Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 20-23.

Today’s passage contains the account of how David chose the future location of the temple in response to the plague which followed his census of the fighting men of Israel.  I will confess that I find all of these accounts confusing.  This one is no exception, and may be more confusing to me than the others.  David insisted on the census even though Joab warned him against it, realizing that he had sinned when he received the results.  Which is the first of the things I find confusing, since the passage does not explain why David commanding the census was a sin.  However, I can think of multiple reasons why it might be a sin, so it is not very confusing.  Next, God offered David the choice of three options for punishment, three years of famine, three days of plague, or three days being forced to flee from his enemies.  David asked only that his punishment come at the hand of God, not at the hand of men.  So, God sent a plague angel against Israel.  Which is also slightly confusing.  Are supposed to understand that David requesting into the hands of God was him choosing plague.  If so, how was plague more at the hands of God than famine?  As the plague angel approached Jerusalem, God ordered it to stop.  Also, as the angel approached Jerusalem, David saw it, fell on his face, and begged God to punish only himself.  God then sent word to David that he should build an altar to God at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.   Araunah and his sons saw the angel and Araunah’s sons hid.  Then Araunah saw David approaching and went out to greet him.  After David had offered his sacrifices, God told the angel to put up its sword and cease threatening Jerusalem.  So, the passage tells us that God told the plague angel to stop as it approached Jerusalem, but also seems to imply that He stopped the plague because David begged Him to turn His anger solely against David and only stopped the plague after David made offerings on a temple at Araunah’s threshing floor.  Perhaps the strangest part of this passage is where it says that David could not go to the tabernacle in Gibeon to inquire of God because he was afraid of the sword of the angel.  I read that as saying that David continued to be afraid to go to Gibeon.  After much thought, I believe the writer chose not to write this in a way which clarified the confusing points in order to convey how we are often confused by the way in which God works and need to look at it in hindsight to have even a modicum of understanding of what He did.

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