Read 2 Samuel 24 – Our last chapter in 2 Samuel! What a fine accomplishment this is – to know our Lord so much more with the reading of 1&2 Samuel.
Verse 24:1 put a question on my heart. God was angry with Israel, so he made David sin against Him by taking a census? That just doesn’t make sense – it is outside of the Lord’s nature to make a person sin so He can punish. Upon searching for an answer (thank you, Jesus, that we have access to what your great theologians before us have discovered), it seems the ‘he’ in this verse is referring to Satan and not the LORD, as one might assume without looking deeper. Ah ha!
Yes, even Joab questions David on his order to take the census (24:3), and may we all have a few Joab’s in our lives, willing to speak up when we start to go astray! David’s conscience brings guilt, confession and a plea for forgiveness (24:10).
The Lord graciously gives David a choice on his consequences: Three years of famine, three months of persecution or three days of severe plague. David chose plague, trusting the Lord for His mercy (24:14), which He gives, relenting just before Jerusalem (24:15).
Our book concludes with David building an altar to the Lord, with offerings, and the plague is stopped.
Even with forgiveness, sin has consequences that humble and sanctify the forgiven sinner. Remember, God is good all the time, and when life is hard, God is especially good.🙌❤☝️
This is not the end for our David, his story continues in 1 Kings, which we will get to later. Tomorrow, we will move to 1 Peter, in the New Testament. To find it, start from the back of your bible, Revelation, and flip up a bit, between James and 1,2,3 John.
Judy in the Sky 