From Failure to Forgiveness
1Chr 21
There are certain decisions that we make in life that become hinge points on which the rest of our lives turn. Key decisions we’ve made that not only change the course of our lives but may also have great effect on the lives of others as well. And this is what we read about in 1Chronicles 21, where David made a seemingly insignificant decision that was really a critical error, and it impacted the whole nation of Israel. You could say that it was a failure of epic proportions but how David responded changed the course of history.
It changed the course of history because this story isn’t just about a bad decision, but also about how he responded once he realized what he had done, and how God changed epic failure into forgiveness and victory.
Now, something that is true of humanity is that we will fail. We will sin. But what we do once we are faced with our sin is vitally important. It can make or break us. It’s been said that “It’s not how you begin that’s important. What’s important is how you end.” You will fail. That is a sure statement. But what’s most important in failure is how you deal with it. Will you wallow in failure, or will you learn from it, and rise above it?
What you do after failure, after sin can determine the whole course of the rest of your life. Because if you repent and turn to the Lord, He can and will transform your failure into forgiveness. But if you stay the course, double-down on your sin instead, then you will experience the consequences of your pride and arrogance.
Now all of this leads into our story today. We don’t know exactly when the events of chapter 21 happened, but we do know that it was sometime after David’s sin with Bathsheba and the conquering and total destruction of the Ammonite people, and other wars with the Philistines and Gath and the killing of the rest of the giants: Sippai, Lahmi, who was Goliath’s brother, and a 3rd one that’s only described as “a man of great stature” who had 6 fingers and 6 toes on each of his hands and feet.
Sometime after these events, we have the story of chapter 21. It’s supposed that at this time, David is older. He has been king of Israel for many years and now he was surrounded by peace. Another indication that David is old is the fact that our chapter in 1Chronicles today is almost immediately followed by Solomon’s rise to power. The same is true in the parallel account that’s given in 2Samuel where this same story is in chapter 24 of 2Samuel, which is immediately followed by David’s demise and Solomon’s rise in the 1st chapter of 1Kings. So, it’s a good bet that this was toward David’s waning years. After years of fighting wars and putting down rebellions, David and Israel are at ease. And guess who shows up when we have ended our battles and are at peace and rest?
I. Temptation and Sin
1Ch 21:1 Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.
Then Satan… You know, when you think everything’s done and now you can rest, that ol’ wily slimy serpent sticks his ugly head up and messes with your peace—he takes advantage of your ease. The last time David was taking a break, the last time he was at ease, he stayed behind in Jerusalem while the warriors were fighting a siege war against Ammon. After he strolled out onto his roof top, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life smacked David upside the head once he laid eyes on Bathsheba taking a bath on a nearby roof top.
And now, here he is again. Peace on all sides. He’s at ease and probably wondering, “What now?” And Satan stood up and answered him. He moved David to take a census of Israel. Now, taking a census itself isn’t the wrong thing to do if it’s needful. In the book of Numbers, God specifically told Moses to Num 1:2b "Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel,
A census was usually taken in order to assess military strength or for the collection of taxes. Jesus spoke of this in one of his parables when he said Luk 14:31 "Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
But in Israel, numbering the people without God’s direction was considered an act of pride and self-reliance, implying trust in human resources rather than divine provision. Israel was at peace, so David had no need to get a number of his fighting men. So, if David was taking a census in a time of peace, then apparently a time of war was coming, or at least his people might think this. This knowledge would have set the people on edge because friend, war strikes fear in the heart of a nation.
But David doesn’t seem to be preparing for war, so he was counting the people for no good reason other than maybe he wanted to see what his legacy would look like. I mean, at this time, he’s in the last years of his reign. He’s probably thinking about how would people think of him after he’s gone? How great had he become? Would he go down in history as a better king than Saul? Would the history books paint him in a good light? Just how great was he as a King? Well, according to Satan, the only way to really know is to take a census. Count the people. You know, ancient kings-built monuments of one kind or another to display all their great deeds and the wars they won for all the world to see long after they were gone. Maybe this was something like what David had in his mind. If so, then this wasn’t about how great God is, but how great David was.
II. Consequences and Repentance
Now, as I mentioned earlier, 2Sam 24 covers the same time period as our text in 1Chr 21, and in the 8th verse of 2Samuel 24 we find that the census took 9 months and 20 days to complete. Plenty of time for David to consider what he had done and why his cousin Joab was so strongly against it. In both 2Sam and 1Chr, when Joab finally returned to Jerusalem and gave the result of his count to David, David was immediately struck with his sin. The King James says 2Sa 24:10 KJV And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And then back in our text for today, David went on to say 1Ch 21:8 …"I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now, please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly."
David finally understood what Joab and his commanders had understood all along. Taking a census without the Lord’s direction was wrong, and almost as soon as he heard the number, 1.6 million fighting men, he began asking himself “Why did I do this?” “Why did I need to know that number?”
To search one’s heart is a good thing, and to understand why, to understand the reason why you did what you did will help you change because then you can see it for what it truly is and surrender it to God. David was successful in his reign. No foreign army had been able to prevail against him. He survived two attempts to overthrow him, and now he knew he had a huge army he could count on. But count on them for what? Under his rule, Israel was a world power. It had an awesome fighting force. David was king, and they’re at peace. So, in whom was his confidence?
When he was young, the Lord was his strength and confidence. Psa 71:5 For You are my hope; Lord GOD, You are my confidence from my youth. But now, when he heard the number of his fighting men, did he begin to wonder “Is God still my strength?” Did he think back to a time when he used to completely rely on God? He fought the bear. He fought the lion. He fought the giant that made the entire Israeli army shiver in their boots with only a small rock and a sling.
Maybe some of his own words came back to haunt him. Psa 31:3, 5 For You are my rock and my fortress; For the sake of Your name You will lead me and guide me. (5) Into Your hand I entrust my spirit; You have redeemed me, LORD, God of truth.
Psa 27:1, 3 The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom should I fear? The LORD is the defense of my life; Whom should I dread? (3) If an army encamps against me, My heart will not fear; If war arises against me, In spite of this I am confident.
When you’re young, it’s very easy and a natural tendency to trust in your own strength and youth; you think you’re going to live forever. But David’s trust had always been in God. Had he somehow, over the years, forgotten that? Have you forgotten it?
You know, the question of where you place your confidence is an essential question for all Christians to answer for themselves. Young or old, it’s far too easy for us to get sidetracked, or to get a little too full of ourselves that we might begin to place our faith in something other than God. We need men like Joab who aren’t’ afraid to point the direction back to where we need to be. But we also need to be like David who was willing to see his error and repent of it. 1Ch 21:8 David said to God, "I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now, please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly."
Despite being known as 1Sa 13:14 …a man after His (God’s) own heart, David was just like you and me. He had feet of clay. He wasn’t perfect. He had greatly sinned before when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband murdered. But something that makes him different than many was his true love of the Lord and his willingness to repent. That great sin against Uriah and Bathsheba led to his prayer in Psalm 51 where he admitted, Psa 51:3-4 For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. [4] Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, and then where he cried out, Psa 51:10-11 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. [11] Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
David repented but repentance doesn’t always end the problem, does it? There will be some sort of consequences for our actions. In David’s case, the Lord sent him a message through Gad, David’s seer. 1Ch 21:11-12 So Gad came to David and said to him, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Take for yourself [12] three years of famine, or three months to be swept away before your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the LORD: a plague in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout the territory of Israel.’ Now, therefore, consider what answer I shall bring back to Him who sent me.”
III. Altar and Sacrifice
When I was a child in my parents’ house, whenever I did something that deserved getting a whipping, my parents (usually Mom), would send me into the other room to get a belt. I had to go choose my own means of correction. Well, one time, I came back with one of mom’s flimsy topcoat belts made of such lightweight material that it wouldn’t even hurt a fly. When mom and dad saw what I brought back, they both started laughing so hard, the whipping was soon forgotten. I got off. However, that ploy worked only that one time. The next time, they went to get their own belt.
David was given a choice too. He had the choice between 3 years of famine, 3 months of attacks and fleeing before his enemies, or 3 days of plague. I’m thinking that one of his thoughts might have been along the lines of just rip the “Band-Aid” off and get it over with. That’s what I would want to do. If given a choice, let’s get it over with rather than letting it drag out for a long time. Israel had already gone through a 3-year famine in 2Samuel 21 as punishment for Saul killing so many Gibeonites, so David surely didn’t want another one during his reign. He also didn’t like the idea of being at the mercy of his merciless enemies for any length of time.
So, this left the 3rd choice, 3 days of plague. He told his seer, Gad 1Ch 21:13 …please let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are very great. But do not let me fall into the hand of man. Friends, the scripture tells us that Heb 10:31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But I think that this would only apply to those who don’t know the living God or love Him. David knew God, and he knew that God is not only just, but also merciful and gracious toward them that love Him.
Moses wrote Deu 7:9 "Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments; and David himself wrote Psa 145:8-9 The LORD is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness. [9] The LORD is good to all, And His mercies are over all His works.
Friends, David trusted in his God. He knew that it would be far better for him, and everyone else if they were put directly under the mercy of God. He completely trusted in God’s mercy, and beloved, so should we. Like David, when we experience the consequences for our sin and God’s correction, we should turn to Him, knowing that He disciplines His children out of love. His discipline toward us isn’t judgment, it’s correction and mercy because it’s given with the intent to turn us around and bring us back to where He wants us to be.
So, the land was plagued with pestilence and thousands died. You know, we don’t stand or fall on our own. What we do can have far-reaching effects. Because of David’s sin, the Scriptures tell us that 70,000 men died. Since the census David ordered involved only fighting men, I’m assuming this 70,000 number may not have included women and children, so it’s entirely possible that the number of deaths was much higher.
Many, many people died, but when the Angel of the Lord approached Jerusalem to lift his sword of destruction against it, the Lord relented and said, 1Ch 21:15 …"It is enough; now relax your hand." And the angel of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. When David saw the Angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth with his sword filled hand stretching out toward Jerusalem, he and the elders covered themselves with sackcloth and fell to their faces on the ground and he cried out, 1Ch 21:17 …"Is it not I who commanded to count the people? Indeed, I am the one who has sinned and done very wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done? O LORD my God, please let Your hand be against me and my father's household, but not against Your people that they should be plagued."
As a good king should, David humbly led all those with him in sorrow and repentance. He interceded for the people, because they had done nothing wrong. It was him. It was his fault. The seer, Gad, then came to David and instructed him to build an altar and make sacrifice. So, when David approached the owner of the land, a Jebusite, not a Jew, about purchasing the property in order to build an altar and make sacrifice to God to stop the plague, the owner, Ornan or Araunah (depending on which translation you use), offered his land, his beasts, and his wagon for the wood for the fire for free.
But David knew that it wouldn’t be right for him to receive any of these for free and then bring them as an offering to God. That would cost him nothing, while true worship should cost the worshipper something, otherwise the offering really doesn’t mean anything. So, David insisted on paying full price. 1Ch 21:24 …"No, but I will surely buy it for the full price; for I will not take what is yours for the LORD, or offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing."
What a wonderful example this is for us today. How often do we come to the Lord and give Him our leftovers, our cast offs, the cheapest, the least wanted? How many times have I given a $5 bill when I easily could have and should have given much more? Friends, beloved, the sacrifices, the offerings that we give to the Lord are a reflection of the sincerity of our heart and our devotion to God. You know, I’m wondering if maybe one of the reasons we don’t see the Lord answer with fire from heaven anymore is because maybe we’re less committed to Him than we let on? Do we maybe have a bit more of the Ananias and Sapphira attitude within than we know? That’s a scary thought, isn’t it?
You know, it’s interesting that the Lord led David to this threshing floor. It’s interesting because a threshing floor separates the wheat from the chaff, and that’s exactly what God does with us when He chastises us—He is threshing the chaff out of us so that only the grain remains. It also happens to be that this very threshing floor was also known as Mount Moriah, where Abraham almost offered up his son Isaac in sacrifice to the Lord. It’s where Solomon’s and then Herod’s Temple would be built, and it is where the only begotten Son would enter the temple as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
The sacrifice that David made for the people cost him much, and it was a sweet-smelling aroma to God because it was a sacrifice of love and true repentance. The sacrifice that Jesus made for us cost Him much as well, and it too was a sweet-smelling aroma that brought atonement to God for our sin. On the cross, God’s justice was satisfied, and our pardon was purchased.
And now, the Lord God extends His mercy to all who come to His Son in repentance and faith. Their sins will be washed away, and new life will be given. So, I plead with you now—trust in Jesus and flee from the coming wrath of God, because it is coming, friend.
So, trust in Jesus. Come to Him because only Jesus can transform your Failure into Forgiveness!
