In the concluding verses of one chapter and the opening verses of the other, we learn some lessons as to the way in which Divine wisdom made the past, which was one of error, prepare for the future, which was one of honour and even of glory. We also learn two things respecting human service. We see —
I. HOW GOD CAN CONSTRAIN AN EVIL TO FURNISH INCIDENTAL GOOD. The sin of David led to the pestilence; the pestilence spread to Jerusalem. At Jerusalem David and the elders came forth to intercede with God; and, so doing, they sacrificed on the threshing-floor of Ornan. The fear of the angel of destruction impelled David to begin and (probably) to continue to sacrifice there (verse 30). At any rate, the offering on this one occasion led naturally, if not necessarily, to the continuance of the act in the same place. This led to the determination to choose the spot as the site for the future temple; and this to the king's energetic and successful preparation for the erection of that noble edifice. Thus from evil came incidental good; and thus, continually, human error, faultiness, and transgression are made, under the far-reaching and overruling hand of the Supreme, to contribute in some way to good. Thus he "maketh the wrath of man to praise him" (see Acts 8:3, Acts 8:4; Philippians 1:12).
II. HOW SUITABLE WAS THE SITE FOR THE TEMPLE OF THE LORD.
1. Taken from a Canaanite, it suggested and predicted the ultimate triumph of the truth of God over all human error. The kingdom of God would rise and stand in every heathen land, as the temple of Jehovah rose and stood on Gentile soil.
2. It was suitable that a threshing-floor should become the base of a temple. Where God gives to us all nourishment for our necessities, there we, in glad response, may well give back to him all worship of the soul, all thanksgiving of heart and tongue, all offerings of the treasury.
III. How GODLY ZEAL WILL FIND A REASON AND A SPHERE FOR ITS ACTIVITY. David's desire to build the temple had been positively disallowed. Any man in his position who had not that work very much at heart would have abandoned all further concern on the subject, and left the matter to his successor. But David's heart was so full of holy zeal for the "house of the Lord," that he caught with eagerness at the idea of making preparation for it, though he was not permitted to erect it. "This is the house of the Lord God," etc. (1 Chronicles 22:1), and forthwith he pressed into the service masons to hew stones (1 Chronicles 22:2), and prepared abundance of iron and brass, and of cedar (1 Chronicles 22:2-4). Thus his zeal discovered a sphere of activity; nor was he wanting in the discernment of a reason for action. He might have argued that while his advancing age would excuse inaction on his part, the youth of Solomon would ensure and demand the utmost activity. That is the light in which lukewarmness would have viewed it. Not so the king. He argued that, as Solomon his son was young and tender, and the house was to be magnificent, etc. (see 1 Chronicles 22:5), he had better bring his experience to the work, that it might be as complete as possible. If we are really in earnest in the work of the Lord, we shall not see the reasons which might be found for our abstention or delay; we shall readily observe strong grounds for immediate and strenuous exertion. What is seen, in this as well as in other spheres, depends far more upon the eye than upon the object.
IV. HOW MUCH ROOM THERE IS IN THE FIELD OF HOLY USEFULNESS FOR THE EXPERIENCE OF LATER YEARS. There is good reason why all the work of the Lord should not be left to those who are "young and feeder." By all means let maturity bring its solid strength; and let age, also, bring its varied experience, its gathered and garnered wisdom to the chamber of consultation and the field of labour. "Old age hath yet its honour and its toil," its witness to bear, its counsel to give, its work to finish.—C.
HOMILIES BY F. WHITFIELD
1 Chronicles 21:1-6.-David numbering the people.
In considering this act of David, our attention must be first directed to the statement in the very first verse of this chapter, in connection with the corresponding passage in 2 Samuel 24:1. In one chapter it is stated that "Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel;" in the latter passage it is said, "Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them." Manifestly there needs some way of reconciling these two statements so apparently conflicting. The latter passage implies that there was some guilt in Israel for God to take this step, and. this may be found in the rebellions of Absalom and Sheba against David's kingdom. The word "again" points back to the judgment of God on Israel recorded in 2 Samuel 21:1-22. But although there was guilt on the nation on account of these rebellions, David himself was the instrument by which Israel was to be punished. On the other hand, there was, as Joab's words imply, considerable pride and vanity in David's heart in wishing for this census of the people. As he was about to glory in the number of his people, God reduced that number by seventy thousand, so that he should not have the glory. God's law is to compel wickedness hid in the heart to manifest itself outwardly by furnishing the opportunities for its manifestation. Hence it is perfectly true to say, on the one hand, that God used David's sin to punish Israel for their guilt, and, on the other, that Satan moved David to number them. The latter was but God giving David the opportunity for the evil of his heart to manifest itself, while of course Satan was the source of that evil. God used David's sin to punish Israel; God gave the opportunity to David to number Israel in order to manifest the evil of David's heart outwardly. Thus God punished Israel and humbled David. This may suggest to us the difference in the Bible between trial and temptation. In the Book of Genesis it is said, "God did tempt [or, 'try '] Abraham." In the Epistle of James it is said of God, "Neither tempteth he any man." God tries; Satan tempts. Let us illustrate. Some thousands of pounds are lying on the parlour table when a servant enters the room. This is a trial of the servant's honesty, and thus is from God. Satan says, "Steal some;" this is the temptation. So that every trial from God may at the same time be a temptation from Satan. To return now to the act of David in numbering the people. We have seen the sin of this act in that he was about to glory in the number of his people. "No flesh shall glory in his presence;" and so God reduced the number by seventy thousand. The mention of Satan as the author of this act is intended to show us that David's purpose in it was, from the very first, an ungodly thing. Joab was aware of this, and regarded the act as "abominable." His language in reply to the king indicates its enormity: "Why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?" The word "trespass" here is significant. It means not only a trespass committed, but one which must be atoned for. This shows in what a heinous light he regarded David's act. The king's word prevailed, however, and Joab reluctantly obeyed. Levi and Benjamin were not counted with the number. The tribe of Levi was always exempt in such censuses, and the tribe of Benjamin was not numbered because David, in the mean time, having become conscious of his sin, stopped the census before it was completed. Joab gave the sum of the people to the king. It amounted to one million one hundred thousand men in Israel. This great population in so limited an extent of country is a proof of the fulfilment of the promise (Genesis 15:5). Such great prosperity, however, is too frequently a snare, as it was in this ease. It proved too strong a temptation to David's pride and vanity; and though the Lord used it to discipline David's soul into deeper humility, it led to lamentable consequences. We see how little God can trust his children long with prosperous circumstances. It is for this reason the pressure of God's hand is laid on many of them, and continued, in one form or another, through life; for, were it withdrawn, the heart would soon wander from God, and run the risk of forfeiting its heavenly inheritance, or its future glorious reward.—W.
1 Chronicles 21:7-18, 1 Chronicles 21:29, 1 Chronicles 21:30.-Effects of David's sin.
The first effect of David's act was that of incurring God's severe displeasure. David's eyes were opened to see his sin and its greatness. In earnest prayer he besought God to "do away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly." This, however, cannot be. Sin may be forgiven but its sad consequences must be felt. A man who has brought ruin upon himself and family by a sinful life may have all his sin forgiven, but he must suffer the consequences and his family also, it may be, for generations to come. Nothing is more palpable on every side of us than this law in God's moral government—"visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;" and "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." In David's sin we see also another law in God's moral government—a man's punishment is always in the same line of his sin. David's pride was in the great number of his people; the punishment lay in the destruction of seventy thousand of that number. There is an unvarying connection between the two, indicating the law of righteous retribution. As a judgment the Lord offered David his choice of three evils, and in David's answer we see the true wisdom of a chastened and humbled child of God. "And David said unto God, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the Lord; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man. So the Lord sent a pestilence, and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men." It is the truest wisdom of the soul in every such emergency to fall into the hand of God. Our loving Father does all things well; and while we must reap what we have sown in order to learn by deep experience what a bitter thing sin is, "a Father's hand will never cause his child a needless tear." God hates sin, and he will have us learn what a fearful thing it is that we may hate it too. The hand of God in this outpour of judgment is vividly pictured in this portion of the chapter. "And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem;" but just as he had begun to destroy, we are told God said, "It is enough, stay now thine hand." How much greater might the destruction have been but for him who in the midst of judgment remembers mercy! Yes, in the midst of all our judgments, our trials, our sufferings, how much greater they might have been, may each one say! We can count our trials, but never our mercies. They are as the sands of the shore or the stars over our heads. The darkest cloud has ever a silver lining. And so it is here. There was another effect of David's sin besides this terrible destruction of Israel, for in its results sin is always hydra-headed. Each one carries with it a fruitful crop. We find this effect in David's own relation to God (1 Chronicles 21:30). "He was afraid." Exactly the same words are used by Adam in the garden, and the slothful servant in the New Testament. Sin produces distance from God. David was as truly behind a tree as Adam in the garden. Peace, communion, freedom, all that sweet interchange of fellowship between God and the soul, have all gone now! O Sin, how terrible art thou in thy consequences! One more thought is suggested by this portion of the chapter. The tabernacle of the Lord and the altar of burnt offering were at this time at Gibeon. Here was the prescribed place of sacrifice and here, according to orthodox ideas, David should have gone to offer his sacrifices. But God can give a man rest anywhere. He can apply his mercy to the soul and accept its sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving as well in Ornan's barn as on Gibeon's high places. David had seen the sheathed sword and the hallowed fire from heaven, not on Gibeon's heights, but in Ornan's barn. Whatever orthodoxy might think of the former, the latter was God's chosen place for the temple. God's experienced mercy, where justice had sheathed its sword and grace had answered prayer, made the ground hallowed. It is so still; and may every member of the Church of Christ never forget it.—W.
1 Chronicles 21:18-27, 1 Chronicles 22:1.-Ornan's threshing-floor.
It was in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite that the angel of the Lord sheathed his sword and where the voice of the Lord was heard, "It is enough, stay now thine hand." There, by Divine command, the altar was to be reared. The Lord's altar in a barn! Well, what matters it? The altar hallows the barn. Christ is the true sacrificial Altar, and whatever or whoever he touches becomes the "temple of the Holy Ghost." Ornan was probably the Hebrew or Jewish name of the owner of this threshing-floor; Araunah his Jebusite or Canaanitish name. We see in the twenty-third verse the noble generosity of this man in offering to present David with the threshing-floor, oxen, instruments, and wheat, free of cost. It is true that in some cases (see Genesis 23:1-20.) this apparent generosity, accompanied with so much Eastern courtesy and politeness, is only a thin guise to cover larger expectations from those to whom it is made. This Abraham well knew when he so resolutely declined the offer of the sons of Herb. This was not the case with Ornan. His was the offspring from the noble and generous heart of one who loved and served God. The inspired penman gives us the true interpretation of Ornan's offer when he says (2 Samuel 24:23), "All these things did Araunah, as a king, give unto the king." But however kingly Araunah's conduct was here, David felt be could not accept it. God must not be put off with that which costs us nothing. "Thou hast offered me no sweet cane with money," was God's charge of old against Israel "Ye offer the blind and the lame for sacrifice. Is it not evil?" said Malachi. It is the law of life. That which costs us nothing is not worth having; how much less when offered to God! The widow's two mites are of more value than all the gifts of gold in the temple chest. So David would only have the threshing-floor for the Lord's temple at the "full price." And mark the typical character of this threshing-floor. It was there the sword of vengeance was sheathed. It was there God's voice was heard, "Stay now thine hand, it is enough." It was there the hallowed fire descended in token of God's acceptance of the victim on the altar; and there consequently the future temple was to be erected which exceeded in glory all that Israel had ever seen. So, centuries after, the cross of Christ was the substance of which all this was only the shadow. In that cross we see the sword of God's wrath against sin for ever sheathed. We hear God's voice saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!" In the midnight darkness, the earthquake, the rent rocks, the opened graves, and the rent veil, we hear God's voice again from heaven, testifying to the majesty of that Sacrifice, and drawing from the lilts of even heathen bystanders, "Surely this was the Son of God." And on that Sacrifice, that one Offering once offered, we see built the great spiritual temple of Christ's body, the Church. "Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, Christ Jesus." May we take up David's language and say," This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel."—W.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
1 Chronicles 21:1.-Satanic temptations.
The passage similar to this in 2 Samuel 24:1 should be compared with it. The word Satan would have been more correctly translated an adversary; and the sentence in Samuel would be correctly rendered, "One moved David against them." The historical fact appears to be that one of the courtiers pressed this evil advice on the king, and the Bible writers properly see in such a man a tempter, an adversary, a Satan; and they recognize in all the consequences that follow the outworking of Divine judgments. The question of the Bible presentation of a chief evil spirit need not be discussed in connection with this passage. It is to one aspect only of the influence of such a being that our attention is directed. The Miltonic figure of Satan should be carefully distinguished from the Biblical; and in the instance before us the" adversary" is treated as a Divine agency used for the testing of God's people by temptation to sin. If we fully accept the idea of the Divine education and training of men, it will be no difficulty to us that times of moral trial should be found, and subjection to evil enticements should form part of the Divine plan. We know that God tries and tests us by things, and it should not be difficult for us to realize that he may try and test us by persons. This is, indeed, our most subtle and most severe form of testing. A man may stand firm under all the various trials of affliction, and fall at last under the temptings and delusions of subtle sin. This is the point in David's case. We should notice the time in his life when this severe temptation came. It was when we might reasonably have assumed that David was confirmed in goodness. "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." Interesting comparisons may be made with Abraham, tested late in life by the command to offer his son; and with Job, tried, when fully established in family and property, by the sudden loss of all, and his own extreme bodily suffering. David's trial came when all his enemies were subdued, and his kingdom extended to its widest limits. We cannot suppose that the mere act of taking a census of the people was regarded as wrong. All acts gain their qualities by the spirit in which they are done, and David's wrong was wrong of purpose and of will.
I. SATANIC TEMPTATIONS REGARDED AS HUMAN PERIL. Illustrate from our Lord's words to St. Peter, "Simon, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat." Danger-times occur again and again in a man's life. He must conceive of his spiritual foe as ever on the watch for the weak, unguarded moment. Illustrate the Satanic opportunities found in times of frail health, of success in undertakings, of circumstances having an exciting character, of carnal security, of flattery, or of pride. Especially show that the moments of rebound from success, and exhaustion after victory, put us in extreme peril. Skilfully adjusting temptations to a man's stronger side, Satan has oftentimes succeeded. Every hour is an hour of peril, and we need the hourly prayer, "Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe."
II. SATANIC TEMPTATIONS REGARDED AS DIVINE DISCIPLINE. We may not separate any of the things happening to us in life from the Divine purpose and overruling. What we call evil is properly seen as part of the Divine agency for our moral culture. Divine overrulings do not change the character or quality of things, but they directly affect the result of things. All life is probation. We are being moulded in righteousness. So we find that even these strange Satanic temptations serve gracious Divine purposes in the individual man; and when we cannot see this, we may see that they serve gracious Divine purposes in the warning and teaching of others, and that some of us may even, as David, stumble unto falling vicariously.—R.T.
1 Chronicles 21:2.-The sin of self-gratulation.
The narrative does not clearly and explicitly state David's intention in thus commanding a census of the people to be made. Probably he desired to know the numbers of the people of his kingdom as it had been extended by successful war; but this he wished rather for his own self-glorying than for national purposes. It was an act of self-will, and it failed from full loyalty to the theocratic idea which had been so well maintained during David's reign. In just this lay its sin and its mischief. Dean Stanley calls the taking of this census "an attempt not unnaturally suggested by the increase of his power, but implying a confidence and pride alien to the spirit inculcated on the kings of the chosen people. The apprehension of a Nemesis on any overweening display of prosperity, if not consistent with the highest revelations of the Divine nature in the gospel, pervades all ancient, especially all Oriental, religions." And Ewald says, "The only satisfactory explanation of this measure is that it was intended as the foundation of an organized and vigorous government, like that of Egypt or Phoenicia, under which the exact number of the houses and inhabitants of every city and village would have to be obtained so as to be able to summon the people for general taxation. But it is well known what a profound aversion and what an instinctive abhorrence certain nations, ancient and modern, harbour against any such design which they dimly suspect, not perhaps without good reason, is likely to result in a dangerous extension of the governing power, and its encroachment on the sanctity of the private home." We may notice what peril often lies in the return of temptation upon a man after he has conquered it. David had warred in loyal dependence on God, but he fell when attempting to gather up the results of his victory. A camp is never so exposed to attack as in the time of exhaustion and over-confidence that immediately succeeds a victory. Illustrate from the power that lies in the backward suck of a broken wave.
I. SELF-GRATULATION ON ACCOUNT OF RESULTS OF LABOUR. Compare Nebuchadnezzar's boasting over great Babylon. Contrast the spirit manifested in St. Paul's boastings. He says, "By the grace of God I am what I am." Show how keen we are for results, both in business and in religious spheres. The miser delights to count up his hoards, and the religious man is in peril of self-satisfaction in reckoning up his converts. Few of us can bear to have the true fruitage of our life-labour shown us yet; and we learn to think it most wise and good of our great Master that he puts off the harvest-day until by-and-by. Then we may venture to come "bringing our sheaves with us." Enough now for us is the joy of workers in their work.
II. SELF-GRATULATION ON ACCOUNT OF SPIRITUAL TRIUMPHS. Illustrate from the peril of the hermit, monk, or nun; persons who devote themselves wholly to spiritual culture. Show that the humility they seek is ever slipping from their grasp, and subtle pride is asserting its place. St. Simeon Stylites on his pillar was probably prouder than any king. And so now exclusive attention to the training of feelings and emotions tends to self-gratulation. Perhaps more men are proud of their goodness than proud of their greatness. Against this subtle and insidious form of evil we all need to watch. And the great Heart-searcher needs to cleanse the very thoughts and heart, finding out for us our secret wicked ways.
III. The SINFULNESS of all self-gratulation is seen in the evil influence of it on others. Some it excites to imitations. Others it impresses with our insincerity, and so with an idea of the worthlessness of all religion. It prevents our exercising a good influence on others. Nothing more certainly shuts up a man's power than the impression he may produce of his pride and self-conceit. Whatever we may win, one law applies—don't boast.—R.T.
1 Chronicles 21:3.-The spirit that refuses good advice.
Joab was not always a good adviser. More than once he had led David into difficulties. But he was a skilful and bold statesman. He looked rather to the consequences and ultimate influences of political actions than to the maintenance of high political principles. In this case he feared more the penalty that would follow than the sin itself. But his advice was good. We may not say that even good advice is necessarily to be taken. Our judgment concerning it should be exercised, and our decisions upon it should be made. That which is absolutely good, or in a general way good, may not be the best thing at a particular time, or for a particular individual.
I. Good ADVICE MAY BE UNACCEPTABLE IN ITSELF. It may demand hard things or unpleasant things. It may be difficult to discern the grounds on which it is based. It may involve humiliations and confessions of mistake. It may bring heavy responsibilities. It may unduly strain feeling. It may be quite different from the advice we expected. It may seem, to our judgment, anything but good.
II. GOOD ADVICE MAY BE UNACCEPTABLE THROUGH THE PERSON WHO GIVES IT. We estimate the value of advice by the giver. Our confidence in him gives quality to his advice. Probably David was at this time so annoyed with Joab that his eyes were blinded, and he could not see how wise his counsel was. To judge advice by the giver is, as a rule, quite safe; but care is needed lest prejudice should prevent our recognizing the good in the counsel of those we dislike, and lest undue affection should prevent our seeing the error in the advice of those whom we may personally esteem. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend," etc.
III. GOOD ADVICE MAY BE UNACCEPTABLE THROUGH THE STATE OF MIND OF THE PERSON WHO RECEIVES IT. There may be a proud unwillingness to receive advice at all; an over and undue self-reliance. There may be a strong purpose and resolve against which the advice goes, as in David's case.
So we learn that to be proper recipients of good advice from our fellow-men, or from God's Word, we need to win and to keep the humble, open heart.—R.T.
1 Chronicles 21:7, 1 Chronicles 21:8.-Judgment revealing iniquity.
In these verses it is noted that God's judgment on sin revealed the sinfulness of his doings to the sinner. "God is known by the judgment that he executeth." Still, it is largely true that men do not see their sin in its proper light until they come under the sufferings which it involves. Illustrate by the licentious man and the drunkard. God's plan is to affix consequences to sin, and make these always to he of an afflictive and distressing and humiliating character, so that by them the character and quality of sin might be shown up. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Illustrations are at hand in Old Testament history, ordinary national histories, and modern life. "Though hand join in hand, the sinner shall not go unpunished." The consequences of sin come in a great variety of forms, but always with precise adaptation to the moral purpose which God holds in view in sending them. If the sin be only that of a man as an individual, the consequences may come wholly on the man's body. If the sin be that of a man as a father, the consequences may be such as will affect the family. And if the sin be that of a man as a king, we may reasonably expect that the consequences will reach to affect the nation. And this is the case of David which is now before us for consideration. An act is right or wrong, according to God's eternal laws, whoever does it; but acts gain some of their precise qualities through the relational or representative character of the persons who do them; and this often affords the true explanations of the particular judgments that attend them.
I. DAVID'S SIN. His act, considered apart from his state of mind and his purpose, cannot be called wrong. We at least are familiar with the idea of taking census, and understand it to be a necessary attendant on orderly government. Two things aid us in recognizing David's sin.
1. The sentiment of Eastern peoples concerning a census; they regarded it as imperilling their liberty, and as a state device for inflicting on them a tyrannous taxation.
2. David was not an independent sovereign; he was Jehovah's prince; and such a work as this should only have been undertaken at the direct command of the true King. In a previous sketch, on 1 Chronicles 21:2, the precise character of David's act has been shown. His purpose was vain-glory. He would boast of the great kingdom he had founded; so he utterly failed from the theocratic kingship with which he had been entrusted. And his sin was that of the king; it was part of his government; and, therefore, it affected the people whom he governed, and, the consequences fell on him through them, just as the judgments on parental sin come on parents through their children.
II. ITS CONSEQUENCES IN THE DIVINE ADMINISTRATION. These were apparently special. Gad, God's prophet, announced the impending judgments, bidding David select which of them should fall. Bat this speciality is only in appearance, and it is designed to be illustrative of the ordinary and orderly judgments which are surely wrought out in God's providences. Sometimes God permits us to trace processes, but it is only that we may gain full conviction of the essential connections between sin and suffering. Much is made in our day of the working of law in nature. It would be altogether healthier and better for us to make much of the working of law in morals. No law is so absolute as this one: "The soul that sinneth, it shall die."
III. THE REVEALING POWER OF SUCH CONSEQUENCES. That is, their power to disclose and impress the character of men's sins, as viewed by God. In the narrative before us, the impressions made on the king (1 Chronicles 21:8), on the people, and, through these, upon us, may be illustrated.
The mission of all judgments and so-called calamities is here shown. The revelations which they make are
1 Chronicles 21:9-13.-An appalling offer and a wise choice.
The details may be given as explained in the Expository portion of this Commentary. Famine, war, and plague are the three ordinary Divine agencies used for the judgment of nations. Each affects numbers and arouses national feeling. Very seldom, indeed, does God make men the offer of a choice of punishments; and we can fully understand that it would not be consistent with his honour so to do. Then why did he do it in this particular case? Because this was special, and designed to bear mainly on the recovery of a good man's full trust in God. God cannot usually make offers to men, because there is no good and right feeling in them to which his offer may appeal. God could make such offer to David, because bin was only a temporary aberration and failure from the true spirit and full loyalty. Even in the matter of his own judgment, God may take David, the "man after his own heart," into his counsel.
I. THE POINT OF THE THREEFOLD OFFER. It tested David's trust in God. Would he prefer judgment which came very evidently through human agency, or would he prefer judgment which was plainly sent direct from God? We know that pestilence is as truly due to human neglect and error as is famine or war; but, in the sentiment of David's time, plague was the direct visitation of God.
II. THE POINT OF DAVID'S CHOICE. (1 Chronicles 21:13.)
1. He felt that he could better trust the direct Divine agency than man's ministry, which might be toned with ill feeling.
2. There was more hope of the limitations and qualifications of mercy in God's dealings than in man's.
3. The national honour and the integrity of the kingdom and the stability of the throne would not be so seriously affected by a plague, as they would be by the temporary triumph of the national foes.
When we are, with David, fully willing to fall into God's hands, then the Divine judgments may be graciously tempered, and even removed.—R.T.
1 Chronicles 21:11, 1 Chronicles 21:12.-The necessary connection between sin and judgment.
Prove and illustrate the universality of the connection. Illustrations may be found in every age and every sphere. See the idea of a Nemesis; and show that pointing out this connection is the commonplace of the moral and religious teacher.
I. SEE CLEARLY WHAT SIN IS. Give the theories about sin; but apart from theory, or doctrine, endeavour to understand what sin is
When a suitable impression is gained of what sin is, we are prepared to —
II. SEE WHY IT MUST BE MET WITH JUDGMENTS. Because
1 Chronicles 21:15, 1 Chronicles 21:16.-The sight of the destroying angel.
It is noted in these verses that the Divine judgment was executed by an angel, and that God and David both watched him carrying out his fearful commission. The sight produced different effects on the watchers, and these suggest useful thoughts and truths. The Bible idea of an angel seems to be that of an agent, other than man, employed to carry out the Divine purposes in the sphere of creation, and especially in this our world. If we accept this comprehensive conception of an angel, we shall understand how there may be angels of affliction, angels of death, and even angels of temptation, all engaged directly in the Divine service. There may be God's angel of pestilence for the punishment of David, and God's angel of temptation, or testing, for the purifying of Job. It may be shown that destruction by pestilence is on several occasions attributed to the ministry of an angel: e.g. destruction of the firstborn in Egypt and of Sennacherib's army. This is still a familiar poetical figure. Sometimes unseen things have been graciously set within the sphere of the senses, in order to help men to feel the reality of the unseen. Angels are unseen beings; the Divine workings are largely secret and unseen; but it pleases God to set his people sometimes "within the veil;" or, we may say, "behind the scenes;" or down below among the machinery, so that they may gain for themselves, and give to others, fitting impressions of the reality of the Divine working. For a similar reason God, the infinite and spiritual Being, is spoken of under human figures, as though he were a man, doing a man's deeds and feeling a man's feelings. Some explanation of anthropomorphism and anthropopathism may here suitably be given. In the verses now for consideration, we find a double vision and a double repentance. God saw the angel and repented, so did David.