Beyond Strange
And again the displeasure of YHVH burned against Yisra’el, and moved Dawid against them to say, “Go, number Yisra’el and Yehudah.” 2 Shemu’el 24:1 ISR
Moved – Could any story in Scripture be stranger than this one? First, it appears in the wrong place. Chapter 23 tells us “these are the last words of David,” yet chapter 24 throws in one more incident. Why was this added to the end? Did the author suddenly remember, after he had compiled everything else, that there was one more event he should have included?
Second, given the introduction in this verse, the entire story seems incompatible with the character of YHVH. The text suggests that YHVH is angry with Israel. Again! This isn’t the first time, but no explanation is given for His anger. Why is He mad? What did Israel as a whole do to provoke what occurs next?
Third, careful reading informs us that YHVH “moved” David to institute a census. The Hebrew sut is particularly difficult here. It is generally about evil intention, translated as “entice, allure, instigate” or “incite.” It is connected to Jezebel, Jehoshaphat and Baruch. The implication of this verb is that YHVH deliberately enticed David to do something that was offensive and resulted in horrendous consequences. Did YHVH set a trap for David and then punish David and the people for falling into it? What in the world is happening here?
There is a parallel text in 1 Chronicles 21. In that text, ha-satan is the one who incites (same Hebrew verb) David. That makes sense. 2 Samuel 24 does not. Of course, men rush to reconcile. See, for example, this attempt [https://carm.org/bible-difficulties/joshua-esther/who-incited-david-count-fighting-men-israel-god-or-satan ]. But the question is not, “Did Satan do it or did God allow Satan to do it?” The question is “Who is culpable?” If God initiated the action, even though Satan was the intermediary, isn’t God still responsible? We have a judicial term for this. Conspiracy. If I hire someone to commit murder, but I don’t actually do the killing, I am equally guilty of the crime. How is YHVH any less culpable simply because He uses Satan to accomplish His will? No, a simple “God isn’t guilty” just won’t do. The story in 1 Chronicles 21 makes sense to us. David listened to the seduction of the Accuser. Bad things happened. But the same story in 2 Samuel 24 is incomprehensible. How can YHVH punish Israel with the deaths of 70,000 for something He initiated? It will take a big paradigm shift to straighten this one out.
Finally, David’s choice of punishment also seems bizarre. One of the three options is for David to be pursued for three months by his enemies. David doesn’t choose this one. Instead he opts for a plague that kills 70,000. What? The king chooses to let 70,000 people die instead of being pursued for three short months. Notice the option does not say he will die, lose the throne or suffer harm. It simply says he will have three months of difficulty. So which would you choose? Personal distress for three months or the deaths of 70,000? What kind of king puts his personal comfort ahead of the lives of 70,000?
This story is most perplexing. Perhaps that’s why it is like an afterthought in the historical record of 2 Samuel. It paints both YHVH and David in very disturbing terms. But there it is, right in the sacred text. Theological manipulations don’t whitewash the text despite attempts to do so. So what do we do with it now?
Topical Index: 2 Samuel 24:1, sut, incite, entice, culpability
It is a fabulous story! Because it make you Think and Think and Think… And searching the TORAH for the principle taught.
There are parallel accounts of Israel in the Prophets and Kings, and then again in the Chronicles. When I read them, the Chronicles seem to explain things from a divine perspective, and the other accounts seem to be compiled by court scribes and the like. They explain things from the perspective of the person in charge. They tend to make the king look good, too! However, if I want to get a better grasp of WHY something was the way it was, the Chronicles tell me better. But, after all, the priests of YHVH wrote those, didn’t they, and perhaps they were written less as current events journalism, and more as hindsight 20/20? That’s the way I have learned to read the Text, anyway.
I also, over the years, have experienced times when I have distinctly felt like I had been left to flap in the cosmic wind; when I was left to my own devices and conclusions; when I looked and looked at my entire landscape and saw no directional signs or signals at all as to which way to go. It was, literally, ‘up to me’. It was terrifying! I knew that whatever I chose from the options I thought I could see, it was all going to turn out badly. And, it always did! But, these were also always the places that, for whatever reason, I was already suffering from a fracture of trust. When trust is shattered, or never installed, humility goes down and pride shows up to take its place. It is arrogance that we run on when we don’t have trust. It is up to me to realize, in those places, that I am about to find myself in a train wreck, no matter what, but when I lack trust already, I also have already traded for pride to cover the shame of that loneliness. It is so hard to admit that I have installed my own Self as the Source, that it is impossible to turn around and admit that I need to start over. In those places, I have forgotten that I am dependent on that divine eye salve to be able to view reality, with all its true choices, correctly, and also to read the signposts for that reality correctly in those places. Love is already missing from What I Desire.
Human eyes only see what they want to see, and what they want to see are only the things that support Self as the largest object on the Plain of Dura. From our perspective, if YHVH is ultimately in charge of our rebellion, this is going to look like we were being led into temptation, is it not? When I pray for that NOT to be the case, is not that prayer being prayed from MY perspective? Its the difference between reading the account out of the court scribes of Self, and the priestly scribes of YHVH. It seems to me, from His perspective, anyway, we get turned over to our own blindness, with its accompanying curse of those tormentors, every time we duck the divine yoke. Now, let us recap the original problem: who exactly slipped their traces on that mutual pull? It seems to me that David was already running amuck in the fields and on the Plain, and so was not facing the Way. If you are not looking at the correct horizon of Love, you are never going to see any of the choices that Love would have made. It seems to me David’s choice options were already being constricted by his blindness to Self, long before the inevitable consequences of that blindness ripened on the tree.
Thank you, Laurita. This helps put it into a perspective I can grasp. Bless you:)
There have been times when I made choices that I could convincingly say that there was a road laid out before me and I chose poorly.
One road I specifically remember, wanting to be in ministry so badly because of gifts I felt that God had given me, I got involved in a friendship with a woman who was the head of women’s ministry in our church. Oh how I wish I had known what that would cost! The life was sucked out of me, I became involved with her husband, the church had a split and I found out a lot about myself that I had no idea was in there.
Long story short people may not have died physically but there were a lot of us who definitely learned about choices. Consequences of stepping out and choosing to do something when there seemed like our choices were the only ones capable of getting us where we wanted to be.
I don’t totally understand paradigm shifts and such but I understand when there are roads or choices laid in front of me and I understand that Yaweh allows me to choose which one I walk on. There have been times when I felt my wrong choices where led by Him to cause me as well as others what His mighty hand can do.
With or Without
My Declaration of Dependence
My help comes from [my own strength].
My help comes from [the number of guns,tanks,or weapons at my disposal].
My help comes from [the size of my bank account].
My help comes from [the arm of flesh].
No. No. and No. – David’s conclusion — and mine as well? (We both learned the hard way!)
~ My help comes from the LORD, the Maker [Creator and Sustainer] of Heaven and of Earth. ~ (Psalm 121.2)
So, tell me Samson [David, Carl, Skip, Sally or Sue] what is the secret of YOUR strength?
Is it my magnetic personality? My way with words? My personal possessions or great personal wealth? My clever thoughts or scheming? My ability to maneuver and to manipulate? [Hey Jacob, how’s that workin’ out for you?]
The Scriptures state: ~ He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He does not take pleasure in the legs of a man. The LORD favors those who fear Him, those who wait for His lovingkindness..~ (Psalm 147.10)
Again dear friends, I confess: ~ “without HIm, I can do nothing!” for HIs strength is displayed and made perfect in our weakness.
Without Him I could do nothing
Without Him I’d surely fail
Without Him I would be drifting
Like a ship without a sail.
Paul’s promising proclamation? ~ I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me! ~ (Philippians 4.13)
O, what a Savior!! O, Hallelujah!! Amen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtZX7a44fMI
Babs, I can relate only too well! You know, we are blind to the sin, or the POTENTIAL sin, in others, as well as in ourselves, in all the places we do not see our own lack of trust. I put my trust in man and horses where I have not learned HOW to put it in YHVH. In those places, sin will look like love; I am literally blind to its lies. We have to learn the difference, and that is a severe learning curve, but Fear Of Man (idolatry of Self and Others) always masquerades as love; as righteousness. Sin is a liar, above all, and it blinds us to the truth. If everything around me, and I do mean EVERYTHING, is a hot stove, which is to say, I am going to find myself getting burned EVERY TIME I touch it; how many times, at 100% rates, is it going to take to teach me to suspect that the next time I go to touch something that it is going to burn me? The answer is going to depend on what I am trying to believe. IF I am trying to believe that there is a Way called My Way, somewhere out there, the more I put my trust in that belief, the more I am going to still touch, even though I get burned. If, however, I choose to change that belief, and believe instead that only YHVH’s Way is right for me, then I am going to be able to quickly learn that getting burned and not walking in His Way must be the same thing.
It is not unusual at all to suffer from the illusion that His Way is the same thing as My Way, because, and especially because, I think so many of us seem to have been taught so poorly, and so evilly, in our religious institutions. You know, I think one of the biggest shocks to me was that, out in the non-religious world, among populations that were never taught, or had rejected what they had been taught, in church, there seemed to be very little illusion about the difference between Self and not Self. It appears that if people have not been taught to SUBSTITUTE their way for His Way, they can clearly see the hypocrisy. And it smells to them, let me tell you. From the eyes of the world, the sins of the church are crystal clear, and they stink.
Hypocrisy, especially in the forms of paganism (which I consider the very Church of Self), have invaded and informed the churches of today from top to bottom, and it is so pervasive and so insidious, it can masquerade as God Himself, and we will not be able to see it. I have thought that we should go pull someone off the street and sit down before them, and ask them to tell us what we are doing wrong. Oh, they know!
Hey! its great you ask such hard questions !!
I am unable to print the document; the message says : “oops something went wrong here”. Dick
I will ask Mark to take a look.
Hello Dick
Could you be more specific please? Are you talking about clicking on the “Click here for a printer-friendly version” from your TW email? What browser are you using? What computer and OS.
If it’s due to the daily email your receiving then it would be the service we use, mailchimp. And that could be for a number of reasons.
A very quick, and good, solution for you, no matter what the mailchimp issue, use the chrome browser, install the “Print Friendly & PDF” extension. That makes it a breeze to print out any website blog post or page. It strips out all the images. Works great. That would be my suggestion to you.
If it is mailchimp, we’ve had this problem before, they will normally fix it on they’re own at some point.
Shalom,
Mark
Hello Dick
I have confirmed that it is a mailchimp issue. WordPress just did a major update, which this website is built on, and it seems that mailchimp hasn’t updated to integrate the “printer friendly” version.
So, once again, my recommendation for you would be to use chrome browser and add the extension. That solves the problem. The Safari browser has that feature built into it.
Hope that helps.
Shalom,
Mark
All the comments wao, I don´t know what to say love the all!!! But I apply myself just to read 2 Samuel 24, the whole chapter and to my mind keeps coming “David was a man according to God´s heart”, that for me means that David really knew God because he had a close and sincere relationship with Him. So when it comes to whom is guilty or not, or why did he choose what he did all I can say is this: David trusted God but he did not trust men and even though the punishments will come from God he knew very well, because of his own behaviors, that men are not to be trusted. For all of that my answer is to both questions: “God who examines our hearts.”