10 Now David's heart troubled him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O LORD, please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.” 11 When David arose in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, 12 “Go and speak to David, 'Thus the LORD says, “I am offering you three things; choose for yourself one of them, which I will do to you.””' 13 So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? Now consider and see what answer I shall return to Him who sent me.” 14 Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of the LORD for His mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man” (2 Samuel 24:10-14).
Without having to be rebuked, David recognizes his sin in numbering the fighting men of the nation. Having been smitten in his heart, David repents. He confesses how great his sin has been and acknowledges the foolishness of his actions (verse 10). This sense of guilt and his confession seems to have taken place during the night because when he awoke, the prophet7 Gad came to him with a word from the LORD. There was no debate or discussion about whether or not David had sinned. That was a given. The only matter to be decided was what punishment David would choose. David was given three options, all mentioned in Deuteronomy 28, as punishment for Israel’s failure to keep their covenant with God.8
David’s choices include a difference in the length of the penalty: three years of famine,9 three months of fleeing before their enemies, or three days of pestilence at the hand of God. David chooses the third option, not because it is the shortest time of suffering, but because it is God who administers this punishment more directly. David would rather suffer at the hand of God than at the hand of men.
Why is this? Why would David rather suffer at the hand of a holy and righteous God than at the hand of men? I believe it is because David knows that he will not suffer the wrath of God as an unbeliever, but as a son. The wrath is a terrifying thought:
15 Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; 16 and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Revelation 6:15-17)
12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:12-15).
David does not need to fear the wrath of God that falls upon an unbeliever. The discipline that he will experience should not and will not be taken lightly, but it is the discipline of a loving father, discipline meant to draw David near to Him:
7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. 11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. 12 Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed (Hebrews 12:7-13).
Paradoxical as it seems, the God who is holy and righteous is also the God who is merciful and kind:
6 Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations” (Exodus 34:6-7).
It is upon that kindness that David casts himself in our text. He knows that he is guilty before God and deserves to suffer at His hand. But he also knows that the hand of God is kinder than the hand of men. Think of this for a moment. David not only trusts in God for his salvation and for deliverance from his enemies, but for His chastening. There is no area of our lives that we should entrust to men instead of God.
15 So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. 16 When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented from the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough! Now relax your hand!” And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17 Then David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who was striking down the people, and said, “Behold, it is I who have sinned, and it is I who have done wrong; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let Your hand be against me and against my father's house.”
The Lord was angry with Israel, and the pestilence which came to His people was justly deserved, not only because of David’s sin but because of Israel’s sin. How ironic that David seeks to learn how many Israelite warriors are at his disposal, and as a result of his finding out, the numbers are changed by 70,000 men. The plague comes upon every part of the nation. The destroying angel of the LORD seems almost to retrace the steps of those who numbered the nation. Now the angel approaches Jerusalem, ready to bring calamity there as well. David is enabled to see the angel of the LORD, with his sword lifted high, ready to slay many in Jerusalem. We have already been informed, however, that God had relented of bringing further calamity. David’s faith in God for judgment was well founded. God had poured out His wrath on His people, but now He took compassion on them. The angel of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite10 when he was ordered to halt.
David could not have known God’s purposes yet, and so he petitioned God in an attempt to halt the plague. He pled that God’s anger be satisfied by pouring out His wrath on him and on his father’s house (not unlike that which had occurred to Saul’s house in chapter 21). God had a better plan, which He will communicate to David through the prophet Gad in the concluding verses of this great book.
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