David Numbers the Fighting Men

How to Explain Discrepancies

Chapter 21 is a repeat of the original record in 2 Samuel 24. There are few discrepancies in these two records on the numbers mentioned in this event, the following are the explanations of the discrepancies:

1. David was incited by God or Satan?
   1. 2 Sam 24: [..the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He incited David against them…]
   2. 1 Chro 21: [Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel]
   3. Both are true, God permitted Satan to tempt David in order to accomplish the purposes He had in mind. This is the only one of the four times Satan is named specifically at work in OT (Gen 3, Job 1-2, Zech 3)
2. Men who could handle a sword:
   1. 2 Sam 24: 800k in Israel and 500k in Judah, total of 1.3 M
   2. 1 Chro 21: 1.1 M in Israel and 470k in Judah
   3. 2 Sam 24:9 says the 800k men were able-bodied men who could handle a sword. The additional  300k men in 1 Chronicle was possible men that are less experienced in battle but could still handle a sword, in another word, the reserved army. 30k less men in Judah was due to Benjamin was not counted in the 1 Chro number (v6)
3. How much David paid for the threshing floor?
   1. 2 Sam 24: 50 shekels (v24)
   2. 1 Chro 21: 600 shekels (v25)
   3. Maybe David initially paid 50 shekels for the oxen for sacrifices and the wooden yokes for fuel, but later he bought the whole land with 600 shekels.
4. Seven or three years of famine?
   1. 2 Sam 24  Seven years
   2. 1 Chro 21: three years
   3. It was possibly a copy error on 2 Sam 24 on the Hebrew Bible. Septuagint says three years, which match 1 Chronicle 21.

Why Did God punish Israel?

God allows census (Ex 30:11-16), He had asked Israel to carry out censor twice while in the wilderness (Num 1, Number 26). However David’s motive of the censor was not to glorify God, but to glorify himself. David’s desire to count his the men in Israel because:

1. he wanted to show off the number of his army
2. he started to depend on the size of his army as the reason to win wars, instead of depend on the power of God

David was the one who sinned against God, but why did God punish the Israelites, which killed 70,000 men but spare David’s life?

Why David choose three days of plague?

These three punishments are part of God’s covenant with Israel (Deut 28:21,22,25,27,28). [if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you…] (Deut 28:15).

Because David rather fall into the hands of the LORD then into the hands of men, for His mercy is very great. David knew the Lord will be more merciful than his enemies. 70,000 men died as a result of the plague, the dead counts would be must greater if Israel was under the attacks of the enemies for three months.

Plague could not have came from men, so it is a more direct punishment from the hands of God compares to falling into the swords of the enemies.

In famine, the people could put their hope on the ones who have access to preserved food supply. So comparing a famine with a plague, a plague is a more direct punishment from the hands of God.

The Significant of the Threshing Floor of Araunah

The threshing floor was the place where Abraham offered Isaac as sacrifice to the LORD.

It is also the place where the temple of the LORD was built upon.

David may have told Soloman to built the template in the threshing floor because it was where God heard his prayers and answered him with fire from heaven on the altar (v26).

Victory Over Ammonites and Philistines

Battle with Ammonites was originally recorded in 2 Sam 11:1, and the battle with the Philistines was originally recorded in 2 Sam 21:15-22.

v1: Rabbah is the main city for the Ammonites, it is present day Amman in Jordan.

v1: [David remained in Jerusalem…] Joab went to war against Ammonites, but David stays in Jerusalem. It was at that time that David committed adultery and mulder (2 Sam 11)

v1: This is one of the main different between Chronicles and Samuel. Chronicles omitted David’s sins, and consequences of his sins, which is the rebellion of Absalom (2 Sam 13).

v3: [Iron picks]. The Israel already knew how to make tools with iron.

The Battle Against the Ammonites and Arameans

This chapter was originally written in 2 Sam 10. The one discrepancy is in 2 Sam 10:18, David killed 700 Arameans charioteers, but in 1 Cho 19:18, David killed 7000 charioteers. Most bible students think there was a copy error in 2 Sam 10:18.

v2: It is possible that because Nahash, the King of the Ammonites was the enemy of Saul (1 Sam 11), he became friend and had showed kindness to David.

By any standard, 32,000 chariots (v7) was a big number, it was a big battle, 40,000 food soldiers were killed by Israel led by David (v18).

God was being faithful and was fulfilling His promise to David (1 Chro 17:8).

Joab as David’s chief commander, did a marvelous job in this battle, with the help of his brother Abishai (v11).

Joab said: [“Be strong and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. The Lord will do what is good in His sight.”] Joab had great faith in the Lord. He knew his job was to lead the army of Israel is trusting the Lord.

The LORD gave David victory everywhere he went

The key verse of chapter 18 is verse 6, it is repeated again in verse 13.

God is a faithful God, in this chapter, he is fulfilling His promise to David in chapter 17:8 [I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name like the names of the greatest men of the earth].

David recognized the victories he had were from the Lord. His heart continue to seek the Lord, this can be seen by David’s action to use collect bronze, silver and gold for the building of God’s temple (v8,11).

We, like David, are in battles as well. Our battles are not physical, but spiritual. Our enemies are Satan, the World, and our old self. The only way to win these battles is to follow our Lord Jesus, because the Lord Jesus had already won the war on the cross. When we deny ourselves and carry our cross to follow our Lord, His victory became ours.

God’s Promise to David (v1-15)

The content of chapter 17 is a repeat of 2 Samuel 7.

God called David His servant twice (v4,7). When God someone to be His servant, He is going to be with him whenever he goes (v8). Although David is the King of Israel, but he is a servant of the King of Kings!

This promise of God to David is a messianic promise. The promise is partially fulfilled in Soloman (v12), when Soloman built the temple for the Lord. However, Soloman’s throne did not go forever, he is only a shadow of our Lord Jesus, who is a descendent from King David from both of his earthly parents, for Joseph and Mary are both descendent of King David.

The Lord Jesus is building the house of God, the church. The throne and the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus is established by God forever (v12, 14).

David’s Prayer (v16-27)

v16: [Who am I, O LORD GOD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?] This is a prayer that all God’s people can relate to. We are all made with dust, and God saved us. When I looked back in my life, and looked at how far the Lord has brought me at this moment in my life, I want to pray the same thing: “Who am I, O LORD GOD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?!

David spoke of the promises of God when he prayed. “Let the promise You have made concerning Your servant and his house be established forever. Do as you promised.” God has made many promises throughout the bible to His people. When we discovered these promises, we can pray these promises back to God, to receive and claim by faith that God has promised, and God will fulfill His promises so that His name will be glorified!

David’s Praise to God for the Establishment of Worship at Tabernacle in Jerusalem

v8-22: This section is exactly the same as Psalm 105:1-15

v23-30: This section is exactly the same as Psalm 96:1-9

v43: [all the people left, each for his own home, and David returned home to bless his family]. After the congregational worship of God, everybody returned to their home. David returned home to bless his family. Often time, we are so busy with serving the Lord at church, when we returned home, we are already tired and just wanted to rest or be alone to do our own thing and ignore our love ones. But we are reminded by the scripture that when we are at home, we entered into another ministry, the ministry to our spouse and children. Our present at home should be a blessing to our family. Be careful not to fall into the mistake of ignoring the needs of our immediate family. If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church? (1 Tim 3:4-5).

Carrying The Ark into Jerusalem

v2: [the LORD chose them to carry the ark of the LORD…]  The Ark represents the testimony and the presence of God. The Ark leads the Jews in the wilderness of Sanai, into the promised land, into victory against the City of Jericho. In today’s church, God is calling and waiting for believers who are willing to carry the ark, to be His testimony, to bring the presence of God among His people, are you willing to carry the ark?

v12: The is two requirements before anyone can carry the ark, first the person needs to be a priest, second he needs to consecrate himself. In today’s church, to carry the ark, there is two requirements, first the person needs to be a believers of Jesus Christ. All believers are priests in the NT (1 Peter (2:5, 9). Second, the person needs to consecrate himself. It means to make himself clean. How do we make ourselves clean? We are cleansed by the blood of the lamb, by the blood of our Savior Jesus. We however need to stay clean, by living a holy life, away from sins, and do not conform to the patterns of world (Rom 12:2).

v13: [..We did not inquire of Him..]. David made a mistake, he admitted his mistake, learned from the experience but did not give up. And then he try to bring the ark into Jerusalem again, this time according to the way of the Lord. No matter how spiritual we are,  we would eventually make mistake in our life. the important thing is to learn from the mistake, confess our weakness or sins before the Lord, and no to repeat it again. Do not let mistakes prevent us from carry the ark of the Lord.

v16: […singers to sing joyful songs..]. Carry the ark seems like a huge burden, but in David’s time the levites were singing with joys. The atmosphere was a joyful one. Do you have joy when carrying the testimony of the Lord? If not, that is something wrong, and you need to come to the Lord before you continue to carry the ark.

v17: […Asaph..] He wrote several psalms.

v22: […Kenaniah …was in charge of the singing…because he was skillful at it..]. God gives different spiritual gifts to His people according to His will. Our job is to learn what our gift is and to use it to the fulless potential the way God has designed and intended in our life.

v26: […God had helped the Levites who were carrying the ark..]. Sometimes we may be weary when carrying the testimony of the Lord, but remember, God is with us, when we are faithful to His calling in our life, He will help us to carry the ark, to fulfill the calling. We need to learn to trust in Him.

v29: [..she despised him in her heart]. Sometimes when we carry the testimony of Jesus in our life, others would laugh at us. Do not let the enemies distract us from carrying the testimony of the Lord. Remember you are not carrying the testimony alone, many brothers and sisters are carrying the same testimony with you. For the ark was carried by more than one priest.

This chapter is a copy of the original records in 2 Samuel 5:11-25.

According to 2 Samuel, the events in chapter 14 (2  Sam 5) happened before the events in chapter 13 (2 Sam 6).

David Had Many Wives in Jerusalem

v2: [David knew that the LORD…] David understand he did not become King of the whole Israel by his own ability, but was established by God.

v3: [In Jerusalem David took more wives…] Deut 17:17 forbids King to take many wives. Although God did not prevent David from having many wives, it does not mean God approved polygamy. David had to face serious consequences as a result of his action, see 2 Sam 13.

God Helped David to Defeat the Philistines

v8: [they went up in full force to search for him…]. Once the Philistines found out David had been anointed as the king over all Israel, they wanted to kill David because David is now a treat to the Philistines.

v10: [..David inquired of God..] and v14 […David inquired of God again…]. These records show that David is a man after God’s heart. He depended on God for power and desired to do the will of God. As a result, God has gone out before him (v15) to strike the Philistine.

If we desire to defeat the enemy, if we desire God to go out before us in our spiritual battle, we need to learn to come before God to seek His will and ask for His wisdom and power.

Ark of The Testimony (chapter 13-16)

The Ark is the center theme from chapter 13 to 16.

In the days of Eli the ark was in the Tabernacle at Shiloh (1 Sam 3:3). Eli’s sons took it into battle against the Philistines who captured it. For this reason, it was said, “The glory has departed from Israel” (1 Sam 4:22). The Ark stayed with the Philistines for seven months (1 Sam 6:1), where ever the Ark was, it brought tumors to the Philistines and many died. (1 Sam 5:6,9,11).

The Philistine returned the Ark back to the Jews, the Ark stayed in Kiriath Jearim, in the house of Abinadad and his son Eleazar ( 1 Sam 7:2) until David came to take the Ark to Jerusalem.

When the priests brought the ark into the inner sanctuary of the temple, only the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb (1 Kings 8:9).

Hebrews 9:4 tells us that at one point, the ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.

The Ark represents the presence of God. Rom 3:25 tells us the Lord Jesus is the mercy seat that covers the top of the ark. The ark was a foreshadow of the Lord Jesus. Whenever Jesus is present, God is present. Today God is present in men by the presence of His Son.

However not many people desire the presence of the Lord. Praise God that King David was thinking about the ark. He desired the presence of the Lord.

However David made a mistake by taking the easy way to carry the ark, by using a cart. It was the way of the Philistines (1 Sam 6:7,10). The command of God is that the ark needed to be carried by the priests.

It pleases God when we desire His present, however we need to be careful not to follow the way of the world (Philistines) to bring the presence of God into men. The ark must be carried exactly the way God commanded the Jews. In the same way, the presence of the Lord Jesus in the Church must be carried out by the way of God. All believers of Jesus Christ are priests, we are holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:5). Holy means separated from the world and dedicated to God. Thus God is looking for holy priests to carry the ark of the testimony in the church today. These are the people who have the responsibility to carry the ark of the testimony, to bring the presence of the Lord Jesus among God’s people. Are you willing to be the holy priest to carry the ark?

The Fall of Saul

V1-12 is a exact copy of the last chapter of 1 Samuel, chapter 31.

v13-14 are unique to 1 Chronicles, these two verses are not in 1 Samuel. It provides us a clear reason of the fall of Saul: because he was unfaithful to the LORD; he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for guidance, and did not inquire of the LORD.

It was God will put Saul to death. God was not cruel, He has given Saul 40 years of opportunity as King of Israel, however Saul did not show any sign of repentance of his unfaithfulness to God.

Faithfulness is what is the Lord Jesus seeking in His church (Matt 25), are you faithful to the calling of the Lord in your life?