I decided to do some switching with the reading schedule because 2nd Samuel 24 and 1st Chronicles 21 both record the census of Israel and its aftermath. I will comment on Psalm 99 and 1st Chronicles 22 tomorrow.
Be forewarned. This one is long.
😏 Long as in, a 10-minute read?
No. Long as in, “Are we there yet?”
🫤
THE CENSUS
It’s crucial to begin with a review of the Law and some background before we can understand what went wrong with the census. So let’s reach back to Exodus…
“The Lord said to Moses, “When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the Lord. Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the Lord’s offering. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the Lord’s offering to make atonement for your lives. You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the Lord, so as to make atonement for your lives.”
Exodus 30:11-16 ESV
We’re all familiar with paying taxes. Tax revenue goes to the government (federal, state, and local), and it is used (or is supposed to be used 😏) to secure the citizens’ welfare. The military protects and fights on our behalf. Laws are made, enforcers paid, and judges appointed and sustained to interpret the laws so disputes can be settled. State and local infrastructure for safe travel is provided. And many other benefits are covered by tax dollars.
Ancient Israel’s government was similar. Only, instead of Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches and an IRS, they have a priesthood.
Yahweh is their legislator. He wrote all of their laws. The people ratified them by willingly entering into the covenant at Sinai.
The Priesthood (along with qualified Levites) are the Executive and Judicial branches. Remember all those rules about showing yourself to the priest if you have a red spot or you start going bald or you get mold in your house and stuff? The priests explain and interpret the Law to the people, enforce the consequences of breaking it and the steps to rejoin society if there has been a breach.
The priests receive a portion of the food brought as offerings to the Tabernacle. But if you were a government employee and your groceries were provided, that doesn’t magically put a roof over your head, clothes on your family, oil for your lamps, or a cart and an ox to pull it.
Israel’s “government workers” were the intermediary between the people and their Ultimate Power – Yahweh. The LORD was their military might and their state department; dealing on their behalf with other nations. It was the priesthood’s work at the Tabernacle that kept the populace in right standing with God. They needed to be paid.
The “Temple Tax” (as it would later be called) was what it cost to be a citizen of the nation with all the benefits of God’s good laws and the blessings they enjoyed.
Based on a federal minimum wage of $7.25, the flat tax levied- [Levi’d – as in, the tribe of Levi collected the tax] in ancient Israel is roughly equivalent to $87.00 USD. Considering inflation it might be closer to the value of about $150.00. Pretty minimal tax if you ask me. This was paid by adults age 20+. And it seems that it was only collected, (at least initially), when a census was taken.
It’s called “atonement money” because it’s the money that enables the Tabernacle/Temple and Priesthood to function; which is what provided atonement for Israel – the covering of their sins in order to be in right standing with God. And I’d like to drill down into the Hebrew word for atonement for a moment. (This is good spot to top up your coffee). ☕️
ATONEMENT
Atonement in Hebrew is kaphar (kaw-far). It’s spelled Kaf (K), Peh (P), Resh (R).
Courtesy of FathersAlphabet.com…
There are several ideas we might consider.
Cover the mouth/saying of man.
- The saying (sentence, Word) of the LORD covers over the saying (words) of man. That’s what happens in atonement.
Cover the opening of man/beginning.
- Man’s sin in the beginning made a breach (an opening, a gulf, the pit of death) between God and man. In atonement, the LORD covers that breach. It’s like putting a manhole cover on a manhole so a person won’t fall in.
Kaf can also mean the sole of the foot. In the beginning there was a promise that a foot would crush the head of the Serpent. In doing so, the mouth of the Serpent would bite the heel. This is also an aspect of atonement. Christ, the Seed of the Woman, and the bruiser of the Serpent’s head, is the atoning sacrifice. In His offering on the cross, He trampled the Serpent underfoot. (Keep that trampling and crushing imagery in mind. It’s going to come up again later.)
So this tax was called “atonement money” because it funded the function of the Tabernacle and “covered” each counted individual in the census with the national covering of sins.
Ok. Now that we have a firm hold on how a census in Israel was supposed to be done, let’s look at what actually happened.
WHO MOVED DAVID? GOD OR SATAN?
“Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, number Israel and Judah.”
2 Samuel 24:1 ESV
“Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel.”
1 Chronicles 21:1 ESV
These two parallel passages are among the more famous for having “inconsistencies.” The census numbers are different – though I think this may be accounted for because the totals in Chronicles possibly include the Levites (and Benjamin?) while the numbers reported in 2nd Samuel do not.
But the most glaring difference is that 2nd Samuel has the LORD inciting David to count Israel, while Chronicles has Satan doing it. This is no small problem.
There are two key pieces of information required to square this circle.
- The word “satan” in OT Hebrew is used as a title or description and not a proper name. And it appears with the definite article “the.” So it is “the satan” and means “adversary.”
- The LORD Himself has already appeared in the OT as “the satan” – “the Adversary.”
🤯😱😡 WHAT?!?!?! OK! Now you’ve gone TOO FAR! How dare you?! What madness is this!? Did you actually just say that God was Satan? Tell me you didn’t just say that!!!
I didn’t just say that.
😲 But you said…
Are you going to stay in freak-out mode or would you like me to show you in the text?
😐 Ok. But I don’t think I’m gonna like this one bit.
It’s alright. Deep breaths. I’m just gonna take this little hammer here 🔨and tap tap tap your mental glass ceiling and your worldview is gonna be SO much bigger and more Biblical when we’re all done.
😰 Wait… you’re gonna do what to me?
Relax. I’m a professional.
😐 That’s what my dentist says.
And you haven’t died in the dentist chair. Now… if you’ll relax, I’ll explain…
We have to revisit the story of Balaam and the talking donkey. It’s the part where Balaam is riding along and the donkey sees the Angel of Yahweh. Recall that “the Angel of the LORD” or “The Angel of Yahweh” is the OT way of referring to the Second Yahweh Figure: the Word of Yahweh Who would appear in human form. No man (not even Moses) has seen God at any time (Jn. 1:18). IF a human could somehow see a Spirit (Jn. 4:24), the experience of seeing God would be lethal. So, to interact with humans without killing them, Yahweh’s Word – the full representation of His heart and mind – appears in human form. And He is regarded as God. Divine. And He receives worship and refers to Himself as God.
Ok. So THAT is Who is here:
“But God’s anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as his adversary. Now he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with him.”
Numbers 22:22 ESV
Here’s a screenshot from blueletterbible.org so you can see the Hebrew for yourself:
The Angel of Yahweh (Who is Himself Yahweh), performed the function of a “satan” (sah-TAHN), an adversary.
And that’s ALL it means; one who opposes.
In 1 Kings 11:14 and 23 we have God “stirring up an adversary” against Solomon. It is, again, “the satan.” This time the “satan” is a neighboring king.
The problem is, most of us tend to read the word “Satan” and think this:
Or this…
Or maybe this…
NONE of those are correct. Feel free to toss them.
Satan has come to mean: a red being with horns and perhaps batwings and maybe a tail but definitely a singular entity who is the king of demons and lord of Hell who probably has glowy eyes and breathes fire or plays with fire or is just generally comfortable with fire. 🔥
You should know that this is a fairly recent concept.
🤔 Recent?
Well, ok in the scope of human history, Medieval art and Milton’s Paradise Lost published in 1667 are recent. They are the primary sources for our modern concept of Satan.
The biblical writers and original audience did not have these ideas in their heads.
If anything, a more biblical depiction of the tempter in Eden might be something like…
But even that is not how the Hebrew word “satan” (sah-TAHN) is used.
As I said, it’s used to describe the Angel of LORD opposing Balaam, and adversarial kings whom the LORD stirred up against Solomon. That’s also how it’s used in Psalm 109 when David prays against his “adversaries.” In the KJV in v6 it even just uses the word “Satan.”
The term was also used in 1st Samuel 1:6 to describe Peninnah – the fertile wife of Elkanah because of how she treated Hannah. (Remember that the next time you encounter a “mean girl.”)
The word Satan appears more in Job than anywhere else in the OT. It is used of an entity that appears among the Sons of God – which is rather telling. This adversary functions as an instrument of testing. The sorrows he is allowed to inflict upon Job only proves that Job is faithful to the Creator. There is no actual evidence in the text to tie the Satan-figure from Job to Lucifer – the fallen cherub- or the entity called “the Devil and Satan” in the NT. For all we know, these could be 3 separate beings.
If we would be good students of scripture, we must be careful to not read things into the text that aren’t there. We may think they are there because we read the word “satan” and it comes preloaded with a whole software suite of ideas based on what we’ve been exposed to our whole lives.
But if that set of ideas comes up against something like the Balaam story where Yahweh Himself is in the role of “the satan” then it doesn’t fit. The problem is not the Bible. The problem is our assumptions.
Ok. So, with ALL that said, our brains should be able to process this set of ideas:
- God saw the hearts of all Israel and David. There were problems. God has every right to test them.
- Just as the LORD opposed Balaam, so He is standing in opposition to Israel. He was angry with them (2 Sam. 24:1). The LORD is acting as their adversary.
- Just as Yahweh permitted the Satan-figure in Job to test Job, and He sent a spirit to be a “lying spirit” to influence the prophets to persuade King Ahab to go to war so he would be killed (1 Kgs. 22) so He allows a Satan-figure to influence David to take a census of Israel, or He Himself performs this role.
I do not believe that the passages in 2nd Samuel 24 and 1st Chronicles 21 are in contradiction with each other. There is room in the text and in the scope of the OT for both to be true.
Well… Now that we’ve covered the first verse…
😑 We’re going to be here a long time, aren’t we?
Hey… If it was easy, everybody would know this material. C’mon. Gird up the loins of your mind. And maybe refill your coffee cup.
THE SIN & THE PLAGUE
🤔 Wait. Before we get into the rest of the story, why didn’t Joab want to do a census? If God’s Law said it was ok, why was he reluctant?
Well, one thing about this census is David’s motive for taking it. Why does any nation take a census?
🤨 Is this a trick question? It’s obvious. You take a census to know how many people are in your country.
And why would a king want to know that?
😏 Uh…. Data for Wikipedia?
1st Chronicles 21:5 gives us the detail that the numbers were of “men who drew the sword.” David wanted to know how many men he could call up for an army. Now, why would that be a problem?
😰 Uhhhh….
C’mon. You know this. We say it all the time.
😅 Something about circumstances?
Right.
“God does not require
favorable circumstances.”
Remember this?
“Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few.”
1 Samuel 14:6 ESV
God does not require a big army.
Remember Gideon and his 300 guys with trumpets and torches?
Hadn’t Yahweh promised to protect and take care of Israel? Counting (and probably getting the locations of) all the able-bodied men in Israel may betray a lapse of faith on David’s part.
🤴🏽 “Yeah – Yahweh will help us but it would be nice to have a big army too.”
🧔🏻 “Yeah – I know the Lord will provide but it would be nice to have a lot of money too.”
Are those really positions of faith?
The other piece of this is that David and the people should’ve known the Law. Even if David forgot and Joab didn’t ask for the half-shekel atonement money, did not ONE person in all Israel know what Exodus 30 said? Not one priest? Not one Levite? Not a single scribe or court advisor? The prophets didn’t even show up until it was too late.
Just like in the ark-moving debacle, where David and everyone else neglected to consult the scripture for the details, again they all “go off half-cocked” and take the census without having consulted the Word of God on how such a thing is to be done.
The Word of the Lord comes to visit Gad the Seer with a message for David. I wonder if there isn’t a subtle parallel with the story of David and Bathsheba here. David gets Bathsheba pregnant and 9 months later their child is born. Nathan the prophet immediately confronts David, David expresses remorse over his sin, and not long later, the infant dies. I wonder if it was 20 days later?
It took exactly 9 months and 20 days for Joab to take the census. And at the end of that time period, Gad the Seer confronts David, David expresses remorse over his sin, and people die.
I dunno. Just an observation.
Josephus records that the “plague” took many forms. He said,
👳🏽♂️ “Now, the miserable disease was one indeed, but it carried them off by ten thousand causes and occasions, which those that were afflicted could not understand.”
The one thing that they all had in common was that it was a swift death. People were literally just dropping dead. Seventy thousand of them.
THE THRESHING FLOOR
The LORD sends Gad to tell David to build an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah/Ornan the Jebusite. This man was a Jebusite but Josephus said that he was a friend of David. He and his 4 sons were threshing wheat. If David will offer a sacrifice, the plague will be stopped.
Araunah offered to give David the flails and sledges and implements for wood, the oxen for a burnt offering and the freshly threshed wheat for a grain offering.
“But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.” 2 Samuel 24:24 ESV
This verse is one of my ministry pillars.
It’s not a sacrifice of praise unless it’s a sacrifice. Selah.
They are on Mount Moriah. This is the same mountain where Abraham had come to offer Isaac. The thicket of thorns had been cleared away and the site was now a place to thresh wheat.
The harvested wheat stalks would be laid on the ground and beaten with hinged rods called flails.
Not only would the wheat be beaten, it would be “trodden.” An ox would pull a threshing sledge over the wheat. This was a wooden sled, usually with some rocks piled on it for weight. All of this pounding and grinding would separate the wheat kernels from their husks. The wheat would be tossed into the air with forks and the wind would blow the husks (the chaff) away while the wheat and straw fell back to the ground. The straw would be raked up and underneath would be the wheat kernels.
Do you remember how I said earlier – like an hour ago 😏 – the Hebrew word for atonement KaPhaR had this idea of the sole of the foot crushing the mouth at the beginning?
David is instructed to build an altar on the threshing floor – the place where the sole of the foot crushes the wheat. It’s the place where Calvary was prefigured in the offering of Isaac. It’s the same mountain where 1000 years later, the Son of David will be crushed after having been beaten and “flailed.”
Consider Jesus’ words:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” John 12:24 ESV
Jesus – the kernel of wheat – was beaten and trodden and crushed by the weight of sin. He was tossed up into the air on a cross and separated from the “husk” of his fleshly body. And it happened somewhere near the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
And as Christ was being crushed, He was also crushing the head of the Serpent. The sole of His pierced foot was crushing the mouth and the words that opened before humanity the opening – the breach, the pit – at the beginning. His pierced hand was covering that hole and covering – silencing – the mouth and the words of the Satan, the Adversary, the Accuser of the Brethren.
Jesus was offered up as our atonement sacrifice for all the times we failed to consult the Word of God and do what it said. He covered for us.
😴 💤💤💤
🙄
😴 💤💤
😒 ahem…
😵💫 😬 uh… I’m awake. I’m awake. I was just resting my eyes. You were explaining the origin of nunchucks I think.
🤨 Where did I lay that hammer?
To The Reader 