Revival: Stronger Than Ever
The Plague Was Cut Short
1 Chr. 21:9-28
Good morning everybody! It’s good to see you all again!
Prayer for unity
FORECAST
Today we are starting an adventure in revival. Revival simply means to recover something that was lost, or to bring new life to something that is dying.
For many months now our country has been shut down. Lives have been lost, jobs have been lost, loneliness has crept in, and it’s been hard to hold onto hope.
For many of us, the future looks even bleaker. Coupled with the events of the past week, and the weeks to come, 2021 looks to be an even more eventful year than 2020.
But the bible has some good news for us. I thank God for the Bible and that it has lessons for every situation we will ever face.
To see that, let me lay a foundation for us this morning. We will be looking at events in 2nd Chronicles.
Today, I want to start with explaining to you some of the history surrounding this book.
Chronicles was written to teach us how to deal with and to recover from a national crisis. It’s a history book that shows God’s dealings with HIS people.
Let me lay a quick foundations for this book and the world it’s addressing-
In 606 B.C. Israel was exiled to Babylonia.
The Babylonians surrounded Jerusalem, laid siege to it for 7 years, then broke down its walls, and carried virtually everyone into captivity. The Israelites lost everything: their homes, their jobs, their identities, their loved one.
For 70 years they lived in refugee camps outside the city of Babylon. Then God used a Persian King named Cyrus to conquer the Babylonians. Cyrus then issued an order to all the conquered nations.
“Go home,” he said. “Open up your countries. Restart your jobs and businesses, and worship your God.”
So the Israelites did.
In 536 B.C., they returned home. They packed up their possessions and children and marched the 800 miles to the Holy Land.
However, as they traveled, their leaders recognized something-
Living in Babylon and later Persia was no fun, and they never ever wanted to go back.
How would they avoid that?
They realize they have a problem- There wasn’t anyone left that was trained in proper worship of God.
So, How would they recover? How would they establish patterns and morals that would help them avoid their previous mistakes?
God had an answer,
5. God sent them two Spirit-filled leaders: Ezra and Nehemiah
The First leader was Ezra.
Ezra wasn’t a builder of walls, he was a builder of hearts. A builder of character. Ezra lead the people to rebuild the temple as their first priority.
We often wonder what will save America?
The answer- Following the biblical example. Doing exactly what they did in ancient Israel-
They rebuilt the worship of God before they worried about their immediate safety or comfort
Almost 90 years later, Nehemiah came to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Ezra gave people the word long before Nehemiah gave people the Wall.
In our country, and even among the people in the church- that’s why we are in the mess we are in- we focused so much on our safety and comfort, that we forget to put first things first.
If you are a Christian- Jesus is the first priority. In fact, Jesus is the only priority. Anything else on a list with Jesus is an idol.
If we put Jesus back to where he belongs- first, foremost, and LORD over everything, the rest of our worries will take care of themselves.
But for the last several years, the church chose to put our hope and faith in worldly things like politicians and the political processes and then get all freaked out when they don’t work.
Back to Chronicles for the biblical example of what I’m talking about because it will show us the problem with that-
The story we’re going to read is about a plague that was cut short, but the lesson we are going to learn is about what to do when you’ve done something wrong.
Have you ever done something wrong, and you knew it was wrong, but chose to do it anyway? Unfortunately, we’re probably all guilty of this.
King David is no exception. David was one of the greatest leaders who ever lived, and definitely the greatest King in Israel’s history. Yet he failed many times, and God still loved him, and God still used him.
What this section of scripture will show us this morning is that even if we have failed, God still loves us, and still will use us if we can follow the lessons found in the WORD.
To teach us this lesson, the author of Chronicles, Ezra selects, not what we would consider a huge sin in the life of David, but a small sin.
Ezra doesn’t tell us about David’s adultery with Bathsheba. Or of his murder of Uriah the Hittite. Or of the rebellion of his son Absalom.
Ezra tells us the story of David doing something that most times isn’t even wrong.
What is this awful thing that David did?
He took a census.
What’s wrong with taking a census?
Let’s read and find out! 1 Chronicles 21:1-2;
“Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to count the people of Israel. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, ‘Go and count Israel from Beer-sheba to Dan and bring a report to me so I can know their number.’”
What’s wrong with that?
Censuses aren’t bad things. If a census worker comes to your door, it’s ok to talk to them and give them the information they need.
It’s useful information- Our government is required to take a census every 10 years to reapportion congressional seats and determine funding allocations based on population distribution.
Our census helps us figure out how many freeway lanes we need to build. It helps school superintendents project how many students they’ll have and how many teachers they’ll need and how many classrooms to construct.
In the book of Numbers, God Himself ordered a census of Israel as they left Egypt. He ordered a second census as they got ready to enter the Promised Land.
Censuses aren’t sins. But David’s was, because David was using the census to prop up his own ego and to measure His own greatness.
After all-
- He wasn’t at war.
- He didn’t need to know how many fighting men he had.
- He just wanted to know how many troops he could marshal so he could pat himself on the back.
Joab, the commander of the army, in a very rare moment of spirituality for this man of war, knew there was no good reason for this census, so…
3 Joab replied, “May the Lord multiply the number of his people a hundred times over! My lord the king, aren’t they all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”
4 Yet the king’s order prevailed over Joab. So Joab left and traveled throughout Israel and then returned to Jerusalem. 5 Joab gave the total troop registration to David. In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand armed men and in Judah itself four hundred seventy thousand armed men. 6 But he did not include Levi and Benjamin in the count because the king’s command was detestable to him. 7 This command was also evil in God’s sight, so he afflicted Israel.
Have you ever been afflicted by God?
Some people are wondering if the COVID virus is an affliction by God.
Throughout Scripture, God uses plagues to get people’s attention. He’s got a lot of people’s attention right now.
I hope He has ours.
To David’s credit…
8. David said to God, “I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing. Now, please take away your servant’s guilt, for I’ve been very foolish.”
It’s admirable that David goes to repent here, but God needs to nip this pride thing in David right in the bud hard, because it’s been something growing in him since he killed Goliath.
David is about to learn a hard lesson from God.
Look at v. 9 -
David’s Punishment
9 Then the Lord instructed Gad, David’s seer, 10 “Go and say to David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am offering you three choices. Choose one of them for yourself, and I will do it to you.’”
11 So Gad went to David and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Take your choice: 12 three years of famine, or three months of devastation by your foes with the sword of your enemy overtaking you, or three days of the sword of the Lord—a plague on the land, the angel of the Lord bringing destruction to the whole territory of Israel.’ Now decide what answer I should take back to the one who sent me.”
Sin is always painful, so paying for sin is always painful. If you think about it, it needs to be painful because otherwise we never learn that the temporary thrill we might get from the sin isn’t worth paying the pain later.
Now if you were David, how would you choose between famine, war, and plague? Let me read the rest of this narrative, and listen to David’s responses
13 David answered Gad, “I’m in anguish. Please, let me fall into the Lord’s hands because his mercies are very great, but don’t let me fall into human hands.”
14 So the Lord sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand Israelite men died. 15 Then God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but when the angel was about to destroy the city, the Lord looked, relented concerning the destruction, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough, withdraw your hand now!” The angel of the Lord was then standing at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16 When David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, with his drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem, David and the elders, covered in sackcloth, fell facedown. 17 David said to God, “Wasn’t I the one who gave the order to count the people? I am the one who has sinned and acted very wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Lord my God, please let your hand be against me and against my father’s family, but don’t let the plague be against your people.”
David’s Altar
18 So the angel of the Lord ordered Gad to tell David to go and set up an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19 David went up at Gad’s command spoken in the name of the Lord.
20 Ornan was threshing wheat when he turned and saw the angel. His four sons, who were with him, hid. 21 David came to Ornan, and when Ornan looked and saw David, he left the threshing floor and bowed to David with his face to the ground.
22 Then David said to Ornan, “Give me this threshing-floor plot so that I may build an altar to the Lord on it. Give it to me for the full price, so the plague on the people may be stopped.”
23 Ornan said to David, “Take it! My lord the king may do whatever he wants. See, I give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering—I give it all.”
24 King David answered Ornan, “No, I insist on paying the full price, for I will not take for the Lord what belongs to you or offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”
25 So David gave Ornan fifteen pounds of gold for the plot. 26 He built an altar to the Lord there and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the Lord, and he answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.
27 Then the Lord spoke to the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. 28 At that time, David offered sacrifices there when he saw that the Lord answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Why is this story in the bible? What is Ezra trying to teach us here?
A couple of things that bring the whole lesson together
First reason Ezra tells this story is to help us understand the history of the Temple, and why it was located where it was.
Remember, the original Temple was destroyed by Babylonians. Before it was destroyed, it was the dwelling place of God on earth. It’s the one place they were allowed to make sacrifices to atone for their sins. So It’s critical they rebuild the Temple. So Ezra wants them to understand why the Temple was built where it was.
This is the story that explains that.
The angel of the Lord stops his plague at “the threshing floor of Ornan.” A threshing floor is a windy place, usually at the top of a bluff or cliff or hill where there is just enough wind so that the farmer can bring his wheat there and, using a pitchfork, can throw it up in the air. The wind will blow the chaff away, and the kernels of wheat, which are heavier than chaff, fall back to the ground, for the farmer to collect.
The big reason Ezra brings this up is because the threshing floor of Ornan was located on Mount Moriah.
Have you heard of Mt. Moriah?
Anybody know what happened there 1,500 years earlier?
Read Genesis 22, where God says to Abraham, “Abraham, take your son, your only son, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and sacrifice him to Me there.”
So Abraham obeys God and takes Isaac to Mt. Moriah, where he ties Isaac to an altar, and is about to thrust a knife into his chest when God says, “Abraham, do not lay a hand on the boy! Now I know that you will not withhold anything from me, because you did not withhold your only son.”
God then provided a lamb for them to offer as a sacrifice.
Why is this important?
Ezra wants the people to know why the ground of the Temple Mount is holy ground.
- The plague of the angel of the Lord was stopped there in David’s time.
- And a lamb was provided there in place of Isaac, the son of Abraham.
- There is a 3rd reason that I will get to shortly
Reason two- Ezra wants us to know this census-and-plague story is because this story is our story
Like David, we’ve all done things to puff up our pride from time to time.
We may never have been tempted to commit adultery or murder, but we’ve all given in to the temptation to commit “little sins” – sins we knew were wrong when we did them, because but we chose to do them anyway.
Ezra is reminding us that little sins matter and must be atoned for.
Little sins can create great sorrow, like this one did for Israel. 70,000 men were lost,
because of the vanity of one leader. Pause
But what is the lesson here for us today?
LESSON
Ezra is teaching us about forgiveness. – What it looks like, and what happens when we repent.
Ezra is teaching us the costliness of sin. – One man’s sin – which didn’t really seem like that big a deal, did it?
But that One man’s sin cost 70,000 other men their lives.
Sometimes we think that what we do in the privacy of our own minds is just between us and God. “It’s just a little sin,” we say. “It won’t hurt anybody.” – Except maybe me, but that’s my choice. (And besides, God loves me, so after I ask forgiveness, He’ll let it go, without any consequences).
The bible shows us that no sin is just a “little sin”.
David’s sin was small, and personal, and incredibly costly.
And God’s response was creative, and instructive, and ultimately, merciful.
God’s response was creative in its choices: “David, do you want
- 3 years of war,
- or 3 months of famine,
- or 3 days of plague?”
God gives David a choice, because he wants David to take responsibility for his own retribution.
So David chooses. He chooses the option that allows for God’s mercy. “I’d rather fall into God’s hands than men’s hands,” he says.
So the plague starts. And people die.
As the numbers mount, David finally realizes the magnitude of his sin. “I did this,” he says. “I caused this to happen.”
What happened in David’s heart is a roadmap to restoration to God.
Ezra uses this story to teach us how to reconcile with God when we’ve disobeyed Him.
It’s a simple process, really. You might want to write it down.
The first thing Ezra encourages us to do is…
Step 1: Admit your sin. v. 17a
David said “Wasn’t I the one who gave the order to count the people?” v. 17a
He’s saying, “This is my fault. I caused this. I own this. ”
There’s a principle here: God relents when we repent.
The second step is to…
Step 2: Take responsibility for your actions. v. 17b
David also said “Lord my God, please let your hand be against me and against my father’s family, but don’t let the plague be against your people.” V. 17b
There is a change here in David’s heart-
Before the plague comes, David says, “Please don’t let ME fall into human hands.”
After the plague starts, he says, “Let your hand be against ME.”
Every restart begins with taking responsibility. We have to own what we’ve done and be willing to shoulder the responsibility for the harm we’ve caused.
Ezra’s third lesson to us is that once we accept responsibility, we must…
Make things right. v. 18
How do you make things right with God?
Well, you start by admitting your sin, and taking responsibility.
But sometimes you don’t really know what more to do.
David doesn’t know what more to do. So God tells him.
[Follow this closely. This is an important lesson to know if you want to please God.]
In verse 18 -
18 So the angel of the Lord ordered Gad to tell David to go and set up an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
God tells Gad to tell David to set up an altar.
Is that a hard thing to do?
David could do that easily. In a few hours. Just by gathering rocks or some wood and building a platform there in the middle of the field.
Let me read v. 18 with you again:
18 So the angel of the Lord ordered Gad to tell David to go and set up an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
This might be the most important lesson of the chapter:
Remember, this is Mt Moriah. The place that God provided a lamb for Abraham.
Abraham and Isaac on Mt Moriah was a foreshadowing of God providing a lamb for all of us when Jesus, the Lamb of God was sacrificed for our sins…Where?
On Mt Moriah
This entire book is about Jesus. All of biblical history, all the laws, all the ceremony, all the prophecy, even the last book of the bible is called The Revelation of Jesus the Christ
Revival and Restoration needs to begin and be all about Jesus in our lives, our families, our church, and our communities.
It’s all about HIM.
I’m going to close with something that might seem very obvious to some, but maybe not to others.
We are in for a rough ride the next few years. Many of us put our hope in the wrong thing and trusted in something or someone that was a fallible as King David if not worse. I’m not being critical of a man, but critical of our focus.
The church is to be about proclaiming Jesus. If we get that right, not matter what the world throws at us we will come through it just fine.
We are going to remind ourselves of this by taking Communion
