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

Today’s passage contains a list of David’s mighty warriors and their most notable accomplishments.  This compilation makes sense of why Absalom listened to Hushai’s advice.  Surely Absalom had heard these stories, and more, growing up.  In fact, he would have grown up hearing the stories about what a great war leader his father was, leading a group of great warriors.  However, after writing that I realized the significance both of that being recorded here, and of Joab’s objection to David’s census.  Since God had provided David with such mighty warriors, he did not need numbers.  David wanted a census taken so that he knew how large of an army he could muster.  Yet, over the course of his military career, God had provided him with warriors who demonstrated that, as long as he did God’s will, he did not need numbers to obtain victory.

When David received the results of the census, he realized that he had done wrong by not putting his trust fully in God and cried out to God for forgiveness.  I want to note that throughout the story of David there are multiple occasions when he did wrong, but when he realized his sin, he confessed it and turned once more to God.  That is what made David a man of God.  On this occasion, the prophet Gad gave David a choice between three options for punishment.  David’s answer was to beg God not to allow him to fall into the hands of his human enemies.  He threw himself upon God’s mercy, accepting whatever punishment God chose to mete out to him.  Then when David saw God’s punishment falling on his people, he begged God to spare them and allow himself and his family to bear the brunt of that punishment.

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