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

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Today’s passage begins with what the writer says are the last words of David.  It always seemed strange to me that the last words David spoke were such a carefully crafted psalm.  Then it occurred to me that what the writer likely means is that these were the words David wrote as his last words to be spoken after his death as a reminder to the people of Israel about his faith in God, and the faith which they should have in God.  So, we are not to understand this as the very last words David spoke before he took his last breath.  Rather, we are to understand that these were the words which David composed to be read after his death.

I find the listing of David’s mighty men interesting, but I am going to skip over that today and go to the account given here about David’s census.  The writer says that God’s anger was kindled against Israel, so God put the idea into David’s mind to take a census of Israel and Judah.  Joab tried to talk David out of it, but David was king, so his word carried the day.  The passage does not tell us why God was angry with Israel, just that He was.  When David realized that he had done wrong by ordering this census to be taken, he repented of his sin and prayed to God begging forgiveness.  God sent the prophet Gad to offer David three possible consequences.  David’s answer is interesting.  Rather than explicitly choose one of the options David said, “Let us fall into the hand of the Lord,…,but let me not fall into the hand of man.”  I find it interesting that David said that considering what the writer of the Book of Hebrews wrote,“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” I think it unlikely that the writer of Hebrews was not explicitly thinking about what David said here when he wrote that.  So, while it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, it is still better than if He allows us to fall into the hands of men.  I would rather suffer what God thinks I deserve for my sins than what human beings think I deserve.

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