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00:00 a joy and privilege to be standing here sharing with you from the word of God. And after months of uh going through uh
00:07 1 and 2 Samuel, we have almost come to the end of the series. This morning we are at the closing chapter of 2 Samuel
00:15 that is chapter 24 read to us now. Next Sunday we will backtrack a bit and David
00:21 Adams will speak on a passage from 2 Samuel chapter 7 and we'll be done with the series. And next year January I
00:29 think we'll start with a series on a new series on Psalms. Our text today is taken from 2 Samuel
00:35 chapter 24 1-19 which I'm not too excited to say it's a very difficult
00:42 passage and this is going to be the toughest sermon for me in recent years. I was
00:48 about to say that I appreciate the honor of being given the last chapter of Samuel, but in reality has been more a
00:54 trial than a than a tribute as I struggled a while with this uh with the passage. And so, please be prepared for
01:01 a long deep discussion as we try to negotiate the various theological bends
01:08 in the in the in the chapter. And uh as we do that, we will try to develop a more uh u balanced uh view of the nature
01:17 of God. What we will do is we'll try to figure out uh what is happening here in this chapter and along the way we will
01:24 tackle uh three main difficulties in this uh in this chapter and along the
01:29 way we will also try to uh draw out some applications from these verses. But let
01:36 us first commit this time to the Lord in prayer and seek the spirit's help with this passage.
01:43 Our father in heaven, just who are you and why did you do the
01:50 things you do? Indeed, you are the Lord God Almighty.
01:55 You are perfect and eternal. May your spirit help our tiny finite
02:02 minds to understand you better and to understand your mighty deeds as we deal
02:07 with these verses before us. For we humbly ask in the in the name of your son Jesus. Amen.
02:15 I shall begin by sharing with you uh two not so recent experiences to to
02:21 represent two uh differing scenarios or two contrasting ways by which we can
02:27 approach God and his word. The first was back in 1983, a little more than 30 years ago when I
02:34 was in the final year of my engineering course in Japan for my graduation thesis. I was assigned
02:41 to this huge uh research institute within the university.
02:46 This institute was doing some long-term research uh in nuclear fusion, not
02:52 nuclear fusion as we find in the nuclear power station. If you don't know the difference between nuclear fusion or
02:58 fusion is really quite okay. Not many people know. Anyway, at the risk of sounding too
03:04 technical, uh the project for my thesis was to chemically coat some metal plates
03:10 uh with uh uranium dioxide. And these plates were will later be used as the
03:16 main part of a special camera to measure neutron emission from the nuclear fusion
03:21 reaction. Again, it doesn't matter if you don't know what I'm talking about.
03:26 because whenever I read my thesis now I kept a copy I also don't understand what I wrote
03:34 totally no no what they call no relevance to my work uh later on but it
03:40 was it was quite an exciting time in hindsight I should have asked for a change of topic for my thesis because as
03:47 I look back I was asked to handle uh rather dangerous uh radioactive material
03:54 uranium dio oxide which could be very hazardous to my health. But at that time I didn't think one single bit about such
04:01 concerns. I don't know why but it didn't bother me then even though I was well aware of the dangers of uranium and its
04:08 compounds. I suppose it was because I totally trusted my my supervising
04:14 professor one professor Yamanaka a senior scientist whom I look up to in in
04:20 awe and in in deep respect. And to me he was such a smart and knowledgeable person and I did what I was told to do
04:28 in absolute obedience in total trust and without a question.
04:33 As for the second experience fast forward about 10 years to 1994 when I was working in the Braaya group
04:40 specifically in Singer Malaysia one of their largest subsidiaries. There was
04:46 once during during those years someone asked me where I worked. I replied Singer and she was so surprised. Oh, you
04:52 sing for a living. I should have said singing Malaysia.
05:01 Anyway, that was where I met uh David sitting over there. He was in charge of
05:07 training and I was uh handling sales. Our rooms were not too far apart. So, you can imagine how often he drops by to
05:14 to my room and vice versa. And we were both reporting to a managing director by the name of Philip Chi.
05:21 Incidentally, before I joined Briaya, I was working in K Malaysia where I met my wife Lean and fell in love with her. A
05:29 few weeks ago, Arnold Lim made a declaration about how God led him to his wife and how it was the best choice.
05:35 Well, I'm going to do something similar. This is called a friendly competition
05:42 among preachers. I wish to declare that I couldn't have married a better woman. Okay? Even
05:49 though Let's see David Adams do that next week.
05:58 Even though Lean is not here to hear this, she has to be at a company warehouse sale yesterday and today.
06:04 Anyway, that was the reason why I left K to join Braaya. We were planning to get married at the time and since Leon was
06:11 in human resource handling confidential information, we felt that we shouldn't be both working in the same company. And
06:18 through an introduction, I came to meet uh Mr. Yong Tem Ming, executive director
06:23 of the Brigaya Group, a powerful man whom people describe as the right-hand
06:28 man of Vincent Tan, the big boss. And he gave me an offer I couldn't refuse. And soon I was sent to Singer, Malaysia,
06:35 working alongside David. Now, what I want to tell you is that at one management meeting, Mr. Chi, my MD,
06:43 asked me to start a new mail order business. So I said not a problem and I then asked
06:50 him which income group should I target upper, middle or lower? And to my
06:57 surprise he answered all three. And I then found myself in a long
07:02 argument with my MD trying to teach him what is known as market segmentization.
07:09 To me his decision was against my understanding of marketing and it didn't appeal to my reasoning mind. And Mr.
07:17 Chi, I must say, was a very patient man. My argument with him went on for at
07:22 least 20 minutes when suddenly David, who sat beside me, gave me a hard kick
07:28 in my legs as if to tell me, "Shut up and just do it."
07:34 And at once, I woke up from my pride and I quickly told my boss something to the effect of, "Mr. Chi, thy will be done.
07:41 Your wish is my command." And I went on doing it without any more question.
07:47 The question is why did I do what I was asked to do without question in 1983 and
07:55 why was I why wasn't I so compliant in 1994? Why the difference in my attitude?
08:02 The answer lies in this concept known as uh wisdom differential which is critical
08:07 when we approach God and his word. You see with professor Yamanaka in 1983
08:13 I felt very very small. He was high up there in the knowledge scale.
08:18 The wisdom differential was huge. But with Mr. Chi I thought I knew more
08:24 about marketing than he did. I didn't think there was a was a big wisdom differential.
08:30 There was actually another factor at play. I argued with Mr. Chi partly because I had a dotted reporting line to
08:38 Mr. Yong in the Brigai HQ and for those of you on in the corporate
08:43 world here's a piece of advice never allow a dotted reporting line one and
08:49 only one boss to every subordinate and this is actually very biblical for Jesus
08:54 said in Matthew 6:24 no one can serve two masters
09:00 now before I explain how we apply uh this wisdom differential to our text
09:05 today I wish to digress a it and to lame about the situation at home.
09:12 You know, my kids have become so smart that it is no longer enough to just ask
09:17 them to do something. I must also explain to them why I ask them to do it. Instructions must be
09:25 accompanied by explanations or else they will simply ignore you.
09:32 For example, it's not enough to just say, "Children, go eat some of the bananas in the kitchen." Of course, they
09:38 hear you, but they just won't listen. And there's a big difference between hearing and listening. To listen is to
09:44 hear and to act upon what you hear. Telling them to eat a bananas is not enough. I have to explain that bananas
09:51 are rich in vitamin B6, which helps to improve cognitive functions, you know,
09:57 which may even help you to do well in your studies and exams. You have to convince them to appeal to their
10:03 reasoning minds. The question is how much explanation must I give in order for them to follow
10:10 my instruction. Some people tell me oh you must explain to them so that they understand why they
10:17 do what they are told to do. Of course I try to explain to them but sometimes I'm just too tired to
10:23 explain and sometimes they just won't accept my explanations. But the truth of the matter is this. The
10:30 explanation is at best optional and at worst unnecessary
10:37 because if I have to explain every time I give an instruction then and if my explanation must must appeal to their
10:44 mind then they are merely agreeing with me not obeying my instruction. My status
10:50 is therefore reduced from that of a father to a mere friend and my instruction becomes a mere piece of
10:56 advice. with a friend you can you're free to accept or reject his advice depending or not depending on whether
11:02 you agree with him or not. I also tell my children I'm about three
11:07 times your age. I have had more educations uh than you have so far. I
11:14 have traveled further than you will likely ever travel in your life. I've read much more than you will likely ever
11:21 read in your life. In other words, there is a big wisdom differential between you
11:26 and me. It also means that you should trust me and believe that what I tell you to do is good for you. Even if I
11:34 don't explain to you, even if you don't accept my explanation.
11:39 Now to take the matter further, even if the wisdom differential is not much. Let's say even if I'm uneducated,
11:48 I'm still a father and my status as your father is positional, not something I
11:54 need to prove or earn. And so a child obeys his parents on two counts.
11:60 One because of the wisdom differential and secondly because of the position of
12:05 the parents. But what has all this got to do with our text today? You see, if if there's a
12:12 huge wisdom differential between me and my children, can you imagine the enormity of the wisdom differential
12:19 between God and us? This God who is who is omnisient, meaning he's all knowing
12:25 and all wise. The wisdom differential between me and my children will narrow over time. But
12:32 the but the wisdom differential between God and us is really immeasurable for
12:37 eternity. If we can appreciate this concept of wisdom differential then we are ready to tackle the difficult verses
12:44 in 2 Samuel 24. Now the passage starts with David ordering his uh top general
12:50 Joab to conduct a census of his army. Now verse two,
12:56 verse two, verse two says, uh, "So the king said to Joab and the army
13:02 commanders with him, go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Bashibba and enroll the fighting men so that I
13:09 may know how many they are." Now there don't seem to be any problem here until
13:15 verse 10 when we realize that there is this is a terrible thing that David did because verse 10 says uh David was
13:22 conscience stricken after he had countered the fighting man and he said to the Lord I've sinned greatly in what I've done. Now Lord I beg you take away
13:31 the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.
13:36 The immediate question that arises is this. What is so wrong about numbering
13:41 the fighting men? What is so sinful about a seemingly
13:46 harmless senses? But clearly the counting exercise was wrong or else why would David say that
13:54 he sinned greatly. The senses that David ordered clearly displeased the Lord
13:60 because in verses 11 to13, God sends uh the the prophet get to David to spell
14:06 out the penalty for his sin. We will come back to this later. But if you were to examine the verses uh in this chapter
14:14 or even in the preceding chapter, nowhere it is mentioned why God was angry with David for numbering the
14:20 fighting men. The reasons are not clear. And what makes this even more baffling
14:26 is that in numbers chapter 1:es 1:3, God commanded Moses to take a census, a
14:32 similar census of all able able-bodied men who can serve in the army. And Moses
14:37 carried out the instruction and it was fine. Numbers 1:es 1-3 says, "The Lord
14:43 spoke to Moses. He said, take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families, listing every
14:51 man by name one by one. You and Aaron are to count according to their divisions all the men in Israel who are
14:57 20 years old or more and able to serve in the army. When Moses counted, it was
15:03 okay. But when David counted, it was not okay. Why is this so? And one of the
15:10 reasons why non-believers have difficulty coming to faith and to accept the Bible as the word of God is because
15:16 of such discrepancies. 2 Samuel chapter 24 is a difficult passage, especially
15:22 when you put it side by side with Numbers chapter 1. There are many parts of the Bible that non-believers find to
15:29 be a to be huge intellectual obstacles. There are many apparent contradictions
15:34 in within the pages of scripture that are hard to reconcile. There are also
15:39 many passages in Bible that are considered culturally regressive or even
15:44 morally offensive when uh read from a modern when read through a modern lens.
15:51 Now what I find is that the more highly educated a person is, the more
15:56 intellectual a person is, the harder it becomes for him to deal with such verses
16:01 and passages. because the Bible doesn't appeal to his reasoning mind. Which
16:07 reminds me of the position I took in 1994 when I thought that my MD's instruction was counterproductive and
16:14 even silly. The question to ask is how much reason
16:20 do we need when we approach God and his word? How much should God's ways and and
16:26 God's word appeal to our reasoning mind before we would accept them as truth?
16:32 which is similar to the to the question I asked earlier. How much explanation should I give when I issue an instruction to my children? Do do you
16:38 see the parallel actually I've already answered this question. The explanation or the reason is optional at best and
16:47 totally unnecessary at worst. Why? Because of the wisdom differential.
16:54 Because it's God to demand that God must provide me with all the all the reasons
16:59 is to elevate myself. It is to say, "I'm so smart. You must convince me." And
17:05 that's pride. And back in 1994, I thought I was so smart. Actually, Mr. Chi, my MD, only
17:12 needed to tell me to do it and I should just have obeyed because he was the boss
17:17 because he had been in the in the company for 35 years. But in my pride, I
17:22 didn't see that. But David understood it. Not King David, I mean our David,
17:29 his four years my senior. and much wiser than me. But having said that, I must
17:34 also say that the Bible will stand up to any test of reason. Ours is not a blind
17:39 faith. Our faith is based on reasons. Sometimes the explanations becomes
17:45 apparent after much scrutiny and study of of scripture. And I would encourage you to study your Bible diligently with
17:52 an inquiring mind. It would strengthen your faith. But at other times, we simply don't understand uh why. And we
17:59 will have to wait until we meet Jesus when he comes again and we can ask him and everything will become clear. In the
18:06 meantime where reason fails, faith takes over. And that's how we approach God and
18:13 his word. And we we will understand this better when we realize that our mind is
18:18 so finite, so small, so inadequate, and God's ways are are much higher than
18:25 our ways. And thanks to pastor Rama who read uh the this verse from Isaiah 55:9.
18:32 My ways as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your
18:39 thoughts. The reason I started the sermon the way I did is to illustrate the correct
18:44 attitude with which we should approach uh God and his word which is one of
18:50 humility and also of trust because he is omnisient. Other words, he is all wise
18:57 and all knowing. And this is the first lesson uh from today's sermon that we have an
19:02 omniscient God. His plans are perfect and eternal. His purpose is wise and
19:09 beautiful even though we may not understand it entirely. There may be passages in the Bible that
19:16 are that we cannot fully understand but we approach them by faith and trust is a
19:21 is a major component of faith. And that was the position I took in 1983
19:26 with respect to professor Yamanaka because I trusted him. A learned man of immense knowledge but still he was just
19:33 human. How much more should I trust God? And over the years as I matured in Christ as I appreciated uh the the the
19:41 wisdom differential between me and God, I began to stand more on faith and less
19:46 on reason. I began to stand more on obedience and less questions.
19:52 And so why was David's census uh so such a terrible thing? We have not answered the question.
19:59 The short answer is because God said so and that settles it for me. Is that is
20:04 it so important to know why? I know some of you might be thinking what kind of a preacher is this sweeping
20:10 everything under the carpet of uh of faith. Well okay because of our lack of faith
20:16 because we are all so highly educated. I shall give you the reason why it was so wrong for David to count the fighting
20:22 men. David is a man whom whom God himself described as one who is after his own
20:29 heart from 1 Samuel 13:14. But now at the end of this long book on
20:34 his life, David begins to have other ideas. He starts to stumble again and
20:42 he's thinking, I'm such a great king. I've won so many battles. I have so many
20:48 men under my command. Look at my army. And so he decides to count the number of
20:54 men he has. And that sin is a sin of pride. So it's not such a harmless
21:00 senses after all. And if there's one sin that God hates the most, it is a sin of
21:06 pride. David has forgotten that it is not the number of men that that wins him all
21:12 these battles with the enemies of Israel. Not how well equipped they are, nor how well trained they are. Rather,
21:19 it is because God is behind them. They have been they have been winning battle after battle. But David overlooks this
21:25 because of his pride, because of the confidence in himself.
21:31 But his commander-in-chief Joab understands this well, which we shall see in verse three. So in verse two, we
21:37 saw how David commanded Joab to conduct the census. In the next verse, verse three, uh Joab responded by saying, "God
21:44 will add to the number of fighting men whenever there's a need." Why do you need to count them? Verse three says,
21:50 "But Joab replied to the king, may the Lord your God multiply the troops 100 times over, and may the eyes of my lord
21:56 the king see this, but why does the my lord the king want to do such a thing?"
22:02 Joab happens to be David's nephew, born to David's elder sister, Zeruya, but
22:08 he's also one cunning guy whom you can hardly describe as a saint. But nevertheless, he understands that we
22:15 serve a mighty God and is more it is wiser to place our trust in him and not in numbers. But in the in the end,
22:21 David's David prevailed against his commanders and Joab obeyed the order
22:26 without further questions. And this is uh uh this is uh given to us
22:33 uh in verse 4. He then proceeded to count the census which is described in
22:38 detail from verses 5 to 8. But let's not be too hard on David
22:46 because there's actually a little David in each of us. David is not the only one
22:51 doing the counting because we are also in the business of counting. The children count their uncle pals.
22:59 The adults count the money they have in their bank accounts. Those who are more wellto-d do count the
23:06 number of shares they own. The church counts the number of worshippers.
23:11 Parents count the number of A's their children score in the exams.
23:16 You have nothing to count then you may be counting the number of wrinkles on your face.
23:24 Just the other day I was going through with my son. He's sitting there how many A's he will likely get for his SPM. He
23:30 just finished his last paper on Tuesday. I think we can write off Sajara or
23:35 history weaker subject. There's a good chance that he may get
23:40 somewhere between six to 8 A's. Well, we will know very soon in March
23:46 next year when the result comes out. You better don't disappoint me, I tell you.
24:02 It's a burden on him now. And all this counting only to go to show
24:08 that we are we still prefer to derive our security from from material things
24:14 while we profess faith in God. And this is something we really need to think about seriously and to come to God in
24:20 confession. It's like having a a reporting a reporting line directly to God at the same time having this other
24:27 reporting line this dotted reporting line to something else.
24:32 May God have mercy on us and may the spirit continue to convict us on this.
24:38 With this we finish uh resolving the first difficulty from uh 2 Samuel chapter 24 and let's quickly move to the
24:44 next difficulty which we find right at the beginning of the chapter. We backtrack now to verse one. The verse
24:51 one says again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel and he incited David against them saying go and take a
24:58 sensus of Israel and Judah. God said to David, "Go and take a census
25:07 of Israel and Judah." The burning question is this. Did God
25:13 incite David to do the counting and therefore to sin? And this is the second
25:18 difficulty we want to tackle in this chapter. Now, here it certainly sounds as if it
25:26 was God who caused David to do it. If God made David count the men which we
25:32 saw earlier was wrong, then the bigger question is this. Does God cause people to sin?
25:39 How can we make sense of this? Of course, the answer is a definite no because God is is not capable of evil.
25:45 He hates evil and he does not cause people to do evil. But how do we do we
25:50 overcome this difficulty in 2 Samuel chapter 24:1 the first verse?
25:57 Now I want to tell you that this chapter 2 Samuel 24 that we are studying today
26:02 has actually a mirror site or a parallel passage in 1 Chronicles chapter 21. Both
26:09 passages uh carry the same narrative but written by two different authors. Now
26:15 let's look at the parallel verse of 1 Samuel 24:1 in 1 Chronicles 21 verse uh
26:22 yeah 1 Chronicles 21:1 2 Samuel 24:1 which we which you saw
26:27 just now is now on top and I have put 1 Chronicles the parallel verse 1 Chronicles 21:1 at the bottom and he
26:34 reads Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of
26:41 Israel. And now this makes the issue even harder. Before we can even try to answer
26:48 whether God incited David, now we have an apparent contradiction. Just who
26:53 incited David? Was it was it God or was it Satan? 2 Samuel 24 says it was God. 1
26:60 Chronicles 21 says it was Satan. Now before I go further, I just just I
27:06 said just now there are many non-believers who have difficulty coming to faith because of such apparent
27:11 contradictions. Earlier we looked at the discrepancy between uh 2 Samuel 24:2 and Numbers
27:18 1:es 1-3 where Moses census was okay but David senses was not. But we have
27:24 already resolved that but this is even harder because we have two verses that talk about the same thing but giving
27:30 seemingly differing or contradictory facts. But let me give you another example to to make the matter worse
27:38 regarding the result of the census that we've been talking about. Remember David is supposed to conduct this census. In 2
27:44 Samuel uh 24:9 uh after 9 months and 20 days, Joab went back to David to report
27:51 the result of the census and it was 800,000 men in Israel and 500,000 men in
27:58 Judah which is 1.3 million in total. But the parallel uh verse in 1
28:05 Chronicles 21, we have 1.1 million in Israel and 470,000 men in Judah for a
28:14 total of 1.57 million. The total just don't add up. Did Joab
28:21 fail his mathematics paper in SPM? Now, we don't have time to go into this
28:27 uh this is a long discussion and so I shall leave you with a piece of homework. Go and check this out
28:33 yourself. Search the two passages, the verses. The answers are all there. If
28:39 you look carefully, you'll find the answers. But what I want to say is this. There are many apparent contradictions in the
28:46 Bible. Some of them are easier to reconcile. Others are much harder. But remember what I said earlier. Where
28:52 reason fails, faith begins. And just because we cannot reconcile an
28:59 apparent contradiction in the Bible, it doesn't mean that the contradiction cannot be reconciled. It may simply mean
29:05 that we don't have enough information with us at the moment. And coming back to our earlier question,
29:12 did God incite uh David to sin or was it the work of Satan? The answer can be
29:18 found by looking at these two verses through the lens of the book of Job. And
29:24 most of us are familiar with the account of Job where we find Satan wrecking havoc uh on his life but it was God who
29:32 permitted it. In the case of David here we have a similar scenario. It was Satan
29:38 who incited David to sin but it was done within God's permitted will. And one one
29:45 interesting way of putting this putting this across is that it was Satan who incited David or we say Satan
29:51 precipitated it. David performed it and God permitted it. In other words, it was
29:58 Satan who tempted David working at his weakness that is in this case his pride
30:04 and David fell for it. And we know this not the first time it happened. And all this took place with God's permission
30:11 for a higher purpose. Satan often tries to temp us in an effort in an effort to
30:17 draw us away from God. And we have to be always be on our guard. 1 Peter 5:8
30:22 says, "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls like a like a roaring lion looking for someone to
30:28 devour." But the consolation for us is that there is nothing the devil can do that is
30:36 outside of God's control, that is outside of his permission. The point for
30:41 us to note is that in all that happen, God is sovereign. God is always in
30:47 control. It must happen with his permission. And this is the second
30:53 lesson from today's sermon that God is sovereign. Now, this is actually a comforting
30:58 thought for us that every creature in God's creation is subject to his to his
31:04 authority including Satan. Everything that happens in this world happens with
31:09 the with uh with the within the will of God. And this is also important because
31:16 if God is omnisient, whose plans are perfect, but if he's not in total
31:21 control, then it will not amount to much. What good is there to worship a God who is all wise and all knowing, but
31:27 who is not in control? Praise God that is both omniscient and sovereign.
31:34 And hence in the between these two verses uh 2 Samuel 24:1 and 1 Chronicles
31:40 21 21:1 we can take a more literal approach with the chronicle verse that it was Satan who incited David. But does
31:48 it mean that the writer of 2 Samuel was wrong to say that God incited David? No, it's just that the writer of 2 Samuel
31:54 had such a high view of the of the sovereignty of God. to him everything
31:59 must happen uh uh within God's will. It was his way of saying this was this this
32:06 happened within God's will or that he's is in control.
32:11 Now let's move to the last of the three difficulties in 2 Samuel 24.
32:18 Why did God smite the people of Israel? And this comes from verse 15.
32:28 So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated and 70,000 of the people from
32:36 then to Bashiba died. This is a terrible destruction.
32:42 70,000 people lost their lives. It appears that God is also a very cruel
32:47 God. But let's first see what is happening here. Earlier in verse 10, we
32:54 saw that David realized that he has done a terrible thing in the eyes of God. He says, "I have done I've sinned greatly
32:60 in what I've done." Now, from verses 11 to 13, we read that God sends his
33:05 prophet Gad to pronounce three options as punishment for David. And what are
33:11 these three options? In verse 13, so get went to David and
33:16 said to him, "Shall they come on you the first one, three years of famine in the land, in your land number or number two,
33:24 three three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you or number three, three days of plague in your
33:30 land." Now, it appears that to David, three years of famine is not such a good
33:36 option. It's a worse option perhaps because 3 years is a long time. He then chooses between second and third option.
33:44 And this is how he replies, "Get in verse 14." And David said to Gad, "I'm in deep
33:50 distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord for his mercy is great, but do not let me fall into human hands." And
33:56 so David chooses option number three, three days of plague in the land. He
34:02 reasons that he's a smart guy. He reasons that it is better to be under the hands of the Lord than to be in the
34:07 hands of the enemies. And hence the title of today's sermon, the hands of the Lord. And then the result is as we
34:14 saw in verse 15, 70,000 people uh perished. And this is something
34:19 difficult to understand even for Christians. Why did God smite all these people
34:25 especially when it was supposed to be a punishment for David? Now if you were to read just these few
34:32 verses in the middle of the chapter, yes, it would seem cruel to strike all these people down on the account of David's sin. But what many readers fail
34:39 to note is that the chapter opened with this sentence in verse one. The anger of
34:46 the Lord burned against Israel. The anger of the Lord burned against
34:51 Israel. And hence the truth of the matter is that the punishment in in verse 15 was because the Israelites
34:57 sinned against God. And God was very very angry with them.
35:04 Although it's not clear what terrible sin they committed against God, it is not mentioned in this chapter or in the
35:10 preceding chapter. You can all find a reason why. In any case, the three days
35:15 of plague was a punishment for Israel as a whole. At the same time, it was also a
35:20 punishment for David because later in verse 17, we saw how David was in deep anguish and pain because of these
35:28 deaths. Now many people feel that whatever
35:34 terrible sin Israel or David committed the penalty is simply too great.
35:42 And how do we overcome this this difficulty? What do we make of this
35:47 view? Now the short answer is that the Bible is very clear on the that the wages of
35:53 sin is death from Romans 6:23. We often think of this death as as
35:58 spiritual death or or eternal separation from God. But in the Old Testament, it is often physical death.
36:06 Whichever the case, it points to to a God who cannot tolerate sin because he's a holy and righteous God. God is just.
36:14 And because of that, sin must come with its consequences. Sin cannot go
36:20 unpunished. And this is the third lesson for today that God is just. Now this itself is one
36:28 big topic but to to help us understand this better I wish to point out that yet another reason why some non-believers
36:34 have difficulty coming to faith is because they cannot accept the idea of of of God as a judge that God is a God
36:43 of judgment. Now they like the idea that God is love but not so much God is just
36:49 and hence hence they ask questions like you know how can a loving God send people to hell.
36:56 Now I've read somewhere in a book I can't remember his title that says that people who ask us questions how can a
37:01 loving God send people to hell they tend to live very secured and comfortable
37:07 lives and hence they have these kind of questions because if you have been
37:12 robbed if you have your possessions taken away from you by force if your son
37:19 has been murdered or your daughter raped by some criminals then you'll be
37:24 screaming for justice. You'll be demanding that the perpetrators be brought to justice and pay for their
37:30 crimes. Do you get the idea? And hence the idea of a God of judgment
37:35 is not such a difficult one to understand. After all, sin must sin will
37:40 not go unpunished because God is just. It is either sooner
37:46 or later. If God is not just, if sin is if sin
37:51 doesn't come with consequences, evil will thrive in this world. then God's plans will not be perfect and he will
37:57 not be in full control. Do do you follow the logic? God is omnisient. His his
38:03 plans are perfect. God is sovereign. He's in full control. We've seen that. And God is also just. God has judged and
38:12 will judge all sinners. Now coming to the last part of the sermon, then something amazing happened
38:19 in the course of the three days of plague. We read in verse 15 verse 16.
38:26 When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented
38:31 concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, enough. Withdraw your hand.
38:40 The angel of the Lord was at the threshing floor of Arona the Jebusite.
38:46 So something happened during these three days of plague. We see that the angel was about to strike Jerusalem. But God
38:52 changed his mind. He stopped the angel from further destruction. It must have
38:57 caused him great pain to see these 70,000 people dead. In verse 15,
39:05 some people may object and and ask, "How can God change his mind? Did he made a mistake?" Oh yes, God does change his
39:12 mind. And I can give you examples from Exodus 32:14, Numbers 14:20.
39:18 God changed his mind in verse 16, not because he made a mistake but because of his great mercy. And this is the fourth
39:25 lesson today that God is merciful. The psalmist writes in in Psalm 136:1,
39:33 "Oh, give thanks to the Lord for his good, for his mercy endures forever." And in that psalm, in each of the 26
39:40 verses, uh the writer repeats in every verse this line, for his mercy endures
39:45 forever. If not for his mercy in this chapter, Jerusalem would have been destroyed next.
39:54 Now, those of you who are more discerning may ask, "What about the judgment? What about the consequences of
40:01 sin? Have we have we forgotten that
40:06 God is merciful? Doesn't seem to square with God is just how can God not carry out his judgment in full? He is a God of
40:13 judgment. How can he just retract his his judgment just like that?
40:19 Now, this is a very important question that will point us to the conclusion of today's sermon. Now, to answer these
40:26 questions, I want to I want us to to consider a a New Testament passage that at first would seem to be unrelated to
40:32 our our our chapter this morning. And that is from uh John 8:es 1-11. The
40:38 account of Jesus and the woman who was caught in adultery. We all familiar with the narrative. He
40:45 was she was about to be stoned to death in accordance to Moses law for being caught uh in the sin of adultery.
40:52 At the end of the passage uh Jesus said the famous line, "Let anyone who is without sin be the first to throw a
40:58 stone at her." And with that uh the crowd dispersed and Jesus let the woman
41:03 go. Now the same questions can be asked. How can she accept how can she escape
41:09 punishment just like that? What about the consequence of of sin? What about a sin of uh of adultery? What about the
41:15 laws of Moses? Can this be simply set aside? At the end, Jesus merely told the woman,
41:22 "Neither do I condemn you. Go now and sin no more." From John 8:11.
41:28 What is not recorded in these verses, however, is that as Jesus said this word, these words to the unnamed woman,
41:35 Jesus, Jesus must have thought, "Yes, the punishment for adultery is death by stoning. Yes, the wages of sin is death.
41:41 But woman, 6 months from now, by springtime next year, I'm going to take the punishment on your behalf. I'm going
41:48 to die on your behalf so that you might live. And this set the stage for Jesus
41:53 crucifixion on Calvary, which is a substitutionary death. And coming back
41:59 to our passage in 2 Samuel 24 as God stopped the angel from further destruction in Jerusalem. I can imagine
42:05 as God said to the angel enough he must be thinking with a heavy heart that in
42:11 about a thousand years from now when the time is ripe I will take their place. I
42:16 myself will bear the penalties for their sins so that they might live.
42:22 How do I arrive at this conjecture? The key to unlock the entire passage is
42:29 where God stopped the angel. This place is uh described as the
42:36 threshing floor of Arona. From the end of the verse, verse 16, a threshing floor of Arona. It is an
42:43 open area higher than the surrounding land where Arona, the Jebusite, trashes wheat, separating the grain from the
42:50 straw. from verse 18. Uh later David was told to build an altar to the Lord on this
42:57 site. Now let's look at the peril in in in
43:02 Chronicles. From 2 Chronicles 3:1, we learn that this very site where where
43:08 Arona trashes wheat is the location where Solomon would later build the temple to replace the tabernacle. And
43:15 this place has a name, Mount Mariah. 2 Chronicles 3 uh verse one. Then
43:21 Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah. It was on the threshing floor of Arona the
43:28 Jebusite. If you know your Bible well, the temple
43:34 built by the temple built by Solomon was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC.
43:42 A second temple was built by Nehemiah, expanded by King Herald, but only to be
43:47 destroyed again by the Romans. this time in AD.70.
43:53 If you visit Jerusalem today, this is how the site looks like. The the
43:59 threshing floor of Arona, the place where where Solomon built a temple, you
44:05 know, it is now known as the Temple Mount, a 37 acre piece of land. Of course,
44:13 there's no more temple destroyed by the Romans AD70. And where the temple once stood, what we
44:20 find today is an Islamic shrine known as the Dome of the Rock, built in
44:25 691 AD by the Khalif Al Malik at the height of the Islamic
44:31 conquest. If you were to take a picture of this temple mount, now this is a more
44:37 helicopter view, but if you if you were to take a picture from of the temple mount from the mount of Olive uh across
44:43 the Kilum Valley, which is at the bottom of the picture, then this dome of the rock will stand
44:49 out in your photo like a stam. And this is the picture I took three
44:54 years ago of the temple mount from the mount of olives. You stand from Mount Olive, you can look at the the whole old
45:00 old the old city and the temple mount, you know, is in front of you and you can see uh this uh dome of the rock which
45:08 many Jews and Christians consider to be an eyes saw even though it has a beautiful golden golden dome but it is a
45:16 reminder of God's judgment on his people in 586 BC and 70 AD.
45:26 Now back to 2 Chronicles 3:1. This temple mount where where Jebusite
45:31 trashed his wheat where God stopped the angel where Ro where the temple was later built. It was named Mount Moriah.
45:40 Now in the whole of the Bible there are only two references only two references to the name Moriah and one is here in 2
45:46 Chronicles 3:1 and the other one amazingly is in Genesis 22:2.
45:54 And this is the interesting part. Genesis 22 is the narrative where God
45:59 tested Abraham by asking him to sacrifice Isaac.
46:04 And hence this threshing floor of of Arona is the place where Isaac was supposed to die. But God provided a ram
46:12 as a substitute. As you're aware, the ram is but the signpost to the future
46:18 pointing to the lamb of God, Jesus who would die in our place. Do you see the significance of of this
46:24 place? So, as God stopped the angel at the threshing floor of Arona, he looked back
46:30 1,000 years and he he remembered the ram he provided to take the place of Isaac. And then he looked ahead 1,000 years and
46:37 he saw himself offering himself to die in our place. As God told the angel, "Stop at the
46:44 threshing floor of Arona." You could almost hear him say to the angel, "Stop because I myself will pay the penalty
46:51 for their sins." And all this points to the last lesson for today that God is
46:57 love. And Paul writes in Romans 5 uh verse 78.
47:02 Now most people would not be willing to die for an upright person though some though someone might perhaps be willing
47:09 to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while
47:16 we were still sinners. One last question before we close.
47:22 Why do you think this book of Samuel, now if you consider first and second Samuel as one book, one single book, why
47:29 do you think it ends with this narrative of David counting his fighting men? Now
47:35 from plain reading, it seems to be just an account of David's senses and all the troubles it brought. It is not even as
47:43 dramatic as as the account of David slaying Goliath in in in 1 Samuel 17.
47:49 not as as intriguing as the account of David and Bashiba in 2 Samuel 11. But if
47:56 you dig deeper, this closing chapter of 2 Samuel chapter 24 is really a
48:01 microcosm or a reflection of the message of the entire Bible. We started with the
48:06 with the sin of a people, the pride of David or the fall of men if you like.
48:12 Then we saw the judgment of God, terrible judgment. But we also marvel at his mercy and the
48:18 passage ended with a pointer to his sacrificial love. This is the gospel
48:25 message in a nutshell. And is such a fitting finale to first and 2 Samuel. As
48:32 we work through our way slowly through the passage, we have seen that far from
48:37 being a cruel and angry God, ours is an omnisient God, a sovereign God, a just
48:45 God, a merciful God, and a loving God. We can't help but to take home from this
48:51 chapter a deep sense that our God is mighty. And the title of the sermon might have been the mighty hands of the
48:58 Lord. The Lord who is mighty in his plans. Mighty in his deeds and mighty to
49:04 save.
