2 Samuel, Chapter 24 - David's Last Act | Prophets of Israel Daily

[music] Shalom friends. Welcome back to the Prophets of Israel Daily brought to you by the land of Israel network [music] at the land of Israel.com. This is the book of 2 Samuel chapter 24. I'm Jeremy Gimpel and I'm [music] here with my dear friend in Karuta Arya Bramitz. And as I'm traveling across the United States, I see that I'm actually here with y'all. Jews across Israel, people across America and around the world. This is the most marvelous nakyomi Bible study in the world. And I want to take a moment and point this out because all of you are safe and secure behind whatever device or computer you're using to follow these teachings of the prophets. But we have two nuns that I know that are following together with us. Rabbis in Israel that are following, Jews, nuns, everything in between. We love you all. Thank you for joining us. and how incredible and overlooked the prophets of Israel have been. It's like the one book that speaks to the heart of every person that believes in God in the world. The one book in the world that's bold enough to say coar hashem thus says the Lord and everyone honors it. Everyone respects it. The Hebrew Bible, it's the word. It's the one book that has the power to really bring everyone together and speak on behalf of Israel in the land of Israel with authority. And so with that, I want to celebrate together with everyone. Friends, this is it. We have arrived at the final chapter of the book of 2 Samuel. And so now we've gone through the book of Joshua, the book of Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel with Amunam with faith practiced with loyalty. We are slowly but surely learning through all of the prophets of Israel. So kola kavo to all of you. Kola kavo to all of us. Barak hashem because these books are a gift that keep on giving. They're a part of the land of Israel network. You can go back listen to them again and again. You've missed a book, you can go back and binge on the episodes just on the drive from Amarillo, Texas to Dallas, Texas. You can probably finish the entire book of Joshua. This state is so big. Siltov and let's get to it. Chapter 24 is one of the most mysterious and most profound chapters in the book. It opens with a sentence that's puzzled the greatest minds for thousands of years. Here's what it says. Verse one is again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them saying go number Israel and Judah. So God angry at Israel moves David to take a census to count the people. David commands Yo, go through all of the tribes and number them so I know how many we are. And here's the first strange thing. Yav is asked. Yo, the man who murdered Aare and Amasa and Av Shalom without blinking suddenly becomes the voice of David's conscience. In verse three, it says Yo says, "Why does the Lord the king want to do this thing?" And he tries to talk David out of it, but David overrules him. And Yov goes and counts the people, over a million men of Israel who draw the sword. And it's interesting to note that Yov counts them and separates the tribes of Judah from the tribes of Israel. 800 among Israel and 500,000 from Judea. So there's always been a noticeable fracture between these two forces. And you just see it all the time again and again. And then immediately verse 10 lev Davidid Oto in David's heart smote him after he numbered the people. David's own heart strikes him and he turns to Hashem and says I have sinned greatly in what I've done. Take away the guilt of your servant for I have acted very foolishly. >> Jeremy I I think a lot of people on this journey with us may be asking the same thing. What exactly was the sin here? David counted his people. That's it. Kings do that. Why is that a catastrophe worthy of a plague? And the answer we learn is beautiful. The problem was never really the counting. The Torah itself has censuses. The problem was how and why. The Torah says when you count Israel, you count through the half shekele, coins in the hand, never the people directly. But David wanted a raw headcount, a number. How many sword drawers do I have? How strong is the army? And listen to what's underneath that question. It's a king at the height of his power after all the victories starting to measure his strength in numbers. How big is my army? How mighty am I? It It's the move of a man who's beginning to trust in the size of his forces instead of the God who gave him every one of those victories. That's why this sin is so subtle and I believe it's also so profoundly serious. David's whole life, his whole song we just read in chapter 22 was the Lord is my rock. His strength was always God and here for one moment he slips. He wants to see his strength as a number he possesses. And the counting turns the people from God's nation into David's asset. And uh and Jeremy, that temptation is so human, right? The moment we start to succeed, we start often trusting the metrics, the balance, the followers, the numbers instead of the one behind them. But here's David's greatness, right? The sages line up the righteous by how they met suffering, right? Job yo yo yov protested. Abraham accepted it in silence. Kriska the king. Hezekiah prayed for mercy. And David, David asked for it. In Psalm 26, he says to God, "Judge me, right? Examine me." He didn't just tolerate being examined. He ran towards it. So the second his own heart convicts him, there's no argument, no delay, no defense, just I have sinned. He wanted to be made clean more than he wanted to be right. And that is the king behind this chapter. That is the greatest king of Israel. >> Yeah. And you know that's the key Ari that immediate conscience. And now the chapter becomes really agonizing. The prophet God comes to David with a choice. God offers three punishments. Seven years of famine, 3 years of fleeing before your enemies or three days of a plague. You choose David. And David gives one of the most remarkable answers in Tanakh. Verse 14. Let us fall now in the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are great. But let me not fall in the hand of man. Let me fall into God's hands, not man's hands, because Hashem is merciful. Who knows what will happen in the hands of man? David chooses the plague, the option that comes directly from God with no human being in between. Right? And Jeremy, that one answer tells you everything about David's faith, even in the moment of his own punishment. Because think about what he's actually choosing here. He'd rather fall into the hand of God than into the hand of man. He'd rather be struck by a merciful God than spared by uh a cruel one. Right? And David knew something from a lifetime of experience. The human beings when they have power over you can be merciless and often are. Uh but God, even when God holds the rod, even when God is the one bringing the punishment, his judgment comes wrapped in compassion. He's a father, not a tyrant. And that's the part that moves me, right? This is a man choosing his own punishment. And he chooses to be closer to God inside of it, not further away. He runs towards Hashem even when Hashem is the one holding that rod of his punishment. That's not fear. That's the deepest kind of trust that there is. You know, it's interesting. But I always wondered, Ari, like why not a famine for seven years? That seemed like that's also directly from God. And as I looked into it, he said that a famine, if you think about it, the king, his palace, the rich people of the community of the nation, all of them will survive. Only the poor and the weakest in Israel will suffer. And he didn't want to remove himself or the ones closest to him from any catastrophe that hits Israel. He didn't want economics or politics politics to play a role. A plague is something that comes unmitigated directly from above. And so the plague sweeps through Israel and 70,000 die. It's devastating. And then the angel of destruction stretches out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it. In verse 16 says, God relents. Rav, enough. Stay your hand. God stops the angel at a very specific place, the threshing floor of a Jebusite named Aravna. the place Hamakum, the Temple Mount. And David looks up and sees the angel there and his response is just pure love for the people of Israel. Verse 17, Behold, I have sinned and I have done wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done? It was me. Let your hand be against me and my father's house. But these sheep, what did they do? The king begs to take the punishment onto himself and spare the people. It was me. Let your hand be against me and my father's house. What did they do? The king begs to take the punishment. Yeah. And Jeremy, now comes one of the what I think are the culminating moments in the entire story of David. And it's really easy to just go past it, right? The prophet God tells Davidid, "Go up and build an altar to God on that threshing floor, the very place where the plague stopped." So David goes to Aravna the Jebisite to buy the land. And Aravna seeing his king stand before him, says, "Take it. It's yours for free. Here are the ox and here's the wood. Take it all as a gift, my king." And David refuses, right? He says, "I will not offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that have cost me nothing." He will not give to God an offering that costs him nothing. So he pays full price, 50 shekels of silver for the threshing floor and the oxen. and he builds the altar and the plague stops. Now, here it is, Jeremy. That threshing floor, that exact spot where the angel stopped, where David insisted on paying full price, where he built that altar, the book of Chronicles tells us plainly that is Mount Mariah. It's the Temple Mount. It's the very place where Abraham bound Isaac. It's where David's son Solomon will build the beta mikdash, the holy temple. Think about what that means. The entire book of Samuel, all the wars, all the wandering, all the grief, all the failure, and all the forgiveness has been one long journey to this single piece of ground. And David acquires the holiest sight on earth, not by conquest and not as a gift, but by paying its full price. So that is established forever in the deed itself. This place belongs to the Jewish people, bought and paid for. >> You know, and I think that's really just the perfect finish. The book of 2 Samuel, it doesn't end with King David on a throne, but it ends with a king on his knees building an altar for the future temple. And that's not what this chapter teaches us. It's what the entire book of Samuel teaches us and leads us to this exact moment. You know, for Israel today, you know, this is the deed of the purchase for the Temple Mount recorded in scripture 3,000 years ago. And in a generation where the entire world questions whether the Jewish people have any claim to Jerusalem or to the Temple Mount or to this land, the Temple Mount is the most contested real estate in the world. The final chapter of the book of Samuel answers with a receipt. Just like Abraham who purchased land for the first time in the land of Israel in Kevron when he purchased Marata Makah the tomb of the patriarchs and matriarchs David paid full price in silver for the holiest ground on earth and there his son built God's house. It was purchased by the king of Israel for the nation of Israel. It was consecrated and sanctified with an altar that the king built and it was dedicated to be a house of prayer for all nations. The Temple Mount is the place where I was once arrested for praying to God. And today it's a place where Jews, Christians, and any other religion outside of what the walk have decided can pray there struggle to pray. And what a place on earth, what other place are people forbidden to pray? A house of prayer for all nations has become a house of prayer for one nation. And so buying the land that would build a temple in Jerusalem, that was David's final act in the book of Samuel. And it remains our ultimate goal. And here we are with that same mountain 3,000 years later at the center of the world's attention, at the center of our prayers. The book ends by pointing at the one spot the whole story was always moving toward. And so may we be the generation that sees it fully restored in God's house rebuilt upon it. My friends, we did it. We have completed another book of the prophets together. What an accomplishment. I want to thank the whole team at the Land of Israel Network that are all working behind the scenes, all the time it took to make this possible. I want to thank all of our sponsors, but most of all, I want to thank every one of the members of the Land of Israel Fellowship. You are not only the inspiration behind this project, you are the engine that powers this train. You are our global family and a reflection of everything King David and his mighty men worked to build in Israel. So thank you for being you and being a part of the land of Israel fellowship and with >> and thank you Hashem creator of heaven and earth who brought us to this very moment. Without your blessing and your guidance and your inspiration we would not have been able to connect with the prophets who have brought us to this moment in time and understand where we're going forward. So thank you Hashem. >> And with that I would like to thank Hashem as well. Last but not least, as we complete the entire book of Samuel 1 and two, Kazakh, be strong, be strong, and may we be strengthened for all the good folks around the world that have joined us on this journey through the book of Samuel. You can now go back to the beginning of the prophets and catch up. We started with the book of Joshua. You can catch up on anything you've missed. It's all on the land ofisrael.com. It's free. It's open to everyone. And that's in perfect timing because we're about to take a small summer break until I get back from my speaking tour in America to begin the book of Kings, the book we build the temple in Jerusalem. One of the only windows we have into the prophecy of the messianic [music] era itself. We will see you again soon. Shalom. >> [music]