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The whole story is mysterious. We feel at each step that much is kept back from us.

1. The fault of the king is mysterious. It is not enough to say that there was pride and vainglory in his heart. If this were all, it might have made the act sinful in the sight of God, but it would not account for the view taken of the act either by the minister or by the historian. There are many things in Scripture, as there are many things in life, which we must leave in the hands of God.

2. The mode of his punishment is full of mystery. A choice of punishments is offered him; but the punishments are all national. "Rulers sin and peoples suffer" has passed into a proverb. Scripture and Providence are at one in this matter. On a king's edict of passion or foolishness may hang a nation's misery or a nation's dishonour. A king's caprice or a king's miscalculation may hand over a nation to a bloody and ruinous war of which it may be the occupation of a century to bear or repair the consequences.

3. The peculiarity of David's penalty is the choice offered him. The day of Divine alternatives is not ended. Every example of a sin brought face to face with its suffering presents an aspect of choice as well as of compulsion. The mere question of confession or denial, with the consequences of either, is such an alternative in the case of individual wrongdoing. The adoption of this expedient rather than that, in the way of avoidance or mitigation of consequences, is an alternative. The way of bearing punishment, the language of regret or of hardness, the tone of submission or of defiance, most of all the spirit of repentance or of impenitence, is an alternative for the individual transgressor. The question of stopping or continuing a hopeless struggle, of accepting a defeat, of submitting to abduction, of "desiring conditions of peace," or on the contrary, of persisting in warfare for the chance of a turn of fortune — the question of renewing a struggle, years or generations afterwards, on the plea of a hereditary title or a popular invitation — is an alternative, real or responsible, on the stage of kings and nations.

4. How shall we read the words, "Let me now fall into the hand of the Lord"? Is it a choice made? or is it a choice referred back to the offerer? Is it, I choose pestilence? or is it, Let God choose? "So the Lord sent the pestilence upon Israel" indicates perhaps on the part of our translators a preference of the former. I choose that punishment which has no human inflicter. But, whatever the application, the principle stands steadfast. In everything let me be in God's hands. Anything which God inflicts is preferable to any suffering which comes through man. But if this be the force of David's words considered as a choice, there is at least an equal interest in them regarded as a refusal to choose. Yes, let us love to live these lives absolutely under God's direction. War, famine, pestilence — if He sees any one necessary, leave Him to choose. Let us not fall into the hands of man — our own, or any other's. We are ill judges — worst of all for ourselves. Our mercies to ourselves are not God's mercies. We are self-sparers as well as self-excusers. If we had our choice, no nerve would ever throb, no hair would ever turn grey. We should grow up, we should go to the grave, we should wake from the dust of the earth spoilt children — with all the irregularities, and all the selfishness, and all the unhappiness, which cling to and cluster round that name. What are we to one another? How does selfishness warp our judgments — selfish love first, then selfish fear.

(Dean Vaughan.)

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KJV: So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Choose thee

WEB: So Gad came to David, and said to him, "Thus says Yahweh, 'Take your choice: