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(The views expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
1 Chronicles 21:7–17, “And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel. And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly. And the LORD spake unto Gad, David’s seer, saying, Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Choose thee Either three years’ famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me. And David said unto Gad, 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 pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. 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. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on me, and on my father’s house; but not on thy people, that they should be plagued.”
David realised his act of pride displeased the Lord and he confessed his sin and repented. Gad, one of David’s prophets, brought a message from the Lord to the king. The Lord gave David three choices for his punishment. Because David’s sin had been about the number of people in the nation, the Lord punished David by the loss of people. David could have three years of famine, three months of enemy destruction or three days of a serious epidemic in the nation. David didn’t know what to choose so he asked the Lord to punish him and not other people. There was a serious epidemic and 70,000 people died. As the Lord’s angel was preparing to bring the epidemic to Jerusalem, the Lord decided that Israel had been punished enough and told the angel to stop the epidemic. David was near the property of a man called Ornan, who was a survivor of the Jebusites, and saw the angel ready to strike Jerusalem. As he looked at the angel he saw the angel stop and David, accompanied by his advisors, fell on his faces before the Lord. He asked the Lord to punish him and his family rather than the innocent people off Israel. David had, however, made choice as Israel’s king and the nation suffered as a consequence of the choice that David made.
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