A Choice of Punishments

The prophet Gad said David must choose a punishment: (1) seven years of famine, (2) his enemies triumphing and causing him to flee before them for three months, or (3) three days of pestilence raining down on the people. David knew cruel human foes would have no mercy, but he trusted God. Either famine or pestilence might be the Lord’s instrument of punishment. “Both judgments would fall upon the nation as much as upon the king, but inasmuch as the people cherished the same sins as those that prompted David’s action, the Lord through David’s error punished the sins of Israel.” “Swift destruction followed. Seventy thousand were destroyed by pestilence. David and the elders of Israel were in the deepest humiliation, mourning before the Lord. As the angel of the Lord was on his way to destroy Jerusalem, God bids him to stay his work of death. A pitiful God loves his people still, notwithstanding their rebellion. The angel clad in warlike garments, with a drawn sword in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem, is revealed to David, and to those who were with him. David is terribly afraid, yet he cries out in his distress, and his compassion for Israel. He begs of God to save the sheep. In anguish he confesses, ‘I have sinned, and I have done wickedly. Let thine hand be against me, and against my father’s house, and not upon the people.’ God speaks to David by his prophet, and bids him make atonement for his sin.” David knew he was responsible for numbering his warriors, dreaming of greater personal glory. He shouldered full blame for his failure to give credit to God for Israel’s status.

“Ambition for worldly greatness and a desire to be like the nations round about had arisen, and with it had come a decreasing sense of the solemn destiny to which the nation had been called.” “Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom” (Proverbs 13:10).