1 Chronicles 21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.… The Scripture historians do not conceal David's faults. Though they represent him as the man after God's heart, they faithfully record his grievous defections. He was evidently a man in whom the ordinary principles of human nature were unusually vigorous. There was, accordingly, warmth in his piety, and his sins were those peculiar to an ardent and passionate nature. His warlike impulses led him into cruelty, his amatory passions into adultery, his violence into murder, his self-confidence into the act of regal pride which is condemned in this passage. Accustomed as we are to a periodical census, and indeed to statistics of all kinds, it is difficult for us to understand how blamable was David's conduct in numbering the people. I. Observe AT WHOSE INSTIGATION the king acted. Although in Samuel we are told that the Lord's anger with Israel was the deepest reason for the act and the explanation of all that followed it, our text refers the conduct of David to "an adversary." Whether this enemy was human, or, as is generally supposed, superhuman, diabolical, is not material. A tempter, an adversary, suggested the sinful motive and the disobedient action. II. Observe THE MOTIVE which led to this act. It was a motive often influential with the prosperous and the powerful. It was vanity, confidence in his own greatness, in the number of his soldiers, in the resources of his subjects. David had been a warrior whose arms had been attended with remarkable success, and, like many such, he doubtless deemed himself invincible. III. Observe DAVID'S PERSEVERANCE IN SPITE OF WARNING. Many sins are committed heedlessly. Not so this; for Joab, who was by no means a counsellor always to be trusted, warned his master against this act of folly, which he saw was "a cause of trespass to Israel." David was not to be deterred, and perhaps resented, as such characters are wont to do, any resistance to his will. Temptation from without, evil passions from within, are often enough to overcome the calmest and the wisest counsels and admonitions. A lesson this of human frailty. A summons also to penitence and to humility. - T. Parallel Verses KJV: And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.WEB: Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel. |
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