What possessed David to count people? Was he fat and happy
and taking inventory of his kingdom? Was
he planning to go to war and felt the need to see what his troop strength might
be? We don't quite know but we know two
things: "the anger of the Lord was
kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them" We don't know why the anger of the Lord was
kindled against Israel but we do know the best way to get at the nation was to
get the king to do something stupid. The
Lord never asked any leader of Israel to measure their strength by counting
people, the nation's strength is not in numbers but in the Lord and the people
belong to the Lord, not the king. David
is given three options and chooses suffering of the nation over his own
suffering. In the end he repents of both
the original sin and the sin against the people, "I have sinned, and I
have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done?" David buys a threshing floor and makes sacrifice
there for his sins in accordance with the word of the Lord through the prophet
Gad. This threshing floor, according to
Chronicles is the base for the temple that David's son Solomon built.
Can you imagine how angry the religious leaders would have
been over Jesus' words, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me
will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” It is utter blasphemy to make such a
claim. The light of the world is Torah,
hasn't He read David's great love song to Torah where he wrote, "Your word
is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." For Jesus to claim that following Him is
walking in the light is offensive in the extreme. It is, however, at one with John's claims in
the prologue to the Gospel (John 1.1-18).
If we would not walk in darkness but have the light of life, we would
follow Jesus. His words, however, are an
invitation to measure His life against the Word of God. If what He says is true then the two should
match, His life should be perfectly in step with the Word. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is
the final word and witness to the truth of His claims.
Does Paul say the Law served a particular purpose until
Jesus came but now we no longer need it?
No, without the Law we could not know whether Jesus was righteous or
not, but God gave the Law so that we might know righteousness but we know it as
a shadow of sorts. The Law tells me what
sin is and we can infer certain things about righteousness from the knowledge
of sin. It is the opposite but is that
really what it is? Righteousness has a
positive content, it is not simply the absence of sin, it has a character of
its own quite apart from sin and the Law.
Freedom and the gift of adoption mean that we no longer need the Law as
a guide to righteousness, we have the Holy Spirit within that leads us into
this positive righteousness, not only telling us what not to do but what to do
as well. David knew as soon as he
ordered the census that it was wrong but knowing and doing right in the first
place is the real righteousness of Christ.
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