David Numbers His Soldiers

David, if you have your Bible, turn with me to 2 Samuel chapter 24. 2 Samuel chapter 24. This is our second to the last message concerning the life of King David.

Hopefully you've been with us during that time. If not, you're plenty of CDs you can purchase to help you understand exactly where we've been and by the end of next week, you'll understand where we are going because we'll be done. And so it's been a fascinating study. Whenever we come to an end of a particular study, no matter what it is, it's with great disappointment that we have to end. It's always a new joy to start something new. I mean, we've been in loop now for almost eight years. When that's over, I don't know what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna be so sad. But no, there's just another book to cover. We've been studying the life of David for 45 plus weeks. When that's all over, we will study something else. But there are so many significant lessons that the Lord teaches us. And I hope that you've learned to grasp them and understand them and that you've grown because you've studied God's Word and you've realized what God wants to do in your life and in the life of your family. I just I just think that one day, one day, before I die, I like to write a book strictly about leadership all around the life of David to help us understand how to lead and how not to lead and all lessons from the life of David.

But that's that's years away and I'm trusting the Lord will be here before that ever happens. But anyway, 2 Samuel chapter 24, we we just finished the 23rd chapter, which was David's last literary song as he spoke to the nation and gave them the principles for for godly leadership and the effects of godly leadership upon their lives and and you go from that beautiful bright chapter to a dark chapter in David's life. And you think that when you get to be David's age, you stop making some of the blunders you made when you were younger, but you never do.

Do you? All you older folks out there. Yeah. Yeah. I mean you still you still make mistakes. You still sin and and and you think that David would have wised up enough to understand that what he was doing was wrong because all he did was basically number some soldiers. What's the big deal about numbering your soldiers? Why would that be so bad? Well, there came dissatisfaction from his commander, Joab. There came the displeasure from the Lord and there came the disaster upon the nation. 20,000 people die.

It is the biggest disaster recorded in scripture that deal with the nation of Israel. All because there was a king, the great king David, who numbered his soldiers. Or is that it? Is there more to the story? Why is it God acts this way? Well, 2nd Samuel 24 opens up to us a a beautiful picture of what Christ is ultimately going to do. And God, you know, he never makes a mistake. He never does it wrong. He always does it right. And so 1st Chronicles 21 is a parallel passage to 2nd Samuel 24. You got to bring them both together to get the complete story.

So we'll read our chapter before us and then we'll begin looking at this whole section concerning David numbering his soldiers. Verse 1, 2nd Samuel 24. Now again, the anger of the Lord burned against Israel and incited David against them to say, Go number Israel and Judah. The king said to Joab, the commander of the army who was with him, Go about now through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and register the people that I may know the number of the people. But Joab said to the king, Now may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are while the eyes of my lord the king still see.

But why does my lord the king delight in this thing? Nevertheless, the king's word prevailed against Joab and against the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to register the people of Israel. And they crossed to Jordan and camped in Aurora and on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of God and toward Jazar. Then they came to Gilead to the land of Tahum. Well, you say it. I'm not sure if I can get that or not.

Okay. And they came to Dan, John, around Sidon and came to the fortress of Tyre and all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites. And they went out to the south of Judah to Beersheba. So when they'd gone about through the whole land, they came to Jerusalem. At the end of nine months and 20 days, Joab gave the number of the registration of the people to the king. And there were in Israel 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword. And the men of Judah were 500,000 men. Now David's heart troubled him after he had numbered the people.

So David said to the lord, I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now oh lord, please take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have acted very foolishly. When David arose in the morning, the word of the lord came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, Go and speak to David. Thus the lord says, I am offering you three things. Choose for yourself one of them, which I may do to you. So Gad came to David and told him and said to him, Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land?

Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days pestilence in your land? Now consider and see what answer I shall return to him who sent me. Then David said to Gad, I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of the lord, for his mercies are great. But do not let me fall into the hand of man.

So the lord sent a pestilence upon Israel. From the morning until the appointed time and 70,000 men of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem, to destroy it, the lord relented from the calamity. And said to the angel who destroyed the people, It is enough. Now relax your hand. And the angel of the lord was by the threshing floor of Arunah the Jebusite. Then David spoke to the lord, when he saw the angel who was striking down the people and said, Behold, it is I who have sinned.

And it is I who have done wrong. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let thy hand be against me and against my father's house. So Gad came to David that day and said to him, go up, erect an altar to the lord on the threshing floor of Arunah the Jebusite. And David went up according to the word of Gad, just as the lord had commanded. And Arunah looked down, and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him. And Arunah went out and bowed his face to the ground before the king. Then Arunah said, why has my lord the king come to his servant?

And David said, to buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the lord that the plague may be held back from the people. And Arunah said to David, let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight. Look, the oxen for burnt offering, the threshing sledges, and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. Everything, oh king Arunah, gives to the king. And Arunah said to the king, may the lord your god accept you. However, the king said to Arunah, no, but I will surely buy it from you for a price.

For I will not offer burnt offering to the lord my god, which cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver. And David built there an altar to the lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Thus, the lord was moved by entreaty for the land and the plague was held back from Israel. Let's begin by looking at the command to number his soldiers. David decides that he wants to number the soldiers. He has precedence for this because in the book of numbers, Moses was commanded by the lord to number the men in Israel.

And so David, because he knows the book of the law, knows that Moses has done this. David takes it upon himself to do something very similar. So, because of that precedent, we would presume that David would feel that this would be the thing to do. But you have to note that the text says that the lord god incited David to number his soldiers. Why would god incite David to number his soldiers? And then because of what David did, kill 70,000 men. Why would god do that? Well, you have to go back to first chronicles 21, verse number one and read the story from this perspective.

It says, then satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel. So you read second Samuel chapter 24, and you see that the lord god incited David to number Israel.

And then you read first chronicles 21, and it says that satan incited David to number Israel. So what is it? Is it contradictory? Or is it complementary? The answer, it's complementary. Why? We know that god is the author of all things. We know that satan is very prevalent in many pages of the scripture. We know that he was prevalent with eve. Remember that? And he tempted eve way back in genesis chapter three. We also know that satan was prevalent in the life of job. Because it was job who lost everything because of satan.

And satan had to go back and ask permission to even touch his life because god said you can do whatever you want, but you can't touch job. So that's what satan did. And job never dishonored the lord. So satan came back and god allowed satan to touch job's life. Satan can't do anything unless he gets permission from god. We also know that in the book of Zachariah chapter three satan accused joshua the high priest. So we know that satan is actively involved in inciting people to do sinful things. And we see here satan doing the same thing.

You read second samuel 24. You think that it's god who incites david, but you read first chronicles 21.

It's satan who incites david. What is it? It's god who allows satan to tempt david. Now this is very important to understand. David had come to a place in his life where he was living independently of god. David had come to a place in his life where he would live in a way as if he was in charge. He just comes off the chapter exalting god for all that god has done that god had taken him from the back side of bethlehem, made him king over israel, and gives god all the glory for what he's done. But when you come to second samuel chapter 24, that attitude is not prevalent.

Why? Because david in his pride would look to number his soldiers. Remember if you read the account in first chronicles, this is after the death of goliath's four brothers.

Remember we told you way back in first samuel, the reason that david took five smooth stones was because goliath had four brothers.

David didn't miss. So he took five stones, one for goliath and one for each of his four brothers. If you were with us back then, we told you who the four brothers were, where to find them, how to know their names, yada yada yada. Okay, we're not going to go back and rehash that. We have a whole cd, two of them on that. So the bottom line is that this is after that has happened. There was rest in the land. If you go through chronicles, if you go through second samuel, you realize that there's peace in the land.

And you'll realize that, you know, when you live peaceful, sometimes you live independently of god. Do you ever notice that?

When things are real good in your life, you spend less time in prayer. When things are real good in your life, you kind of spend less time in the word. You kind of do what you want to do, because there's no pressure. But when adversity is around, when difficulty seems to to be paramount, you're on your knees, you're praying to god, you're walking dependently upon him because you need him so much. But when you don't need him, you kind of do your own thing. That's why the psalm was said in psalm 119.68.

Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. Before I was afflicted, I just kind of did my own thing. I just kind of went here and went there and made my own decisions and made a choice to do this or to do that. I really didn't have to depend solely upon god because everything was good. But now, because of affliction, I keep your word. We'll learn more about that in the fall when we go through the whole aspect of god allowing suffering in our lives. But you see, David was at that point in his life.

There was a rest in the land. David's a warrior. David's a fighter. He's a soldier. I mean that that's at the heart of David's life. Yeah, he's a king, but David's a warrior. Nobody fights. He's beating everybody. He's the victor. Joab, I want you to go in this number of soldiers. Forget how many we got and that happened because satan tempted him. How was David tempted? Because of his pride. Because of his arrogance. And he fell prey to satan's temptation. But notice this.

The bible also says in 2 Samuel 24 verse number one that god's anger was toward who? Israel the nation. Wow. Why was god angry with israel? And the text doesn't tell us. We can presume some things. We can assume some things. But we don't necessarily know why god was angry with israel. But he was. Listen, if god's angry, he has every right to be angry, right? And he was angry with israel. And the funny thing about this is that god is so angry with israel, he allows satan to tempt David the king to fall prey to his pride to number the people of israel.

And then David will kill and then god will kill 70,000 of them. Causing the king to repent and fall on his face. And god will stay the angel's sword against the nation. Why does god do all that? What's god doing here? How come? It doesn't seem right. It doesn't seem like it's fair. It doesn't seem It doesn't seem like that's the thing god does. But that's exactly what he did. Why was he angry with israel? Remember israel rebelled against the king, god's king, david. And god has yet to really punish israel because of their defection.

Not from david, but from god. The nation routed around absalom. They routed around absalom to go against god's king. To go against god's king that god appointed was to go against god himself. And god has never punished israel yet because of that. Could that be why god was angry? Maybe. Maybe they were ungrateful. Because israel as a nation never really repented from rebelling against god's king. And so maybe they were ungrateful for all the things that god had done and and you know how god deals with ungrateful people.

He he murders them. All you gotta do is read first corinthians chapter 10. And understand how god deals with those who murmur and grumble and complain. And so maybe that was the case, you know, we don't know. But if god is angry at the nation, he has every right to be angry because somehow they have sinned against him. And so god allows satan to tempt david. This is so important. Listen, as long as you live you are going to battle the unseen enemy. As long as you live. David is up in years. He's not a spring chicken anymore.

He's not that 16 year old anointed king way back in first samuel. He's an older man now. He's been through many battles. He has been through many temptations. He's almost dead. That's how old he is. The exact age we're not sure at this time. But he's up in years. If you're up in years, you can never sit back and think well, you know, I I guess the devil is going to leave you alone. Oh, no. No, he's never going to leave you alone. That's why we we are armed in ephesians 6 with with the armor of god.

Because we wrestle not against flesh and blood. David's battles Well, we're not against the philistines We're not against the jebusites the canaanites as much as his battle in his soul against the wiles of the devil Those were his biggest battles That's where he met defeat on a regular basis And so here david Tempted by the devil remember peter tells us in first peter chapter 5 that satan goes about like a roaring lion seeking Whom may be whom he may devour that's why we need to be sober.

We need to be vigilant We need to be watchful unto prayer. Why because satan wants to tempt us satan wants to knock us down As he did david here in second samuel chapter 24 And so we must always be aware of satan's devices And david's heart was lifted up with pride and the door for temptation Was opened And he began to exalt himself the text does say these words In first samuel chapter 2nd samuel 24 now again The anger of the lord burned against israel.

So it's not the first time That the anger of the lord had burned against the nation It was a repeated act of disobedience toward god that caused the lord's anger toward the nation And the pride in david began to well up And because he was tempted by the devil To go and number his men I want you to notice something The bible tells us in first corinthians chapter 10 a very familiar verse, you know the verse verse number 13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man And god is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able But with the temptation will provide the way of escape also that you may be able to endure it God always provides a way of escape God is so good God gives us a story because he wants us to know that satan tempts david But god provided a route of escape what was the route Or the route however, you say it of escape for david Happens to his commander joab The king said to joab the commander of the army verse 2 who was with him go out about Now through all the tribes of israel from dan and beersheba and register the people that I may know the number of the people But joab said the king Now may the lord your god add to the number Add to the people a hundred times as many as they are while the eyes of my lord the king still see but Why does my lord the king delight?

in this thing David what are you doing? Now now joab has not been the the holiest person in david's regime He is kind of a hot-headed guy But there is a there's a way of escape here And the way of escape comes to the counsel of someone else saying Why are you going to do that? God has given you soldiers God has given you peace in the land God has given you everything you've desired. Why do this thing david? That was his way of escape And god allowed that to happen Think back in your life when you succumb to temptation You think back at the opportunity you had the escape route that was there And you didn't take it Happens all the time Sometimes you just ignore the escape route Sometimes it's the counsel of your pastor counsel of a friend counsel of a parent Don't do that The repercussions will be great Or maybe it's a phone call that comes Right before you commit the act It's a it's an escape route That god in his sovereignty provides To allow you the opportunity not to succumb to temptation God Has said that's how he operates the escape route came and Through the counsel of joab and david said you know what?

In the first chronicles 21. It says that david was vehement This is what we're going to do And you work for me. Therefore you do what I tell you now.

This is why it's wrong listen Not only is it not only was david's pride in act here, but God never told david to number his men God told moses to do it See david didn't get that part when he read it See god told moses to number the men 20 years And over god didn't tell david to go number his men And when moses did it the priests went and numbered them in When david did it the priest did not joab and his commanders did So there are many things here that david did wrong If he would have went back and read the book of numbers, he would have understood what god was doing But david didn't do that He just took the part of the bible That he wanted to apply to himself you ever do that Sure, you do you take that little part that you want to apply to yourself?

You say oh i'm gonna do that because that's the bible not realizing all The context and all the repercussions that will happen if you don't follow it thoroughly That's what happened with david so he went and He numbered his men and sure enough god provided a right of escape and and for 10 months almost 9 months and 20 days This went on I mean you just couldn't take a census and it'd be done in a number of days or weeks. It took 10 months That's a long time A long time for for david to come to a census and realize you know what?

This is the right or maybe go back and reread numbers or or maybe go back and just rethink what he did Rethink his conversation with joab. No, he just for nine months and 20 days David was waiting for the numbers to come Gotta be the biggest gotta be the best Give me the numbers Joab comes back. What's the number? How many do we got? This is good And joab gave him the number And instead of bringing Joy It brought conviction And the bible tells us In verse number 10 now david's heart troubled him After he numbered the people So david said to the lord I have Sinned greatly in what i've done I told you on sunday that This is the sixth time this this phrase is here.

But but before it was always I have sinned Now it's I have sinned Greatly Wow Wow, why is it when he's sinned against basheba? He hadn't he didn't say I sinned greatly When he's sitting against uriah, he didn't say I sinned greatly But why this time does he say I sinned Greatly Now I want you to know something He recognizes his sin before the consequences come Because he's pricked in his conscience in his soul He realizes that what he's done is wrong It took him 10 months But he didn't realize it He didn't realize that what he had done was was wrong i've sinned greatly Well, you know Davidson with basheba was a was a sin of of passion of lustful passion Davidson here was one of pride and arrogance And god hates pride he just does satan was filled with pride And satan would feel would feel God's king with pride To tempt him to do that, which would be wrong but the depth of conviction the sincerity of repentance the hardiness Of his confession All speaks to a broken heart in david's life And so as you read the story it tells us But now lord, please take away the iniquity of thy servant for I have acted very foolishly When david arose in the morning the word of the lord came to the prophet gad david searsane go and speak to david Thus the lord says I am offering you Three choices of consequences Wow I read that I think wow, don't you wish god did that with us?

Okay, here are three choices, you know, choose your penalty You know, he didn't do that He did with david He did with david He said very easily look This is what's going to happen one You can you should have seven years of famine Wow, that's not gonna work remember joseph I'm sure what was going on in david's mind was the whole joseph thing, you know seven years of bounty then seven years of famine And you know, there's not enough time to prepare for seven years of famine With seven years of bounty, so i'm not gonna take i'm not taking that one or Or you can flee for three months from before your folks David said no i've been there i've done that i'm not doing that one again.

I've had enough of the fleeing thing or three days Pestilence in your land quick short But devastating i'm taking that one I'm taking that one. I remember one day my my father came home and my sister and I had gotten in a huge fight And she said some things I said some things we shouldn't have said and my dad came back and said, okay You got two choices, okay You can have your mouth washed out with soap you gotta chew on a bar of soap because of what you said Or I can take my belt And beat you What do you want Well, my sister was the oldest she got to choose first that wasn't fair But that's exactly what happened she chose the soap I got the belt mine was quick And painful She had soap on her teeth for weeks I think I got the better end of the deal, even though I didn't get to choose So here here's the here's the choice.

David says i'll take the three days of pestilence and he Pleads to god based on his mercy I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of the lord for his mercies Are great I don't want to fall in the hand of another man But i'll fall in the hands of the lord because his mercies Are great David had gotten to a place in his life Where he wasn't trusting the lord He was he was trusting in the amount of soldiers he had And pride got the best of him Remember what it says in psalm 20 verse number seven some trust in horses and some in chariots But we will trust in the name of the lord our god they shall be brought down in the fall But we shall rise up and stand firm David began to trust in his soldiers Trust in his army And he wasn't trusting In the lord who gave him the army who put him in the position he was in And So god was going to deal with david He was also going to deal with the nation because the nation had sinned against him And so david chose The pestilence he had no idea The devastating consequences that would come upon the people verse 15 said the lord sent a pestilence upon israel from the morning until the appointed time and 70 000 men of the people from dandabasheba died When the angel stretched out his hand toward jerusalem to destroy it The lord relented from it from the calamity Now this is so good Because you know 30 times in scripture.

It talks about god relenting or god repenting And we we have to ask ourselves Did god change his mind? No No, god never changed his mind But to repent means to change your mind So, how does god repent how does god relent over what has taken place? Same thing happens way back in the book of genesis Well, let me ask you this The bible also says this in isaiah chapter 42 That god became weary Does god ever Get tired But it says that god became weary Isaiah 40 it says that god never wearies So which is it?

Did he become weary or does he never get tired? The bible also says in psalm 78 That god Awakes Out of his sleep Does god sleep Yeah, we know the bible also says that god never sleeps nor does he slumber The bible also says in jeremiah 7 verse number 13 that he rises Early That means he had to get up did god ever sleep the bible also says in isaiah 59 That god Wondered What I thought god was omniscient if god's omniscient knows everything When did he ever wonder about something? It's what theologians call an anthropomorphism Taking human attributes Applying them to god So that somehow we would understand What god is doing That's exactly what's happening here You see God is immutable.

That is god never changes That's the unique thing about god. He's the same yesterday today and forever Okay So the bible says the soul that sins It shall die That's the the command that god gives The soul that sins it shall die And yet and the boss is the wages of sin is death but the gift of god is eternal life You see the same Son s-o-n That melts the wax Hardens the clay God never changes.

So what changes? Man changes God never changes. He's immutable. He's always the same Man changes and god always promises life to those who what repent He promises life to those who repent and the one who repents in this story is david David repents And I want you to notice what the bible says it says this in in second samuel 24 When the angel stretched out his hand toward jerusalem to destroy remember The angel had gone through from from from as far north as dan to as far south as beersheba Because that's where the census took place And so and so the angel went all throughout the land and 70 000 people were died because of the pestilence Are killed because of pestilence Jerusalem had yet to be affected And the angel was about to destroy jerusalem when god relented And stayed the hand of the angel Now this is where it gets really exciting to see what god does Listen to what it says over in first chronicles 21 verse 16 Then david lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the lord standing between earth and heaven With his drawn sword sword in his hand stretched out over jerusalem Then david and the elders covered with sackcloth fell on their faces And david said to god 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? Oh lord my god, please Let thy hand be against me and my father's household, but not against thy people that they should be played Wow You see god relented When david repented and the elders repented Remember david had already said I i'm wrong I'm wrong and what happens is that when we repent of our sin and we confess our sin god begins to open our eyes open our eyes To be able to see his glory And david sees this angel about to destroy jerusalem And david repents He repents in sackcloth and ashes He is completely prostrate before god.

Oh god blame me Blame me david was asking god To pour out his wrath on him and not the people although god was angry with the nation God was angry with the nation and god was going to make sure the nation was punished because of their sin But david the leader of the people recognized that he himself had sinned and wanted all the responsibility To fall upon him. That's what great leaders do That's what great leaders do They realize that their sin affects everybody else David never one time said you know what you're right.

They did they deserve go get them god Go get them deal with them They they they someone needs a good spanking spank them hard Never said that He never one time blamed the nation. He never one try time tried to push things off of the nation. He took full responsibility For what had taken place All the blame comes to me. It's my fault. It's my responsibility. That's what leaders do Because they realize That in their sinning It affects the sheep to sin as well He realized that And so he wanted the responsibility to come here and that's when god relents and tells the angel put your sword back The angel's got the sword he's about ready to strike jerusalem with pestilence But he doesn't Because david repents What a beautiful picture of the mercy of god It says in the angel the lord was by the threshing floor of arun of the jebusite now this becomes so incredibly awesome Because this is all about god and only god is awesome, right?

So it's all about god Then david spoke to the lord when he saw the angel was striking down the people and said Behold the desire of sin as I have done wrong, but these sheep have done nothing wrong. Same thing said in first chronicles 21 Now look at the consecration that takes place after the numbering verse 18 So gad came to david that day and said to him go up Erect an altar to the lord on the threshing floor of aruna the jebusite Erect an altar David went up according to the word of gad just as the lord had commanded And aruna looked down and saw the king and the servants crossing over toward him and aruna went out and bowed his face to the Ground before the king then aruna said why has my lord the king come to his servant?

And david said to buy the threshing floor from you Now the question comes why would aruna the jebusite want to sell this threshing floor Remember It was david that conquered the jebusite city Which now becomes the city of david which becomes jerusalem. It was the fortified city. It was the impregnable city Aruna was a jebusite So in his mind He's thinking here comes the king There's a great pestilence in the land the king must want something what do you want i'll give it to you here take it cheers You don't want to die, right?

He knows the power of king david But also note what it says over in first chronicles 21 So david went up verse 19 at the word of gad which he spoke in the name of the lord Now ornan which is another name for aruna Turned back and saw the angel and his four sons who were with him hid themselves And ornan was threshing wheat And as david came to ornan ornan looked and saw david and went out from the threshing floor and prostrated himself before david with his face to the ground And so not only does he know the power of king david ornan has seen this angel So his boys They're scared He's threshing wheat That's what he's doing Now, where is this place?

Glad you asked Because it's just north Of the city of jerusalem Remember David has conquered the fortified city of the jebusites. He has now set up his kingdom in a city called jerusalem But as you go north upward there is this hill called moriah Okay, this is where the threshing floor is located how do we know that Second chronicles chapter three first number one Tells us these words Then solomon began to build the house of the lord in jerusalem on now moriah Where the lord had appeared to his father david at the place that david had prepared on the threshing floor of ornan the jebusite Now you follow with me so far Amen Here is this threshing for now threshing floor was this huge rock or flat bed area Where they would take the wheat and they would use oxen and sleds and they would crush the wheat And they would throw it up in the air and the and the wind would blow the chaff away and the kernels would stay there on that threshing floor If you were able to go into the dome of the rock On in the temple mount today, you would be able to see That threshing floor.

It's still there And so we know where the place is God has orchestrated the events of everything to bring about his greater purpose his greater purpose And so david goes to Aruna the jebusite and says I want to buy this now in our text. It says that he bought it for 50 shekels of silver But over in in first chronicles 21 It says these words that david gave ornan 600 shekels of gold So which is it?

Well, the 50 shekels of silver in second samu 24 bought the exact threshing floor along with the oxen and the sleds The 600 shekels of gold bought the whole mound The whole area which proves That david has the title deed To mount moriah, which is the temple mount Because he bought it He purchased it He wanted To sacrifice for the lord why listen the biggest motivation For worship Is mercy the biggest motivation for worship is mercy And david wasn't going to worship the lord for free He was going to give everything he had at his disposal to make it happen And so therefore he would purchase that place He would buy it because in the mind and plan of god That would take place over the years the title deed to that land is right here in the scriptures The authority of god and his word And solemnly would build that temple over that threshing floor on top of mount moriah Because God was going to do something very special in that temple The mercy of god would be seen from sacrifice to sacrifice to sacrifice As people would go and offer Sacrifices for the atonement of their sins They would need forgiven And only the mercy of god would provide that And because of the mercy of god david was motivated To worship That's why paul says in romans 12, you know the verse I beseech you therefore brethren by what the mercies of god What are the mercies of god romans 1 to 11?

He says therefore now because of all these mercies I beg you to present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable under god which is your only Logical response To those mercies and that's to worship Everything else you do will be illogical that which is logical is that based on all that god's done for you You've got to present your body a living sacrifice for him And david would sacrifice to worship his god because he saw the mercy of god God relented he stayed the hand of the angel Before he struck the city of jerusalem the city of god And gad came to him and said you got to go erect an altar On that threshing floor right there on top of mount moriah And over in first chronicles chapter 21 know what it says God sent down fire from heaven Consumed the altar consumed the sacrifice Which was a symbol to all of israel That when fire came down from heaven The sacrifice was accepted by god and it was consumed Now note Remember on mount moriah What took place way back in genesis 22?

That's where god told abraham to go God told abraham to go to mount moriah And take now your son your only son And offer him up for me Moriah is a place where sacrifice is paid And so he would go and then god would stay the hand Of abraham as he went to slay his son And god would provide a substitute Now when you come to second statement 24 The angel is about to slay jerusalem and god stays the hand of the angel Because there'd be a sacrifice that would be offered based on the repentance of david and the elders of israel and god would Consume with fire that sacrifice because he was appeased And on that place The temple of god would be built And sacrifices would be offered over and over and over again Until the day That that one sacrifice would come jesus christ And he would be sacrificed on that same mountain mount moriah And because listen because christ Was that satisfactory?

Substitute that satisfactory offering that appeased god you Are set free Israel was set free in second samuel 24 It was all a picture This is where it gets so good.

It's all a picture. How of how god is going to set us free By the ultimate sacrifice that will come on that mountain when the messiah the son of david arrives This is a great chapter It's a great chapter because it tells us about god's sovereign plan and how he orchestrates the events of life To bring about exactly what he wants to happen so we can learn the exact lesson He wants us to learn that we might walk in obedience to the glory and honor of the king It's a chapter about the mercy of god The heart of god the passion of god the love of god And how he would yes Demonstrate his holiness by enacting his judgment upon the nation But through the repentance of the king Bring about his mercy As he would save the city And god would stay the hand of the angel Because the satisfaction Of that sacrifice had been offered What a beautiful chapter It ends bad, I mean begins bad But it ends really really good It ends great Because moriah which means Anybody How long I have been with them oh lord yet they do not remember Someone say Foreseen by god remember moriah means foreseen by god That's why abraham called that place yave yire That is god will offer the ultimate provision Because it was all seen foreseen on the mountain What would happen in the future which would be the ultimate substitute the sacrifice of the messiah?

on the mount moriah Foreseen by god was still the whole picture of the sacrifice of the messiah And when david purchased that threshing floor and bought that whole mound that whole mount With 600 shekels of silver God was saying That's my spot That's my spot That's where my sacrifice will be offered That's where the substitute will come And take all the wrath of almighty god upon himself So you can be set free Wow What a chapter let's pray Father god, we thank you lord for your word. It's so great Truly lord we we have missed so much In our study of the life of david we try to cover as much as we can And we know yet lord your your word is so eternal And that in it there are so many things that if we were to go back and do it all over again We could do it all completely differently because there'd be new avenues to approach new truths to proclaim And yet lord over these these months We have tried to give exactly what you want us to know that will help us follow you in obedience Tonight father may we understand the greatness of your character the beauty of your presence The greatness of your mercy In the life of david We have one more week Where he will charge his son solomon Amen with those final words that ring so true today As we gather again next wednesday May we come with great anticipation Looking forward to what you're going to teach us In jesus name.

Amen