1 Chronicles 21:1-30
21:1-2 This chapter of Chronicles corresponds to 2 Samuel 24. David moves to take a census of Israel but not by God's command. In David's time and culture, if a man made a count of anything, it meant that he claimed that property as his own. It was imperative for the kings of Israel to know that the kingdom was ultimately claimed by God.
21:3 The commander of the army, Joab, pointed this out to David. The kingdom was not David's to claim. Perhaps the powerful and exaltation David received from Israel began to seep into him as pride. This could happen to any of it. To ward off pride, we must remember that God is trainer, owner and provider. Powerful positions are not a point of pride but of responsibility.
21:4-6 David insisted and Joab followed his orders. Israel had grown enormously (it started with one man, Abraham).
21:7 God was displeased with David; as a Father, God is not hesitant to discipline His children. God is always working to grow us. A seed of pride began to grow in David and God vigilantly perceived it. We are not always aware of the ways or times we are wrong but God is. He points them out not to harshly criticize us but to help us perceive the broader perspective of ourselves and our lives.
21:8 To his credit, David immediately acknowledged his fault. Yet it is not enough to only acknowledge our faults, we also have to work on them. God needed to place David in a position that would teach him the cost of pride. God wants us to understand why he is displeased with pride and other sins.
21:9-12 To teach and discipline David, God offered David a test disguised as a choice. To face retribution for his digression (which may seem small to us, but God and David knew, privately the significance) David could choose either: three years of famine, three months defeated by his foes or a three day plague in the land.
21:13 The three options distressed David. He was glad to receive humbling by the hand of God but he could not stand the prospect of being humbled by his enemies. And indeed that sounds awful, but it was the only selfless choice of the three options. It was the only choice that, having been chosen, would show God that David had humbled the pride out of him.
21:14-15 And so a plague fell on the land and the cost was seventy-thousand men. The lesson here is that in a position of leadership, our choices directly affect the lives of many, many others. We are all influential in some way, to our friends, family and the people around us during the day (even strangers). Selfish actions have consequence for the people around us.
21:16-17 When David discovered the destruction of his choice, he was finally humbled. It occurred to him that innocents have suffered because of his selfish choices; it pained him severely. David reached the point where he prayed that God would discipline him. David even stressed the fact that he alone was responsible for the sin. God did not administer flippant discipline; he knows how to make us stare head-on at the places within ourselves that need fixing. He does this out of love; God sees great potential in the places of our weakness. He needs us to acknowledge those places, own them, before we can work on them.
21:18-22 In order to fix what he had done, David needed time with God. He went to the threshing floor of Ornan and bought it at full price in order to build an altar for God. We must purchase our weakness at full price, claim it (and all responsibility), and then build our faith in those places. We must bring God into those places so that He can fix, redirect, restore, and grow righteousness in those places.
21:23 Another test: Ornan offered the space to David for free. He even offered his own animals to sacrifice (a now defunct practice, Hosea 6:6). This was a test because it was another chance for David to use others to absolve himself.
21:24-26 Instead, David chose to finally accept full responsibility. His repentance to God needed to be authentic and wholehearted in order for it to matter. And so David purchased the space at full price, and built an altar for God. The discipline became personal, an intimate father-child relationship. In that space, David could receive instruction to learn from his mistakes and to be better.
21:27 The plague was over. When we begin to live selflessly, we immediately stop harming others with our negative influence.
Side note: it is interesting to read that angels are messengers of God, and also instruments of His will. Our obedience here helps us to qualify as obedient servants there, with God. The angels never question God's authority, no matter the command. They trust Him. Without hesitation, they do the work of His will.
21:28-30 The threshing floor space became special: a place of reverent obedience to an all-righteous God; a place where sin was humbled.
