2 Samuel 24. Did it strike you strange this week that God was upset with David because he took a census of the people? Did it seem a bit over the top that 70,000 men died as a result?
Well, if those thoughts crossed your mind, you are not alone. Let’s examine this together…
I did some searching and found some answers. I will share verbatim what I found from gotquestions.org -
As to why God was angry at David, in those times, a man only had the right to count or number what belonged to him. Israel did not belong to David; Israel belonged to God. In Exodus 30:12 God told Moses, “When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the LORD a ransom for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them.” It was up to God to command a census, and if David counted he should only have done it at God’s command, receiving a ransom to “atone” for the counting. This is why God was angry again with Israel and is also why David was “conscience-stricken” after he counted Israel. David knew it was wrong and begged God to take away the guilt of his sin (2 Samuel 24:10).
God gave David a choice of three punishments for his sin—three years of famine, three months of fleeing before his enemies, or three days of plague. David chose the third, and the Lord then punished Israel with a plague that killed 70,000 men from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south. As for why God punished the whole nation for the sin of the king, that is exactly the question David asks in 2 Samuel 24:17. Why, when he was the one who had sinned, did the people have to suffer? He even requested that God’s hand be against him and his family only, and that God would spare the people. But, as with the account of Job, God chose not to give a reason for His actions. Perhaps it was because of Israel’s multiplied sins and rebellion against God throughout the centuries. Perhaps it was a lesson to the people (and to us as well) that the people suffer when their leaders go astray. The reality is that God didn’t justify His actions with a reason, nor does He have to.
Of the three choices presented to David, the first two would have involved some level of dependency upon the mercy of man: the warfare, of course, would be as severe as the enemy wanted it to be; the famine would require Israel to seek food from other nations, relying on the pity of their neighbors. Instead of relying on the mercy of any human, David chose to rely on the mercy of God—the pestilence was, after all, the most direct form of punishment from God, and in the plague they could only look to God for relief.
The psalmist tells us, “As for God, His way is perfect” (Psalm 18:30). If God’s ways are “perfect,” then we can trust that whatever He does—and whatever He allows—is also perfect. Our responsibility to God is to obey Him, to trust Him, and to submit to His will, whether we understand it or not.
As we see in 2 Samuel 24:16, God was grieved because of the things that were happening to His people, and He called off the punishment. Even in His rebuke God still shows His love and mercy.
I Chronicles also records this incident and we can glean more info from combining that account with this. We see there that David’s motive for taking the census is wrong. Apparently he did not trust God to keep Israel safe and he wanted to see if there were sufficient numbers of men to provide the military might that he could trust in instead. The census that God required in Numbers 1 was clearly indicated as to determine who could go to war. That was God’s choice to make - not David’s.
Even Joab knew this was wrong and actually challenged the king. But David persisted. For “nine months and twenty days”, Scripture says. He acted out of fear and/or pride - instead of relying on the Lord, David felt safer trusting in military might that he could see and manage and boast in.
The punishment, which seems severe to us - even “unfair” - strikes at the very source of David’s sin - it removes that which he trusted in. (And for the record, one of the commentaries I read suggested that all three choices would likely have resulted in the same numbers of casualty. So it didn’t matter which one he chose - God was going to remove the source of David’s security!) And I have to lean NOT on my own understanding but rather acknowledge that God’s ways are higher than mine. And that ALL His ways are loving and faithful. Regardless of what it “looks like” to me. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Our challenge is 1) not to place our trust in anything except the Lord and 2)when we fail to live by faith, may God grant us mercy and grace to repent quickly and hopefully minimize the costly consequences.