BIBLES NET. COM
Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
on the Whole Bible
Back to Biblesnet.com Home Page
|
[Previous] [Next] |
Matthew Henry |
F I R S T C H R O N I C L E S
CHAP. XXI.
As this rehearsal makes no mention of David’s sin in the matter of
Uriah, so neither of the troubles of his family that followed upon it;
not a word of Absalom’s rebellion, or Sheba’s. But David’s sin, in
numbering the people, is here related, because, in the atonement made
for that sin, an intimation was given of the spot of ground on which
the temple should be built. Here is,
I. David’s sin, in forcing Joab to number the people,
II. David’s sorrow for what he had done, as soon as he perceived the
sinfulness of it,
III. The sad dilemma (or trilemma rather) he was brought to, when it
was put to him to choose how he would be punished for this sin, and
what rod he would be beaten with,
IV. The woeful havoc which was made by the pestilence in the country,
and the narrow escape which Jerusalem had from being laid waste by it,
V. David’s repentance, and sacrifice, upon this occasion, and the
staying of the plaque thereupon,
This awful story we met with, and meditated upon,
| The Giants Subdued. | B. C. 1017. |
|
|
|
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to
number Israel.
2 And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go,
number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and bring the number of
them to me, that I may know it.
3 And Joab answered, The LORD make his people a hundred times
so many more as they be: but, my lord the king, are they not
all my lord’s servants? why then doth my lord require this thing?
why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?
4 Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab.
Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came
to Jerusalem.
5 And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David.
And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and a hundred
thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred
threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.
6 But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the
king’s word was abominable to Joab.
Numbering the people, one would think, was no bad thing. Why should not
the shepherd know the number of his flock? But God sees not as man
sees. It is plain it was wrong in David to do it, and a great
provocation to God, because he did it in the pride of his heart; and
there is no sin that has in it more of contradiction and therefore more
of offence to God than pride. The sin was David’s; he alone must bear
the blame of it. But here we are told,
I. How active the tempter was in it
(v. 1):
Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to do it. Is
is said
that the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved
David to do it. The righteous judgments of God are to be observed
and acknowledged even in the sins and unrighteousness of men. We are
sure that God is not the author of sin–he tempts no man; and
therefore, when it is said that he moved David to do it, it must be
explained by what is intimated here, that, for wise and holy ends, he
permitted the devil to do it. Here we trace this foul stream to its
foundation. That Satan, the enemy of God and all good, should stand
up against Israel, is not strange; it is what he aims at, to weaken
the strength, diminish the numbers, and eclipse the glory of God’s
Israel, to whom he is Satan, a sworn adversary. But that
he should influence David, the man of God’s own heart to do a wrong
thing, may well be wondered at. One would think him one of those whom
the wicked one touches not. No, even the best saints, till they come to
heaven, must never think themselves out of the reach of Satan’s
temptations. Now, when Satan meant to do Israel a mischief, what course
did he take? He did not move God against them to destroy them
(as Job,
but he provoked David, the best friend they had, to number them, and so
to offend God, and set him against them. Note,
1. The devil does us more mischief by tempting us to sin against our
God than he does by accusing us before our God. He destroys none but by
their own hands,
2. The greatest spite he can do to the church of God is to tempt the
rulers of the church to pride; for none can conceive the fatal
consequences of that sin in all, especially in church-rulers. You
shall not be so,
Luke xxii. 26.
II. How passive the instrument was. Joab, the person whom David
employed, was an active man in public business; but to this he was
perfectly forced, and did it with the greatest reluctance
imaginable.
1. He put in a remonstrance against it before he began it. No man more
forward that he in any thing that really tended to the honour of the
king or the welfare of the kingdom; but in this matter he would gladly
be excused. For,
(1.) It was a needless thing. There was not occasion at all for it. God
had promised to multiply them, and he needed not question the
accomplishment of that promise. They were all his servants, and he
needed not doubt of their loyalty and affection to him. Their number
was as much his strength as he could desire.
(2.) It was a dangerous thing. In doing it he might be a cause of
trespass to Israel, and might provoke God against them. This Joab
apprehended, and yet David himself did not. The most learned in the
laws of God are not always the most quick-sighted in the application of
those laws.
2. He was quite weary of it before he had done it; for the king’s
word was abominable to Joab,
v. 6.
Time was when whatever king David did pleased all the people,
2 Sam. iii. 36.
But now there was a general disgust at these orders, which confirmed
Joab in his dislike of them, so that, though the produce of this muster
was really very great, yet he had no heart to perfect it, but left two
tribes unnumbered
(v. 5, 6),
two considerable ones, Levi and Benjamin, and perhaps was not very
exact in numbering the rest, because he did not do it with any
pleasure, which might be one occasion of the difference between the
sums here and
| David’s Numbering the People. | B. C. 1017. |
|
|
|
7 And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote
Israel.
8 And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I
have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do away the
iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
9 And the LORD spake unto Gad, David’s seer, saying,
10 Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee
three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto
thee.
11 So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the
LORD, Choose thee
12 Either three years’ famine; or three months to be destroyed
before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh
thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the
pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying
throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself
what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.
13 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall
now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies:
but let me not fall into the hand of man.
14 So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of
Israel seventy thousand men.
15 And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as
he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the
evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay
now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the
threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16 And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD
stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in
his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders
of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their
faces.
17 And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the
people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done
evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? let
thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on me, and on my
father’s house; but not on thy people, that they should be
plagued.
David is here under the rod for numbering the people, that rod of
correction which drives out the foolishness that is bound up in the
heart, the foolishness of pride. Let us briefly observe,
I. How he was corrected. If God’s dearest children do amiss, they must
expect to smart for it.
1. He is given to understand that God is displeased; and that it is no
small uneasiness to so good a man as David,
v. 7.
God takes notice of, and is displeased with, the sins of his people;
and no sin is more displeasing to him than pride of heart: nor is
anything more humbling, and grieving, and mortifying to a gracious
soul, than to see itself under God’s displeasure.
2. He is put to his choice whether he will be punished by war, famine,
or pestilence; for punished he must be, and by one of these. Thus, for
his further humiliation, he is put into a strait, a great strait, and
has the terror of all the three judgments impressed upon his mind, no
doubt to his great amazement, while he is considering which he shall
choose.
3. He hears of 70,000 of his subjects who in a few hours were struck
dead by the pestilence,
He was proud of the multitude of his people, but divine Justice took a
course to make them fewer. Justly is that taken from us, weakened, or
embittered to us, which we are proud of. David must have the people
numbered: Bring me the number of them, says he, that I may
know it. But now God numbers them after another manner, numbers
to the sword,
Isa. lxv. 12.
And David had another number of them brought, more to his confusion
than was to his satisfaction, namely, the number of the slain–a black
bill of mortality, which is a drawback to his muster-roll.
4. He sees the destroying angel, with his sword drawn against
Jerusalem,
This could not but be very terrible to him, as it was a visible
indication of the anger of Heaven, and threatened the utter destruction
of that beloved city. Pestilences make the greatest devastations in the
most populous places. The sight of an angel, though coming peaceably
and on a friendly errand, has made even mighty men to tremble; how
dreadful then must this sight be of an angel with a drawn sword in his
hand, a flaming sword, like that of the cherubim, which turned every
way to keep the way of the tree of life! While we lie under the wrath
of God the holy angels are armed against us, though we see them not as
David did.
II. How he bore the correction.
1. He made a very penitent confession of his sin, and prayed earnestly
for the pardon of it,
v. 8.
Now he owned that he had sinned, had sinned greatly, had done
foolishly, very foolishly; and he entreated that, however he might be
corrected for it, the iniquity of it might be done away.
2. He accepted the punishment of his iniquity: “Let thy hand be on
me, and on my father’s house,
v. 17.
I submit to the rod, only let me be the sufferer, for I am the sinner;
mine is the guilty head at which the sword should be pointed.”
3. He cast himself upon the mercy of God (though he knew he was angry
with him) and did not entertain any hard thoughts of him. However it
be, Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are
great,
v. 13.
Good men, even when God frowns upon them, think well of him. Though
he slay me, yet will I trust in him.
4. He expressed a very tender concern for the people, and it went to
his heart to see them plagued for his transgression: These sheep,
what have they done?
| Ornan’s Threshing-Floor. | B. C. 1017. |
|
|
|
18 Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David,
that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the LORD in the
threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19 And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in
the name of the LORD.
20 And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons
with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
21 And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and
went out of the threshingfloor, and bowed himself to David with
his face to the ground.
22 Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this
threshingfloor, that I may build an altar therein unto the LORD:
thou shalt grant it me for the full price: that the plague may be
stayed from the people.
23 And Ornan said unto David, Take it to thee, and let my
lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: lo, I give
thee the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the threshing
instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat offering; I give
it all.
24 And king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy it
for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine
for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings without cost.
25 So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of
gold by weight.
26 And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered
burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD;
and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt
offering.
27 And the LORD commanded the angel; and he put up his sword
again into the sheath thereof.
28 At that time when David saw that the LORD had answered him
in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed
there.
29 For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the
wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that
season in the high place at Gibeon.
30 But David could not go before it to enquire of God: for he
was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the LORD.
We have here the controversy concluded, and, upon David’s repentance,
his peace made with God. Though thou wast angry with me, thy anger
is turned away.
1. A stop was put to the progress of the execution,
When David repented of the sin God repented of the judgment, and
ordered the destroying angel to stay his hand and sheath his
sword,
v. 27.
2. Direction was given to David to rear an altar in the threshing-floor
of Ornan,
The angel commanded the prophet Gad to bring David this direction. The
same angel that had, in God’s name, carried on the war, is here forward
to set on foot the treaty of peace; for angels do not desire the woeful
day. The angel could have given this order to David himself; but he
chose to do it by his seer, that he might put an honour upon the
prophetic office. Thus the revelation of Jesus Christ was notified by
the angel to John, and by him to the churches. The commanding of David
to build an altar was a blessed token of reconciliation; for, if God
had been pleased to kill him, he would not have appointed, because he
would not have accepted, a sacrifice at his hands.
3. David immediately made a bargain with Ornan for the threshing-floor;
for he would not serve God at other people’s charge. Ornan generously
offered it to him gratis, not only in complaisance to the king, but
because he had himself seen the angel
(v. 20),
which so terrified him that he and his four sons hid themselves, as
unable to bear the brightness of his glory and afraid of his drawn
sword. Under these apprehensions he was willing to do anything towards
making the atonement. Those that are duly sensible of the terrors of
the Lord will do all they can, in their places, to promote religion,
and encourage all the methods of reconciliation for the turning away of
God’s wrath.
4. God testified his acceptance of David’s offerings on this altar; He
answered him from heaven by fire,
v. 26.
To signify that God’s anger was turned away from him, the fire that
might justly have fastened upon the sinner fastened upon the sacrifice
and consumed that; and, upon this, the destroying sword was returned
into its sheath. Thus Christ was made sin and a curse for us, and it
pleased the Lord to bruise him, that through him God might be to us,
not a consuming fire, but a reconciled Father.
5. He continued to offer his sacrifices upon this altar. The brazen
altar which Moses made was at Gibeon
(v. 29),
and there all the sacrifices of Israel were offered; but David was so
terrified at the sight of the sword of the angel that he could not
go thither,
v. 30.
The business required haste, when the plague was begun. Aaron must go
quickly, nay, he must run, to make atonement,
And the case here was no less urgent; so that David had not time to go
to Gibeon: nor durst he leave the angel with his sword drawn over
Jerusalem, lest the fatal stroke should be given before he came back.
And therefore God, in tenderness to him, bade him build an altar in
that place, dispensing with his own law concerning one altar because of
the present distress, and accepting the sacrifices offered on this new
altar, which was not set up in opposition to that, but in concurrence
with it. The symbols of unity were not so much insisted on as unity
itself. Nay, when the present distress was over (as it should seem),
David, as long as he lived, sacrificed there, though the altar at
Gibeon was still kept up; for God had owned the sacrifices that were
here offered and had testified his acceptance of them,
On those administrations in which we have experienced the tokens of
God’s presence, and have found that he is with us of a truth, it is
good to continue our attendance. “Here God had graciously met me, and
therefore I will still expect to meet with him.”
|
[Previous] [Next] |
Matthew Henry |
|
Back to Bibles Net . Com – Online Christian Library Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary – Free Download |
Copyright 2008. Bibles Net. Com. All Rights Reserved.