Why was God angry at the people? Why did David see wisdom in a census, and then why did he realize that it was a bad idea? Why did God plant a bad idea in David’s mind? (1 Chronicles says instead that Satan gave David the idea.) The Bible stories omit certain details like these.
            There are possible reasons for the census.

• It was “monarchial overreach”, and thus disobedience to God. David may have needed to know the size of the kingdom. But that would’ve been a prideful thing, taking loyalty away from the Lord who is Israel’s true king.
• It was a way for David to find out how many men could be enlisted for battle. Considering that the texts recorded the numbers of men who could wield the sword, this seems plausible. But this, too, took loyalty away from the Lord, understood to be the true warrior for Israel.

            We know from 1 Kings 4:7-19, 4:27-28, and 5:13-14 that King Solomon used forced labor and taxation to increase the kingdom. By repenting of the census, David realize that the unjust “use” of the people was the wrong thing to do. The plague story has one certain conclusion: it explained the location of the eventual construction of the Temple in Jerusalem, at the point where the pestilence stopped. 
            It is difficult for our modern sensibilities to understand why God sent a plague that killed 70,000 people in three days, while at the same time affirming that God takes the side of the Israelites and cherishes them as his people. But we know from that Bible that God sides with those who are threatened—including situations of “government overreach” and public evil. In this story, David realizes he has acted wrongly concerning the people---and they have suffered as a consequence. Doing things with political expediency was necessary for David (as we see in the story of 2 Samuel 21), but David realized when he overstepped his God-given authority, and he took repentant steps to change. Thus, David has been called a person “after God’s own heart.”
 
 
 
Question
1.If I said, “When the leader sins, the people suffer,” would you agree? Can you think of examples from history, where leaders dragged their people down?  

2.In many ways, government facilitates social well-being. In your opinion, when are occasions when the government does this well? When does the government act poorly in this regard?  
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3.To repeat an earlier question: How do you respond to Bible stories wherein God is said to act in extreme, destructive ways? How do you reconcile such stories with the teaching that God is love?

 ​            The story explains the beginning of the Jerusalem Temple. The Chronicler makes this link more explicit in the narrative: the beginning of the Temple follows the plague story. in Samuel, the story is like an addendum to the whole book, being the last incident of David’s life narrated in the book. We turn next to 1 Kings and enter the last days of David, including the drama of succession (since Solomon was not David’s first born), and only after that drama do we return to the subject of the Temple.
           The Temple, promised to David and constructed during Solomon’s reign, is connected to the history of the Tabernacle before it (Ex. 35-40). David’s hope for a great, permanent house in the Land for God is postponed to the times of his son Solomon, who constructs the facility (2 Sam. 7, 1 Kings 5-8).   
            God’s special presence dwelled in the Temple’s inner room, which contained the Ark. As with the tabernacle, God’s presence had a “dwelling place” within the Temple. It was not that God’s presence was found only in that place—that would be to localize God, which is idolatry—but God dwelled specially among his people.
            John’s gospel affirms how God’s glory dwells in Jesus Christ, as God’s glory once dwelled in the inner rooms of the ancient sanctuaries. So, to say that Jesus “made his home among us” or “dwelled among us.” And the glory will not leave, as it did in the time of Ezekiel (chapters 8-10). This is the way God has always worked, for God lives among the people (Ex. 25:8, 29:45). But Jesus’ followers understand him to be the special presence of God. “We have seen his glory.”
         The plague led to the establishment of the Jerusalem Temple, which in the New Testament becomes identified with Jesus and the full presence of God in him. This is the “roundabout way” that I mentioned earlier: how a plague led to biblical developments that take us to Pentecost and beyond.
 
 
 
 
Questions
1.What are some ways in which you’ve experienced the Holy Spirit in your life?

2.When I was a child, I worried about the unforgivable “sin of the Holy Spirit,” which Jesus left unexplained. In context, the sin is the ongoing and perverse resistance to God, unforgivable not as a specific moral failure but as a blocking-off of God’s grace. Is that something you’ve worried about? (If you’re worried about it, though, you reveal that you aren’t committing the sin!)

        During the tribal confederacy of the Judges period, the Israelites encountered problems with faithfulness and idolatry. Those problems were different from other nations in that they were defined by their covenant to the Lord. But once Israel had a king, an additional temptation was added: becoming a nation like any other nation. Certainly, God’s power was operative, for instance, in the selection of Saul and David and the ongoing life of the people, especially in light of the threat of the nearby Philistines. But still, Yahweh alone was Israel’s king. But would the people remember that? 
        On the other hand, the possibilities of monarchy gave rise to the hope for a future king who would reunite the people and regain and surpass the possibilities of peace and prosperity--as we read in the famous messianic passages that we specially embrace during Advent and Christmas, like Isaiah 7:10-17, 9:2-7, and 11:1-9.
        Within these stories, David emerges as a kind of key symbol for God’s rule. God’s rulership through David’s line revealed God's remarkable commitment to his people via David. And since David is identified with Jerusalem (Zion) in his selection of that place as capital, Zion became identified as God’s own city, the city of God's peace (Ps. 46, 48, 76, and others).(3) Of course, the line of David, also celebrated in the psalms (2, 20, 31, 45, and others) connects to the later messianic hope that grows in Israel’s history and, for Christians, finds fulfillment in Jesus. The upcoming books of Ezra and Nehemiah record the post-exilic efforts to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple and to reestablish the people on the Land. (9) That post-exilic hope is understood in the New Testament as being fulfilled in Christ.
        The strange plague story, then, points us in roundabout ways to Jesus—whom we worship, whom we call upon in times of trouble like these.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Questions
1.What has your prayer life been like during the pandemic? How has your spiritual life suffered or been helped during times of isolation and worry?
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2.The plague story is another example of David’s character: when he messed up, he messed up big-time, but he always realized, returned to God, and began again. How do failure and trouble potentially led to an excellent prayer life?

​Conclusion
            We suffer as individuals of our private spheres and also as individuals in society. Natural calamities may strike us, but how we fare may depend upon the competence of our government to respond. Our government may enact policies that undermine rather than improve (what the Constitution calls) the general welfare.
            Contemporary society is quite different from the ancient societies of our scripture lessons. We are a representative democracy, and our founding documents reflect Enlightenment values. We must not declare that our leaders are divine representatives as Pharaoh and David were. But we do carry out our citizenship duties informed by our faith, and as we grow in faith, we try to differentiation our religious values with political and cultural values that might lead us away from biblical faith. (The popular notion that “God helps those who help themselves” is one example.)
            As we move through this time of pandemic and social change, let us beseech God to help us and our families and to lead us toward social, medical, and economic well-being!   

Question
1.As our current pandemic began and grew, what would you have done differently, or the same, to address the crisis?
 
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Prayer:
Lamb of God, Son of David, thank you for the opportunity to learn and grow through our reading of Scripture and our conversations with others. Help us to recognize your kingdom, particularly in the ways we seek to grow in lovingkindness and service in our world. Amen.
 
 
 
Notes
1.Bruce C. Birch, “The First and Second Books of Samuel,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. II (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998), 1382.
 
2.Leslie C Allen, “The First and Second Books of Chronicles,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. III (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1999), 426-427.  
 
3.Brevard S Childs, Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992), 154-155.