Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Samuel 23-24.

Today’s passage starts with what it says are David’s last words.  I do not think they mean that he spoke this on his death bed.  Rather, I think this was a psalm he put together when he realized that he would soon die which was intended to be his last message to the people of Israel, sort of like the farewell speech a President might give as he leaves office.  Then the passage gives us a list of the men whose exploits led to so much of David’s success.  Finally, we have the account of David’s census and the plague which resulted from it, leading to David selecting the spot where the Temple would be built.  Again, we see Joab try to talk David out of this bad idea (although the passage does not explain why it was a bad idea), which is yet another example of the complex relationship between David and Joab.  According to this passage, when David received the results of this census he realized that he had sinned against God by having this census taken.  As I said, the passage does not explain what sin David had committed here.  Perhaps it was his failure to collect the “census tax” which God had commanded Moses to collect, or, perhaps it was because David felt the need to know the number of fighting men he could muster rather than relying on God that there would be enough for whatever wars God led him into.

In any case, when the prophet Gad came to David the following morning offering David a choice of consequences, David chose to fall into the hands of God, rather than into the hands of men.  Then later, when David witnessed the people suffering, he asked God to not punish the people he led for his sin but instead to punish him directly.  Whenever my Dad spoke about this passage he always focused on David’s desire that God mete out the punishment for his sin directly.  God has great mercy, but we humans all too often want others to suffer more than called for by their misdeed.  I, always think about the importance of leaders taking responsibility for their mistakes and striving to keep those they lead from suffering for them.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.