Why Did King David's Census Provoke the Wrath of God?

[icxn]

A superstition about silver scaring off vampires presumably developed by "parallel inference" from some contagions being spread by blood-sucking creatures. Copper itself (so I read the other day) is relatively quicker-sterilising than some of the other metals, against viruses of the covid type.

Silver is scripturally a blameless way of life in obedience to the words of the Lord (Psalms 12:6). Copper is a type of the sinless body of Christ (bronze serpent). Both of them are good sterilizing agents against spiritual viruses.

 

[Mr. M]

Context! Yes! Thank you! The undelined part is the reason God was angry with them. They sided with Absalom, just like we sided with the Devil through our sinning. The scriptures make it appear as if it was David's fault, which is why this story typifies Christ becoming sin for us.

The narrative emphasized Absalom's attractiveness, did it not?
2 Samuel 14:25. But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.
But Messiah:
Isaiah 53:2. For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
John 7:24. Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

 

[icxn]

The narrative emphasized Absalom's attractiveness, did it not?

Which is why Absalom is a symbol of conceit (excessive pride in oneself). Pride and vanity appear attractive on the outside but they conceal great spiritual rottenness, just like Satan and oftentimes ourselves, when we give into the temptation to taste his forbidden fruit.

 

[Paul4JC]

So was it David's sin or Israels sin, or was it both? It does say "the anger of the Lord burned against Israel", and it does say "David said to God, “I have sinned greatly by doing this"

 

[Scott Husted]

1 Chronicles 21:1. Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.
2 Samuel 24:2. So the king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, “Now go throughout all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people, that I may know the number of the people.”

Because he measured God's firstborn ... it is a dichotmy in relationship to the son we are ...

 

[Mr. M]

Because he measured God's firstborn ... it is a dichotmy in relationship to the son we are ...

The census of the firstborn in Numbers was very important indeed. In this case, the census was for men fit to serve in the military.
1 Chronicles 21:5. And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.

 

[Scott Husted]

The census of the firstborn in Numbers was very important indeed. In this case, the census was for men fit to serve in the military.
1 Chronicles 21:5. And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.

Totally agree ... and this in relationship to the process that happens and is happening in us.
It is what I refer to as the garden scenario ... a pattern ... God wants to judge Israel, so Satan/serpent tempts David, the census starts in a place whose name means nakedness ... it takes 9 months and 20 days to complete it, the end result is David's nakedness is revealed which leads him to sacrifice on mount Moriah where Solomon eventually builds the temple, which is one picture of the truth we are both individually and collectively ... a son. Though there is a lot more here, it was never about David's sin, but the purpose of God ... just as the driving out of a man out of a garden ... it has everything to do with our soul ... who as a woman produces the son we are to us.

 

[ZNP]

Totally agree ... and this in relationship to the process that happens and is happening in us.
It is what I refer to as the garden scenario ... a pattern ... God wants to judge Israel, so Satan/serpent tempts David, the census starts in a place whose name means nakedness ... it takes 9 months and 20 days to complete it, the end result is David's nakedness is revealed which leads him to sacrifice on mount Moriah where Solomon eventually builds the temple, which is one picture of the truth we are both individually and collectively ... a son. Though there is a lot more here, it was never about David's sin, but the purpose of God ... just as the driving out of a man out of a garden ... it has everything to do with our soul ... who as a woman produces the son we are to us.

This is why I am incredulous when many have a confident assertion that God has nothing to do with this pandemic. I cannot see such an interpretation anywhere in the Bible, on the contrary we are told again, and again and again that God works all things. Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dream that the blight will come from God so that Joseph can become ruler. The plagues in Egypt release the Israelites from Pharaoh's grasp, in the book of Job it is Satan that brings the ruin on Job, but he is permitted to by God and God uses it to get Job to move on from forgiveness of sins to the image and likeness of God expressed on Earth, etc.

 

[Mr. M]

This is why I am incredulous when many have a confident assertion that God has nothing to do with this pandemic. I cannot see such an interpretation anywhere in the Bible, on the contrary we are told again, and again and again that God works all things. Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dream that the blight will come from God so that Joseph can become ruler. The plagues in Egypt release the Israelites from Pharaoh's grasp, in the book of Job it is Satan that brings the ruin on Job, but he is permitted to by God and God uses it to get Job to move on from forgiveness of sins to the image and likeness of God expressed on Earth, etc.

Interesting that a pandemic is called an outbreak. In the King James, the plague is said to 'break out' on the people.

 

[Scott Husted]

This is why I am incredulous when many have a confident assertion that God has nothing to do with this pandemic. I cannot see such an interpretation anywhere in the Bible, on the contrary we are told again, and again and again that God works all things. Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dream that the blight will come from God so that Joseph can become ruler. The plagues in Egypt release the Israelites from Pharaoh's grasp, in the book of Job it is Satan that brings the ruin on Job, but he is permitted to by God and God uses it to get Job to move on from forgiveness of sins to the image and likeness of God expressed on Earth, etc.

If God wanted Adam to remain in the garden in the garden Adam would have remained ... the deep sleep is another form of the process of the pattern in us ... like Joseph who wanders in a field before he is thrown in a pit in a wilderness ... the nature of all things reveals this process let alone the entire Bible.

 

[Scott Husted]

I love how a question can bring you to the consensus of One ...

 

[Mr. M]

If God wanted Adam to remain in the garden in the garden Adam would have remained ... the deep sleep is another form of the process of the pattern in us ... like Joseph who wanders in a field before he is thrown in a pit in a wilderness ... the nature of all things reveals this process let alone the entire Bible.

Would you consider our ability to forget most of what we experience a part of that process. I have written quite a bit about Memorials and Remembrances as a topic in the Biblical narrative.
I would like to remember more of my experiences when on my face before God. Paul speaks of "things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell." 2 Co 12:4.
I would love to share, but it seems our most precious time in Christ is deeply personal.

 

[Scott Husted]

Would you consider our ability to forget most of what we experience a part of that process. I have written quite a bit about Memorials and Remembrances as a topic in the Biblical narrative.
I would like to remember more of my experiences when on my face before God. Paul speaks of "things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell." 2 Co 12:4.
I would love to share, but it seems our most precious time in Christ is deeply personal.

I do ... the Lord told me a long time ago build a city out of no thing, that if I did there would I remain ... the name in our stone is truly something that words are enefficient for ... and a way of seeing all things.

 

[ZNP]

Interesting that a pandemic is called an outbreak. In the King James, the plague is said to 'break out' on the people.

What I find fascinating is the Bible says the plague goes before Him. This has caused everyone to pause, stop what they are doing and pay full attention, just like you would if someone was introducing the King who had something to announce.

 

[mindlight]

1 Chronicles 21:1. Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.
2 Samuel 24:2. So the king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, “Now go throughout all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people, that I may know the number of the people.”

A king is given a power over the people he rules and that power can do them great good bringing prosperity, righteousness and peace or the opposite. David was in the main a man after Gods own heart and the good that he brought to Israel is with them to this day in the Psalms and his descendants and in his example. But the price of this good influence was that when he sinned he brought severe consequence on his people. This plague was the downside of the good he brought overall.

 

[Mr. M]

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
We can also see YHWH working His purpose into the details of the narrative,
as David purchases land on the mount, and makes sacrifices that are received
in heaven, signaling a move from the high place of Gibeon to Mount Moriah.
2 Chronicles 3:1. Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
As foreshadowed in the book of Beginnings:
Genesis 22:2. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
1 Chronicles 21:
18 Therefore, the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19 So David went up at the word of Gad, which he had spoken in the name of the Lord.
20 Now Ornan turned and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves, but Ornan continued threshing wheat.
21 So David came to Ornan, and Ornan looked and saw David. And he went out from the threshing floor, and bowed before David with his face to the ground.
22 Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshing floor,
that I may build an altar on it to the Lord. You shall grant it to me at the full price,
that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.
23 But Ornan said to David, “Take it to yourself, and let my lord the king do what is good in his eyes. Look, I also give you the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing implements for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering; I give it all.”
24 Then King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will surely buy it for the full price, for I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings with that which costs me nothing.”
25 So David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place. 26And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on the Lord; and He answered him from heaven by fire on the altar of burnt offering.
27 So the Lord commanded the angel, and he returned his sword to its sheath.
28 At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there.
29 For the tabernacle of the Lord and the altar of the burnt offering, which Moses had made in the wilderness, were at that time at the high place in Gibeon.
30 But David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord.