2 Samuel 24:2 For the king said to Joab the captain of the host, which was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel… This chapter contains the spiritual history of a great soul in its "fall and rising again," its sin and recovery - its (1) self-elation, (2) self-will (vers. 3, 4), (3) self-deception (during many months), (4) self-conviction (by self-examination, ver. 10), (5) self-abasement, (6) self-surrender (ver. 14), (7) self-devotion for the people (ver. 17), and self-dedication to God (vers. 24, 25). Of self-elation, pride, presumption, vain glory (the sin of David), it may be said that it is - I. A COMMON EFFECT OF EXTRAORDINARY PROSPERITY, temporal or spiritual. Pride; war, famine, or pestilence; suffering and humiliation; peace and industry; prosperity - pride again; such is the melancholy circle of human affairs (Exodus 8:14). "If we knew how to enjoy our blessings in the fear of God, they would be continued unto us; but it is the sin of man that he extracts, even from the mercies of God, the poison which destroys his comforts; he grows fat upon the bounties of Heaven, spurns its laws, and awakens its vengeance" (R. Watson). II. AN UNGRATEFUL PERVERSION OF DIVINE BENEFITS. "The grave sin of proud exaltation, which David and the people of Israel here had in common, presupposed the elevation to victory and power that God had bestowed by his gracious mind; and its consequence was the judgment that revealed God's anger against the perversion of his favours into plans of self-aggrandizement" (Erdmann). What should produce thankfulness and humility too often results in unthankfulness and vain glory (2 Kings 20:13). III. A SPECIAL TEMPTATION OF THE EVIL ONE. (1 Timothy 3:6.) "And Satan [an adversary] stood up," etc. (1 Chronicles 21:1). "We see that God and Satan both had their hand in the work; God by permission, Satan by suggestion; God as a Judge, Satan as an enemy; God as in a just punishment for sin, Satan as in an act of sin; God in a wise ordination of it to good, Satan in a malicious intent to confusion" (Hall). IV. A GRIEVOUS EXHIBITION OF SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS; inconsideration of dependence, self-ignorance, self-deception, and foolish infatuation (Jeremiah 49:16). "David, when strongly tempted to this gratification of his vanity, was not at all sensible of the evil of such an act; while Joab was. Joab, though a man of blood, and apparently hardened in iniquity, could see through David's vain and arrogant feelings, while David himself, whose mind was under ordinary circumstances eminently sensitive and pious, could not discover the impiety of his proceeding, but persevered in evil for several months. Such is the infatuation of sin!" (Lindsay). V. A PECULIAR PROVOCATIVE OF DIVINE WRATH (1 Samuel 2:3; Proverbs 16:5); most odious of all things in the sight of God, because most directly opposed to him. "Pride is the beginning of sin" (Ecclus. 10:13). "And what is pride but the craving for undue exaltation? And this is undue exaltation when the soul abandons him to whom it ought to cleave as its end, and becomes a kind of end to itself. This happens when it becomes its own satisfaction. And it does so when it falls away from that unchangeable good which ought to satisfy it more than itself" (Augustine, 'The City of God' 14:13). VI. A PERNICIOUS INFLUENCE IN RELATION TO OTHER PEOPLE; inciting in them a similar spirit, and bringing untold miseries upon them. What oppression, strife, and other deadly fruits grow out of this "root of bitterness" (Exodus 14:5)! VII. A RUINOUS TENDENCY IN RELATION TO MAN HIMSELF. (Daniel 4:28; Proverbs 16:18.) "Pride wishes to dethrone God. Pride takes occasion from virtue itself. Pride was particularly odious in David, who was exalted from so lowly a state. His pride was accompanied by falsehood; for he had protested his humility in the psalms which he made for all the people to sing. David was a just man; but this was a reason why God should punish him more severely. For it is certain that the sins of the children of God are more deserving of condemnation than the sins of reprobates and slaves of the devil. These only offend their master, but those do outrage to their Father; these are only rebel subjects, but those are unnatural children and barbarians; these only abuse the gifts of nature, but those profane miserably the gifts of grace. And how much more abominable is Judas than Pilate! Be not surprised, then, that when David, who was complete in a thousand graces, committed the crime of felony against him, the Eternal could not suffer such an indignity without punishing him severely" (Du Bose, in Vinet's 'Histoire de la Predication'). - D. Parallel Verses KJV: For the king said to Joab the captain of the host, which was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people. |
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