The plagues
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 introduction King David's plague story is found in 2 Samuel 24 and also in 1 Chronicles 21.
I always heard that phrase, “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit,” with regard to nutrition and other kinds of well-being. The phrase comes from 1 Corinthians 6:19. I was relieved when I learned of the original, deeper meaning: God's very presence dwells with us as the same God once dwelled in the Jerusalem Temple. God's act of dwelling puts us in proximity to God's holiness--which, in turn, demands holiness from us. The in-dwelling of God’s Spirit was one of the momentous discoveries of the first generations of Christians. Beginning on the first Pentecost (Acts 2), and continuing through the book of Acts, people received the Holy Spirit—including people you wouldn’t expect to, like Roman soldiers and other people peripheral to traditional faith. For instance, Paul scolds the Galatians so sharply because they (a Gentile church in central Asia Minor) had been blessed with God’s Spirit but were second-guessing God by attempting to follow Jewish practices. This plague story leads us in a roundabout way to the wonderful spiritual presence of God for which we are daily thankful.
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If you’ve read 1 and 2 Samuel, you’re familiar with the stories of how David became the successor to King Saul, and how David himself reigned as King. This plague story comes at the very end of 2 Samuel: chapter 24. Chapters 21-24, in fact, form a kind of bridge from the end of David’s life (although the stories aren’t necessary from his old age) to the beginning of 1 Kings, where David is on his deathbed and schemes are afoot as to his successor as king. (1)
If we back up and look at 2 Samuel 21, we learn that there is a famine in the land. David realizes that the famine was caused by bloodguilt from the house of Saul, who had at some point in his reign killed many of the Gibeonites. They were a non-Israelite tribe whom the Israelites were not supposed to harm (Joshua 9). A delegation of Gibeonites demanded justice, and also David identified seven descendants of Saul whom the Gibeonites subsequently killed and publicly displayed their bodies. But Rizpah, the mother of two of the seven men, stayed at the bodies and shooed away birds from the corpses. David learned of this, and ordered that the bodies be buried, along with those of Saul and Jonathan. Thus, the famine ended. Now, to our plague story. As 2 Samuel 24. God is angry at Israel again—the text doesn’t say why, but the “again” connects us back to chapter 21--and God incites David to take a census of Israel and Judah. In other words, God puts the idea in David’s mind or otherwise suggests the census. David tasks Joab and the other army commanders to take the census. Joab responds respectfully but also asks David why he wants to do this. But David sent them out, and the text describes their path among regions and cities. (Joab is an interesting character in the stories of David, a commander who fulfills David’s orders and “speaks truth” to the king, but also a dangerous person who took matters into his own hands, and whom David couldn’t entirely trust. He killed Absalom for instance, contrary to the king’s orders, and then rebuked David for failing to lead in this situation: 2 Samuel 18:1-19:8. David’s last deathbed order was to have Joab slain for the murders of Abner and Amasa: 1 Kings 2:5-9). Nine months and 20 days after David had ordered the census, Joab and the commanders returned and reported that in Israel there were 800,000 “soldiers able to draw the sword,” and 500,000 in Judah. But David “was stricken to the heart” that he had done this, and he beseeched God in repentance to remove his guilt. The next day, Gad the seer received God’s word and reported to David that he (David) had three choices: three years of family on the land, three months of running from his enemies, or three days of pestilence. God would do the one that David chose. David did not want to be pursued by enemies, for God’s mercy is greater than humans. David did not choose which of the other two options, and God sent a pestilence that killed 70,000 people. The angel of God’s work was about to strike Jerusalem but God instructed the angel to stop. At that point, the angel was at the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. David say the angel and beseeched God, “I alone have sinned, and I alone have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house.” The word of God came to Gad, who told David, “God up and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” When Araunah saw David and his servants coming, he prostrated himself and asked what David wanted. David said he was there to purchase the threshing-floor. Araunah offered him the place as a gift as well as oxen and yokes for the offering. David responded that he wanted instead to purchase them, “I will not offer burnt-offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” He paid Araunah fifty shekels of silver and erected the altar there. God accepted the offering and averted the plague. The same story in 1 Chronicles 21 differs in some details. (2) Notably, it is Satan who incited David to commence the census. Among other different details, Joab reported that in Israel there were 1,100,000 men “who drew the sword” in Israel, and in Judah 470,000. These numbers did not include Levi and Benjamin, “for the king’s command was abhorrent to Joab.” In Chronicles, the Jebusite’s name is Ornan—and in this story, Ornan himself sees the angel of the Lord, and he had four sons, who hid from the angel. In this story, David paid him 600 shekels of gold by weight. With the burnt offering (lit by God’s own fire from heaven), the angel “put his sword back into its sheath.” The chapter ends by indicating that the Tabernacle was at the high place at Gibeon, but David feared the angel’s sword and could not go there to inquire of God. Again--without knowing about the nature of infection and disease transmission—the writer attributes the plague to the agency of God, working via an angel. In the writer’s understanding, the disease came as a result of God’s anger with his people, just as the plague in Numbers 25 expressed God’s angel. In this case, the plague was one “option” of God. Questions 1.As you read these complementary passages, what stands out to you? 2.A question from earlier. Someone comes to you and says, “I think God is punishing me for something, because I have this serious trouble in my life.” What would you say to them? 3.The comedian Flip Wilson popularized the phrase, “The Devil made me do it!” Have you ever used that amusing excuse for doing something you regretted, or for which you were criticized? 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 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? 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? 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? 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. |
