Whisper of Hope

Title: Whisper of Hope 

Text: 2 Samuel 24

Date: September 17, 2020

The last chapter of the book of 2nd Samuel gives us a picture of the both the triumph and the tragedy of David’s kingdom. It begins with God being angry with the people and inciting David’s heart against them to conduct a census. It’s a strange beginning because we don’t know why God was angry with the people and it was not inherently wrong to conduct a census. Still, the reader gets the sense that something is not right.

So David commissions his contentious general Joab to conduct the census, but Joab senses that something is not right as well and he objects, saying, “May the Lord multiply your troops a hundred times, but don’t do this.” Joab knows that David is motivated by power and is amassing troops to himself. He’s trusting in the power of his own might, rather that trusting in God’s. But David’s will prevails over Joab and the other generals and the census begins. 

It takes Joab and his men over 9 months to complete the survey and when they finally return, Joab tells David that there are 1.3 million men throughout Judah and Israel who can fight. As soon as David is told the results of the census, he immediately recognizes that he has sinned, and in fact knew he was from the very beginning. He cries out to God, “I have sinned greatly. Take this guilt from me.” The next morning the prophet Gad comes to him and says that he has three choices: 3 years of famine, 3 months of war, or 3 days of plague. David’s been at war for years and has been through a famine as well, so he opts to remain in the hands of a merciful God and chooses 3 days of plague. 

God sends a plague on the land through an angel and 70,000 people die. As the Angel of the Lord is getting ready to descend on Jerusalem David cries out, “I’m the shepherd. I’m the one who sinned. Don’t bring this plague on the sheep. This is on me and my family!” So God relents and stays the hand of his mighty angel and the plague on the people stops. The place where the plague was stopped was on a threshing floor, a raised piece of ground used for agricultural purposes, and David wants to buy the property and present a sacrifice to God. The threshing floor belongs to a man named Araunah, who tells David to just take it. David says, “No. If the sacrifice costs me nothing it is meaningless.” So David buys the threshing floor and presents the sacrifices to God and peace is restored to the land.

As so many of the stories of David, this is a painful account of David’s sin and the people who died because of it. This story, as is the rest of 2 Samuel, is about who has the right to rule in Israel and what kind of nation and king were they to be. Israel was to be a righteous nation with a righteous king and yet in the end, they were little different than any of the surrounding nations. David is presented as the best that man can offer, and yet falls far short of the messiah God’s people need. 

But the chapter and the book ends with a gentle whisper of hope. For on the very field that David purchased, his son Solomon will build the great Temple to God, which would be the place that God’s power and presence would be known among his people for generations to come. But Jesus would replace that Temple, not with another religious system, but with God’s people. Through his death, resurrection and the giving of his Spirit, we become the temple of the Living God. God’s power and presence are now known through you and through me. 

This story reminds us that we will always have death and pain among us. But no matter how difficult things may get, there is always the gentle whisper of hope. 

Be encouraged and listen to it. 

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