God, Who Forgives to the End

18Gad came that day to David, and said to him, “Go up, build an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19David went up according to the saying of Gad, as Yahweh commanded. 20Araunah looked out, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. Then Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground. 21Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy your threshing floor, to build an altar to Yahweh, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people.” 22Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Behold, the cattle for the burnt offering, and the threshing instruments and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. 23All this, O king, does Araunah give to the king.” Araunah said to the king, “May Yahweh your God accept you.” 24The king said to Araunah, “No; but I will most certainly buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to Yahweh my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25David built an altar to Yahweh there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So Yahweh was entreated for the land, and the plague was removed from Israel.

This is the last sermon in our exposition of 2 Samuel. As I have worked through 1 and 2 Samuel, this is what I have felt: people sin without ceasing, and God, though he knows their nature, has mercy on them and forgives. Ever since they sinned by eating the fruit that gives the knowledge of good and evil, people have abused the love of God to this very day. God has made his good will plain, but people will not let go of their own ideas, and they live as they please. Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega, made himself the atoning sacrifice to give people the chance of salvation. God’s forgiveness can be received only through the precious blood of Jesus, and for this reason Christ took up the cross of his own accord. He wanted people to enjoy eternal life in the beautiful Kingdom of Heaven and to live a blessed life. Yet people betray that love and grace, and give up eternal life.

Of the curse and the blessing God has set before us, people always choose the curse. In chapter 24 we see David pressing ahead with a census, and Joab trying to stop him for fear that God would be angry. What these two men do here is not the David and Joab we have known. David had always lived according to God’s will, but once he came to enjoy an easy life, he forgot that God had given him all those blessings, and he pushed through a census to show off his own strength.

Yet Joab, who had lived wickedly until now, tried to stop David when he announced the census. He asked why the king would sin, when God had given him blessings a hundredfold whenever the king wished. Like Nebuchadnezzar, who looked down on Babylon and boasted of his own might, David wanted to know how much power the nation he ruled possessed. When people put themselves at the center, they easily fall into such pride. While he kept his faith, David had tried to be humble, but once he forgot to give thanks to God, Satan quickly took hold of his heart. David became a fool who trusted in himself.

But the one who stood in David’s way, unexpectedly, was Joab. He had always done evil to make a show of himself and to gain more power, yet now he was trying to stop David, saying he was making the wrong decision. Even in this moment of holding David back from sin, Joab won no praise, and he died in his own sin. That suggests the advice he gave David was not sincere. It may have been a sneer, as if to say, “You are no different from me.” Or it may have been the sin of being right while blind to his own sin. He did not see the log in his own eye, but faulted only the speck in another’s, doing nothing but criticize and condemn. Consider how the two men ended: David became an ancestor of Jesus, and Joab was put to death by Solomon. From this we learn that anyone can sin in the course of life, but it is the one who fears God and repents who is forgiven.

This event is also recorded in 1 Chronicles 21, which says that Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel. When David showed a gap where his faith was wavering, Satan attacked at once, and David, deceived by his scheme, took the census. Ezra, the writer of Chronicles, wrote for an Israel that had lived for many years in exile and lost its pride in being God’s people. To show the dynasty’s outstanding strength and its rightful line, he recorded only David’s victories in battle. That such a writer took the trouble to record David’s sin means a great deal. What Ezra wanted Israel to understand was that even David, who went from victory to victory, could be deceived by Satan without the grace of God. Look at this census, taken at David’s own whim, and you see that while God unfailingly leads us in the right way, people who think they possess something in this world fall for Satan’s schemes and sin.

Through this one event God did three things. First, he judged Israel, which had betrayed David and followed Sheba. Second, he accepted the sacrifice David offered and forgave him. Third, he had Solomon build the temple on the threshing floor where the sacrifice had been offered. God always does many things through a single event, so if we look at only one of them, we will learn little.

When David ordered the census, Joab faithfully warned him of his error, asking why he would do such a thing when God could make the nation as strong as he pleased. David’s wrong decision now was exactly what Joab had been doing all along. Had Joab used this moment to look back on his own sin, he would have been born again. But he did not examine himself; he was intent on rebuking David. God made Joab see David’s sin to give him a chance to repent, and to call him to turn back. Yet Joab could not see his own sin, and he went no further than rebuking David.

Those who do not examine their own faith but only judge and criticize others can never grow. Among those who come to church, there may be people like Joab, who are good at criticizing and judging the church and its members, yet do not live by the word themselves. If, before judging another, we look at ourselves and walk humbly in a lowly place, God will praise us.

Among the nations, a census was taken chiefly for taxation and military service, so it meant something different when Israel counted its people. Israel was a nation ruled by God, and it could take a census only at his command. Battles are not lost for lack of soldiers, so what David was doing now was pride that left God out. Joab and the other commanders all opposed the census, but David, already gripped by the spirit of Satan, had no intention of turning back. Eventually the census was carried out over ten months.

David’s pride was no different from that of Nebuchadnezzar, who looked down on Babylon from the roof of his palace and said that this great Babylon, built by his own power and might, would display the glory of his majesty. Through a dream God had told Nebuchadnezzar clearly that if he did not worship God, he would eat grass like a beast of the field. Even so, he looked down on Babylon and boasted that all of it was his own glory, and just as God had said, he came to live the life of a beast.

David had suffered one sorrow after another. Saul hunted him for years, he watched his own children take up the sword against each other, and Absalom died in rebellion. Yet he had come this far because of God’s grace. Now, when Satan stirred him up, that same David laid bare an unbelief that set himself above God. God used David’s unbelief as an occasion to judge Sheba, who had betrayed David, and the Israel that had sided with him.

God had been waiting for the time to judge a corrupt Israel, and now he used David’s unbelief as the instrument of that judgment. I hope you will never forget that sin, once committed, is surely repaid in its time. God used David’s pride to rebuke both David and Israel, and he gave Joab a chance to look back on his own sin. To discipline many people through one event like this is the wisdom of God.

We are free to choose good or evil, but since we must bear the responsibility ourselves, we need to be careful before we decide. In Numbers 1:2 God commands Moses to take a census of Israel. He told Moses to number the people so that the Israelites could be arranged around the Tent of Meeting. That is a very different matter from the census David took in his pride. David’s act was a sin of refusing to acknowledge God, so God in his anger commanded the prophet Gad to go to David and have him choose which of three judgments he would receive. The three were seven years of famine, three months of David fleeing before his enemies, and the sword of Yahweh, that is, a pestilence spreading through the land of Israel for three days while the angel of Yahweh destroyed all its borders. God told him to choose one, but none of God’s judgments was easy. If he chose seven years of famine, the whole people would suffer, and for the king himself to be pursued by his enemies for three months would mean that the kingdom had been taken from him. If he chose pestilence, many of the people would die there too. Whatever judgment he chose, the people were bound to die. After much thought David chose the pestilence, which could stop at once if God showed mercy, and then he poured out a prayer of repentance with all his heart. Knowing that nothing but sincere repentance can meet the wrath of God, David pleaded with God to forgive him just this once. Because the census took ten months, he had every chance to turn back partway through, if only he had thought a little more deeply about Joab’s words of warning. Had he resolved to turn back just a little sooner, he would not have had to go through this, or to suffer such terrible regret. Without wisdom we cannot see far ahead, which is why we keep doing things we will regret.

I hope you will weigh your choices and decide by the wisdom God gives you. Only then can you keep far from sin in this short life, and when you see God’s face, run into his arms without hesitation.

2 Samuel 24:15

15So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the appointed time; and seventy thousand men died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba.

When God judged, seventy thousand people died. Without God’s protection, human beings are this frail. We live as though breathing, eating and drinking, and spending happy times with those we love were our own doing, but it was all possible only because God protected us. If God removes the fence of his grace, the fiery serpents that swarm the world rush in at once, and there is no escaping them. Seeing the people dying because of the sin he had committed, David repented with all his might. He prayed that God would spare the people and destroy him and his house instead, and God, knowing that prayer was sincere, mercifully made the plague stop. The prophet Gad told David to build an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite and to offer sacrifice there. Araunah had seen with his own eyes the angel with sword in hand bringing judgment on Jerusalem, and in terror he was hiding with his four sons. Just then David came up to offer sacrifice, and when Araunah saw him, he said he wanted to give him the oxen for the burnt offering and the wood for nothing. But David refused. Araunah truly wanted to give them because he had seen God’s judgment with his own eyes. David could have accepted his gift, but he did not want to offer God a sacrifice that cost him nothing, so he paid the full price and offered sacrifice on that threshing floor.

In the same way, we too must give our own possessions, abilities, and time, and offer ourselves to God directly. When David and the people offered burnt offerings and peace offerings with all their hearts, fire came down from heaven, and the angels sheathed the sword of judgment at God’s command. With that, the plague that had driven the people of Israel toward death came to an end. From that time David offered sacrifices on Araunah’s threshing floor. This threshing floor is Mount Moriah in Genesis 22, where Abraham offered Isaac. In this way the wrath of God was turned to forgiveness by sincere repentance.

As for the coronavirus now spread across the whole world, we, as God’s people, must likewise repent, taking responsibility for not having lived by the word. We must repent of the sin of failing to set an example of sincere faith, and of having lived lives no different from those of worldly people. Before we criticize politics and condemn others, we must look back and ask whether we have truly prayed for our nation and our people.

It is only natural to pray for the nation and people we belong to, for when God is angry, he calls not the world but his people to account. God brought a great spiritual revival through the martyrdom of missionaries to this nation that once worshiped idols. But this nation, blinded by drink, sexual immorality, wealth, and idols, has abandoned God, and the wrath of God will come upon it. That does not mean hardship has come upon this land because of the church. What I am saying is that, seeing the hardship that has come upon this land, the saints must take responsibility and be the first to repent before the holy God.

By offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, David showed that only Jesus Christ can atone for sin and that only a sacrifice of blood can obtain God’s forgiveness. We have learned that even David, a man after God’s own heart, was a sinner in the end. And we have seen that even when we sin without ceasing as Joab did, God, who loves our souls, forgives to the end those who repent. Without God’s protection we are sinners who will fall to Satan’s temptations at any moment and collapse under the power of the world. David and Joab lived side by side for many years, but because they thought and chose differently, they went different ways, and after death they went to different places. We, however, must worship God together, love one another, and help each other walk the narrow road together. Like David, even after standing on the rock of faith we can commit sins like Joab’s, so we must stay on our guard and pray for one another.

Joab knew God in his head, but he could not give up the world’s temptations, and he was put to death. He showed the wisdom to counsel David not to go against God’s will, yet his own life was a ruin. What is clear is that David and Joab committed the same sin. But the years each had lived had made each of them who he was and given each good and bad experiences, so that when each came to repent, their hearts were not the same.

When God lifted David up, he became a king who ruled the world. He had people who served him, and he came to have so much wealth and power that he envied no one. Yet those very blessings became the seed of his misfortune. The sad thing is that the moment God withdrew the hand of his grace, nothing David owned was his any longer. He could not rule even the nation and the people who had served him. As king of a nation he had wealth and authority that left him nothing to envy, but when God judged, nothing was his. His people were dying, and there was not one thing David could do. So David offered sacrifice with all his heart, and he came to realize at last that apart from God he could do nothing.

When David truly saw his sin, God made him an ancestor of Jesus, as he had said, and in his mercy David received eternal life. But Joab could not let go of his own righteousness, and he died by Solomon’s sword. Joab showed the wisdom to stop David’s evil plan, but because he never truly repented, he could not be forgiven, and he fell into eternal death.

If we know the word only as knowledge, we cannot know the road to heaven. Just as having a map does not mean you know the road until you have traveled it, owning a Bible does not mean you will get to heaven. Only those who have lived out the word of truth can have the wisdom that leads to eternal life, and that is why I ask you to live it out. Unless we believe, understand, and practice what God says, we will end up in Joab’s place. Since Jesus died for people imprisoned in death like this, only when you have tried living by the word of truth can you truly give thanks.

There is something I have come to feel in my years of ministry. To believe in God and believe well, God’s people need two things: not only must they know the word well, but they must also have good character. Those who have good character but do not know the word cannot meet Jesus Christ. Those who know a great deal of the word but lack good character cannot become God’s instruments, because people will not listen to what they say. When someone has both the word and good character, God will lift them up and glorify them, and they will enjoy heavenly blessings the world envies. When someone who does not live as a saint gains worldly power, they will use it for themselves as David did, and for that they will be disciplined by God. Someone with fine character will be respected by others, but if they do not know the word, they cannot lead people to God, which leaves them of no use to the Kingdom of God. What I have just told you is truly important for receiving salvation and reward, so I hope you will remember it.

Whatever choice you make, God will love you unconditionally, but you must bear responsibility for every consequence. You have heard many sermons by now, so I expect you know what God wants of you.

I hope you will become a holy people who have David’s faith, pure as a dove, and David’s wisdom, wise as a serpent. Only then will almighty God protect you until the end of the world. When you serve God in faith and treat others with a good conscience, God will love you as he loved David. And for the sake of God’s Kingdom alone, may you give yourselves to preaching the gospel, so that many may become God’s people.

The Wages of Sin Is Death