The God Who Forgives to the End

David presses ahead with a census. Joab, who had so often tried to hold him back, now stands in his way once more and warns him not to sin against God.

Grown proud, David wanted to display his own strength and fell for Satan’s scheme. Joab spoke rightly, yet he himself did not repent; he went no further than rebuking David. In the end David chose the pestilence from the three judgments God set before him and repented earnestly, while Joab, never having looked at his own sin, was later put to death.

Two people may commit the same sin and still walk very different roads: one repents, the other only judges others. David paid the full price for Araunah’s threshing floor, offered sacrifices there and was forgiven, and that ground later became the site of the temple. David went on to be an ancestor of Jesus Christ; Joab died by Solomon’s sword.