READING FOR JUNE 12, 2025: 2 SAMUEL 24, GALATIANS 5, PSALM 53 2 SAMUEL 24 There are some apparent discrepancies between this chapter and the parallel account in 1 Chronicles 21. 2 Sam. 24 suggests God, in his anger, “incited” David to conduct a census of the people. However, in 1 Chronicles 21 it says Satan “incited” David to count Israel. Perhaps we can find a solution from Job 2:6: “The Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he lJob] is in your power.” God allowed Satan to attack Job. If that is the case here, David still could have resisted this incitement: “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it has run its course, brings forth death” (James 1:14-15). Joab and the other commanders, to their credit, tried to convince David against this. David is clearly at fault. Likely it was a sin of personal pride, not dependance on the Lord.
After nine months and 20 days of counting, “Joab gave the number of the census of the people to the king: in Israel there were eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.” Herein lies another interpretive challenge. 1 Chronicles 21 had Israel with 1,100,000 and Judah with 470,000 men. Here is an explanation from “Bible Hub:” “Though 2 Samuel 24:9 and 1 Chronicles 21:5 present different numerical totals for David’s census, closer scrutiny reveals plausible explanations. These range from inclusion or exclusion of particular troop categories to scribal conventions and rounding, to distinct theological emphases in each book.”
Whatever the precise numbers were, David immediately knew he had sinned greatly. God, through the seer Gad, allowed David to pick one of three possible punishments: 1) seven years of famine; 2) three months of fleeing from his enemies; or 3) three days of plague from the Lord. David chose option three because he trusted in God’s ultimate mercy. The plague of God killed 70,000 men from throughout the nation before God brought it to a halt. Gad then directed David to erect an altar on threshing floor of a Jebusite man to offer a sacrifice. The Jebusite man wanted to give David both the threshing floor and the animal to be sacrificed. David insisted on paying for it saying, “I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” What should our sacrifice be to God today? How about our total selves: “Present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Rom. 12:1). This entire tragic story should be a cautionary lesson regarding how sin in leadership can harm many followers within a country, organization, or a church.
READING FOR JUNE 12, 2025 CONTINUED: GALATIANS 5, PSALM 53 GALATIANS 5 In Galatians 4 we saw Paul concerned that the Galatians were “meticulously” keeping certain holy days. Here Paul mentions another legalist practice: circumcision. Paul said if these works could save us, Christ came and died for no reason. Holding onto any one of the Mosaic ceremonial practices for salvation means that we would have to keep the whole law, which, as mentioned earlier, is not possible. Paul says those seeking to justify themselves by keeping the Law actually fall from grace, meaning they are unsaved or lost. Again, Paul wants to know who is teaching this deadly doctrine. He wishes that person would not stop at just cutting off his foreskin but cut off his entire genitalia. WOAH! Let’s trust Christ, instead.
Paul wants us to free in Christ, free from doing the works of the Mosaic law, and free from sin. He stresses that this freedom means we will not carry out the works of the flesh. No amount of inclusivity allows for those who practice this lifestyle. What Paul said what was clearly wrong in his day has today become increasingly celebrated: “sexual immorality, impurity, indecent behavior, idolatry, witchcraft, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (vs. 19-21). Instead, our lives in Christ should naturally demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit (vs. 22-23).
PSALM 53 Notice David says the fool says “in his heart there is no God”--not in his mind! This fool also practices a sinful lifestyle. Perhaps this means the main obstacle to faith is not intellectual, but self-centeredness. That’s what initially kept the famous philosopher Mortimer Adler from faith: “He concluded that he didn't receive the grace of faith because he didn't want to convert,he didn't want to change his secular-liberal lifestyle and take up the challenges of Christian living. He wanted to study God, but also keep him at a distance. David also says in verse 1, “No one does good.”
Consider the following from an interview with the author of a book valued by many entitled Original Blessing: Putting Sin in its Rightful Place: “My frustration is the Church talks about unconditional love out of one side of its mouth and then says this original sin thing out of the other. You really do have to choose. They are competing messages. Either we are born connected and designed for a relationship with God—or we are born as sinful, inclined to evil, separated from God.” Remember John the Baptist’s entire ministry was repentance and Jesus’s started the same way (Matt. 4:17). Here is how to answer the above author’s misplaced frustration: “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”(Rom. 5:8).
