Appease God

 

    We all sin and fall short of the standards that God lays out for us.  It can be because we never bothered learning them.  Maybe we don't understand them.  Maybe we just want things our way.  The reason doesn't matter.  What matters is what are we willing to do to fix it?  What happens when an entire nation makes God angry?

    God was angry with the Israel nation and told David to do a census.  David sent Joab immediately to do it, but added in to enroll all the fighting men.  It took Joab nine months and 20 days.  In the end, Israel had 800,000 fighting men and Judah who considered themselves separate had 500,000 fighting men.  Not a bad thing except for the fact that it had the attitude that David was strong without God.  David immediately felt guilty.

    David's seer, Gad, came to the king to point out how God was angry.  David had three options to fix this mistake and they would all cost his people.  The first choice was three years of famine.  The nation had already lived through that and it did not sound appealing and David feared the people would turn against him.  The second choice was three months of him fleeing at the mercy of people.  Another event he had already lived through more than once.  The third option was three days of a plague.  David chose option three.

    The death toll was over 70,000 people.  God was grieved over the destruction that the angel of the plague had done under His and David's word.  David had to live with the guilt.   To make amends, he built an altar.  He bought that land and the oxen from Araunah before he did a burnt and fellowship offering.  This is when and where the plague officially ended.

2 Samuel 24