2 Samuel 24: 1 – 25
I don’t want your advice
24 Again the anger of the LORD was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.” 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.” 3 And Joab said to the king, “Now may the LORD your God add to the people a hundred times more than there are, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king desire this thing?” 4 Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the army. Therefore, Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel.5 And they crossed over the Jordan and camped in Aroer, on the right side of the town which is in the midst of the ravine of Gad, and toward Jazer. 6 Then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi; they came to Dan Jaan and around to Sidon; 7 and they came to the stronghold of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites. Then they went out to South Judah as far as Beersheba. 8 So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9 Then Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to the king. And there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men. 10 And David’s heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O LORD, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly.” 11 Now when David arose in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, 12 “Go and tell David, ‘Thus says the LORD: “I offer you three things; choose one of them for yourself, that I may do it to you.” ’ ” 13 So Gad came to David and told him; and he said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or shall you flee three months before your enemies, while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ plague in your land? Now consider and see what answer I should take back to Him who sent me.” 14 And David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Please let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.” 15 So the LORD sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time. From Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men of the people died. 16 And when the angel stretched out His hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented from the destruction, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “It is enough; now restrain your hand.” And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17 Then David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Surely I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house.” 18 And Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, erect an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 So David, according to the word of Gad, went up as the LORD commanded. 20 Now Araunah looked and saw the king and his servants coming toward him. So Araunah went out and bowed before the king with his face to the ground. 21 Then Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.” 22 Now Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look, here are oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing implements and the yokes of the oxen for wood. 23 All these, O king, Araunah has given to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the LORD your God accept you.” 24 Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God with that which costs me nothing.” So, David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25 And David built there an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So, the LORD heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel.
I was taught to never give unsolicited advice, nor try to help anyone unless they ask you for it. I always thought that position maybe was just cold. As I get older, I have started to realize that point of view was right.
Society always emphasizes on the need to help people. I do it too.
They tell you that you should help people unconditionally and when they least expect it. None of that is, of course, wrong. Random acts of kindness can change a person’s life in many instances. However, there is a flip side to every coin. And it is essential not to mask the other half of the impact of any such gesture.
My biggest weakness is that I like to help people.
I help people, although they asked for it or not. But you never know when that sort of thinking could hurt you.
The easiest way to turn your friend into an enemy is offering them advice they don’t want to hear.
When I offer someone my help, I want to help. But a lot of the time, people are not ready to accept my help. It is normal. Everything takes time to change and most people don’t want it.
You shouldn’t offer advice when people are not prepared to entertain it, or they could one day come back and blame you when it doesn’t work out for them.
Offering someone help when you are not ready to help is a big no-no. I have done this so many times, and until today I still regret doing it.
A few years ago, I was asked to fix something. It was beyond my knowledge and interest to do so but I agreed and gave it my best shot. I missed the target and messed up the work.
I learned firsthand that helping people when you don’t have the skills or time will do more harm than good.
Offering help when you can’t do a good job will do more harm than good. It’s like being blind and teaching someone else how to paint. You make people miss the opportunities to find better help. Your kindness can hurt people too, in some instances. One of the easiest ways to destroy a relationship is by offering help that you can’t deliver.
At the end of the day, everything can be good or bad. We all need to strive to find the right balance between the two.
Always think it through carefully, before you offer to help someone else. If you don’t, it has the potential to cost you your time, your money and the relationships you hold dear to yourself (personal or professional).
If you help the wrong people, you can miss the opportunities to help the right people. Think before you help.
In today’s scripture we are going to read about Joab just offering to help but it wasn’t asked for nor appreciated. In fact, I believe things would have turned out better for him if he did not try to help or offer his advice. See if you see the same thing from today’s passages.
The act of numbering the men of Israel would appear to have been an act of rebellion against Yahweh. According to 1 Chronicles 27.23-24 YHWH had promised that the number of the children of Israel would be as the stars of the heavens. They were thus not to be numbered arbitrarily nor have any limit put on them. For in the end they were Yahweh’s people, not David’s. To number them was thus an act of human arrogance and self-exaltation. It was to see them as David’s own people and at his disposal, rather than as Yahweh’s people to be preserved by Him as He willed. David is seen as once more having got above himself. It was a similar act of arrogance to that of Moses smiting the rock in Numbers 20.10-12, something which also had painful consequences.
Both Joab (verse 3) and David (verse 10) in the end recognized what a sinful act David’s committed. It was thus not an unconscious or unrecognized sin. The situation was that David had slipped into being simply ‘a king like all the nations’ instead of the unique servant leader of Yahweh. He had thus thrust our Holy and Great God Yahweh into the background in his thinking, and that was why he had to be jolted out of it. The sad thing was that the people had to suffer for it because it was necessary to nullify the census by diminishing their numbers, but it should be noted that it is made quite clear that they suffered for their own sins and not for David’s (verse 1). They were thus not just being punished for what he did. For David it would mean a diminishing of the people over whom he ruled.
24 Again the anger of the LORD was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.”
Many have questioned why the people should have had to suffer for David’s sin, but that question is clearly answered here. David’s action and its punishment were not just the result of his own sinfulness, it was as a consequence of the sin of all the people. ‘The anger of YHWH was kindled against Israel.’ It was Israel who had sinned. Thus, David’s numbering of Israel, and its consequences, were originally brought about as a result of the people’s sinfulness and disobedience. Israel would suffer for their own sins.
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.”
The result was that the king called in Joab, the commander of the host of Israel, and ordered him to number the whole people (i.e. the adult males over twenty) in all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba so that he, David, could know the total sum of the people. The assumption that he was making was that they were his people and that he was therefore summing up his possessions. But this, of course, went totally contrary to the teaching of the Law that they were Yahweh’s covenant people, and that it was He alone Who determined, or should be interested in, their number.
3 And Joab said to the king, “Now may the LORD your God add to the people a hundred times more than there are and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king desire this thing?”
The fact that Joab was appalled at the suggestion indicates that he clearly saw that the number of the people of Israel was neither his nor David’s concern. It was The God of Israel Who determined the number of people. He it was who could add to them a hundredfold as He had promised, something in which David could delight, but it was not for David to regulate the number of people. That was Yahweh’s prerogative for the people were His ‘portion’ (Deuteronomy 32.8-9). The fact that they could not be numbered was an indication that they were God’s people. Why then was David concerning himself to do so? He was taking such matters out of God’s hands. Was he then seeking to take over Yahweh’s portion and inheritance?
Now at first sight what we witness Joab attempting to do in stopping David from a grave sin is good and proper, but his advice was not wanted. David had taken a personal dislike towards Joab’s past meddling and he did not want to hear any advice this man offered.
4 Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the army. Therefore, Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel.
Despite Joab’s protest, seemingly also backed up by David’s principle military officers, the count was to go on, for the king ordered it and his word necessarily prevailed.
5 And they crossed over the Jordan and camped in Aroer, on the right side of the town which is in the midst of the ravine of Gad, and toward Jazer. 6 Then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi; they came to Dan Jaan and around to Sidon; 7 and they came to the stronghold of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites. Then they went out to South Judah as far as Beersheba.
What happened as they reached each area was that they encamped and then summoned to them all the adult males of Israel to carry out the count.
8 So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
Having covered the whole land, they returned to Jerusalem. Their journeying had taken nine months and twenty days. It had been a long and arduous process.
9 Then Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to the king. And there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.
And at the end of it all Joab was able to give the totals that they had arrived at to the king. Note that it is not said that they were accurate or true, only that that was the figure that Joab had arrived at.
10 And David’s heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So, David said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O LORD, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”
For once David received the numbers he realized what a fool he had been. He was faced up with the fact that these were not his men but Yahweh’s, and that they were as numberless as the stars in Heaven. His conscience being thus smitten, he cried to Yahweh and sought His forgiveness, declaring that he had sinned greatly through his arrogant attitude, and asked Him to put away his iniquity.
11 Now when David arose in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, 12 “Go and tell David, ‘Thus says the LORD: “I offer you three things; choose one of them for yourself, that I may do it to you.” 13 So Gad came to David and told him; and he said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or shall you flee three months before your enemies, while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ plague in your land? Now consider and see what answer I should take back to Him who sent me.”
In response to David’s prayer Yahweh offers him a choice from three alternative chastisements, seven years of famine, three months of defeat by an enemy or three days of pestilence. David rejects the central one because he would rather that Israel were in God’s hands rather than man’s, but seemingly leaves Yahweh to choose between the other two, and the result was that Yahweh sent a three-day pestilence.
14 And David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Please let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”
David naturally found the choice a great burden. None of the alternatives were palatable, and they all tore him apart. But in the end, he chose rather to fall into the hand of a Yahweh Whose mercies were great, than into the hand of men who would show no mercy. In this he was emphasizing his trust in the grace and mercy of God. Famine would leave the people in the hands of the corn chandlers, with himself mainly untouched. War would leave people at the mercy or otherwise of their enemies. Pestilence, however, put all on an equality and could strike from the highest to the lowest
15 So the LORD sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time. From Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men of the people died.
Yahweh responded by sending what was to be a three-day pestilence on Israel through the Angel of Yahweh. It was, through the mercy of God, cut short. It commenced in the morning and went on ‘to the time of assembly’ or ‘to an appointed time’. Israel was being given a short, sharp warning of what would happen if they continued to ignore God’s requirements for their lives.
16 And when the angel stretched out His hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented from the destruction, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “It is enough; now restrain your hand.” And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
The widespread pestilence now approached Jerusalem with its relatively large population, being controlled by the Angel of Yahweh. But it was then that Yahweh in His mercy and compassion called a halt to the misery. He recognized that the people had suffered enough to have learned their lesson, and called on the destroying angel to ‘stay his hand’. Justice was to be tempered by mercy.
17 Then David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Surely I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house.”
David was one of the few who were permitted to see the heavenly being who was responsible for what was happening on earth (Arauna also saw him, and possibly his sons - 1 Chronicles 21.20), and it brought home to him the depths of his sin. He had sinned sufficiently for this awesome judgment to have come upon Israel. He was being made to realize that he had been looking at things from a wholly earthly point of view, as though men decided their own destinies and controlled world affairs. That was why he had decided to ‘number Israel’ over which he saw himself as having total control. Now he was being made to recognize that there were unseen forces at work that made such an idea ridiculous. But he was not at this time aware that his sin had merely reflected the sins of the whole of Israel and so he prayed that Yahweh would not continue to punish the sheep for what the shepherd had done. Let Yahweh rather bring the punishment on the one to whom it belonged, to him and his house.
18 And Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, erect an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
But what God did want David to appreciate was that His forgiveness could not be obtained without cost. Substitutionary and atoning sacrifices were necessary if David and Israel were to be spared further chastisement, for sin could not just be simply ignored. And so, He commanded him to go and build ‘an altar to Yahweh’ on the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite, where He had stayed the Angel’s hand. The threshing-floor would be a large, flat, exposed area where the grain could be gathered, and tossed into the air with a winnowing fork so that the prevailing wind could remove the chaff. It was a fitting picture of the need for the removal of all that was unsuitable.
19 So David, according to the word of Gad, went up as the LORD commanded.
David, brought back into the way of obedience, did according to all that Yahweh had commanded through Gad, and went up to the threshing-floor with his close associates. 1 Chronicles indicates that they were clothed in mourning garb because of the pestilence (1 Chronicles 21.16).
20 Now Araunah looked and saw the king and his servants coming toward him. So Araunah went out and bowed before the king with his face to the ground.
We are left to imagine the thoughts of Araunah when he looked up and saw many of Israel’s most important officials, including the king himself, approaching his threshing-floor. It would certainly have been startling and might even have aroused fear in his heart. He was a Jebusite, one of the old original inhabitants of Jerusalem, and he would not have been in favor with many Israelites. He would be one of the first to be blamed when calamities came on Israel. So, he may well have gone out to meet the approaching group fairly apprehensively. And it would be somewhat fearfully that he fell on his face to the ground before David.
21 Then Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.”
And crouched there on his face before the king he put the question that must have been stabbing at his heart. What was it that David wanted with him, who was but a humble servant of the king? What had he done? He must have been greatly relieved when he heard the answer. It was to buy his threshing-floor so that there they could build an altar to Yahweh so that the plague might be stayed from the people.
22 Now Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look, here are oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing implements and the yokes of the oxen for wood. 23 All these, O king, Araunah has given to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the LORD your God accept you.”
Hugely relieved Araunah informed the king that he could have whatever he liked. Not only the threshing-floor, but also the oxen for sacrifices, and the wood of his instruments for firewood. All this he would give to the king. However, in typical oriental fashion there may have been a hint here that, while he would not withhold it from David, all this would not be without cost to Araunah.
Araunah then expressed his pious wish that Yahweh would accept David and his offering. It was possibly just an expression of polite hope, but pestilence affected all, both Israelite and Jebusite, and showed no favor’s. It would thus be for everyone’s benefit if it could be stayed.
24 Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God with that which costs me nothing.” So, David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
But the king was not out to take advantage of his loyal subjects and assured him that he would give him the full price. Nor would he offer burnt offerings to Yahwehwhich had cost him nothing. He wanted his offering to be true and from the heart. And the result was that David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
25 And David built there an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So, the LORD heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel.
And there on that threshing-floor David built an altar to Yahweh and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And so, Yahweh was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.
