this crime was. We're just in verse 2.
• 38:00
  How are we going to finish this? I don't know, but let's keep
• 38:03
  going. Verse 3.
• 38:05
  But Joe upset to the king, may the Lord your God add to the
• 38:07
  people 100 times as many as they are, while the eyes of the Lord
• 38:09
  still see it, my king still see it.
• 38:11
  But why does my Lord the King delight in this thing?
• 38:15
  Again, I said earlier, where was this man's courage and
• 38:17
  conviction when it came to Abner?
• 38:20
  When it came to Uriah, when it came to the people that he
• 38:24
  murdered in cold blood? I thought to myself, where was
• 38:27
  this man? With Amasa when he kissed them
• 38:31
  and stabbed them and let his entrails spill out.
• 38:35
  Because what he's saying here is righteous.
• 38:37
  It is right, It is correct. But see, jobs problem was this
• 38:42
  that he was willing to stand up against evil as long as that
• 38:45
  evil did not, did not cause any of his personal interests to be
• 38:52
  endangered if. Evil promoted his position,
• 38:57
  protected his authority. He was for it, but when it was
• 39:00
  outside of himself, he was willing to speak out against it.
• 39:03
  This is what we call selective sanctification, that you are
• 39:07
  bold and courageous on your social media and in your
• 39:09
  conversations and in your debates with others with
• 39:12
  cultural issues. But when it comes to sins that
• 39:14
  you enjoy and justify, you have a different tone, don't you?
• 39:19
  You have you have a different attitude, don't you?
• 39:21
  That's that's a joab like spirituality.
• 39:26
  And so as much as this is to be commended, this is also
• 39:29
  concerning with Joe AB willing to speak out against evils that
• 39:32
  don't pertain or affect his life.
• 39:35
  But when it came to his life, he was more than willing to commit
• 39:37
  evil. And it's more than just Job.
• 39:39
  Look at verse 4. But the King's word prevailed
• 39:42
  against Job and the commanders of the army.
• 39:45
  So now you have other guys in high prominent positions that
• 39:48
  are siding with Joe AB and are trying to convince the King King
• 39:52
  don't do this. Please don't do this.
• 39:54
  This is going to be really bad for you and really bad for all
• 39:56
  of us. We're begging you not to do
• 39:58
  this. But unfortunately it says here
• 40:02
  the King's word prevailed against Job.
• 40:05
  What do you take out of verse four?
• 40:08
  What do you take out of verse four with Job and the commanders
• 40:10
  of the army standing up against the King?
• 40:13
  Look at it from a. Divine standpoint.
• 40:15
  Look at it from God's perspective more than from a
• 40:17
  human standpoint. Do you know what I see from
• 40:19
  this? An act of God's mercy.
• 40:23
  I see that as much as David has been given over to himself in
• 40:26
  this season, God still gives him a way out.
• 40:29
  It's almost as though God is giving him yet another chance,
• 40:32
  another chance to escape, a furtherance into disobedience
• 40:36
  and the the consequences and the outcomes thereof.
• 40:38
  Do you remember what happened with David on the rooftop in
• 40:41
  Second Samuel 11 when he inquired of Bathsheba?
• 40:45
  The servants came back and what did they say?
• 40:47
  They they told him that this is a married woman and she's
• 40:50
  actually married to one of your mighty men.
• 40:51
  Remember that. And we concluded that that was
• 40:55
  an act of intervention, to shock David and to sober David to him,
• 41:00
  to realize, okay, this is a married woman.
• 41:03
  And this is not just any married woman.
• 41:05
  This is, that should be enough. But this is one of my best
• 41:07
  friend's wives. And so the promise there in the
• 41:15
  New Testament that whenever we are tempted, the Lord will
• 41:17
  always provide a way of escape that's always promised in every
• 41:20
  situation, every scenario. And it's no less true.
• 41:23
  Here in Second Samuel 11, David had a chance to say what am I
• 41:26
  thinking, Thank you servants, go ahead.
• 41:28
  And he could have smacked his head a couple times on the on
• 41:30
  one of the walls and you would have been justified in doing so.
• 41:33
  What am I thinking? And here we have him again in
• 41:35
  this chapter where he has of all people, Joe AB being the voice
• 41:40
  of reason and having the moral high ground.
• 41:42
  Hey, don't do this like if you have if you have a job.
• 41:45
  Telling you not to do something, you would think okay, maybe I'm
• 41:48
  not. Maybe I'm doing something wrong
• 41:49
  here? And he still doesn't catch it.
• 41:53
  He still doesn't catch it. Many people in their sin,
• 41:58
  especially in their premeditated sin, do the same thing David
• 42:02
  does. They fail to hear the voice of
• 42:03
  God now. I'm not talking about the
• 42:06
  audible voice of God. I'm talking about the the
• 42:08
  natural means of providential interruptions, providential
• 42:12
  interruptions. So like when the sermon you hear
• 42:13
  on that Sunday that speaks directly to your situation and
• 42:19
  you're just like, OK, God is saying something to me and yet
• 42:21
  you still choose to persist in your disobedience, right?
• 42:24
  The rebuke of a friend, or when a friend texts you or calls you,
• 42:27
  says brother, I don't know what's going on with you man.
• 42:28
  You seem different. The Lord put you on my heart,
• 42:30
  and I just want to Is everything OK?
• 42:31
  Yeah, everything's fine, brother.
• 42:32
  God is good all the time. God is good and and you're not
• 42:36
  catching it. The Lord is even impressing it
• 42:38
  on people who care for you to get your attention right, or the
• 42:42
  very difficult hurdles that have been brought about on the path
• 42:45
  as you're trying to plan your sin.
• 42:47
  And you're not catching on that God is trying to stop you from
• 42:51
  doing this, though you will not infringe upon your free will.
• 42:54
  I know that word irks people, but and So what do we make of
• 43:00
  this? It's a very clear example and
• 43:02
  illustration of how stubborn we are in our sin.
• 43:05
  And God tries to get our attention in many ways, and we
• 43:07
  still choose to, in our blindness, move forward.
• 43:11
  But I see something else here. I see something else that's
• 43:13
  deeper than that truth. And it's this.
• 43:16
  That when the child of God is outside of fellowship with the
• 43:19
  Lord, clearly David was not in a good place to begin with for him
• 43:22
  to be incited in this way, for him to be so hardened.
• 43:27
  When the child of God is outside of fellowship with the Lord,
• 43:31
  they are capable of making foolish decisions that even men
• 43:35
  like Job would never entertain. When we.
• 43:41
  Forfeit communion with God. You and I, even as Christians,
• 43:45
  are capable of becoming something that even the world
• 43:49
  would not tolerate. You don't believe me?
• 43:54
  Remember what Paul said about that man in First Corinthians 5
• 43:58
  who needed to be excommunicated from the church because his sin
• 44:01
  was very public and it was atrocious and it was being
• 44:04
  tolerated by the by the church. He said in verse one of First
• 44:08
  Corinthians 5, it is actually reported that there is sexual
• 44:11
  morality among you and of a kind that is not tolerated even among
• 44:14
  pagans. I this is how This is why you
• 44:20
  need to stay close to Jesus. Like very close.
• 44:24
  Because to remove yourself from that close protection in the
• 44:27
  presence of God can create something in you that even the
• 44:31
  world would say. That's pretty insane.
• 44:34
  That behavior is out of place, that kind of attitude, those
• 44:39
  kind of decisions. Even the world can say we
• 44:42
  wouldn't even go that far. Now I know that's becoming
• 44:44
  increasingly difficult to believe in our age, but it's
• 44:48
  true nonetheless. Here we have a great contrast.
• 44:51
  You have a man like Job who was not a noble man, who was not a
• 44:54
  man of great character and integrity.
• 44:56
  But even Joe AB can look at David, who has been brought so
• 44:59
  low because of his distance from God.
• 45:01
  And he goes, I wouldn't even do that myself if that doesn't.
• 45:06
  I mean, there are many things to motivate you to cling to Jesus
• 45:08
  Christ. Let this be one of them.
• 45:11
  You don't want to know what you can become when you move away
• 45:14
  from God. I don't want to know what I can
• 45:19
  become. People say, brother, how do you
• 45:21
  stay devoted in your disciplines every single day?
• 45:24
  It's not a matter of my feelings.
• 45:26
  It's a matter of survival. Like I need this.
• 45:29
  Not a matter. If I want this, I need it.
• 45:32
  I don't know what I don't know. I just know myself.
• 45:34
  I know myself. I know who Daniel can be when he
• 45:36
  doesn't spend enough ample time with the Lord.
• 45:38
  I know. I know what happens to my
• 45:40
  thinking. I know what happens to my flesh.
• 45:41
  I know what happens to my patience.
• 45:42
  I know what happens to my attitude.
• 45:43
  I know what I know myself. So I need to stay very close to
• 45:46
  him. And it's not just survival
• 45:50
  satisfaction may add. I enjoy him and I hope you do
• 45:55
  too. So what happens?
• 45:59
  Verse 5. This elaborate, drawn out,
• 46:01
  detailed journey meant to emphasize the absolute length
• 46:06
  and breadth that Job and the commanders went to in order to
• 46:10
  satisfy their leaders. Lust.
• 46:13
  And verse 8 tells us the exact numbering of the whole campaign.
• 46:17
  So when they had gone through all the land, they came to
• 46:19
  Jerusalem at the end of nine months and 20 days.
• 46:24
  Yeah. What took them almost 10 months
• 46:26
  would take us a few days, even here in America, Right.
• 46:30
  So this is more than just us to get an idea of how much we'd
• 46:33
  advance in technology. There's a lesson here.
• 46:37
  What do you take out of that? Almost 10 months for this to be
• 46:40
  completed? You know what I see?
• 46:44
  Do you see the same? What?
• 46:48
  Yeah. Well, your sin can take you and
• 46:51
  keep you longer than you hope for sure.
• 46:59
  Yes, that's primarily it. This nine months and 20 days was
• 47:04
  a window for David's repentance. David had a chance to call out
• 47:10
  to God. During this time.
• 47:12
  David had a chance to come to a sense, say, shut this whole
• 47:14
  thing down. What was I thinking two months
• 47:16
  ago? And so you see here that David
• 47:19
  persisted in his disobedience for almost a year.
• 47:23
  And you also see God's patience to not immediately judge him and
• 47:27
  to wait for him to come to his senses in that same period of
• 47:30
  time. God is so patient, gloriously
• 47:33
  patient, merciful, beyond understanding.
• 47:38
  And so David had this time, and it's just yet another revelation
• 47:43
  of God's mercy. It wasn't just through Job and
• 47:45
  the commanders. It was even in the period in
• 47:47
  which this thing was being conducted and it still didn't
• 47:50
  click. You say, oh, oh, David, it took
• 47:53
  you that long to realize. Okay, how about you and me, How
• 47:55
  many sermons do we have to hear, huh?
• 47:57
  How many years being in church? How many years being in the
• 48:00
  ministry before we actually got it?
• 48:01
  How many? How many this is?
• 48:04
  This is to humble us. It's taken longer for other
• 48:06
  people to come to their senses and their sin and their
• 48:09
  spiritual maturity. So let's not get excited here
• 48:12
  and say, oh, I'm glad I'm not like David.
• 48:14
  I don't know. We might be worse than David in
• 48:15
  many cases at the end of nine months and 20 days.
• 48:20
  Job finally comes with the report back and let's skip over
• 48:24
  here to verse 10. But David's heart struck him
• 48:29
  very important word, after he had numbered the people.
• 48:33
  And David said to the Lord, I have sinned greatly in what I
• 48:35
  have done. But now, O Lord, please take
• 48:37
  away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very
• 48:41
  foolishly, very foolishly. So when Job and the Commander
• 48:45
  spoke up to David, his heart was not stricken.
• 48:48
  When the nine months and 28 went by, nothing happened to him.
• 48:53
  It wasn't only until after what we had hoped for would have
• 48:58
  happened before, only happened after.
• 49:02
  And again, we might say shame on you, David.
• 49:04
  No, no, no, shame on us. Because how true is it that most
• 49:07
  people are only ready to repent when they see what they thought
• 49:12
  would bring them to light? Ends up disappointing them in
• 49:14
  the end. This is a picture of the
• 49:19
  tendency of man, even people who profess Christ, that we only
• 49:22
  tend to feel the guilt and the conviction that we should have
• 49:26
  felt earlier when The Mirage has been proven to be a mirage.
• 49:33
  Because it it sounded really good when it was here, and when
• 49:37
  we fantasized about it, and when we thought about it, and when we
• 49:39
  had all our little schemes of how to escape it and to evade
• 49:45
  the consequences of it, it sounded, and it looked really
• 49:48
  good here, but only until you sipped from it and you felt what
• 49:52
  it did to your soul. You realize this is stupid, This
• 49:58
  didn't satisfy. This was dumb.
• 50:00
  The shame is not worth it. The guilt is not worth it.
• 50:03
  It's only usually until after we do the thing, do we feel our
• 50:08
  hearts springing with conviction.
• 50:11
  It doesn't have to be that way, but look at his language.
• 50:14
  What stands out to you from his confession?
• 50:16
  And David said, I have sinned greatly in what I have done.
• 50:19
  But now, Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant,
• 50:21
  for I have done very foolishly. Anything stand out to you it?
• 50:29
  Helps when you have the rearview mirrors up.
• 50:30
  Yes, Okay, that's good. That's one of the points.
• 50:36
  Does David say remove the consequences of my iniquity?
• 50:43
  He doesn't say that. What does he say?
• 50:44
  Remove what? The iniquity.
• 50:47
  That's true confession. True confession is not just you
• 50:50
  acknowledging you're wrong, it's you actually professing and your
• 50:53
  desire to be changed. OK, not only is this wrong, I
• 50:58
  need you to eradicate the Presence and the power of the
• 51:01
  sin in my life. A lot of confession is provoked
• 51:07
  when the sin is met with consequences.
• 51:09
  And here's the thing. Worldly sorrow looks at the
• 51:12
  consequences and sees the consequences as the reason for
• 51:16
  you wanting God to intervene. A True Blood bot regenerate soul
• 51:21
  is not concerned as much as the consequences are are concerning
• 51:27
  you more than the consecration of your own life.
• 51:31
  The true believer when he sin says Lord, let the consequence
• 51:35
  let the chips fall where they fall.
• 51:37
  But I need to be changed. I don't want to be this person
• 51:40
  again. I don't want to repeat this
• 51:42
  vileness again. I don't want to be this.
• 51:44
  You need to do something in me, not just for me, which is a lot
• 51:48
  of confession. I want to get out of this
• 51:50
  trouble. I don't want to go to jail.
• 51:51
  I don't want to lose my friends. I want to save my money.
• 51:54
  That's not true repentance. Repentance, says okay as much as
• 51:58
  the consequences. There, I see it and I will deal
• 52:00
  with it. God, you'll preserve me through
• 52:01
  it. But Lord, this stinking heart of
• 52:03
  mine, purify it. Remove this sin.
• 52:07
  Not just the problems that my sin brought into my existence.
• 52:11
  Difference, big difference. And David here is truly
• 52:14
  repenting. See, we look at David and we
• 52:17
  said, man, these past few weeks have been kind of troublesome.
• 52:19
  All we've been seeing is David messing up and David
• 52:21
  experiencing the consequences of sin.
• 52:23
  And yet still, the Bible has the audacity to crown him as a man
• 52:26
  after God's heart. You know why?
• 52:27
  Partly because this He really repented when he sinned.
• 52:31
  Not that he didn't sin, but when he did sin, he really, really
• 52:34
  repented. Remove this iniquity, take it
• 52:41
  away from your servant. But look at the first part.
• 52:43
  I have sinned what greatly go to Second Samuel 12.
• 52:48
  And this is when Nathan the Prophet confronts David for his
• 52:51
  adultery with Bathsheba. I've mentioned this before, so
• 52:53
  this might be a reminder for many of you.
• 52:56
  In Second Samuel chapter 12. Look at verse 3.
• 53:00
  David said to Nathan. I have sinned against the Lord.
• 53:03
  What's the difference? Chapter 24 He says What?
• 53:11
  Yeah, so he's talking directly to the Lord instead of a
• 53:13
  prophet. The Prophet's going to show up
• 53:15
  in a few verses here, but what? What do we see here about his
• 53:18
  confession pertaining to his sin?
• 53:21
  He says in verse 10 of 24 I have sinned.
• 53:24
  What? Greatly?
• 53:27
  When he sinned with Bathsheba, what did he say?
• 53:29
  I have sinned? He didn't say sinned greatly
• 53:34
  when it came to David's pride, He said I've sinned greatly when
• 53:40
  it came to his adultery, he says I have sinned.
• 53:44
  How many of us in here would consider David's adultery a
• 53:46
  greater offense than his pride? I think most of us.
• 53:52
  But for some reason, David at this time sees his pride as a
• 53:57
  very serious offense against God.
• 54:02
  I don't know if we would see our pride the same way.
• 54:04
  I don't know if we would calculate spiritual sin the same
• 54:08
  way we would tangible sin. But David here provides with an
• 54:13
  awakened, conscious, accurate assessment of this particular
• 54:16
  sin. Name of the sin of pride.
• 54:19
  He realizes how vile and despicable it really is.
• 54:22
  You remember the seven things that are abomination to God,
• 54:24
  right? And proverb 6.
• 54:26
  What's the first thing on the list?
• 54:27
  Anybody remember haughty eyes? You're right.
• 54:32
  Other transitions would say a proud look.
• 54:34
  The number one thing on the list of things that God hates is
• 54:36
  pride. It's the mother of all sins.
• 54:38
  It's the womb that brings forth the offspring of many offenses.
• 54:43
  So David here, who fell into pride not just in the fact that
• 54:47
  he wants to know the number, but and assuming that he had the
• 54:49
  prerogative to change God's order for the senses, feels the
• 54:53
  weightiness of this disgusting sin.
• 54:55
  And he says I have sinned greatly.
• 54:59
  I have sinned greatly. If you ask God to see sin the
• 55:04
  way he sees sin, you will know a new maturity in your walk with
• 55:09
  the Lord. Because many people calculate
• 55:14
  the severity of sin based on the effect it might have in the
• 55:17
  physical, but Paul defines that there are actually.
• 55:21
  Sins of the spirit that might not be perceivable necessarily
• 55:24
  by the eye, but that occupy the inner man.
• 55:28
  And those sins are just as much sinful as things that you do
• 55:31
  with your hands, or with your mouth, or with your feet, or
• 55:33
  with any part of your body. Ask God, I challenge you.
• 55:37
  Ask God, Lord, let me see sin the way you see sin, and you
• 55:40
  would find yourself confessing the way David confessed when it
• 55:44
  comes to things like pride, you will say.
• 55:46
  Oh wow. Lord, cleanse me right?
• 55:53
  Not that other sins are more to be tolerated, but we begin to
• 55:57
  see other sins that we might have not considered serious.
• 56:01
  And So what do we see here in verse 11?
• 56:03
  And David arose. When David arose in the morning,
• 56:06
  the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad.
• 56:10
  Where you been Gad? David Sears saying, go and say
• 56:14
  to David. Thus says the Lord, three things
• 56:16
  Ioffer you choose. One of them that I may do it to
• 56:19
  you. Pause.
• 56:21
  When's the last time you've seen Gad?
• 56:23
  Any idea? God.
• 56:29
  Where you been? God give you a hint it's not in
• 56:33
  the neighborhood of Second Samuel.
• 56:38
  Any idea where God was last mentioned before this?
• 56:43
  I'll give you another hint. It was at a very low point in
• 56:45
  David's life. I'll give you another hint.
• 56:50
  He wasn't a king yet. Any light bulbs?
• 56:56
  I'll give you another hint. It was in a dark hole somewhere.
• 57:02
  OK, First Samuel chapter 22, when David was in The Cave of
• 57:06
  Adalam. The prophet Gad enters into that
• 57:09
  cave and gives David direction of where to go, moving forward.
• 57:13
  In other words, you don't have to turn there.
• 57:14
  But if you'd like to, you can read the 1st 5 verses.
• 57:17
  The last time Gad showed up in David's life, at least in
• 57:20
  record, it was when David needed encouragement and direction from
• 57:25
  a very dark place in his life. David wasn't necessarily in sin.
• 57:28
  He was a fugitive running away from Saul, who was venomously
• 57:32
  coming after him. And the next time you see God
• 57:35
  appear in David's life is not necessarily to bring
• 57:37
  encouragement, but to bring correction and to bring a very
• 57:40
  hard truth, a hard warning, a word of judgment.
• 57:45
  True friends know how to do both.
• 57:47
  True messengers and vessels of God know how to do both.
• 57:50
  You know how to encourage when a St. is brought low, and you know
• 57:53
  how to redirect, even sometimes with difficult truths, when they
• 57:57
  have lost their way, When they have lost their way.
• 58:01
  And it could be because I wondered, I mean why didn't God
• 58:04
  send Nathan? Nathan confronted him with
• 58:06
  Bathsheba and it could be because of the nature of
• 58:09
  Davidson, which was pride. He brings forth Gad as a
• 58:13
  messenger because the the last time you seen Gad was when David
• 58:16
  was a very humble man. And it could be that God's very
• 58:20
  presence would remind David of his humble beginnings.
• 58:24
  David, do you know where you came from?
• 58:27
  I mean, maybe, maybe his very presence would elude that not
• 58:31
  just the message, but the person who delivered the message might
• 58:34
  have brought extra conviction to David, and he gives them a very
• 58:39
  difficult decision to make. Here it is in verse 13.
• 58:43
  So God came to David. And told them, and said to him,
• 58:47
  Shall three years of famine come to you in your land, or will you
• 58:51
  flee? Three months before your foes
• 58:53
  while they pursue you? Or shall there be 3 days
• 58:55
  pestilence in your land? Now consider and decide what
• 58:59
  answer I shall return to him who sent me.
• 59:02
  How do you pick to pick your poison?
• 59:08
  What do you want? You want famine to come for
• 59:09
  three years? You want to flee for three
• 59:11
  months? I mean, David was used to that
• 59:13
  from your enemies or Three Days Pestilence.
• 59:20
  David's answer is brilliant and rich in wisdom.
• 59:26
  Look at verse 14. Then David said to God, I am in
• 59:29
  great distress. Of course you are.
• 59:32
  Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great.
• 59:38
  But let not let me not fall into the hand of man.
• 59:42
  You know what his answer is? Communicating God, Whichever one
• 59:47
  of these punishments promise God as direct agent of it, I want
• 59:55
  that one. I don't want the chastisement
• 59:58
  where God uses human agency to interfere, because I know man
• 1:00:04
  enough that he is capable of exaggerating and inflating.
• 1:00:10
  What God originally attends in His goodness, even in difficult
• 1:00:13
  trials. So wherever God's hand is
• 1:00:16
  directly involved, give me that option.
• 1:00:18
  Because His mercy is great, His mercy is great.
• 1:00:23
  When I read that, I thought to myself, when it comes to the
• 1:00:25
  attributes of God, there is little debate of the fact that
• 1:00:29
  His justice and His Holiness is unlike man's.
• 1:00:32
  But for some reason, it's very difficult for people to believe
• 1:00:35
  the same about His mercy. His Holiness, His purity, His
• 1:00:40
  judgments, He's super intends, and he supersedes.
• 1:00:46
  All that man is concerning justice.
• 1:00:49
  But when it comes to his idea of His grace and His mercy, we kind
• 1:00:53
  of struggle with that. And David here had a revelation
• 1:00:59
  that many people don't have. God is merciful even in His
• 1:01:02
  judgments. He knows.
• 1:01:03
  He knows the exact measure. He knows the exact extent to
• 1:01:06
  which I should be under his heavy hand.
• 1:01:10
  You know, I was reading a book. I'm in the New Testament now,
• 1:01:12
  but a few days ago I was reading the book of Zechariah, and there
• 1:01:15
  was this one verse that stood out to me and helped me remember
• 1:01:20
  many of the things in the Old Testament specific in the
• 1:01:22
  prophets. It's in Zechariah 115 and
• 1:01:25
  Zechariah. 115 The Lord says something quite insightful, he
• 1:01:30
  says. And I am exceedingly angry with
• 1:01:33
  the nations that are at ease. For a while I was angry, but a
• 1:01:37
  little they furthered the disaster.
• 1:01:42
  When God judged Israel in his final phases of discipline, he
• 1:01:47
  has a tendency of using Gentile nations as the instrument of His
• 1:01:50
  judgment. And when God judges nations as a
• 1:01:53
  whole, not just the people of God in the Old Covenant, when he
• 1:01:56
  judges nations, I believe even today he uses foreign nations to
• 1:01:59
  discipline that nation. So America better be careful.
• 1:02:02
  She thinks she's strong. But what we're seeing now is a
• 1:02:05
  weakening from the inside, making us vulnerable, from
• 1:02:08
  enemies in the outside. One of the ways in which God
• 1:02:11
  brings a finality to his chastisement, to a people group
• 1:02:14
  is when a foreign nation rises up and takes over with power.
• 1:02:19
  And yet, though this happened with Israel, God has a word of
• 1:02:23
  condemnation for those nations. God intended to use Babylon in
• 1:02:28
  his Syria to discipline his people.
• 1:02:30
  But look what he says about them.
• 1:02:31
  For a while I was angry, but a little.
• 1:02:33
  They furthered the disaster. They took it further than what I
• 1:02:39
  intended. They went beyond.
• 1:02:41
  And that's why he ends up turning around and disciplining
• 1:02:44
  those nations. It's no wonder God says
• 1:02:48
  vengeance is mine, says the Lord.
• 1:02:51
  Don't take vengeance upon yourself.
• 1:02:52
  You know why that is the case. One of the reasons is this.
• 1:02:54
  Because we have. And impairment, when it comes to
• 1:02:57
  what we believe somebody should receive in return for the wrong
• 1:02:59
  that they've done to us, meaning we don't tend to give people an
• 1:03:03
  even retribution. We want to give more than what
• 1:03:06
  they gave us. And that's because our hearts
• 1:03:10
  are warped and we're poisoned and we're embittered.
• 1:03:13
  And again, our understanding of justice becomes very much foggy
• 1:03:19
  because of our fallenness. And so God says.
• 1:03:22
  Let then just be mine, because I know exactly what to give to
• 1:03:26
  somebody else. You don't.
• 1:03:29
  In fact, in Isaiah 11, there's an incredible description of
• 1:03:31
  King Jesus when he rules and reigns on the earth.
• 1:03:33
  It says that he will not judge with his eyes or with his ears.
• 1:03:37
  He will not need to see any evidence.
• 1:03:39
  He will not. He need to hear from any Lord.
• 1:03:40
  He doesn't need a jury when he will be the King of the nations.
• 1:03:43
  All he will need is what he is omniscience, because it is
• 1:03:47
  perfect knowledge of all things. Nobody needs to make a case.
• 1:03:49
  He knows how to execute perfect judgment, perfect judgment.
• 1:03:54
  And so we see here that David had that revelation.
• 1:03:56
  The Lord knows exactly what to prescribe to me.
• 1:03:59
  I don't want this to be given over to the authority of man.
• 1:04:01
  So I fall upon the mercy of God. And God receives that and brings
• 1:04:06
  it back to the Lord. And So what comes, what he
• 1:04:08
  intended in his word, pestilence.
• 1:04:11
  Pestilence comes. And how many people died?
• 1:04:14
  Who remembers the number of verse?
• 1:04:15
  1570 thousand people. Here's my question in closing of
• 1:04:17
  our Bible study. Is this the first time
• 1:04:20
  pestilence has been released upon the nation of Israel?
• 1:04:24
  I'm not talking about Egypt. I'm not talking about the 10
• 1:04:26
  plagues. I'm talking about the nation of
• 1:04:27
  Israel. Give me the other instances
• 1:04:29
  where pestilences or plagues have been unleashed upon God's
• 1:04:33
  own people. Good, very good.
• 1:04:35
  Where? Very good.
• 1:04:38
  One of them is in numbers, Chapter 25.
• 1:04:41
  In Numbers 25 nine we read Nevertheless, those who died by
• 1:04:45
  the plague were 24,000. What was the nature of sin that
• 1:04:48
  caused God to bring about this plague?
• 1:04:50
  Do you remember? They were mingling with the
• 1:04:56
  Mobite woman and part of that was false idol worship.
• 1:05:00
  So it was idolatry and sexual immorality.
• 1:05:04
  Slash adultery. God released the plague.
• 1:05:06
  And how many died? 24,000 There's another plague.
• 1:05:10
  I believe there's a total of three, including the one and
• 1:05:12
  second same of 24 with the quail.
• 1:05:15
  OK, it was that a plague necessarily?
• 1:05:19
  You have to find the verse and you have to show us because I
• 1:05:22
  have another. I have another incidence in mind
• 1:05:24
  very close to that one. Well, what happened?
• 1:05:31
  Was that a plague or were those serpents that came?
• 1:05:34
  It wasn't the same as a pestilence.
• 1:05:35
  I'm speaking specifically with pestilence.
• 1:05:38
  You got the first one right? Yes.
• 1:05:44
  OK. Challenging Moses is right, but
• 1:05:47
  not with Miriam. Because Miriam received leprosy,
• 1:05:50
  yes, but you're you're in the lane.
• 1:05:58
  Not that. No, not that.
• 1:05:59
  I'm thinking of something else again, If you believe there is
• 1:06:02
  something, you have to show and prove it.
• 1:06:04
  But I'm thinking of another incident.
• 1:06:06
  You're there. I'm not going to give you any
• 1:06:07
  hints. I gave you too many hints last
• 1:06:08
  time. I'm not going to share anything.
• 1:06:10
  Numbers 25 when they send with the woman of Moai.
• 1:06:13
  And there's another place. Yeah, you can scale through your
• 1:06:17
  Bibles. Just don't Google it.
• 1:06:21
  Yes. Ah, he got it.
• 1:06:24
  Did you hear it? The rebellion of Cora, when Cora
• 1:06:29
  rose up to challenge the authority of Moses and Aaron,
• 1:06:33
  and later on in #16, Because the people, even after the earth
• 1:06:37
  opened up and swallowed up Cora and the those who associated
• 1:06:40
  with him, the people still tried to convict Moses and condemn it
• 1:06:44
  for what had happened. And it says here number 1645.
• 1:06:48
  Now those who died in the plague were 14,700, besides those who
• 1:06:52
  died in the affair of Korra. Unless there's something else
• 1:06:55
  I'm missing, these are the only clear, explicit records of of
• 1:07:00
  pestilences or plagues being released upon the nation of
• 1:07:03
  Israel. When Korra rebelled, when the
• 1:07:06
  men slept with the woman of Moab, and when David created his
• 1:07:11
  senses. Now, out of all three, which one
• 1:07:15
  had the most casualties? David's census.
• 1:07:22
  And if it is true that in this case, that number signify a
• 1:07:28
  message of the severity and the seriousness of a problem, then
• 1:07:34
  could it be that the reason for this overshadowing scale of
• 1:07:38
  death is because the greatest crime one can commit against God
• 1:07:42
  is when one denies their need for atonement?
• 1:07:48
  When you don't believe, you need to be redeemed?
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  Yes, adultery is a problem. Yes, idolatry is heinous.
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  Yes, rebelling against God's established authority is
• 1:08:02
  something that you don't want to provoke God in.
• 1:08:06
  But when it comes to you not confessing that you need the
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  atonement, that's the greatest offense that you can bring to
• 1:08:14
  God. When you read Second
• 1:08:16
  Thessalonians chapter one, you read how the Lord will return in
• 1:08:19
  vengeance on those. And it says specifically who do
• 1:08:24
  not obey the gospel, who do not obey the gospel because that is
• 1:08:32
  the summation of the reason for God's judgment.
• 1:08:35
  When He does return, He will look for those who have
• 1:08:37
  ultimately denied their need for the blood of Jesus Christ to
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  cover them. And perhaps when you compare the
• 1:08:45
  scale of God's judgment when it came to the senses, the fact
• 1:08:49
  that there was 70,000 much more in comparison to the previous
• 1:08:52
  two is to indicate that's how much God's anger is kindled to
• 1:08:56
  those who refused to humble themselves in the realization of
• 1:09:00
  their need of salvation. May God open our eyes and keep
• 1:09:04
  us in that place of acknowledging our need for Him.
• 1:09:07
  And if you have not received Jesus Christ as Lord, yes, your
• 1:09:11
  sin is an offense to God. But the greatest offense that
• 1:09:14
  you can bring to Him is after hearing the gospel, saying no
• 1:09:16
  thank you. Acknowledging your existence
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  apart from the reality that you need to be saved and delivered,
• 1:09:23
  is the ultimate offense before holy God.
• 1:09:27
  Well, we thank you for this chapter, how rich it is.
• 1:09:31
  So much more can be said, but we trust that what the Spirit has
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  spoken to us suffices for this night.
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  We've received our bread. We pray that these truths would
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  cause us to worship you with greater delight and joy.
• 1:09:45
  We pray that you would prepare us to finalize these verses in
• 1:09:47
  this chapter with even more excitement to see what you have
• 1:09:50
  to say. But for the time being, Lord, we
• 1:09:53
  pause to reflect and to worship you because you are rich in
• 1:09:57
  love, rich in mercy, rich in wisdom.
• 1:09:59
  And we've experienced it today. We've tasted it today, although
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  received glory and honor on this Friday night, from this family
• 1:10:06
  of faith in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
• 1:10:10
  Amen. Isn't the Bible amazing?
• 1:10:16
  Filled with power. Filled with power, filled with
• 1:10:21
  glory. Well, you and I can rejoice
• 1:10:24
  tonight for many things. And one of the things we can
• 1:10:26
  rejoice in is the fact that our atonement, our atonement is the
• 1:10:29
  basis for us to meet with God. Apart from the blood, we have no
• 1:10:33
  fellowship. Apart from the blood, we have no
• 1:10:35
  presence. Apart from the blood, we have no
• 1:10:38
  contact with the living God. But because the silver has been
• 1:10:42
  set and more precious and silver is his blood, we can actually
• 1:10:45
  meet with God tonight. Why don't we stand and do that
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  as we worship?