Lesson 2 - A Counting of Israel

Lesson 2, "A Counting of Israel," plunges into the dramatic account of David’s late-reign crisis recorded in 1 Chronicles 21 (and paralleled in 2 Samuel 24). Moved by Satanic adversarial influence and a lapse into self-reliance, David commands a military census of the nation, directly defying God's sovereignty and ignoring the wise warnings of his general, Joab (vv. 1-4). As conviction pierces the king's heart, God offers David a sobering choice among three divine judgments: three years of famine, three months of military defeat, or three days of a devastating plague (vv. 9-12). Choosing to fall into the merciful hands of God rather than the cruel hands of men, David watches in grief as a pestilence sweeps the land, ultimately halting only when he builds an altar of repentance on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite—the sacred site destined to become the foundation for Solomon’s Temple (vv. 14-28).